Where's Dariel? – Travel Blog

Nyaung Shwe town was where we stayed when we visited the Inle Lake in Myanmar. It is a small town with many hotels and hostels, quite a few restaurants and many travel agents who provide services beyond what a normal travel agent would. Phyu Phyu’s Bamboo Hut was one such agent which also included traditional Burmese massage into their list of services. I read about Phyu Phyu’s massage on the internet and decided to try their Bamboo Hut massage.

There wasn’t much information about Phyu Phyu and we saw their signboard while roaming the town on the first day. It was located opposite the Royal Luxury Hotel, along one of the side roads.

We ‘made a booking’ with Phyu Phyu’s father who was manning the shop for a massage the next evening and was informed that we would be transported to another place, 10 minutes away by tuk-tuk.  

The next day, we appeared at Phyu Phyu’s shop at the arranged time. We met Phyu Phyu this time who arranged for us go to her cousin’s place for the massage. She spoke reasonably good English. As the tuk-tuk meandered into the area where the locals stayed, we started to suspect that we were going to someone’s home instead of a shop…

About 10 minutes later, we reached our destination – someone’s home! Just after entering the main gate, we were ushered into a simple and basic bamboo hut that looked like it had been converted into a massage room. The hut was set up in the main yard outside the house.

Taken with my iPhone

Inside the bamboo hut

There were thin mattresses and pillows and blankets. The masseurs were introduced to us and almost immediately, we were told to lie down on our stomachs. There was no cleaning, no washing, no changing.

The masseurs started with our feet, probably the most dirty part of our body since we had been walking around… We got over being squeamish about the no-cleaning part and the massage started to feel “right’. The ladies were not very strong (for me) but it was comfortable enough. After a while, I realised I was dozing off, probably because we had been waking up early to catch sunrise and were in the sun the whole day.

Anyhow, the masseurs worked on our hands, back, legs, feet and shoulder before finishing off with a few ‘strokes’ on the head and neck. That was traditional Burmese massage in a traditional bamboo hut!

When we left, Phyu Phyu’s brother and other family members (one big group of them!) came out to see us off. It almost made us felt like VIPs! Phyu Phyu’s brother gave us his name card and told us that he and his sister work together as partners even though they have different shop names. The tuk-tuk then sent us back to our hotel.

This was definitely one very memorable massage experience for a long time to come!

Phyu Phyu Bamboo Hut
Address: The shopfront is along a side road opposite the Royal Luxury Hotel
Price : $7 or 7000 kyats for 1 hour traditional Burmese massage (as at March 2015)
Phyu Phyu also arranges our taxi from hotel to the airport at 15,000 kyats (US$15). This is cheaper compared to the fixed price taxi from airport to Nyaung Shwe at 25,000 kyats (US$25) even though the taxi wasn’t as new, we didn’t mind.

Would you dare to try this traditional Burmese Bamboo Hut massage at Inle Lake? Click here for more on Inle Lake! 

(Note: I was not paid to introduce Phyu Phyu’s Bamboo Hut. I just wanted to share my unique experience in the small town.)