Visit Myanmar: Budget & Expense Breakdown

Old Bagan, credit: Mr Min (One Bagan Tour)

Last two weeks, I had a chance to go to Myanmar with Valdo and Iphul. Finally our plan since eons had been executed. When I started to post the pictures taken there on my instagram feed, I did not expect to get some responses related to our itinerary, budget, and so on.

As my rememberance, I decided to write them in my blog to be more useful for others.

Our preparations:

• Booked flight tickets: Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur - Yangon and Yangon - Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta for IDR 1.702.000,00. As a tip, don't be too hurry to book them since the fare is always up and down. For your comparison, I booked Air Asia on 20 Dec 2018 for 14 Mar 2019 flights. If I were being too hurry then, I could pay IDR 100.000,00-200.000,00 higher.
• Booked tour for Bagan. Personally, It was the best deal we made for this travel. You can search One Bagan Tours at google and find them in google. We booked them at USD 30,00 (USD 1,00 = IDR 14.310,00) for one full day tour and paid them after the tour finished.
• Booked bus tickets at easybooks.com for Yangon - Bagan. Iphul actually did this. Each of us paid IDR 307.000,00. And we got JJ Express Bus.
• Booked bus tickets at klook.com for Bagan - Inle. Each of us paid IDR 311.000,00. And we got Bagan Min Thar Bus.
• Booked bus tickets at klook.com for Inle - Yangon. Each of us paid IDR 311.000,00. And we got JJ Express Bus.
• Brought USD 150,00 for each of us. You will find difficulties to find kyats. And even if you can find It, I suggest that you bring dollars instead since the exchange rate will be more favorable. (USD 1,00 = MMK 1.500,00 or MMK 1,00 = IDR 10,00)
• Rent router for all of us IDR 272.000,00 (4 days at Myanmar) and paid deposit for IDR 500.000,00)
• Downloaded application at google playstore: Splitwise (To split the usage of the bulk money easier, even It can help us what to settle and who to settle. Furthermore, It can track all of our expenses during the travel) and ShareIt (To send pictures on original size with faster time).

So, I already had spent around IDR 2,8 mio exclude converting USD 150 before went to Myanmar. If I include USD converting, the budget is around IDR 5 mio. Besides, I also borrowed a bit of MYR from Iphul since we consider him as local. As for the total expenses I spent both for Myanmar and Yangon is around IDR 2.3 mio. You can find the breakdown here if you interested.

I think that's all for the budget and expense breakdown post. I will write about the itinerary for the next post. Thanks for reading :)