Image by Jo James
The Myanmar government also has grand plans for Dawei, with a vast deep-sea port planned for the ridiculously long Nabule Beach. I rode out to there during my visit to see the project site. A wide, sandy track led to the isolated shoreline, and a series of ambitious signs stood in front of scrubby deserted lots, proclaiming things like “LNG Terminal – 35 Acres” and “Main Port 2km”. However, in 2013 the lead developer was booted off the development, and while there is a chance that it will be resuscitated, the port is in limbo for the time being.
Where the access road met the shore, a lone flagpole stood with the Myanmar flag whipping in the wind. Six fishermen were building a bamboo raft in preparation for a festival a few days later. The villagers would gather on the beach to push the raft, decked with tinsel and carrying a Buddha statue, into the waves to protect their boats for another year. While Dawei’s days as a beautiful backwater may be numbered, for now the area is still home for the fishing communities who have lived here for generations – as well as a handful of grinning travellers.
The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma) will be released in February 2015, but you can buy the Rough Guides Snapshot Myanmar (Burma) here, and you can explore Burma in depth with this immersive guide.