Dawei

Dawei is a low, green town on a river estuary in the far south, with wide streets, wooden houses with carved eaves, colonial shopfronts and a large number of monasteries. It sees very few visitors. The reason people make the journey is the peninsula below it: a string of beaches down the west coast, Maungmagan closest to town and then Tizit, Grandfather Beach and others further south, most of them long, empty and backed by nothing at all.

History

The name comes from the Mon hawai, "to sit cross-legged", after the Buddha's posture. About 6 miles north of the present city lies old Dawei, Sagara City, where burial urns, beads and coins of the Pyu culture have been excavated, and from the 11th to the 13th century the area was part of the Pagan Empire (Wikipedia, Dawei, Myanmar).

The main sights

• The town - wooden houses with carved fascias, colonial shopfronts and quiet streets.
• Maungmagan beach - the closest beach to town, with a few restaurants along the sand.
• The peninsula beaches - Tizit, Grandfather Beach and others, reached by motorbike down rough tracks.
• The monasteries - a large number of teak monastery buildings in and around the town.

When to go

November to April is the dry season. This coast takes the southwest monsoon full on from May to October, when the beaches become unusable and the roads deteriorate. December to February is the most comfortable.

What to expect

Getting here is the main obstacle: flights are limited and the road south is long and rough. Beach infrastructure is minimal and some beaches have no facilities whatsoever. Motorbike tracks down the peninsula are poor and unsuitable for inexperienced riders.

Nearby

Myeik is further south down the coast, and the Myeik Archipelago is offshore from there.

Key facts