Glorious glimpses of the past on the road to Mandalay: An enchanting voyage through Burma

Mail on Sunday

Burma is a country where the past is constantly jostling with the present. Even as I waited at the immigration counter at Yangon airport, I was struck by what turned out to be the first of many surprises.
There was a channel marked ‘Seamen’ with no queue at all. It turned out that the channel was reserved for those seeking permanent residence. However, nobody arrives by boat these days, so having such a counter seems like a curious attempt to preserve a vanished past.