Back in 2012, my wife and I spent an entire year in Southeast Asia and China. I completed my last semester of university in Malaysia through a partnership with my university in Canada, and we decided to take the additional 6+ months to visit Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, China, and Myanmar. We loved every single country in different ways but Myanmar really stood out. In fact, we had only 21 days to play around with and it was between Vietnam and Myanmar. It was a tough decision but because we had heard that Myanmar was on the verge of change, we decided to go there before that happened. I’m so glad we did because that experience stands out so much and became one of our best travel experiences ever.
Myanmar was so “off the grid”. One thing that’s easier now is preparing for your trip with Myanmar visa. When we went, we had to do it in Bangkok at the embassy. There was also no ATM’s in the country when we visited and visitors had to bring in all the money they think they would need, which had to be mint-conditioned US currency, no later than 2006 at the time. I remember walking up to a money exchange place in Bangkok, and after telling him where we were going, he had to open a “Special drawer”, which contained the money I would need in Myanmar. That was the beginning of a truly unique trip that can never be replicated, simply because the country has changed so much since then. [Read more…] about Myanmar – Unique, Captivating, and Changing Fast (An Interview with Dustin Main)