How To Speak Burmese

Yuri's guide to Myanmar: Bagan, Inle Lake, Yangon

Comrades: Myanmar is a mystical place that is unlike any other.

It is the only country I have visited where you must be accompanied by guides the entire time. Many regions were off limits to foreigners and the whole country is difficult to navigate on your own. In February 2021, the military junta staged a coup to retake control after a brief window of “democracy”. This video of a masked exercise instructor dancing as the coup unfolds behind her is mesmerizing:

Bagan is a mind blowing complex of over 10,000 temples that are almost 1,000 years old: