Nyaungshwe Transportation

When I was leaving Nyaungshwe, I flew back from nearby Heho airport to Yangon. The airport is quite a trek from the town, so allow about an hour to get there. I booked the taxi through Novelty Tour services (one of many in town). They are situated on the main road about two blocks South of the market on the other side of the road. the price was 12USD, which is quite a lot, although split between three people (the most that owuld have fitted in the taxi) it's not so bad.

The taxi, like most in Myanmar, was an ancient machine, although it got us there all right, and the driver spoke a bit of English, so he gave me a sort of running commentary as we went.

I didn't actually manage a photo of the taxi so I have included one of a venerable old Ford Consul from the 1960's which I saw in town. I suspect my taxi was about the same age!

To get from Nyaungshwe to Shwenyaung there arent' many options. Truck was the best option. It is about 11 Kms. As far as I know there aren't any local buses that go all the way to Nyaungshwe. The morning of our departure we went to the truck stop around 10 am so we wouldn't miss our 12 Noon bus in Shwenyaung.
Well we show up and find where the trucks are leaving from and I talked with the driver about the departure time. And I got the typical Myanmar answer "When the truck is full" There didn't seem to be many passengers at this time of day! Then a dutch family of 4 showed up and a gal from Colorado. We all waited for a while and there weren't any local passengers and we were getting nervous about missing the bus. So the Dutch guy asked how much it would cost to charter the truck and the driver said 3500 Kyat which was quite reasonable as it worked out to 500 Kyat each. (US$.55cents) We made it to Shwenyaung with plenty of time to spare as our bus was 45 minutes late!!
The picture is my son waiting for other passengers to show up.

If you are out in one of the villages and want to get all the way back to Nyaungshwe it is possible to catch a long boat. I'm not sure of the times that travel so you would have to check for yourself.

If you were feeling lazy you could take a rickshaw around Nyaungshwe. They must be very inexpensive although I didn't ride in any here. The rickshaws here are the same as I saw in other towns of Myanmar with the driver then seats for 2 passengers that sit with their backs to each other. It probably would be best to establish the price before you get in to avoid any problems when you get to your destination.

I didn't do any bike riding in Nyaungshwe but I did see some foreigners riding so I know bicycles are available. It is a great area to ride as it's fairly flat until you come to the mountains and the roads have very little traffic!! You could bicycle down either side of the lake or all the way to Shwendyaung which is 11 kms away. And it's flat the whole way!!