Is Myanmar (Burma) Safe To Travel Now? | Yangon
smoke rises in the aftermath of an airstrike on passagee Village in Northern Myanmar the scars of battle litter the roads throughout this country towns and Villages are now empty the local population has moved away these are the last images just released of a journalist who was trying to Spotlight a ruthless military Crackdown a targeted Mass killing of its own people Myanmar Junta has confirmed it's carried out an airstrike on this Village its spokesman told military run TV that it was a Security operation aimed at restoring peace and stability in the region so uh yeah guys um here to dispel any stereotypes and myths because uh all you ever hear is negative press and news about this country so my goal is always to show what I can positive about a place and try to show the bright side because the world is full of negativity so let's see what positivity we can eek out of this beautiful Nation so what is going on everyone welcome back to Myer travels as you can see I'm here at an airport I am at the Bangkok DMK airport and I am on my way to a country that I've never been to before I'm very excited a little bit nervous I'm actually headed over to Myanmar now this place is a country with a long history um a rich history it was once a place that was growing rapidly and then they've had conflict and the conflict is still kind of there so not a lot of people go there you know um you won't see too many bloggers going there either because the country's been kind of closed down so I'm going to do my best to get the best content I can but I figured let me make this intro video while I'm here because I don't know what to expect once I get over to Yangon so I'm going to Yangon which is the capital now or former capital of uh of Myanmar formerly known as Rangoon Rangoon so yeah guys it's gonna be very very interesting but we're about to board soon my gate is over there so yeah guys I'm gonna try to do the best I can over in Myanmar so stay tuned and um yeah let's see what let's see what happens alrighty guys good old Air Asia now I'm inside the plane ready to go get on our way to Yangon very excited [Music] it's actually only like a one album here in Bangkok so it's like a one hour not even a one hour flight to get to Yangon so but yeah guys AirAsia man this uh airline has saved my life countless amount of time so shout out to AirAsia man thank you alrighty guys we have arrived here in Myanmar and so far the airport process was a lot easier and like frictionless than I thought it would be the immigration was pretty quick but just so you guys know you do have to get your e-visa they have an e-visa process which you could do it's very easy to do so you could do it before you come make sure you take care of that the fees and you have to get insurance as well which is a part of the whole um Visa process so that's if you have all the paperwork it was very easy to get through so with that being said I'm looking for a SIM card and then I'll get a taxi and I have to go meet a friend at a coffee place who's going to be guiding me around Myanmar out of the airport I got my SIM card now I've just booked a grab so grab is available here in Yangon you can use it so nobody's waiting for me at the airport I am just going to book a grab and I'm headed over to a coffee shop known as I don't even know I'll show you guys when I get there but let's get inside this taxi 3796 this is me all right let's get in there grab another amazing it's so good yeah thank you thank you so much alrighty Mingalaba my friend and uh Nikola Nicola good you know uh in Burmese Nicola yes yeah good good very good I think minakola means um how are you in Burmese I'm trying to freshen up on some you know basic Burmese but anyways guys we are here the airport is very nice very smooth process and we are on our way I like your hat very nice yeah very nice can I have the people here very nice smiling helpful so uh yeah guys um here to dispel any stereotypes and myths because uh all you ever hear is negative press and news about this country so my goal is always to show what I can positive about a place and try to show the bright side because the world is full of negativity so let's see what positivity we can eek out of this beautiful Nations [Music] you know at first glance uh the city of Yangon which is my first glimpse into Myanmar is actually giving me just like southeast Asia Thailand similar Vibes but if if all of these major cities in Thailand haven't been like capitalized and become you know commercialized and have huge buildings that's what they would they would look like Yangon still you know this actually reminds me of some remote areas I've traveled to in the Philippines um even in Indonesia as some other kind of Vibes like that so nice man very interesting being in a country that's so kind of undiscovered and closed off it's interesting check out the monks you know at first glance Myanmar really gives me oh sorry about the noise so Denmark gives me this Vibe of like a country that was really on the rise and probably had the most modern technology at one time but then they just got stuck there after civil conflict and all of those things started but it does give me that vibe that they were like on their way up you know and it's very interesting interesting feeling like I said guys filming here is different than filming another Southeast Asian countries you do have to be careful um about how you speak where you go um and who you're filming what you're filming so I'm going to do the best I can to make sure that I give you guys the best content possible because that's always the goal but at the same time make sure that I you know watch out for my life as well um but yeah guys headed over to this coffee shop just trying to show you guys along the way and see for myself it's just a fascinating place so far alrighty guys we have arrived hey there's the man himself Mr that's it how you doing boss how's everything good guys so this right here is going to be my homie and my guide here in Yangon my name is chid and I'm a tour guide here so uh we are going to roll around all right sounds good awesome so we're gonna sit down in this Cafe I'll show you what a cafe here in Myanmar looks like thank you so much oh wait yeah because he took me to the different place I think I put it on how much is he I have some cash how much just just two more so it shouldn't be too much because we only came yeah awesome awesome thank you I'll take care of you in a second all right all right guys so we are here at this Mahar Mahari Food Center and we're gonna go have a coffee I need to sit down and discuss my plans about how I'm gonna get around here Myanmar but man this is amazing being here in this country that I've never been to it just started to rain but hopefully it'll uh diminish soon so we can come outside and after this I'll be heading to the hotel so we're here at Sky Cafe no worries brother I got it thank you so much thank you so much how you doing man thank you so much for meeting me looks like you go to the gym oh yeah I need to come to the gym with you man I'm a fighter brother oh really oh UFC huh oh good all right so we're going to this place called Sky Cafe all right here we are a local cafe in Myanmar looks like so we're gonna sit down order some coffee because I haven't had a coffee yet you already had your coffee yeah yeah uh I will get a singalaba um I will get one iced coffee they have yeah they have iced coffee most uh cappuccino okay so I will take ice caramel latte caramel yeah yeah oh I got you bro no Brother come on I got this i got this uh ice ice Caramel Lattes yeah but not too much sugar just a little bit sugar let's pass it there thank you so much okay okay cool awesome all right guys we're gonna sit down we got business to discuss I'll check in with you guys in a second all right guys so we're here and I got myself a little latte here guys if you know if you watch Maya travels you know that I do not function without my coffee so here is my first coffee taste test in uh Yangon in Myanmar I'm excited to try it now is is is Myanmar a coffee growing Nation like do they grow up we can grow we can grow by it's not a big crispy growing it's not a big coffee growing issue but is coffee a popular thing here what's more popular coffee or tea tea tea of course like most of Asia yeah all right guys so here tea is more popular but the coffee looks good so let's try it out that's good that's strong you can taste the bean and even though it's a latte and it's milky you can still taste the coffee my my official first uh Myanmar coffee taste test 10 out of 10. it's amazing it's really good so is this Cafe culture is this becoming like a big thing in Myanmar like for the young people like do they like to go to cafes like is it something that's becoming common not actually you know coffee coffee is coffee is not that much popular here okay and I'm tour guide traveling in Southeast Asia so I like coffee and I want to sit down here but uh in one day and I'll take you to the local tea shop yeah so guys the good thing about so usually if you guys watch my channel you know I don't really have a guide or a tour guide sometimes we have friends that join us but I don't even want to call [ __ ] a guide because I feel weird like I feel like he's my friend now and he's gonna help me around but with that being said I'm gonna always leave his information so if you guys do want to come to Myanmar this is the guy to know especially if you need someone to translate to be there with you but also someone who's knowledgeable and he's going to show you the real authentic Myanmar so this is going to be the guy that you guys should reach out to and for all you vloggers out there this is your guy so I just wanted to let you guys know that but anyways coffee is amazing and how much does a coffee like this cost just so I can play I like to give them one and a half dollars one and a half dollars guys you get a big latte like this only a Myanmar baby cheers alrighty guys so we have been sitting here for for about two hours planning our planning our uh Journey throughout Myanmar and we got hungry so we're gonna eat some food okay we're at the same coffee shop and we are now eating something here what is this brother oh this is like potato crispy chicken rope chicken rolls yeah it's a chili sauce chili sauce awesome so we're gonna have some snack because we definitely worked up an appetite after all this time by mistakes oh don't bite the stick yeah all right guys so I'm gonna give you this taste test here is this like a common snack in Myanmar not very no man but in this kind of places and it's a kind of like a very tasty snack dishes okay got it I had a coffee shop and in a tea shop very nice and a snack like this will probably cost you about maybe like two two dollars two bucks and it's really good actually very interesting I don't usually try a snack like this it kind of tastes like potato chips but it has chicken inside I think right chicken inside yeah Bon Appetit beautiful all right guys so we're gonna hit the streets for a second gotta go figure out how to get the SIM card situated I'm having some SIM card problems I'm trying to make this SIM card work that I bought at the airport and for some reason it's not working so what we have to do is actually go to the SIM card the mobile office MPT that is the biggest carrier oh that got across the street so MPT is the best service here in uh in Myanmar right yeah yeah so we're gonna basically try to figure out how to get the SIM card working but yeah guys it's it's a very uh busy day here in Yangon and so bro I have a question is this the downtown area is this like the main area of Yangon no oh God no no it's not it's not this is like just a one section of it yeah like uh one of the seven okay okay got it sounds good uh it's my hometown it's your hometown we have airport here and we have also the biggest gas station in the in the whole country the biggest best station bus station oh okay okay and what's the name of this area it's called North North yeah okay very nice as you can see hello people are making some local foods there is a street food culture here in Myanmar as well so you'll see and it's a very raw and authentic street food culture and I'm excited to try all these different foods out I'll be showing you guys as much as I can in these next few days here in Myanmar interesting oh some satay so everybody wears like I noticed like the traditional kind of uh like is that a Buddhist thing no it's just it's just cultural there's nothing it's called okay okay all right so here we are at the can I get to Center my SIM card oh my phone okay all right good uh I forgot how to say how do you say how are you again we're gonna figure this out thank you [Music] so this is a local shop here so I bought a SIM card at the airport I spent around like I would say about close to ten dollars that pays for the SIM card and then to top it up I have to pay another like ten dollars and that should cover me for the two weeks that I'm here so yeah [Music] all right guys finally figured out the phone situation so piece of advice don't buy a SIM card if you have the opportunity don't buy a SIM card from the airport right yeah it's better you come come fine if you especially if you're with a local come to a local shop find uh somebody that sells SIM cards and just buy it from a local shop you'll save money and it's a lot easier I made the mistake of buying it from the airport I paid a lot more and it ended up not working out but anyways you live and you learn that's life and now I am going to get on my way to the hotel soon guys and I'll show you what a hotel and how much I paid here in Yangon across the street you just gotta go guys this is like Crossing in Pakistan and and Nepal oh all right we're good okay I'm from uh the US the United States of America and what about you you're from yes yes very nice okay okay and what do you think about Yangon it's a beautiful city all right guys so we are on our way to the hotel Serene Stays Hotel it's raining outside as you can see it is rainy season so it only makes sense but yeah so far very interesting Vibes and uh yeah I'll let you know I'll show you guys what the hotel looks like we're driving there so this is the first country I've ever seen that they put the license plate that name of the car on the bottom of the license plate like this is a Toyota Corolla so it says Toyota Corolla Fielder I just thought that was something interesting I've never seen that they actually have the name of the car and the make on the license plate which is interesting to say the least also another very interesting thing about Myanmar is people sit to drive on the right hand side like UK style but they don't drive on the opposite side so the driving style as you can see we're Drive we're going this way but we're driving on the right side whereas usually if like in Thailand we would be on the other side because that's like UK style if you're on sitting on the right you drive on the left but here you actually sit on the right the way the driver is but also driving on the right side which is very interesting I've never seen that before um Lee Like I said if you're sitting on the right side you're driving on the left you're sitting on the left or driving on the right side I don't know if I'm making sense but yeah this is like The Best of Both Worlds you sit on the right hand side but you also drive on the right hand side so it's like American style roads but British style uh like driving like as far as the way the seats are situated see something new every day when you're traveling okay all right guys we have arrived to Serene Stays Hotel this is where I will be staying for the next few days here in Yangon it's like a local neighborhood somewhere in the back alleys here as you can see but also Myanmar gives me like Vibes of like Vietnam older Vietnam and a little bit of like the like less touristy areas of the Philippines definitely gives me that Vibe but anyways Serene stays guys so I'll give you guys the whole breakdown of how much I paid for this place and everything once I'm up in the room and show you what the room looks like but for now let us go and check in here we are nice entrance you got a little foosball table as soon as you walk in and then I think this is the main uh uh chicken chicken yeah yeah okay here we are this is the chicken now we're headed up to the room oh sorry all right so we'll take the elevator huh okay very nice what's your name my friend is south Oh north okay okay now this is my first first day in Myanmar Wow first time yes very happy to be here and um to say thank you is it yeah and to say how are you yes I keep forgetting how are you Nicola Nicola all right guys so here is the Serene stays hotel room here in Yangon Myanmar uh as you can see I have two beds I only need one but I actually asked for a big bet but they just gave me too big I guess that's what they had available but interesting thing about this room that I didn't know now mind you just so you know how much I paid for this room I paid about 22 dollars per night so I'm staying here three nights paying about 66 dollars total um which is not bad but one thing that I was taken back by is that the room the bathroom is not in the room you actually have to step outside kind of like a hostel so I have my own private room but the bathroom is actually you step out and then you come in here and as you can see this is the bathroom nothing crazy so I think about two or three rooms share each bathroom so but looks clean you know um everything works I think for the hot water please pre-open the hot water heater for 15 minutes ahead oh okay so if prepared all right interesting but yeah guys so far the hotel is clean I think they said this hotel's been around for about three years so um yeah yeah looks nice Serene stays if you need a place to stay if you ever come to Yangon so so far guys you know now that I'm here alone in my hotel room I feel like I can talk a little bit more freely because you do have to be careful about how you speak here in Myanmar um you have to be careful so um obviously you know Myanmar is going through Conflict for anybody who has uh you know the news you would know that Myanmar used to be known as Burma and before that um you know they were colonized and then after that you know they've been under civil Conflict for a long time you know there was almost like what some people would call like a genocide and um yeah so this is a country that a lot of people don't visit because of you know if you look on the travel advisory list is for most uh embassies even my U.S embassy says don't even travel here so but what does Meyer do when he's told not to do something he does it why because I want to break the stereotypes I don't want to just show you negatives I want to try to find some silver lighting and positivity about this place here in Myanmar I'm very excited to be here I'm very happy and so far um it's been good I'm gonna step out in a little bit that'll be another video we're going to go explore the local area that there is around here and uh maybe grab a bite to eat and just uh kind of fill out the vibes but with that being said guys um very interesting country so far very very interesting very different from a lot of Southeast Asian countries it's pretty raw you know it's it's not you know the I guess infrastructure that you might be used to the way of living Society everything is different [Music] um I feel like I've been taken back in time you know like a little bit of a Time Warp but yeah guys here we are Yangon so stay tuned guys more Myanmar videos coming I'm gonna travel around the country too so me and chit the guy that you saw before we made a plan what we're gonna do so you guys will be seeing a lot more Myanmar content coming soon and I hope that I'm able to give this country and show this place in a positive light because there is a lot of good even with the bad just like always so yeah guys I'm gonna wrap this one up remember continue to learn continue to grow and there is no growth until you leave your comfort zone and I will see you guys on the next one peace
2023-10-04 18:12
