Myanmar: But, is it Safe?

When I first told my friends and family I was headed to Myanmar, I was met with a large amount of hesitance and concern. Particularly when I advised them I would be doing an overland border crossing from Thailand into Myanmar-not recommended by any Government safety websites. (For more information on how to do the Tachileik border crossing click here).

“Aren’t you worried about the conflict?”

“Are you going to be in a warzone?”

“Do you know how to defend yourself?”

Ummmm, what?

So just in case you are living under a rock, there is a major conflict going on in Myanmar. There is tension between two political groups and in the north-western part of the country there is a significant amount of unrest and violence,to the extent that it is heavily advised not to travel there, at all.

Now, when I was looking into going to Myanmar, I was wary of this, however there is a vast amount of the country which you CAN still access and to be honest, when you’re in the cities and towns, the locals just pretend nothing is going on (or they don’t know what is going on, I’m unsure of this). 

In Mandalay we were told to be even more wary of security, given that we were only 50km from the allocated war zone, but even so, there was little visible evidence when we were on the  ground. 

During my time in Myanmar I NEVER felt unsafe (I think you’d be surprised to hear which country I felt the most unsafe in). So please don’t let that be a deterrent!

But Kathryn, is going to a country which is in political conflict ethical?

Some people argue that visiting a country like Myanmar, in the current political climate may not be ethical due to the money from tourism going back to the Government.

I would say that these people are accurate, however if you travel ethically in other countries, you can do this in Myanmar too. There are plenty of locals offering cooking classes, puppet show performances, traditional dance class and performances and many more-its not hard to find locally sourced activities and events!

You will encounter challenges when going to places like Bagan, which require a National Park Tax-they say it is for refurbishment, but we were told half goes straight to the Government as a tourist tax. 

Have you been to Myanmar? What did you think?