SAL  EAIN  TAN  BEACH,  the  closest beach to Yangon, is alive and crowded during the Thingyan holidays.

“I  also  went  there  on  the  third  day  of  Thingyan  (Akyat)  with my friends,” said a traveller.

“Although I went there two years ago during the Thingyan period,  I  didn’t  have  a  chance  to  go  there  for  the  COVID-19  pandemic. But, during this year I made a plan to pay a visit to the beach. I arrived at Dala Town-ship at 10 am on Thingyan Akyat. I  found  only  three  passenger  buses to other townships at the bus  terminal  and  did  not  find  the bus to Sal Eain Tan Beach. According to the suggestion of one  resident,  I  hired  a  Probox  taxi  with  my  friends  at  K4,000  each to Kawt Dune Village and reached the beach by motorbike at about 11 am,” she recounted.

“We  can  see  more  entry  and  exit  of  vehicles  at  about  2  pm at Sal Eain Tan beach. It’s located in Sal Eain Tan Village of Kanyin Kone Village-tract in Kungyangon Township, Yangon Region,” she added.

Visitors  and  swimmers  throng  the  place,  and  the  restaurants  are  open  in  line  with  COVID-19 health rules.

The beach became famous in  early  2017.  When  the  water  covers the beach’s sand, the visitors go around the beach by car or motorcycle. When there is no tide, the people play on the sand.

On  Thingyan  Akyat,  the  beach offered a picturesque sunset  view,  and  the  visitors  took  photos of such beautiful scenes.

The  youths  ride  horses,  speedboats  and  four-wheel  cycles. The people take commemorative photos with the statues of  male  mermaid  and  female  mermaid near the beach.

More  than  50  food  stalls  at  the  beach  provide  famous  curries  like  Nga  Tha  Lauk  Oh  Hmauk, crab and prawns.

It is also an excellent place for movie shooting and is always crowded with people, according to the locals.

“There  are  very  few  visitors  from  Yangon  to  here  during  this  year,  Thingyan.  Most  of  the  visitors  are  from  Dala  and  Kungyangon  townships.

There  are  only  about  50  food  stalls  this  year.  The  people  do  not take food so much compared to  the  previous  years.  Most  of  the people play water. The food stalls had good transactions on the  weekends  and  the  days  of  religious  significance.    We  received about K50,000 per table. But  now,  the  people  eat  only  Kyauk Pwint and pickled tea leaf salads.  We  expect  there  would  be many visitors this year. Due to some travel restrictions of the COVID-19 outbreak, the people mostly go to Khayu beach. It can be supposed as a rival to us. But, the beach is crowded more year by  year,”  said  an  owner  of  the  restaurant.

The  government  also  im-plements  development  pro-grammes  for  Sal  Eain  Tan  beach, and so the visitors should not  miss  that  beach.

Pwint  Thitsa/GNLM

Photo: Pwint  Thitsa

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