from 'Delta trip' by zeke7 (April 2007)

Decided to visit Ngwesaung, encouraged by the Blueprint guide's listing of a couple of budget-type places there: Golden Sea ($10) and Shwe Hin Tha ($7-$12). Shwe Hin Tha under same ownership as Chaungtha's Shwe Hin Tha, and employs same heavy use of hard-sell touts (at Chaungtha's, the bus will actually stop there soley to let the streetside touts board and give you, the only foreigner on the bus, their sales pitch). In Pathein, a light-skinned Indian-looking young woman may well approach you at the night market, claim to work at Chaungtha's Shwe Hin Tha (and be currently on vacation), and say she has brother working at 'a tourist information office' in Ngwesaung village who can help you get transport to the Shwe Hin Tha for free, no commission, and not to listen to the trishaw drivers and others at the Ngwe. bus station. Not even knowing what day you'll return from Haigyi and then head to Ngwesaung, she'll fulfill promise to meet you at the Pathein bus station when you depart for Ngwesaung, give you brochure, tell you not to worry, her brother will help you; just walk into the village and you can find him.

Ngwesaung on the cheap: On arrival in Ngwesaung village, find that a Burmese guy looking nothing like this woman boards your bus with eyes bulging in excitement, says "Hello, you met my sister" etc.; smell a tout if you haven't already, ignore him & stay on the bus like many of the locals are doing, wait 15min. until it continues down the strip and follow your way on the BP map to get off at the hotel of your choice. Discover that the Golden Sea adjacent to the Shwe Hin Tha is now demolished and has moved uproad into the old Shwe Thein Beach Resort site.

Walk in the back way to next-door Shwe Hin Tha, inquire about room rates, discover that the former $7-$12 rates are now $15-$25; ask to see a $15 room, then walk around back and point to the cheap-looking rowhouse rooms for locals standing 3rd tier behind the bungalows that you noticed coming in the back way. Be told "$5", ask to see, accept room and settle in. (The receptionist is under instruction to tell customers only about the $15+ rooms at front desk inquiries, and I specifically refrained from asking about cheaper rooms there; had I done so, she would have had to say that nothing cheaper is available, and then lie in order to save face when I pointed out the cheap rooms in person.)

Can't recommend these very basic, no-back-window glass but mosquito-net provided rooms, with toilet well out back and communal splash bath from a big tank; a bit of slumming it. But nice to visit Ngwesaung on the cheap; a no-contest superior beach to Chaungtha's. The long strip means you're pretty remote from the village (which has at least a dozen restaurants; there's also a few 15min's walk from Shw Hin Tha), and overall nothing like the egalitarian feel of Chaungtha between you and the locals (including local visitors); here there's much more of an "us and them" feeling, doubtless due to the upper-scale status of the typical high-spending visitors here.

Golden Sea's new grounds (but not new buildings) features same $10 & up rates, cheap ones only a little shabby looking but tolerably so from quick peek in window. Very large room with fan/attached bath right on beach. Classier bungalows and a back-tier rowhouse of very cheap-looking rooms quite similar to Shwe Hin Tha's here as well.

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