Average driving time in Myanmar (Burma) between 2 city

Situation have been improving very fast for the main road since 2 years. For the road, the driving time has been decrease by 50%..... big difference for us on day to day basis or travelling in Myanmar (for work).

The major improvements are :

- Yangon Mandalay with the new highway : 10-12 hours instead of 18-20 hours by the old road.
- Bagan Kalaw : 7 hours instead of 10-12 hours
- Yangon Inle : 12 hours instead of 16-18 hours......


These improvements have even modified the buses schedule between the cities, you can now do Yangon Mandalay in one day trip, or the night buses is now leaving at 20h00 or 21h00 instead of 16h00 before.....



Below some informations about the average driving time based on our experience. You are not in Myanmar to speed up and by the way it is a very bad idea in Myanmar.

These times are for a normal 3 seaters car, a four wheel drive car will drive faster in Myanmar, a Toyata Hiace will be slower, the big air con bus go at the same speed or faster than a car, the small local buses are usually slower.

Keep in mind :

- Do not drive at night, especially during the rainy seasons, it is really very very dangerous.

- The road to climb to Kalaw is now almost all perfect, all the way, still 3-4 hours to climb, but it is a normal road now.

-New Highway :The Yangon Nay Pyi Taw Mandalay high way is finished.

- The road between Mandalay and Metyila is brand new, reducing a lot the time to drive to Bagan.

- Road between Meythila and Bagan is brand new also.

- Road Bagan to Mindat is not very good, with 3 or 4 river crossing without any bridge... so in rainy season, no way to go.

- Mountain roads, and local road outside main axes are usually in bad to very bad condition (means driving speed is around 5 to 10 km/h)....

- The road between Pyay and Ngapali is a nightmare. It may takes 12 hours if your are lucky, some people recently took 20 hours to do it.

- The road between Ngapali and Gaw is very nice but bad, until Yangon,; it is more than 12 hours drive.

- Do not believe so much the time indication that your driver may give to you. It is believed that you bring bad luck if you give the exact time, so it is often quite far from the truth..