Yangon to Mawlamyine to Mae Sot: Questions

[Phuketrichard]

4. NO> unsafe for travelers because of sometimes fighting
You can enter at Mae Sai/Tachilek ; travel to Kentung but than u need fly onwards to Mandalay or Yangon.

PS Dawei is NOT a beach town but is about 18 kms to the beach ( Maung Magan) small bungalows on the beach andone nice beach front aircon bungalow operation. it is really really nice, Nabule ( about a hour from Dawei) is fantastic but for now nowhere to stay and only one place to eat fried rice

3 pagoda pass is outside Kanchanaburi and thats an entry point, from there to Dawei is about 5 hours by shared taxi ( or more in rainy season)

The Swedish backpacker said that since tourism is still new, maybe they don't have the concept of rich tourists yet, so no petty crimes (yet). That may change if they get more tourists.

not true at all, there have been 3-5 star hotels in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan for decades and in the past there were always more rich tourists than backpacker sorts. I first went to Burma in 1988.
Burmese are just more true Buddhist an stealing is not done, but has been increasing in the past few years cause of the drug problem.

[katie23]

Thnx for the replies, palexx & richard.

@palexx - I did some googling & there's a Green Bus line which runs from CM to CR.& takes ~3h. I won't be taking a trip anytime soon, certainly not April 25, but I'll keep the date in mind re: Hellfire Pass. Do they hold ceremonies & stuff during that day?

@richard - thnx for the clarifications re: Dawei. As for the rich tourists, I didn't see much of them in the Shwedagon pagoda when I visited, saw mostly backpacker types. I did see 1 or 2 western couples who could be classified as rich tourists while walking in Yangon. Maybe during that time, the richer tourists weren't walking around bcos of the water craziness of Thingyan. Re: drugs, yeah, I did feel that it was a growing problem. There were some street adverts re: the drug menace. Generally, as a solo female traveller, I felt safe in Myanmar. The fighting/insurgency in Kentung is noted.