Yangon city – formerly known as Rangoon and the former capital of Burma (Myanmar). The city has a longer historical connect with Tamils. There were trade proofs between very older Tamil kingdoms and Burmese kingdoms. There were many Tamils sent to Myanmar by British as well during their ruling period here. Still i can see many faces here but they barely speak Tamil. Though their shops still holds name board in Tamil. Many Hindu temples still hold name in Tamil as well.
Visa For Indians
Myanmar provides e-Visa for Indians who wanted to visit their country for Tourism.
Apply Here: https://evisa.moip.gov.mm/Tourist
Cost: 50 USD
If you are applying for express service (With in 24 hours) then it is 56 USD. I did apply for standard processing only. But the visa approval email came in around 8 hours of time.
The formalities in the airport is very smooth. They did not even scan the baggage. No questions. They didn’t question anyone who i happen to see crossing immigration.
Sim card data also not costly. I brought Ooredoo 4G sim card which costed me 7000 kyats (Approx 5 USD). It comes with 5GB data and 50 minutes of free talk time. The speed was stunning in most of the area i used.
I saw in many forums people mention about using USD in the country. But what i see here is everywhere people expect cash to be in Kyat. Not USD. Plenty of money exchange shops available all around the city. I tried 2 shops and both of them are giving very good conversion rate. It is a better choice than loosing lot of conversion fee money at ATM.
Sule Pagoda(Buddhist Temple) is in the Heart of the city. Shwedagon Pagoda is located 3 kms away from downtown. Shwedagon Pagoda is claimed to be built approximately 2600 years ago which makes it the oldest Pagoda in the world. Initially it was built in a smaller scale but in the later years of the new generation kings it was modified and took the huge structure which it has now. Only for Foreigners there is an entrance fee. They charge 10000 Kyats as entry fee. Photo cameras are allowed free.
