Why You Need to Go to Myanmar

1. Thingyan Water Festival Expect a soaking during Thingyan, a Buddhist water festival that marks the beginning of Myanmar's New Year. It comes on April 13 this year and is intended as a metaphorical washing away of the previous year's sins. In cities such as Yangon, pictured here, your cleansing can get pretty intense—courtesy of garden hoses, water balloons, and water pistols. Photographer: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
2. Myeik Archipelago With icing sugar sands fringed with palm trees, soaring rugged cliffs, and 800 paradise islands teeming with wildlife (and mostly no humans), the Myeik Archipelago is one of Myanmar's emerging destinations. Located off the southern coast in the Andaman Sea, its isolation has worked in its favor, leaving it beautifully untouched … for now. Photographer: Florian Stern/LOOK-foto/Getty Images
3. Hsinbyume Pagoda After the tourists leave the Hsinbyume Pagoda on the last boat to Mandalay, the young Buddhist novices use the rooftop as their playground. King Bagyidaw built the striking white pagoda, complete with mythical monsters, in 1816, in memory of his wife. (This photo is a finalist in Smithsonian's 12th Annual Photography Contest, smithsonianmag.com.) Photographer: Carbajo Rodriguez/Smithsonian Magazine via Bloomberg
4. Market Day, Everyday Myanmar's principal flower- and vegetable-growing is centered around the hill town of Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo) in Shan Highland, east of Mandalay, which makes the food markets colorful and abundant. This is also a good spot to escape the city heat; during the 1900s it was the government's summer retreat, and much of the colonial architecture from that period remains. Photographer: Kelly Cheng/Getty Images
5. Fishing in Amarapura Fishermen make casting nets an art form as the sun goes down near Amarapura. Other styles of fishing in Myanmar include rowing with one leg while catching fish with a traditional conical net. Photographer: Dr. Ng Chong Kin/Flickr via Bloomberg
6. One Big Buddha It might not be as pristine as other Buddha statues, but the reclining Win Sein Taw Ya is said to be the world's largest—and it has been under construction for 23 years. The monument stretches around 600 feet across a forested hillside in Mudon, opposite the Buddhist shrine of Kyauktalon Taung. Inside, things are labyrinthine, with eight stories of passages, stairways, additional shrines, and some disconcertingly bloody devil dioramas. Photographer: Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images
7. Ballooning Over Bagan There's no such thing as too many temples, particularly when they're dappled in golden light. Bagan, in Myanmar's central Mandalay region, has more than 2,000 temples, pagodas, and shrines dating from the 11th to the 13th centuries, in a 16-square-mile plain. It's a breathtaking site, particularly when viewed from one of the balloons that emerge from the dawn mists—a once-in-a-lifetime experience you shouldn't miss. Photographer: Luke Taylor via Bloomberg
8. Belmond Governor's Residence If you want to immerse yourself in colonial luxury, the Governor's Residence (belmond.com) in Yangon is a 1920s 48-room mansion in the Embassy Quarter, with teak interiors, verandas, and dinner served in lantern-lit exotic grounds. Or mix things up by checking into one of Myanmar's new wave of hotels, such as the Sanctum Inle Resort (sanctum-inle-resort.com) which will open in late May in one of the country's most scenic areas. The 96 cloister-inspired rooms are pleasantly minimal, considering the general penchant for ornamental décor in other properties. Photographer: Sven Ellsworth/Belmond via Bloomberg
9. Time Capsule Long before the country fully opened to visitors, Dave Glass visited what was then called Burma for seven days in December 1986, the maximum period allowed for Westerners to stay in the country at that time. He captured this image of a street soccer match from the office of a local travel agency in Yangon. "Several months after I left, the borders were closed to foreigners and the 8888 Democracy Revolution began," says Glass. Today, the city's time capsule-like, colonial-era British architecture—much of it crumbling—combined with one of the country's holiest sites, the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, speak to the country's back story in the midst of modernization. Photographer: Dave Glass via Bloomberg
10. Signs of Change A microcosm of the modernizing country, Burmese beer hall-style restaurant Port Autonomy (portautonomy.com) anchored the TS1 pop-up gallery and retail space at Yangon's gritty Lanthit Jetty (ts1.yangon.com). Until recently, it was the place to see the city's new money at play. For now, the peripatetic restaurant has landed uptown on the leafy grounds of a colonial mansion—neon sign and funky, stainless-steel trailer kitchen included. Source: Port Autonomy via Bloomberg
11. Foodie Future Regional produce with a playful nod to such international cuisines as Mexican and Korean come courtesy of Port Autonomy's chef, Kevin Ching. Consider it an edible emblem of the country's future. Sharing space with the New Boris cocktail bar, this is where to eat, drink, and party in modern Myanmar. Source: Port Autonomy via Bloomberg
12. World's Longest Wooden Bridge An early morning moment of calm on U Bein Bridge, originally built in the 1850s with reclaimed teak from a royal palace in Inwa. The bridge spans Lake Taungthaman in a curve for three quarters of a mile. As the world's longest wooden bridge, it's one of the country's most photographed sites—particularly at sunset, when tourists arrive en masse, with cameras at the ready. During the day it remains a bustling walkway for locals getting to and from work. Photographer: Thomas Gasienica/Getty Images
13. Inle lake Temples When you think you've seen enough beautiful temples to last you a lifetime, remember that this is a country in which it's always worth blisters to go see more of them. Near Inle Lake, a popular attraction for its picturesque countryside and floating villages, you'll find these stuppas at Shwe Indein Paya. Photographer: Luke Taylor via Bloomberg
14. Morning Rush As the morning temperature pushes past 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), rush hour begins in earnest in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city. Monks holding alms bowls cram onto a bus roof, suggesting that they have just finished—or are about to start—collecting morning alms. Photographer: Nigel Killeen/Getty Images
15. Golden Boulder Pagoda Gold-leafing a boulder might seem a curious thing to do—unless it's topped by a pagoda said to have been built more than 2,400 years ago. It's also said that three of the Buddha's hairs keep it balancing precariously on the edge of a mountain ledge. The Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda is therefore a big deal. Many hike the seven miles from a base camp in the Thaton district to the pagoda's location 3,615 feet above sea level. Photographer: Cultura RM/Art Wolfe Stock/Getty Images

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