Myanmar's forgotten coast — white-sand beaches, wooden colonial streets, and the far south where the country's tourist infrastructure simply stops
Dawei (also spelled Tavoy) is the capital of Tanintharyi Region in the far south of Myanmar, on the Gulf of Martaban coast. It occupies the peculiar position of being both one of Myanmar's most naturally beautiful coastal destinations — the beaches at Maungmagan (12km from town) and San Martino are genuinely excellent, wide white sand, minimal visitors — and one of the most overlooked, partly because access requires a flight or a very long drive from Yangon. The old town retains a grid of colonial teak houses, painted wooden shop-fronts, and a pace that has changed very little since the 1950s…
Dawei was historically a significant port in the Mon and then Burmese kingdom trade networks, connecting the Gulf of Martaban to overland routes into Siam (Thailand) through the Dawna Range. It was taken by the British in 1824 during the First Anglo-Burmese War — the first territorial acquisition of the war — and administered as part of British Tenasserim. The colonial-era built environment survives better here than in most Myanmar cities because Dawei has never had significant investment in its replacement. A large industrial deep-sea port project, backed by Thailand and Japan and intended t…