Tour Burma (Myanmar)

With the decades-old boycott on tourism now officially at an end, Burma (Myanmar) is the destination everyone’s talking about – and with good reason.

Home to Southeast Asia’s oldest and most culturally sophisticated civilization, the country is jam-packed with wondrous historic monuments – from gigantic gilded stupas to vast temple complexes sprawling over thousands of weed-infested acres. It also holds some enthralling landscapes: forested mountains in the north, huge river deltas in the middle and pristine tropical islands in the far south. Nor have the years enforced isolation diminished the welcoming nature of Burma’s predominantly Buddhist population. Everyone in the country is clearly delighted to receive visitors, and share their elegant and refined culture with the outside world again.

Only the repressive policies and appalling human rights record of its military regime, in power between 1962 and 2010, have kept Burma out of the Asian mainstream. But with Aung San Suu Kyi now released from house arrest and the country well on its way to becoming a full democracy, the pace of change is picking up fast.

Travelling between upscale hotels in grand colonial or boutique style, TransIndus tours cover all the main highlights of this beautiful country, from cosmopolitan Yangon, site of the resplendent Shwedagon Paya pagoda, to the breathtaking ruins of Bagan and serene Inle Lake, with its “leg-rowing” locals and Jumping Cat Monastery. Our tours also include forays south, to the coral-fringed coastline of the remote Mergui Archipelago, where Malay fisherman and Sea Gypsies inhabit coves of translucent waters and gleaming white shell sand, and into the hills of the north, home to a constellation of vibrantly attired ethic minority groups.