Storm clouds on the horizon are a common feature of beach holidays during typhoon season.

TYPHOON season is a fascinating and entertaining time of year to visit one of Myanmar’s many beach resorts, especially if you have a bit of a gambling streak.

Room rates are cheaper, the beaches are almost empty and all of the normal leisure activities are available, but there’s a catch – a storm might leave you huddled inside praying that the roof does not rip off.

A top pick for this kind of adventure is Chaungtha beach, the closest beach to Yangon by road and popular with locals and foreigners alike, even during typhoon season.

Located on the western side of the Ayeyarwady peninsula and facing the Bay of Bengal, Chaungtha is flush with hotels, beaches and restaurants.

It’s also at the end of a long and winding road that leads from Yangon all the way through Ayeyarwady Division and over the exciting but difficult-to-negotiate Rakhine Yoma mountains.

Some people say that getting to a destination is half the fun, and this could hardly be more true than when travelling by bus in Myanmar. Disco lighting and non-stop music video hits ensure a sleepless night of fun aboard most long-haul buses.

A round-trip bus ticket to Chaungtha costs about K15,000 but alternative options include a hired car (about US$100 for the weekend) or a riverboat to Pathein followed by a hired car or bus to the beach.

Bus operators are cagey about exactly how long it takes to get to Chaungtha but you can safely bet on at least eight hours.

Visitors should book their accommodation in advance – nobody who has been on a bus for eight hours wants to bargain with hotel staff at 4am. However, there are enough hotels and guesthouses to suit nearly any budget.

The dual-pricing system is firmly in place here so foreigners can expect to be charged a premium, but room rates during typhoon season are considerably lower – nearly one third of the high-season rates at some hotels.

During the day beach activities like swimming, snorkelling, fishing and exploration are the go while at night there are plenty of restaurants serving traditional Myanmar curries, Chinese dishes or local seafood.

For seafood lovers the area is a paradise. Fresh lobsters and prawns can be bought at extremely reasonable prices – lobsters are available for K10-16,000 while a prawn dish is likely to cost less than K3000. Hawkers are not allowed on resort grounds but will happily offer fresh meals from the other side of the fence. Their prices are lower but their food is just as tasty. The best part is that you can eat in the open air, weather permitting.

The weather during typhoon season, however, is anything but predictable. Many people love being at the beach when it’s raining, especially since the water is always warm, but the weather is a gamble.

Some days the winds will be gale-strength, the rains will come down in unrelenting sheets and the waves will pound the beaches. On such days visitors who failed to bring board games or a deck of cards will curse themselves because there isn’t much to do; the electricity is only on from 1pm to 3pm. There is a strong possibility that days on end – potentially an entire holiday – will be spent confined to the hotel room.

But when the storm eases the beach quickly returns to life as crabs tentatively exit their burrows in search of food, leaving behind huge pointillist paintings made of tiny discarded sand balls. Armies of hermit crabs emerge to scour beaches rich in flotsam and jetsam tossed up by the waves. And eventually the tourists and vendors begin to emerge as well.

Visits to nearby Pho Kalar Island become safe again and ferry operators will take people over for a small fee – K1000 for foreigners and K200 for locals. More caution is required for visits to White Sands Island, which can be reached in 30 minutes by boats that are not suited to heavy seas.

Improving your odds on a storm-free beach holiday during typhoon season is easy – freely available satellite weather forecasts mean predicting good weather is easier than ever before, and visitors can book accommodation at the last minute.

But that’s the thing about typhoons – they often defy predictions and ruin the most careful plans. And then you have eight hours on the bus to get home to look forward to.