People often say that if you wanted to feel what it was like to live in Yangon 50 years ago, then visit Mawlamyine today! With its colonial buildings, wooden chevrolet buses and its leafy tropical coastal setting, Mawlamyine has a charm of its own distinct from any other town or city in Myanmar. 

There are also places of historical interest in and around Mawlmayine. Thanbyuzayat, 60 km south is the end of the line for the infamous Burma-Siam death railway where 100,000 people died in its construction during World War II under the Japanese occupation. Kyaikthanlan pagoda on the eastern ridge of town is thought to be the setting where Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous poem, 'The Road to Mandalay'. Win Sein Taw Ya, 30 km south on the outskirts of Mudon is the site of the largest reclining Buddha image in the world.