80 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM A NEW BURMESE DAWN ILLUSTRATIONS The question is no longer whether or not to visit Burma – but how. Sophy Roberts offers a guide to the country’s natural and cultural treasures, from its pristine Andaman beaches and Himalayan peaks to its enchanting temples and gilded pagodas EMILY ROBERTSON
he first time I visited Burma was in 2009. I was travelling from Loikaw, a remote tribal area in Kayah State, to Kalaw, a former colonial hill station. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was still under house arrest. The tourism boycott remained in place. On that journey, I saw separatists buzzing about with guns in the back of pickup trucks. I also passed a remote military encampment with a sign outside carrying the following words of instruction: “Move, Shoot, Communicate.” At the time I wasn’t entirely sure if the motto was an accidental misordering of words, or rather a true representation of the military regime’s brutal approach to governance. If I were to take that same journey in 2014, I also can’t be sure the directive would still be there. Five years on and Burma is barely recognisable. This can be attributed to a series of political manoeuvres that are making the country acceptable to foreign investors – a transformation that began in 2010 when Burma passed through democratic elections, followed by the release of Suu Kyi in November that same year, the lifting of the tourism boycott and an explosion of visitor numbers. In 2014, the military may still wield influence behind the country’s new civilian face, but with all this money pouring into Burma, the country has become a relatively safer place for its citizens. There are more eyes watching, along with many more cars in Rangoon. (“By next year, maybe the only way to get about will be to walk along car roofs,” observes one of my Burmese guides, Myat Sw Htat.) Hotels are going up, from Burma’s Himalayan peaks to its tropical islands that make up the Mergui Archipelago on the country’s Andaman coast. Internal flight routings are improving, with more frequent connections. New boats are entering the waters of the Mekong offering luxury cruises, while the beach scene is hotting up with hotel investments along the white sands of Ngapali. Despite 50 years of institutionalised corruption, there is a palpable sense of optimism to the country at large, even in the little-visited backwater regions. CITY LIGHTS Rangoon, an 80-minute flight from Bangkok, is where most visitors arrive. Getting flights is easy; securing a room, however, is a very real challenge, especially during high season from October to March. Rangoon’s 1901-built grand dame hotel with a spa, “grill” restaurant and superior location is The Strand (hotelthestrand.com), designed by the same Sarkie brothers who created the 1887 Raffles Hotel in Singapore. From here it’s a short walk to Bogyoke Aung San Market (bogyokemarket.com), also known as Scott’s, which is a bustling multifloor flea market selling everything from Chinese tat to antique maps and tribal silver (two shops worth recommending: Bonton for tribal artefacts and Tai Minn for silverware). More intimate are the 47-room Governor’s Residence (governorsresidence. com), a 1920s teak mansion in the Embassy Quarter with a fanshaped pool, and the 30-room Savoy Hotel (savoy-myanmar.com) with colonial-style, teak-furnished interiors. The lawned garden and outdoor pool are significant draws, along with the views of Shwedagon Pagoda. My personal favourite, however, remains the Traders Hotel, Yangon (tradershotels.com): a 334-room, clean, no-nonsense, recently refurbished business-style hotel from the Shangri-La. Service is immaculate, while breakfast – a vast buffet spread in a dining room buzzing with activity – is one of the most memorable in Asia (more is to come from Shangri-La in Rangoon, with a 350-room hotel currently under construction on the banks of Kandawgyi Lake, due to open in 2017). CONTACT CENTURION SERVICE FOR BOOKINGS CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 81
