The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

A hotel tourist rip-off to avoid in Sittwe, Burma

Written By: admin - Jul• 07•10

Sunset on the Bay of Bengal, near Sittwe, Burma

We here at WoWasis had some major issues with the Prince Hotel, in the town of Sittwe, Burma, which advertises air con rooms (which don’t have working air con), prophylactic-filled landings, and a shell-game run in conjunction with shady boat operators, plying their trade to the historic Myauk U site nearby. The hotel had arranged for us to charter our own private boat for $65, which would take the two of us to Myauk U. This is standard practice for two people, and many boats daily charge this flat fee per small party. 

Before leaving the jetty, the captain brought a third Westerner on board, who he was charging an additional $35 for one-way fare.  This was worth discussing, as our agreement meant that he could add others as well.  We then renegotiated the whole thing, and our passenger instead ended up sharing the $65 fare with us.  The captain evidenced such a foul mood to Myauk U, that we elected to take the Moe Cherry boat back to Sittwe for $10, rather than travel with him again.  Upon our return, our trishaw driver at the dock was forced by a Prince Hotel employee to return to the Prince Hotel, where they tried to get an extra $10 from us, saying the boat was discounted because we were staying there (we’d checked out the night before, due to the lack of advertised aircon, mosquitoes, heat, and noise emanating from the rooms of hourly customers). 

We simply said no, enough is enough, paid our trishaw driver, and hired another to take us to our new hotel.

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