Myanmar · Mon State
Where to Stay in Mawlamyine, Mon State
Mawlamyine is a river city of southern Myanmar at the mouth of the Salween, an old capital of British Burma whose ridge of pagodas looks out over the sea.
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Where to stay in Mawlamyine
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Mawlamyine turns on the riverfront or the ridge. The streets along the Salween keep the markets, the jetties, and the old churches within a walk, and staying by the water suits anyone here for the port. The river runs past the front.
Boats crowd the jetties. Up toward the pagoda ridge and the hills, the town gives way to stupas, monasteries, and green slopes. A room on the heights trades the river for the golden pagodas, the hilltop views, and the breeze off the sea.
The stupas shine over the roofs. Stay by the water for the port, or on the ridge for the pagodas. The river lies a short way down.
About Mawlamyine
Mawlamyine is the pagoda city of the Mon coast.
What is Mawlamyine known for?
On a ridge above the mouth of the Salween where it runs into the sea, it was the first capital of British Burma, and it keeps a long line of golden pagodas along the hilltop, the Kyaikthanlan stupa that Kipling set at the head of his Mandalay, old colonial churches and mosques in the streets below, and the green Ogre Island out in the river mouth. The pagodas crown the ridge. Below the ridge the Salween broadens and empties into open water.
What are the main landmarks in Mawlamyine?
The Kyaikthanlan Pagoda crowns the ridge above Mawlamyine. The tall golden stupa on the hilltop, where Kipling looked out lazy at the sea, rises over the town and the river, the emblem of the city, above the coast. A line of pagodas runs the ridge.
The row of hilltop stupas marches along the crest above the streets, while the colonial churches, the riverfront markets, and the green Ogre Island mark the country around Mawlamyine.
What is the history of Mawlamyine?
Mawlamyine was the first capital of British Burma. When the British took the coast in the first of their Burmese wars, they made this river town their capital for a quarter of a century, and it grew into a busy colonial port of teak and rice. Ships filled the river.
Timber and grain went out to the world from its wharves, and churches, mosques, and pagodas rose together in the growing town. The land was old Mon country before that. Long the country of the Mon people, whose kingdoms once ruled the coast, the town kept its pagodas and its Mon character under every ruler.
The capital passed to Rangoon in time. When the British moved their seat down the coast, Mawlamyine settled into a quiet port of the south, keeping its ridge of stupas, its colonial streets, and its trade in rubber and fruit. The pagodas still crown the hill.
Mawlamyine keeps its pagodas and its river in the Mon land.
Where is Mawlamyine?
Mawlamyine lies in the south of Myanmar, on the Salween river near where it reaches the sea. The city runs along a low ridge between the wide river and the Gulf of Martaban, with green hills of rubber and orchards rising inland and islands lying off the river mouth. The river spreads wide below.
Palm hills roll away inland.
What is the climate of Mawlamyine?
Mawlamyine has a hot, wet tropical monsoon climate. Warm weather holds all year on the coast, with one of the heaviest monsoons in the land pouring down in the middle months and drier heat the rest of the year. The monsoon drowns the coast.
Dry months bring clear skies.
How do you get to Mawlamyine?
Mawlamyine lies on the Salween in southern Myanmar, across the river from the coast road. Buses and trains run to it down from Yangon, and a long bridge crosses the Salween to the town. Boats cross to Ogre Island.
Yangon lies north up the coast.
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Updated August 2026