Yangon Bites & Rails: Authentic Morning Foodie Journey

We enjoyed the train ride, both ways.(highlight was speaking to a monk) We had a nice walk thru local village and market and before heading home again we had a tea stop. The tour was about 2:45. The big minus point was the bad English the tour guide has. We needed to ask several times what he was saying and it became frustrating in the end. Compared to other tours we had in Myanmar (2 x bike tours, cooking class and street food tour) we have to rate this one medium and slightly overpriced (again compared to the others and content you receive)...

Both train experience and taste of local food is good. I can feel local Yangon people’s life on the train and it is really cozy to travel with the train. Also tour explain lots of info to us during the visit at local market and local food shop. However, if you want to try Yangon circular railway line, this tour is not by this line. But it is still good enough fo me. Strongly recommend this tour to all of you.

The tour didn't meet my expectations, from reading the reviews it sounded great and my friends and I were super excited to go on this tour. It started off great as they were super flexible; my friends and I took an overnight bus to Yangon and planned to go straight to this tour when we arrived in the morning but there was terrible traffic and our bus arrived late. We messaged the tour operator the night before to let them know that we might not make it on time and they were very accommodating. They were able to postpone the tour an hour later and meet at the designated place at 8:30. In the same message they also said they'd let us know who our tour guide was with their contact details, although they never got back to us on that. Come 8:30, we had just arrived in time but the tour guide was no where to be found. We messaged the tour operator letting them know we were looking for our guide and wandered around the train station for 20 or so minutes, looking for our guide. Finally they got back to us saying the tour guide left as he couldn't find us but they could get another guide in the next 20 minutes. We had already paid and had nothing else planned for the day so we agreed to wait for the new tour guide they were sending our way. As scheduled, the tour guide arrived 20 minutes later. He was a very nice person and spoke great English, although with a heavy accent. We boarded the train, relieved that the tour had finally started. We sat on the train for around half an hour whilst he gave us insightful information about the train and station. We arrived at a market and he lead us through, picking up a traditional desserts and telling us a bit about it. He held on to them as we walked through the market and arrived at a restaurant. We ended up staying there while he ordered us traditional Burmese food and put the dessert out for us to try. We stayed at the restaurant for an hour eating the food he'd ordered which tasted great and the desserts whilst he taught us about Burmese culture. It was very interesting but hard to hear as the restaurant was very loud. After this, we headed to a bus stop, expecting to be introduced to more traditional Burmese food. The bus ride took an hour and was in fact leading us back to our hostel, signalling the end of the tour. On the walk back from the bus to our hostel, our tour guide would tell us about buildings we passed and the history of them. Overall, we were very disappointed. The tour was $35 Australian dollars each and there were 4 of us but the cost of all the food bought on the tour was maybe $20 all up. The food tour was less of a tour but more just the tour guide taking us to a restaurant to eat a meal. The transport took too long and there was not very much food on the tour. This tour was overpriced and underwhelming.

Great and interesting insight into the life of the locals. Continued on the train ride after the tour hopping on and getting off at random stops to experience their daily living

At first it was a little confusing to find the guide from the train station but I did find her afterall. Because we missed the first train, our day started a bit differently. We went straight to the local tea shop to eat breakfast. The guide ordered You everything so no worries with that. Everything that she ordered tasted sooo deliciously. I was really amazed. Then we headed back to the train station. The train ride was about 30 minutes. At that time (actually during the whole tour) I could ask her all questions about Myanmar life, and she a lot of things that I didn't know before. She really knew a lot. The market, that we arrived, was pretty lovely. You could see different weird local products and if You wanted something the guide would buy You by herself. I got myself a fluffy Myanmar pancake and some watermelon. The tour was really worth it. I absolutely recommend it to everyone!

We met our guide Sam at the train station at 0730am. The train was on time so we got in straight away and away we went. The experience was fantastic. Sam spoke very good English and was really informative. We ate traditional snacks that were being sold on the train which is something we would never had done on our own. We stopped at a town where a market was being held and walked around there for an hour or so. That was truly an amazing experience. We then went to a tea house and ate and drank traditional food and drink. Caught the train back and Sam then walked us around downtown for another two hours explaining what all the buildings etc were. It was well worth the money and I would recommend this tour.

I decided to do this tour as I wanted to try the local transport and get an insight into the local way of life. I met my lovely guide Pullie on Platform 6 and I was the only one on the tour. We rode the loop train to a large market where Pullie stopped and explained what items were or what was being cooked and how and eventually stopped for something to eat at a tea house. I got to try Mohimga (fish soup), Nan Pyar (Indian bread) and pickled tea leaf salad - some of the local dishes which were very interesting. We then caught the bus back into the city centre where Pullie offers to arrange a taxi but I chose to walk so she made sure I knew my way back to my hotel.

Two words: do it. The morning food tour isn't unique in and of itself, as you can get a similar experience from the other food tours. However! I wouldn't dream of embarking on a circular train journey without a local guide, as the signs are mostly in Burmese, they don't announce stops in any language, AND there are major renovations going on currently, which also make the schedule much less predictable. Case in point: after meeting my tour guides (one shadowing another) bright and early at 7:30 am, we found out the train was delayed without notice until 9:40. Thankfully, my tour guide, Myo, handled it very well. We went and had breakfast instead, and walked to the ferry building on Strand Road and the surrounding areas, before catching the train two hours later and visiting a local wet market. The journey back to downtown was via bus, and they were exceedingly nice and walked me to the exact place I wanted to visit in Chinatown, instead of just bidding me farewell when we hopped off the bus. Definitely above and beyond. Overall, very good experience.

I easily found Sam, the guide who accompanied me and introduced me to new flavors in this beautiful colorful market! I found the train ride too short (or time has passed too fast!), I would have liked to discover even more the habits of its users. Sam listens and shares his experience. Thank you.

This is my first booking of a trip via tripadvisor and I was a little nervous about whether we would meet the guide. However, we easily found platform 6 at the central station in Yangon and there a very friendly guide was ready and waited. The 5 stars are for interesting conversation and answering 1000 questions from our site. And a truly authentic train ride through Yangon. The breakfast was probably fine too; but we travel very restrictively in relation to food to avoid getting sick ... so we tasted just one thing that tasted fine.