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With the "Visit Myanmar Year 1996" has one of the last locked countries of Southeast Asia given up his own 40 years long isolation and opened the doors to the tourism.

The political situation is still very bad (military dictatorship) but if you decide to visit Myanmar you will find one of the most fascinating countries in Asia.

Burma is a pristine country that lives mainly on agriculture. It reminded us very much of India, but without the typical Indian misery. In the villages there is usually still no electricity (batteries) and the water is still drawn from wells. The houses are built from bamboo or teak and not from stone. In the countryside the main mode of the public traffic is still the ox cart, the bicycle and sometimes motorbikes and cars. The cars are mostly very very old Japanese cars but you can find them almost only in the cities, but there really enough. The traffic is very strong and horrible. The public intercity buses are always overcrowded and overloaded.  The railway system dates back to the days of the British and was not renewed since then.  The contrast between the modest living conditions and the splendor of the pagodas and temples could not hardly be starker.  All Gold and precious stones which glitters in the sun and lightning is really pure. We were totally fascinated by this beauty.  The people belong mostly to the Buddhism and are very friendly and still not spoiled too much by tourism. Of course, by the main attractions there are the usual souvenir sellers, mostly children, but the harassment is not very much. Everywhere you will find friendly and curious people, who are very happy to be photographed and after it, they don’t catch for money. On our first visit in 2001 there were almost no western influences like supermarkets, shopping centres, Coca Cola, or MC-Donalds. In our 11-day organized private tour we drove nearly 1.400 km by the car, 18 hours by train and several hours by boat and ox cart. This time it was more different, we had everything organized by ourselves and travelled individually.  It had changed very much in contrast to 2001. In the cities are now western influences, like Internet cafes, department stores, supermarkets and so on. But we thanked God that there was nothing to see from the big fast food companies not yet. Now we did not go so much by car but flew most of the routes, which was quite easy. Only from Mandalay to Bagan, we took the boat, which took approximately 11 hours. Just like 2001, we were thrilled, and it was one of our most exciting trips.

Travel description 14.12.2009 - 14.01.2010   (2. travel )
       

 Travel description 15.03.2001 - 08.04.2001     (1. travel)         

time shift: to +5,5 h of Germany 

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