Myanmar Tourist Guides — Introduction

Being the largest country in the South East Asian peninsula, the borders of Myanmar covers a distance of 2000km from north to south and over 900 km from east to west. 135 ethnic groups live in this country, three fourth of whose area is covered by mountains and jungles.

Mountain ranges are found along the Thai border, which extends up to the eastern part of the Himalayas. Coastal Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea border the southern part of the country. The 2000 km long Ayeyarwady is the main river of Myanmar. Lots of agricultural activities take place on the fertile banks of this river.

Formerly known as Burma, it gained independence on January 4, 1948 from more than hundred years of British rule. Immediately after independence, the country was almost torn apart with a violent civil war that continued for almost a decade.

But the Burmese way of Socialism by the Revolutionary Council Government led to a single party rule of Myanmar for about four decades, during which the country walked towards economic collapse due to wrong foreign, economic and every other policy of the Government.

There were nation wise public protests and demonstrations against the misrule in 1988 and it brought the civil administration almost to a grinding halt. At that time, a group of military leaders took over the reigns of power from the socialist leaders and initiated a complete reversal of the existing policies. As a result, in May 2002, Mrs.Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the democratic movement was freed from house arrest and many other senior leaders were freed from prison.

That was the end of a single party rule and the opening of a market oriented open door economy, inviting investments both from the private and public sector in this small country having a population of 45 million. Lots of changes have started taking place after this; the most noticeable among them is the improvement in infrastructure. The fruits of development have started reaching the remote towns and villages of Myanmar, as there is a flush of private investments, both by the outsiders and the local people.

The biggest sunrise industry of Myanmar is tourism. Many small and big, privately owned hotels and tour operators have come up during the past few years. Local shops are flooded with consumer items, both local and foreign.

As the country is still ruled by a team of military leaders known as State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), one should preview the conditions there before making a trip to Myanmar.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi is urging all foreign travelers to boycott all forms of travel to the country as a means of isolating the government and forcing them to accelerate the reform process. Some of her party leaders don.t support this view as they feel that more tourism means more flow of information to the outside world regarding the actual scenario in Myanmar.

So, it is better to avoid the services of the Myanmar government wherever possible. Prefer to stay in private hotels, avoid package tours of Myanmar Travel and Tours, buy craft materials directly from artisans and not from government owned shops, etc.

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