Myanmar’s tourist high season is coming to an end. As rainy season descends, hoteliers will tighten their belts and even shut in some of the wettest parts of the country. But perhaps the rest of us should be relieved.
For every misty-eyed traveler who waxes lyrical about a visit, another has an endless stream of complaints about the weather, the food, or the scenery.
And travel review website TripAdvisor brings out the worst of them. This article on the world’s grumpiest travelers inspired us to do our own assessment of the verdicts on Myanmar tourist sites.
It was pretty damning. Almost 10 per cent of those who reviewed Inle Lake on the site deemed it “average”.
Most people come away considering the centuries-old, uncrowded temples of Bagan, Myanmar’s biggest tourist attraction, pretty majestic. Not ‘Zachary L’. In his one-star review, he called the site “disgusting”. Traveling to Myanmar was “one of the worst experiences” of his life, he said.
Ngapali Beach? “Biggest fraud in Myanmar,” wrote one commenter, “the beach is just a normal beach that you can find in any country in the world.”
This is Ngapali Beach.
Sunset at Ngapali Beach, in western Myanmar. Photo: Poppy McPherson / Coconuts Yangon
“Its [sic] nice to look at but not much else,” someone decided after visiting Shwedagon Pagoda.
Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset in July, 2015. Photo: Aung Naing Soe / Coconuts Yangon
“Needs PhotoShop,” another complained.
Here are some of the most audacious reviews in full:
Bagan
Shwedagon
Ngapali
