Okinawa Guest House

This review is for guest house number one. Apparently there are two Okinawa guest houses within 100m of each other. It felt like children were running the place. A 16-year-old boy checked me in, and his English was just enough for that. I had booked through Agoda, but they had no record of it, though they did have a room, so I guess I was lucky. The old key and lock on the room door only worked after about five minutes of jiggling around for the right position. There was no hot water, only cold. When it rained, the power went off and they gave me a torch for the room. The bed had bugs and left me covered in bites. There were blood stains on both the bed and mosquito net. I ended up buying a bedsheet from a local shop to use there. No Wi-Fi at all. Honestly, it's a terrible place to stay, and there are much better options for the money. The double room cost 25,000 Myanmar money for one night, around $20.

We arrived in Yangon late with backpacks and needed somewhere at the last minute. The place looked all right and cost about 25AUD, but the bedroom was disappointing. With no windows or draft it was too hot to sleep. There was an aircon, though it took me a while to find the power box outside the room and switch it on. We could hear rats in the kitchen next door all night. The towels were stained, maybe with blood, and the sheets weren't great, so we used our sleeping bag liners. To be fair, we didn't ask for fresh ones. The shower and toilet room was reasonable. We skipped breakfast because of the vermin.

I've come back here several times over the past 10 years. It's a great little oasis and guest house, with a nice social atmosphere if you want company, or the option to be left in peace. Cold Myanmar beer is available 24 hours.

I can't think of anything positive besides the location. It was the worst hotel of my whole Burma trip, and also the most expensive. The place was dirty, smelly, and noisy, and the staff weren't cooperative. Only Burmese breakfast was available, even after I asked whether toast was possible because I was pretty seriously ill. I'm not demanding, but cleanliness is a must. When I left, I asked if staff knew a post office, and they offered to mail my postcards. I'm still waiting for them to arrive. A very sad end to a beautiful trip.