Lay Myoe River Guest House — Hotel in Mrauk-U District

We switched to Lay Myoe River Resort Guesthouse after being unhappy with our accommodation down the street. Our room here was in much better shape for the same price point. The people were nice, but sometimes hard to find. None-the-less, they spoke English well and were eager to help. The breakfast was decent, but was smaller than our previous place. However, they did remember that we liked fried bananas and added this to our breakfast on our the last morning. The first day we organized bikes through the guesthouse at a low cost. The second day we signed up to their Chin Village/river cruise tour. When we arrived at the river to catch our boat it was quite foggy and we were asked to wait until it cleared. Usually the town tries to stagger the boat times so that the tour groups are more spread out. The wait meant that more and more groups started to accumulate. I was already a bit reluctant to go visit the Chin women, as I feel strange about openly going to observe people. I was reassured by reading that the Chin women are not treated like the Longneck women, which have been exploited over the years and are said to be treated like a human zoo exhibit. From what I had read, the Chin women welcomed the tourists and the funds it meant for their villages. Since I had seen very few tourists in town, I decided it couldn't be that bad. In order to get the reduced price for the tour we required four people. Since the guesthouse had another customer interested they said they would give my boyfriend and I the reduced price despite being one person short. On the morning of the tour we were a little alarmed at our new group of seven, but decided that it was still a reasonable size and to carry on. However, as the people arrived at the river I began to feel more and more reluctant. I was horrified at the prospect of 40 some odd people going into these villages to gawk at these women. My boyfriend convinced me to do the boat ride. We decided if it was bad we would just stay on the boat and enjoy the ride. ||||Luckily, our boat tried to stray from the path. We went to a village with a market first. Only one other boat went to this village. Our tour guide took us in the opposite direction of the other group to put some space between us. Next we went to the home village of the tour guide/hotel owner. (I'm sorry I forget your names. It has been awhile!) Here we met two Chin women whom greeted us happily. At the time of my visit you could not visit Chin State, but small groups of woman were living in Rakhine state. After the visit we were allowed to explore and then had a meal prepared for us at the home of tour hosts. During the boat ride we celebrated the birthday of the hotel owner with some drinks and laughs. Our last visit was to a larger Chin community. The women again greeted us happily. This was a little more touristy and I felt a little uncomfortable as our group took photos of the women. I wandered off in the village and was able to quietly observe and greet the villagers (some Chin women, as well) on my own. Later, when the group had spread out I went to see the women. I decided to buy one of their scarves (although not my taste and a little pricey). I wanted to feel as though my visit was contributing to the village. I hope I did! The women were friendly and not overly pushy, as I perused their selection. Overall, I was happy with my experience and felt it was done well with the exception of a few camera happy fellow tour...

I stayed in Lay Myoe River homestay in December. The guest house was really nice and the owners were great and they speak english. The room was a double room with a very big bed, mosquito net and bathroom inside. Price 10.000 Ks, which is very good, cos all the hotels in Mrauk U are so expensive! People were very nice, giving me a lot of info about Mrauk U. I felt like at home: I woke up every morning and sat at the entrance of the hostel while drinking a coffee. There are always people there, locals, tourists... everybody is welcome. And you can have a chat with all of them, some speak english, another try their best, but it is great to try to communicate with them. You learn a lot about their life style and with these talks, you get to understand a bit more the burmese people. I highly recommend...

The price with 10'000 a night in the off season was fine. I had a double bed room. I guess if you are two you pay 15-20000 at least. Yeah of course the curtains were dirty and there was some mold. But in my opinion something completely normal for a home stay in that area. The Service (manager) is the son of the owner. Very kind personal and overall helpful with everything. Speaks good english, you don't find that too often in mrauk u. Laundry service possible, breakfast excluded. But just cross the street and get your local breakfast. I can recommend it, better than golden star for sure. ||- No internet you have to ride your bike to nraug Hotel, still very uncommon to have wifi...