Although Myanmar’s reputation internationally is certainly not great, the people are remarkably friendly, and the political situation is improving, albeit at a relatively slow pace. Interestingly, Myanmar remains one of the countries least affected by Western culture and is free from most of the maladies plaguing the developed world.

Bagan is a fabulous 16 sq. mile area perched above the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar just southwest of Mandalay. There are more than 2,800 monuments from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries concentrated
there. It is a stunning sight not to be missed by the serious traveler.

"The Bagan Dynasty was founded by a Tibeto-Burman people, the present Burmese,who grafted on to their energy the Buddhism of India, dedicated themselves to it, helped to purify it and thus make possible the
preservation of Theravada Buddhism as a Mon Burman-Singalese achievement. To the glorification of this religious culture, dedicating all its creative energies, using slave and free labor,
as in Ancient Greece and Rome, it built its monuments. In a sense, we have in Bagan kings another illustration of DeMandeville's aphorism, 'Private Vices are Public Benefits.'
… F.N. Trager (1953).