"It will always be BURMA... to me" a Burma Travel Page by cochinjew

may 2009 I think this was my 14th or 15th visit since i began travelling there in 2002. the magic and the charm and the innocence and the humility remain unchanged. This is a travellers treat..
The name itself is nostalgic, rolls of the tongue of us who grew up with memories of a recent post colonial era.. one thinks of the fragrances of the night in the tropics..
Lord Mountbatten of Burma.. was the last viceroy of India, I have an autographed copy of his book which I procured at an antique shop in Kingston, Jamaica.. these are the many connections...
Who are the BURMANS? where did they come from? and equally importantly where are they heading to?
Pablo Neruda the poet: his first diplomatic posting was to Rangoon as a consul for his native Chile. Who can forget his moving poem about Josie Bliss ( in Isla Negra ) where he laments the furious love: all night they burned her body by the river Irrawady while it murmured things in her ears that I would have liked to, when was that?
So you can imagine my anticipation of arrival in Yangon in modern day Myanmar. First of all you need a travel agent who specializes in Myanmar, I found one in Singapore. There are many good travel agencies and tour operators in Yangon and I would recommend you one of them. For Jewish visitors, I highly recommend
http://www.myanmarshalom.com/home.html
Lots of information about Jewish Burma on their website and Mr Samuels and his son are very amicable burmese gents.

For my recent visit, once again it was very easy to get a visa from the embassy in Paris.. they even remember you and the process is quick and painless.. come back another day and your visa is ready.. they give you a paper and dont forget it to give it to the immigration when you arrive.. since you dont have that paper when you organize the visa on arrival, you may decide to throw it away or mispalce it.. this time, as i stood in line on the Foreigner line ( the flight was full but there were less than 10 foreignes, one dane, one australian and all the rest of foreigners were malaysian).. she asked me.. where is the paper which actually is one of the application forms with a photo you fill it out in the embassy
26 June 2007 Went this morning to the Myanmar Embassy at ave courcelles in the centre of Paris near Ch de Gaulle Etoile. Within five minutes after the first mingalarbar, i gave my filled in application forms, and parid 25 euros and was told that the visa would be ready tomorrow afternoon. He also gave me a CD and a booklet of information on Myanmar.
If you go to www.myanmartravelinformation.com you would see a wealth of information on Myanmar including maps, information on hotels and tour and travel agents . you are able to download that information. also has webpages of many of the enterprises including hotels and airlines and boats. traveltimes and timetables are included. a good little package and is full of pictures of Myanmar and I was delighted to see Chaungtha Beach included and information provided.
Thanaka is a paste of a root which almost burmese women wear on a daily basis to protect their skin, young men wear them too but very seldom grown up men do. I felt very comfortable in burmese national dress which is longyi and loose fitting shirt. I did bring back Thanaka with me to use to rehydrate my skin.

I have never seen a city where the colonial arhitecture of the British is so well preserved as in Yangon. Hanoi excels in french colonial architecture ( La Habana and Cartagena de las indias for its spanish colonial architecture)
Yangon has so many buildings from the british era, most of them in good condition.
Likewise, the most sympathetic treatment of the Burmese in Literature is by a British colonial office, Sir James Scott who later on took the name of Shway Yoe. The book is simply called the Burman, and is a superb book , in a preliminary reading of the book, it gave me an idea of so many customes of importance to the burman, such as the naming after the day of the week of birth rather than the day of the year.. I highly recommend this book.