DALA

Dala may be one of the most exciting parts of the city, though it hardly figures in most people's minds as being part of the city. That's because it is located just over the Yangon River from downtown, and to get there, you need to take a 15-minute ferry ride or a 2-hour drive using a not-so-convenient bridge. The difficulty of transporting vehicles from one side of the river to the other has kept Dala rural and underdeveloped. However, plans to use a South Korean loan to build a bridge from Dala to downtown Yangon may change all of this by 2020. The project broke ground in February 2016, and already, Dala is one of the most volatile property markets in the country. The new bridge is expected to bring Dala-dwellers opportunities that they've been excluded from for years, which means the charming village life that now offers some respite from the bustle of the rest of Yangon might start looking more and more familiar.