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Journey to Mrauk U in Burma – Southeast Asia’s Most Remote Ancient Buddhist City

July 14, 2019 by Bino 29 Comments

https://iwandered.net/temples-of-mrauk-u-burma-myanmar/

The alarm rang. At 5:30 in the morning, my mind was still in a murky haze having arrived in Mrauk U just a few hours before. The entirety of the previous day was spent traveling by plane, boat and jeep and yet there I was, up and on the go once more.

in a dreamlike state…

Burma’s Rakhine state, where Mrauk U is located, is closer to Bangladesh than to Yangon. The roads here are so underdeveloped that an 80 km road trip between two points in the state takes almost 5 hours. We decided to take a longer but less bumpy route, and went on a 6-hour journey by boat after we arrived in Sittwe, the administrative center of Rakhine state.

Table of Contents

  • How to Go to Mrauk U
  • Temples of Mrauk U
    • Shwetaung Paya
    • Kothaung Temple
    • Sakyamanaung Pagoda & Ratanamanaung Pagoda
    • Ratanabon Pagoda and Andaw Pagoda
    • Shitte-thaung Temple
    • Htukkanthein Temple
    • Laymyatna Pagoda
    • Other Temples
  • Sunrise & Sunset Views
  • Where to Stay
  • Tips for Mrauk U
  • Possible Itinerary

How to Go to Mrauk U

One of the things that has deterred many travelers and kept Mrauk U mainly off-the-radar despite its ability to give Angkor Wat a run for its money is the long hours involved in getting there. You can basically look at a few ways of getting here, assuming you take a domestic flight with any of the more reliable airlines like Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways or Air KBZ from Yangon to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state (around an hour fifteen minutes flight).

By Boat

By far, the most popular method of getting to Mrauk U, it is also one of the longest. You can either take a public ferry which runs every day from Sittwe (similar from the other direction in Mrauk U) at 7AM in the morning. This takes about 6 hours. There is also a fast boat on some days, which takes only 4.5 hours. Alternatively, you can charter a private boat which can fit up to 4 or 5 people. The boat (including the crew) will basically wait for you for a few days while you’re in Mrauk U and will similarly take you back.

By Car

Despite popular notions on the contrary, it is possible to take a car from Sittwe to Mrauk U. But it is a very bumpy ride. According to the map, Sittwe to Mrauk U by road is a 145 kilometers in distance but the roads are in poor shape so expect the journey to take around 5 hours each way.

Temples of Mrauk U

Shwetaung Paya

At 5:30 in the morning, I found myself scaling some unknown peak in utter darkness, with the faint luminance of a flashlight guiding the way. A closer peek revealed a golden pagoda at the top – the Shwetaung Paya, from where the sunrise views of Mrauk U are said to be legendary.

“This better be worth it,” I muttered to myself. The air was a lot colder than what I remembered from when I had arrived. Surely, it wasn’t what I expected for the tropics.

By the time we reached the top, the first sign of daybreak had arrived. I could make out a fog forming in the lower altitudes while the sky turned dark blue and later into purple. What happened a few minutes later was perhaps the most magnificent sunrise I have seen in my entire life. The landscape in Mrauk U in Burma’s restive Rakhaing state at dawn is a mishmash of cauliflower fields and village huts surrounded by the morning fog and punctuated by hillocks with several centuries old stupas – it’s a dreamlike scene made even more apparent by the fact that I was still only half-awake on this pre-dawn hike. The sunrise view also served as my orientation to the scattered temples of Mrauk U. There were about 700 in the horizon, and I would only be able to visit a handful.

Later that morning, we started our exploration of the fascinating but little known temples of Mrauk U. As we had only 2 full days to spend in the area, we decided to hire a jeep (a normal car isn’t able to withstand the poor state of the roads) for about $40 a day. Our driver was an amiable chap who spoke decent English and tried his best to offer some stories to the temples we were visiting.

Kothaung Temple

kothaung temple

We started our exploration at the temple of 90,000 Buddha images or otherwise known as Kothaung temple. To have started here was pretty symbolic. If there was anything that drove me to insanely pursue such a long trip to get to a remote place like Mrauk U, it was the sight of this square-shaped edifice.

From the outside, its large size and cube-like construction gave off a faint reminder of Borobudur in Central Java. The exteriors are replete with hundreds if not thousands of small stupas that give Kothaung a bit of a pointy / thorny look. The inner chambers on the other hand reveal almost life-sized Buddha statues on both sides of the wall. I reckoned the gray monotone construction and exotic looking statues would make the temple a shoo-in if there is ever a need to scout filming locations for the next Indiana Jones movie. The place was just sublime.

the exterior of kothaung temple – notice the hundreds of stupas 

There are a few other interesting temples surrounding Kothaung – which is one of the farther sites in Mrauk U. The semi-destroyed Pizi Paya for instance, offers a nice hilltop view of the pointy outer shel of Kothaung while Paya Ouk and Mokhong Shwegu served as nice excursions on the way back to town.

Sakyamanaung Pagoda & Ratanamanaung Pagoda

the relatively understated sakyamanaung stupa

Heading towards the direction of town, we passed by a couple of working temples. Sakyamanaung in particular seemed quite popular among locals. The temple itself consists of one large, multi-tiered pagoda. At the top, it is bell-shaped but as it extends downwards, it assumes an octagonal shape. It was the only temple in Mrauk U where I saw brightly-colored guardians with sharp teeth by the entrance, similar to what I sometimes encounter in Thailand. Ratanamanaung, which is about half a mile away, had a similar design though it also had a more modern construction next to it with a large Buddha statue and an unassuming souvenir shop.

Ratanabon Pagoda and Andaw Pagoda

5 of the 24 small stupas surrounding a large central one in ratanabon pagoda

By now, we were well within the town center of Mrauk U. There were a couple of notable temples here as well, perhaps the most visited among the archeological sites in the area. We stopped by the Ratanabon Pagoda, one of the most photographed in Mrauk U. The massive and bulky stupa is quite unlike others in the area, in the sense that it is ringed by 24 smaller stupas. There is a hill next to the temple from where some people go for sunset / sunrise views. The structure seen today had been extensively reconstructed, no thanks to treasure hunters who looted the place many years back. Ratanabon is translated as “treasure,” and precious objects were said to originally lie in the central stupa.

A few feet away from Ratanabon Pagoda is the Andaw Pagoda. Like Ratanabon, there are numerous stupas surrounding a central one but the difference here is that all of them are roughly of the same size. There is also an interesting inner chamber at the main stupa with a handful Buddha statues inside. However, it was pitch black when we entered and we couldn’t see a thing.

Shitte-thaung Temple

scenes inside the shitte-thaung temple, the second photo has lots of depictions of life in medieval mrauk u

Widely recognized as the “main temple” of Mrauk U, the Shitte-thaung Temple is where most visitors start in Mrauk U. The $5 zone fee is collected here. When I stopped by the temple, I scanned the log book for the visitor profiles. Not a single Filipino it seemed, visited in the 2 or 3 months before I did. When I asked the guy at the registration, I was told that I was the first Filipino tourist he had seen around Mrauk U. The log book didn’t reveal many visitors from Southeast Asia either. Around 1 or 2 other Singaporeans, Malaysians and Indonesians; a couple of Thais and that was about it for the past 2 or 3 months. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to react to the guard’s assertion – the brief thought that I may be the only Filipino insane enough to come briefly popped up, but was quickly quelled by the fact that I was enjoying what I was seeing so far.

Of the temples in the entire archeological site, Shitte-thaung probably ranks as my second favorite. The temple itself is divided between a newer and older part. The older part consists of the passageways that run through the temple’s perimeter. Within it, I saw more Buddha statues in stone – though these weren’t as exotic looking as the ones I saw in Kothaung. But apart from that, there were fascinating carvings depicting daily life as well as royal life in the outer passageway. The sheer number of objects in the wall carving as well as the level of detail were very impressive and there’s a walkway from which one can have a great view of a bunker-looking temple down the hill.

Htukkanthein Temple

the bunker temple of htukkanthein

That temple that looked like a bunker was actually the Htukkanthein Temple. Again, this is considered to be one of the main temples in Mrauk U due to its sheer size. Like the other temples, the inside is filled with Buddha statues though the difference here is that the passageway coils its way for several times before leading to a large and more modern-looking Buddha statue at the very center. There was a great deal of speculation by the British as to why the temple look the way it does. There were some theories that claimed that the temple doubled as a shelter during times of war. Or that the hard outer shell helped to protect the structure against the fierce winds of Arakan. But I guess we’ll never really know.

Laymyatna Pagoda

natural light on the Buddha

Another bunker-looking temple lying immediately west of Htukkhanthein is Laymyatna or the 4-faced temple. Compared to the other temples, the restoration here wasn’t extensive but that served to heighten the atmosphere of the place. The temple has arch-shaped windows that give light to the Buddha statues within. It’s a particularly small temple though at the time of my visit there were quite a few locals hanging around outside, using the tall facade as a shade.

Other Temples

some of the other temples around mrauk u

The temples of Mrauk U are spread across the four corners – I only managed to visit the ones in the east, center, north, some southern ones but completely skipped the western ones. With an extra day, a substantial portion can be covered. But to avoid getting templed out, a one or two day trip around the temples should suffice.

Sunrise & Sunset Views

The sunrise and sunset views around Mrauk U alone are worth the long trip to get here. Aside from the classic Shwethaung Pagoda sunrise on my first day, I also ventured to a place called Discovery View (fee of 500 kyats) just north of Ratanabon Pagoda and the hilltop temples of U-mrawa and Haridaung close to town. Here’s a peek of the views from up there:

morning mist – it was a cool 13 celsius in the mornings but quickly rose to a sweltering 35 by noon

just gorgeous!

Where to Stay

the $25 a night room at prince hotel

I stayed at a humble little place called Prince Hotel. Rooms were about US$ 25 a night. The owners here are mighty proud to have built the very first hotel in Mrauk U. Very simple accommodation run by a family and the owners are quite knowledgeable regarding the area. Service is excellent. I like how they would invite us to sit by the dining table every night to to help us sort out the following day’s plans. They also arrange boat trips to remote Chin villages for a decent price. You can also check and compare prices for hotels in Mrauk U HERE.

Tips for Mrauk U

  1. Avoid coming during the rainy season from mid-May to September. In Mrauk U. When it rains, it pours!
  2. The best time to visit Mrauk U is from November to mid-March when it’s cooler in the mornings and you get to see the morning mist
  3. Put at least a 1 day allowance to your trip to cater for possible ferry or flight cancellations. It’s pretty common over at these parts
  4. Bring lots of insect repellent. You’ll be thankful you did.
  5. Myanmar has one of the highest incidences of malaria in Southeast Asia and Mrauk U is considered to be more frontier than Bagan or Inle Lake. While it may still be okay to visit without having taken malaria pills, it’s best to wear long-sleeve shirts and pants to decrease the chances of getting the disease.
  6. Change your kyats beforehand. Avoid changing in Mrauk U. The exchange rate here is very bad.

Possible Itinerary

Day 1
Sunrise: Shwetaung Paya
East Group (Kothaung, Pizi Paya, Mong Khong Pagoda)
Central (Shitte-thaung, Ratanabon, Andaw, Ratamanaung, Sakyamanaung)
North (Mahabodhi Shwegu, Laungbwanbyauk, Httuparon)
Sunset: Discovery View

Day 2
Sunrise: U-mrawa Paya
Chin Village Excursion
-or-
Excursion to Vesali and Mahamuni

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Bino

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Alternatively, you can also email me at b i n o (at) iwandered.net. You can follow I Wander on Facebook, Telegram, or Instagram. Also, if you liked this article, please feel free to SHARE or RETWEET

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Filed Under: Burma Tagged With: buddha, buddhism, mrauk u, rakhine, temples

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Comments

  1. paul | walkflypinoy says

    March 15, 2014 at 11:58 am

    It’s gorgeous alright. Stunning photos. So happy to find a story on Myanmar that’s not Yangon, Bagan, and even Inle. Might just come here, too, when I visit Myanmar.

    Reply
    • Bino says

      March 15, 2014 at 5:40 pm

      Thanks Paul! Mrauk U is really a spectacular place. It’d be good to include this in your Shan State visit πŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. Neus says

    March 15, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    Greetings from Barcelona!
    Lovely report. Thanks a lot for share it!

    Saludos desde Barcelona!
    Maravilloso reportaje sobre Mrauk U. Muchas gracias por compartirlo.

    NEUS

    Reply
    • Bino says

      March 15, 2014 at 5:39 pm

      Hola Neus! De nada! Espero haber sido util..Mrauk U es un lugar espectacular

      Reply
  3. Darwin | Tracking Treasure says

    May 7, 2014 at 5:15 pm

    “parang panaginip at tagpuan sa isang pelikula.”

    Ang ganda!

    Reply
  4. Kay says

    June 3, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    Great article! Been trying to find a blog entry on Mrauk U from a Filipino, thought I’d never find one. Any idea how much to charter a private to and from Mrauk U from Sittwe?

    Reply
    • Bino says

      June 3, 2014 at 9:02 pm

      Hi Kay! The entire boat was about $140. It’s a spacious boat that I shared with 3 other folks! If you’re not pressed for time, you could also take the ferry which leaves at 6AM from either side.

      Reply
  5. Tina says

    September 12, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    Thank you for your beautiful writing and images!
    I try to travel as much as possible, but when one is doomed to being an armchair traveller, this is as good as it gets πŸ™‚
    Please don’t stop!

    Reply
    • Bino says

      September 18, 2014 at 4:27 pm

      Hi Tina, thanks for your kind words. Mrauk U is a wonderful place to visit. Hope you get the chance to go!

      Reply
  6. Angelica says

    November 13, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    I went to Burma December 2012 and really wanted to go to Mrauk U, more than Bagan actually. It was known to be more isolated and untouched. But, unfortunately, back then Mrauk U was closed off from tourists due to the conflict between Muslims and Buddhists. And now to see these photos! Now I want to go back especially for that misty sunrise views. Thanks for this post! πŸ™‚

    Reply
  7. Michael Williamson says

    December 14, 2014 at 6:50 am

    Thanks Paul, very helpful article. We very much want to visit Mrauk U but there is a travel advisory about not going there due to unrest in the state (Sittwe too).

    Reply
  8. PJ says

    January 4, 2015 at 1:17 am

    Hi Paul – what month did you visit Mrauk U?

    Reply
    • Bino says

      January 10, 2015 at 9:44 pm

      PJ – let me answer. I visited Mrauk U in March

      Reply
  9. Allen Scott says

    January 9, 2016 at 5:16 pm

    I have been to Mrauk U twice and to Ankor Cambodia twice, and anybody who has been to Angkor would not be able to say: “One of the things that has deterred many travelers and kept Mrauk U mainly off-the-radar despite its ability to give Angkor Wat a run for its money is the long hours involved in getting there” While Mrauk U is a bit hard to get to, it is not in the same league as Angkor, Angkor surpasses in Mrauk U in every measure, there is no comparison in my opinion. Mrauk u can also be a hot and dusty place especially as when road works being undertaken as they were on both my visits, while Ankor can just be hot. Angkor is much better serviced by hotels and restaurants in nearby Siem Reap, the site it self is much better managed than Mrauk U. In my opinion Mrauk U while interesting does not even give Bagan a run for its money, Bagan is the site it is more commonly compared with.

    Reply
    • Bino says

      January 13, 2016 at 5:38 pm

      Appreciate your opinion! In my view, while the individual temples of Angkor were generally more intricate. I think the overall landscape when taken from a totality in Mrauk U, because there are several temples near each other, is more scenic than Angkor.

      I agree with you on Bagan though. I do find Bagan more appealing than Mrauk U or Angkor.

      Reply
  10. Keith says

    June 9, 2016 at 11:14 am

    Cheers Bino!

    I am planning to travel there solo. Are there any group tours in Mrauk-U? Or all tours will be private? Or do I have option to tour the temples by bicycle?

    Appreciate your help! I really envy your photos. haha!

    Reply
    • Bino says

      June 9, 2016 at 1:20 pm

      If you book a tour in Mrauk U itself, chances are it’s private unless you stay in a hotel and they manage to hook you up with other travelers staying there.
      While bicycles may be available, I don’t recommend it unless you have some level of training with it. The roads in Mrauk U are extremely rocky and unpaved.

      Reply
  11. Tamim says

    September 11, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    Hello Bino, nice article, I’m going to Mrauk U from Sittwe. how do I get to those places? what do you mean by Discover View? is it an office?

    Reply
  12. ah cian says

    September 24, 2016 at 3:39 pm

    hi, can i ask is it the only way by boat to reach there?
    i been search google, it taken longer time from yangon to mruk more than nine hours.

    Reply
    • Bino says

      October 3, 2016 at 11:25 pm

      Hi there! I flew to Sittwe first then took a boat ride πŸ™‚

      Reply
  13. Phu Theint Honey says

    November 15, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    You’re very lucky , man ! I’m Myanmar and i’ve never been there until now . Now even more difficult to go there because of the Civil war in Rakhine State . Really envy you ..

    Reply
  14. Sandra Ho says

    January 14, 2017 at 11:27 pm

    Dear Bino
    We are travelling to Sittwe, Mrauk in two weeks time. Would you have the contact of private car hire to take us from Sittwe to Mrauk and also to tour around like u with a jeep and guide. So far I have booked all my air ticket to and back Sittwe and hotel in Mrauk but no transport or tours yet. Really appreciate if you can recommend me the above.

    Reply
    • Bino says

      January 14, 2017 at 11:29 pm

      Hi Sandra, I won’t have contact of the car from Sittwe to Mrauk U as I took the boat getting there. For land tours within Mrauk U itself, you should have no problem reserving for your car from the hotel staff once you arrive in Mrauk U.

      Reply
  15. Sandra Ho says

    January 15, 2017 at 12:56 pm

    Dear Bino

    Thank you for your prompt reply & most of all your useful info. The hotel reserving the car for me charge $210 for one way. So I thought you might have contact for a cheaper option.

    Reply
  16. Sandra Ho says

    January 15, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    Dear Bino

    So I don’t need to book from a tour agent and to book tours in advance?

    Reply
    • Bino says

      January 17, 2017 at 9:21 am

      Hi Sandra, unless you want to do specialized tours perhaps? In my case, I just booked for my transport around Mrauk U when I arrived there. I also went on a day tour of the Chin Villages which I also arranged then and there.

      Where you might need a tour agency is in booking your domestic flight tickets (can be a bit cheaper than booking online). Also, depending how you want to get to Mrauk U from Sittwe (I took the boat).

      Reply
  17. Sandra Ho says

    February 16, 2017 at 12:38 pm

    Dear Bino

    Thanks for your help & info. I went and came back already. . I booked all my flights and hotel myself. Got in touch with a local guide and he arranged all my transport from Sittwe by private car back and my tours while I am in Mrauk. I had an awesome trip. Took the beautiful sunrise picture which is out of this world. Thought I couldn’t get to take such nice pictures. The roads from Sittwe to Mrauk by car is 3 hours, bumpy but I find it ok.
    Had an awesome trip, loved the place, the people were friendly, place is safe, very rustic and managed to buy nice weaving stuffs.

    Reply
    • Bino says

      February 16, 2017 at 10:04 pm

      Hi Sandra, thanks for this and glad you had a great trip. For everyone’s reference also, would you be able to give the contact for the land transport from sittwe to mrauk u?

      Reply
  18. Sandra Ho says

    February 16, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Dear Bino

    I am now looking into visiting Sapa, Bac Ha Market etc. If you have anything to share let us know.

    Reply

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