The sun sets over Mrauk Oo.

TOURISTS and lovers of ancient architecture and culture: Mrauk Oo awaits.
This Rakhine State city in the west of the country, across the Rakhine Yoma mountain ranges, sees itself as a rival to Bagan – as well as to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, Thailand’s Ayutthaya and Indonesia’s Borobudur.

But though it received its first international visitors during Visit Myanmar Year 1996, most hotels in Mrauk Oo are reporting no reservations so far for the peak tourist season of October to February.

“Some 2000 foreigners visit Mrauk Oo every year,” said U Aung Myo Thein, the manager of the Mrauk Oo Hotel. He said the hotel normally gets reservations from travel agents one or two months ahead of the peak season. But not this year.

“We now only rely on the local visitors who come to the Shitthaung Pagoda Festival, which is celebrated every May,” U Aung Myo Thein said.

Another hotelier is experiencing the same situation.

U Tun Shwe, the owner of the Prince Hotel, said the hotel had received no reservations yet for this year.

The Prince, the one of the first hotels to be built in Mrauk Oo since 1995, has nine bungalows. “We had few foreign visitors even in November last year,” U Tun Shwe said.

Another leading hotel, Nawarat Hotel, had also received few reservations for November and December.

Manager U Win Aung said the hotel had received reservations from three groups of foreign visitors in late August. “We’ve received three reservations for November and December. I hope there should be 45 guests. It is too early to say for sure. If no cancellation comes up, the guests will surely come,” U Win Aung said.

Mrauk Oo is accessible by flight to Sittwe, followed by a 65-kilometre boat ride up the Kaladan River.