lonely-planet-myanmar-burma-11-edition

21Responsible TravelKey Points» Travel independently rather than in a bigtour group.» Where possible, avoid using businessesowned by the government or those closelylinked with it.» Spread your money around, ie buysouvenirs across the country, not just inYangon.» Don’t compromise locals by your actionsor topics of conversation.» Do talk to locals – they relish outsidecontact.» Contribute to local charitable causes.Advance ReadingCulture Shock! Myanmar, Saw Myat YinTo Myanmar with Love, ed MorganEdwardsonBurma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needsto Know, David I SteinbergThe River of Lost Footsteps, Thant Myint-UFreedom From Fear, Aung San Suu KyiPerfect Hostage, Justin WintleNowhere to Be Home, eds Maggie Lemereand Zoë WestGeographically beautiful and populated bygentle people, Myanmar is also notoriousfor its human rights abuses. The UnitedNations, Amnesty International and HumanRights Watch are among the manyrespected bodies who have called the country’smilitary rulers to account for their imprisonmentand mistreatment of politicaldissidents, use of forced labour, and violentcrackdowns on peaceful demonstrations, aswitnessed in September 2007.Many countries, including the US, Canada,Australia and those of the EuropeanUnion, have and continue to apply economicsanctions. In 1995 the NLD also called for atourism boycott (see p 318 ), which led to criticismof previous editions of this guidebook.In 2010 this controversial travel boycott wasofficially dropped by the NLD, who now welcomeindependent tourists who are mindfulof the political and social landscape; however,those on large group package tours arediscouraged.Lonely Planet believes the answer to thequestion of whether to visit Myanmar issomething that everyone has to decide forthemselves; the box on p 22 sums up the majorpros and cons. If you do go, this guidehas been researched and designed to maximisehow much of your travel budget goesdirectly to local people and minimise howmuch goes to the regime.The chapters on p 290 , p 293 and p 315are all good starting points for getting togrips with the past and current situation inMyanmar.