Sepia-Tinted Sunsets from a Top Ancient Pagodas make their way to every Travel Itinerary in Myanmar. But on the Trail to following Myanmar's Instagram Breaking Sun, Aparna Pednekar finds more to South East Asia's Dark Horse and the world's youngest Democracy Myanmar is Ready for the Big Change.
It’s quite likely that your most endearing memory of Myanmar will have something to do with the moody, honey-dripping ball of fire. The country holds good reputation for gorgeous sun-kissed backdrops for lone boats (or otherwise) to be silhouetted in theatrical slow motion, leaving the fragrance wafting off a fresh bowl of a mohinga (rice noodle fi sh soup; de rigueur local breakfast), tobacco stained smiles cracking through a fi sherman’s face, and rosy cheeks of cherubic babies, to look pale under the grand romance of the Burmese sun.
It was on the second day of cruising from Yangon (formerly Rangoon) to Bagan, onboard the luxurious Belmond Orcaella, when the initial euphoria had finally begun to settle—earlier, the welcome party on the cruise had triggered all guests to dress up in local lyongis, devour seven-course meals, and make minute conversations with other guests, but now, as the ship slid upstream on the Ayeyarwady—the country’s largest river—something of a riverside inertia began to creep in. Notwithstanding the 26-suite cabins, in-room bubbly, Bvlgari toiletries, and whiskey with fried butter beans at the bar (including a hyper-conscientious housekeeping staff popping up with watermelon smoothies just when you needed them), I was sulking inside my cabin by day three, staring out glumly at the Ayeyarwady, desperately hoping to get back on land, back to the urban chaos and the boisterous bazaars of Yangon.
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