For teachers and students, education tour makes so much different from ordinary sightseeing. A school trip to Myanmar always offers deeper insight into the country you travel, learning more about local life and get involved further that just a glimpse.
Authentic Asia Tour offers some great tips of how to have a successful education tour in Myanmar :
Best Time to Go
Myanmar is best visited during the dry season from Oct to April, however, if you expect a reasonable price, May is considered a very good time to travel in Myanmar when you have many promotions for both transportation and accommodation.
Plan Well Your Itinerary
While most of the travelers head to Bagan, Mandalay, Yangon and Inle Lake. An education tour may include 3 of them as a sample of landscape beauty, fine architect and diverse regional culture. If it is a 10 days trip then 2 days Yangon, 3 days in Bagan and 4 days in Inle Lake would be interesting for both visiting and activities. These 3 places has the charm of the rich history, combining with lakeside village, remote temples where student can capture the quintessence of the country. If you have 2 week trip, maximize the time in north to undertake community services like teaching English, making school ground or enjoy different activities such as river cruise, horse riding, ox-cart ride. Most importantly, your travel plan is decided by your budget. For your reference, this is one of the sample of Myanmar Education Tour, offered by a local tour operator.
Activities
In Yangon, student can embark a trishaw ride, walking from Royal Lake to Shwedagon pagoda and do community service in the suburb villages such as Dala. Gentle cycling is a wise option for half day outing to Thanlyin too.
Mandalay is home to many ancient imperial sites and it is perfect to combine manual boat ride, cycling and visit historic sites, especial the ancient capitals scattering along Ayeyawaddy River. In Bagan, chances to catch the bird view eye of the area come from hot sand cycling or horse cart riding. The area is home to thousands of pagodas and temples which can also be appreciated by a horse riding course. From Bagan, a trip to Mindat will reveal so much about hill tribes in Chin state. Students will surely love to see the tattoo faced women who live in the high mountain of Victoria range. Inle Lake, the second largest lake of Myanmar is a wonderful place to do kayaking, taking motorized boat ride through canals and stilt villages.
Suggestion for community service: this is the chance for student to engage in life changing experience, gaining personal growth by helping the community they visit. Beside the common work of teaching, we encourage you to build houses for poor family, providing simple technique and equipment for water processing, making training about hygiene and improve health infrastructure. Participating in these activities means you help to build a sustainable future for local and understand better the way they live.
To plan well your education trip, you should consider much also about your budget, time and Authentic Asia Tours, as a local tour operator will be an insider guide to collaborate with you to craft the most enchanting tour combining culture and some “ give back “ ideas.
