Myanmar is not the easiest country to travel around. The trains are slow and you have to be prepared for some lengthy bus journeys.
We planned to head to Bagan after our stay in Yangon but was not looking forward to the 10 hour bus journey. As a lot of the country was completely inaccessible due to flooding and civil unrest, we had plenty of time to see the ‘big four’: Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake and Mandalay.
Breaking Up The Journey
Looking on Google Maps, it seemed that we could break the journey by staying in a couple of places on the way. We looked at a stay in Pyay, followed by Magway. However, it appeared that it would actually increase our travel time, rather than decrease it. Yangon to Pyay is approximately 4-5 hours and then another 9 hours from Pyay to Bagan. Buses that go directly from Yangon to Bagan use the ‘new road’ and take 10 hours. We decided to take the night bus from Yangon to Bagan.
JJ Express Night Bus From Yangon To Bagan
We booked a night bus with JJ Express as they had good reviews online. We were able to book our tickets online at https://jjexpress.net/. The ticket price was $19 for a first class seat.
Image from JJ Express website
Aung Mingalar Bus Station
All buses to Yangon depart from Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Station’ (map) which is over an hour drive out of the city centre. We spent the day hanging out on the rooftop bar of our hostel and took a taxi around 5 pm (3 hours before departure time). It is advisable to give yourself plenty of time as the roads are very busy at this time. It is possible to take public transport but you need to take 2 buses and they get very full. They did not look very comfortable. I have heard that it is possible to take a shared taxi from Sule Pagoda (map). I would advise finding out about this in advance of your journey.
Our taxi cost just under 11,000 MMK and took around 90 minutes. We gave the driver 15,000 and told him not to worry about the change. He seemed very surprised by this. You are not expected to tip in Myanmar.
Arriving At Yangon Bus Station
The bus station is huge. In fact, it’s not really a station at all but lots of bus parks where the various agencies operate from. It would have been difficult to find JJ Express but luckily Google Maps helped us and directed the taxi driver directly to their waiting area (map).
Yangon Bus Station Food
We hadn’t eaten for a while but there are a number of restaurants and bars situated among the bus companies. We found a place almost next door to JJ Express that served local food in typical Myanmar style.
Station dining
We both chose a couple of dishes that came with rice and numerous sides. We hadn’t been told how much it cost and we imagined it would be much more expensive than the street vendors we’d eaten similar food at in the city. However, the total bill was only 6,000 MMK for both of us. Great value for such delicious food.
Delicious food at Yangon bus station
Boarding The Bus
At around 7.30 pm, we were told the bus was ready for us to board.
JJ Express bus
The reclining seats were very comfortable . We even had a media screen on which we could watch movies, play games or listen to music (though the choice of music wasn’t the best). The bus had a female attendant who served us drinks and ensured we were comfortable. It felt more like being on a plane than a bus.
First class treatment with JJ Express
At 10 pm, we stopped for a rest break for thirty minutes. Everyone had to get off the bus. We were expecting another rest break at 2 pm. This seemed a little strange as it meant people would be disturbed from sleeping. As it turned out, the bus only made short toilet breaks for those that needed it (there are no toilets on the buses).
I managed to get some sleep and I awoke when the bus lights came on, thinking this was our second rest stop and we had another 4 hours to go. I was very pleased when the announcement came that we had arrived in Bagan!
Arriving in Bagan
We had heard horror stories about the local ‘taxi mafia’ that would surround you as soon as you arrived. It was still dark which meant walking out of the bus station to find a taxi on the street felt a little daunting.
Taxis In Bagan
The taxi drivers were nowhere near as bad as I had read. In fact, they mostly left us alone. Eventually, a driver approached us. “How much for New Bagan?” I asked.
“15,000 MKK.”
That was as far as that conversation went. As we walked away from the bus to exit the bus station, the price seemed to come down. “12,000… 10,000”.
Tuktuks In Bagan
There is a sign as you leave the station telling you the taxi fare to various parts of Bagan and they were lower than any quote we were given. We told the final taxi driver we would look for a tuktuk outside the station. “There are no tuktuks,” he said as we were stood in between 2 tuktuks.
The first tuktuk driver said 7,000 (matching the price on his fare list) but the second offered to take us for 5,000. Result.
It took around 15 minutes to reach our hotel. We were expecting to stop at the registration office to pay the Bagan ‘fee’ but it never happened.
We arrived at our hotel 8 hours before check-in but we only had to wait just under an hour for our room to be ready and we went straight to bed. The 10 hour journey was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
