Monks in Inle Lake.

I landed in Yangon (or Rangoon) in mid- January and ended up staying nearly 3 weeks. I really didn’t really know what to expect, ‘This is Burma‘, wrote Rudyard Kipling and ‘It will be quite unlike any land you know about‘. Of course he wrote this over a century ago and since then much has changed in Myanmar and there is still a lot that is changing today.

It was only in 2015 that the first democratic government was voted in (in more than half a century) and before this the country had been under heavy military rule which still has huge influences in the government today. This means however that tourism is really opening up and previous ‘no go’ areas are being opened to the public.

While I was there I thought it was quite amazing that this was the first country I had travelled to on this trip that had no Starbucks or McDonalds (sad I know!). The only ‘chain’ Yangoon had when I visited was a KFC which opened in 2015 and apparently many of the locals don’t even like the food. This was quite a refreshing change and I instantly loved Myanmar for holding on to many of it’s traditional values.

Traditional Thanaka (cosmetic paste) seen on men and women in Myanmar.

I honestly don’t know where to start with my highlights of Myanmar, just looking through my photos made me realise this is one of my favourite countries I have visited so far. So I will do a round up of my highlights as best I can… and try not to make this post too long!

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