Travelling from Sittwe to Mrauk U, Myanmar

There are two options for getting from Sittwe to Mrauk U - boat or bus.

Boat
There are ferries running daily, it will just depend on the day that you travel as to which boat you'll take (timetable below).

We took the Aung Kyaw Moe Express ferry, which took 5 hours. The ticket was 10,000 Kyats which included a plastic deckchair on the upper deck of the boat and a bottle of water. It's quite a nice trip along the river

 

 

Tips:

• get there earlier than the given check in time. Our boat left at 6:50 and it was packed by 6:20am.
• try to sit in the middle of the chair area; the edges of the boat are exposed to the weather and people seated at the back are sprinkled with soot from the boat's smokestack.

Sittwe to Mrauk U Ferry timetable (current in April 2014)

Monday                    Aung Kyaw Moe Express Boat     Check in 6:30am

Tuesday                    Government Boat                          Check in 6:30am

Wednesday              Shwe Pyitan Express Boat            Check in 7:00am

Thursday                  Aung Kyaw Moe Express Boat     Check in 6:30am

Friday                        Government Boat                         Check in 6:30am

Saturday                   Aung Kyaw Moe Express Boat    Check in 6:30am

Sunday                      Shwe Pyitan Express Boat            Check in 7:00am

 

Bus
There's a bus to Mandalay that starts in Sittwe and passes through Mrauk U and Magwe among other places. I caught it from Mrauk U to Mandalay, which was 20hrs. It's another few hours on top of that and rumoured to cost 3,000 Kyat. Ask at your guest house for details on times and tickets, and if they tell you that you need a guide to accompany you, advise them that the rules have changed and you don't need one anymore. The bus company will back you up on that.