Myanmar is one of the beautiful countries in Asia and now is new destination for tourist. Myanmar is bounded with Bagladesh and India in west and China, Laos and Thailand in east. The Adaman sea and Bay of Bengal also surround the Myanmar costal region. Myanmar is occupied 676,552 sq km , is the largest country in South East Asia. Myanmar has long costal line and beautiful beaches such as Ngapali beach, Chaung tha beach and Ngwesaung beach. There is the highest mountain in South East Asia. Mt. Hkakaborazi raise to 5881 meters. Myanmar is rich in natural resources .83% of Myanmar are Buddhist. It is also the land of millions of pagodas. We also call Golden land. Myanmar is one of the agriculture countries; more than 70% are depending on agriculture. There are 62 million population. There are eight main national races; Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Mon, Burma, Rakhine and Shan. 135 different races are living in Myanmar and use their own dialects.65%of population is Burma and they are living in the whole country.

Myanmar is one of the countries in South East Asia, which has tropical climate. It has three seasons; hot season runs from late February to end of May. The highest temperature reaches to 45C. The raining season starts from the beginning of June to the early of October. The average temperature makes 29 C. The cold season is from the middle of October to middle of February.

Currency

In Myanmar recently canceled the use of F.E.C. Local currency is Kyat. USD are widely use throughout the country. USD, Euro are accepted the whole country and are easily exchangeable for local currency; Kyat. Most of the cities in Myanmar you can withdraw cash money from visa card, Master card, you will get in local currency, Kyat and you can buy foreign currency from the bank. There is ATM in most of the important cities and tourist sites all over the country. Only some major hotels will accept credit cards. We recommended visitors to bring brand new USD and Euro cash. It is much better.      

Culinary

The basic Myanmar food is mainly rice and curry. Myanmar curry is cooked meat, fish or vegetable with turmeric, garlic, onion, chill and spices, ganger, tomato and oil together, that we call curry, not like spicy Indian curry. It is fresh curry. Plain rice is served with meat, fish or vegetable curry. Popular Myanmar breakfast is hot noodle soup flavored with coconut. The other popular dish is Monhinga. A favorite sauce for all Myanmar is fish sauce with chili and garlic eats with fresh vegetable. There are many good restaurants throughout the country. Thai, Chinese European, Indian and Myanmar cuisines are available.

Electricity

In Myanmar most of power comes from a single hydroelectric plant. The voltage is 230 volt, 50Hz AC. Most of the hotels have three-pin plugs. To bring adapter is recommended.

Local time

Myanmar standard time is six and half hours ahead of GMT.

Season to visit Myanmar

Myanmar has three seasons. From the end of February to the end of May is hot season. April and May are hottest months in Myanmar. Only some visitors, who want to participate water festival that held second week of April, come to Myanmar. After 11:30 AM it is quite hard to go out to visit pagodas and temples without shoes.  June to September is raining season. Raining season, wind comes from South west, from Bay of Bangala. So costal region and Yangon usually have heavy rain but not in Mandalay and bagan. Apart from the beaches, Mrauk U, the rest of the country you can do during raining season.  Generally, we say the best time to visit Myanmar is from October to March.

Suggestion for all visitors

Myanmar is Buddhist country. Majority of Myanmar are Buddhist. It is also well-known as Golden Land, as well as the land of thousands of Pagodas. Cultural tourism is very popular. Here there are some advises for all visitors who come to Myanmar.

 -When you go to visit pagoda, temple and monastery, you need to take off your shoes       and socks.

-To visit the whole Myanmar you better to wear slippers because it is very easy to take on and take off

– Please wear long pants, minimum over-knee short pants

-It is possible to take picture almost all monuments. If you want to make the picture a person nearby, you better to ask permission

-Please don’t point things and persons by your feet

-Myanmar has tropical climate. Throughout the year clothing should be light, causal cotton wear, sandals and slippers are the best for summer. From November to February is cold season, some parts of Myanmar especially Shan state around Inlay Lake it makes quite cool during night and early morning. We recommend to our visitors to bring warm clothes. It is good idea to bring umbrella and raincoat if you come in raining season fro, June to September.

 Travelling by train in Myanmar

In Myanmar there is a wide network of railway that you can travel all over the country by train. Only one thing that is not uncomfortable for the foreign traveller is coaches and railways are very old and the schedules are not reliable. We would like to recommend for all tourists that the route from Yangon to Mandalay (14/18 hours) and from Pyin Oo Lwin to Naung Pein( about 3 hours ) are considerable. The railways are quite old and you may feel bumping and jumping while you are on the train. There are first class compartments with reclining seats and the sleeper’s compartments.

   Transportation

Crystal Zone Travels provides air-condition cars and coaches where available. In some remote areas such as Rakhaing State, Kyaing Tong, the mean of transportation will be very basis.