Grumpy Guts arrives in Ngwe Saung | Moanings
After a horrendous lack of sleep, 32 hours on the road, 2 big buses, 1 little bus, a motorbike, a bicycle rickshaw, a minibus, and more vomit splashed on me then I care to think about we reached the beach town of Ngwe Saung. With nowhere to stay and the sun already setting, I was pissed off and hormonal. The following is my thoughts as I sat being bitten to shit by mosquitos on the overpriced bungalow balcony…
”
F*#king Myanmar and it’s greedy bullshit!
It’s really a beautiful beach, and I’m not fussy at all about staying in a wooden bungalow with a shitty shower and stains on the bed, but at least make it fairly priced. Don’t charge $30 for a load of turd. As Philipp said ‘if I stay basic I want to pay basic’.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need to stay centrally or even near the actual village of Nwge Saung. The village smells like rotten fish, with the nicer accommodation much further south down the beach so insist the minibus drops you there instead so you don’t have to walk.
There is plenty of infrastructure and restaurants and almost every hotel can book a bus/tour/whatever for you so you don’t even need to go into the village except for the ‘cultural experience’ (which you can read more about here).
What is unfortunate for backpackers here is the lack of budget options, there are about 3 beach bungalow style options, and even then they are not even budget. Completely overpriced for the damp crap you get.
Book early for Shwe Han Tin Hotel, it’s the only one that seem to have got it right in this place. It has mid range decent bungalows, good atmosphere, on a nice bit of the beach, great helpful staff. Unfortunately it was fully booked for the whole time we were there, despite our efforts of going in everyday asking for a room.
We ended up in the Pearl Ngwe Saung hotel in one of their damp wooden bungalows. I woke up with a swollen water retentive face (like Bagan) most days because of the damp mattress and it felt a bit secluded from everywhere else along the beach.
Demand a mosquito net! Bring tape to then fix the holes in the mosquito net. Or just bring your own net, which is probably the best idea as in general Myanmar is full of the biting bastards.
What to do here in Ngwe Saung, options:
•Go to an Elephant camp, which I imagine to be a bad as it sounds, like an Elephant concentration camp.
•Bit of snorkling
•Chase and piss off Hermit Crabs. ”
24hours later, I was a lot calmer and starting to enjoy the quiet beach life despite the not so great accommodation situation.
