The excitement and optimism in the Yangon air these days is palpable. In 2011 the impossible happened. The half century of rule by an oppressive military junta was over and longtime political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi had been released and duly elected to parliament. It was shortly after her election that I met with Burmese friends in a crowded coffee shop on Bogyoke Aung San Road, not far from Scott Market. We were there to talk tourism, not politics, but it quickly became apparent the two could not be […]

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As President Obama’s high profile visit to Myanmar in recent years helped to illustrate, the country has undergone major democratic reforms and emerged from a half century of isolation. With the hardline military junta dissolved; General turned President Thein Sein trading in his army uniform for Hugo Boss, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi freely elected to parliament, “The Golden Land” has at long last re-opened her arms to the world. And what magnificent arms she has, stretching from the pristine tropical islands of the Andaman Sea […]

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