Dear International Travelers,
Greeting from Myanmar " Mingalarbar "
                                                                      Welcome to the Golden Land!

Myanmar is famous for its golden pagodas and friendly people. Due to its blessing nature such as heavy forests, lush mangrove and high mountain ranges guarding from north to south Myanmar usually get away with any major natural deserter. However most unfortunately Myanmar has suffered at the wake of the dark clouds of cyclone Nargis that battered the Ayeyarwady Delta region and Yangon on early May 2008 with winds that exceeded 180 kph the cyclone wreaked havoc. The huge storm surge that accompanied at some places was over 5 meters, swept away everything in its path, human settlements, livestock, roads, bridges, communication and electrical facilities. According to reports more than 100,000 dead and missing and approximately two million people were displaced. Yangon International Airport was remained closed temporarily due to safety concerns and all riverine traffic was halted. Fortunately there have been no causalities or lost of life in Yangon but what left behind was a complete devastated scene such as wide opened homes, uprooted trees including the huge ones of more than 100 years old, fallen electricity posts and broken glass. Yangon has been known as the "Garden City of East" but unfortunately lost over 70% of its trees and what had left now are some smaller ones and the ones naturally withstand the heavy wind such as coconut trees.

After nearly six weeks of non-stop rescue, cleaning and re-construction effort, Yangon is back on its feet and lively again with clean street and life are back to normal. Yangon International airport is now fully functional and flights are back on schedule. Local transport such as domestic flights, overland buses and trains are in normal operational although there has been a considerable less frequent compare to pre - Nargis due to lack of both domestic as well as Intl travelers. All major hotels, except for some local guesthouses and inns, are offering full service to their clients as before. The delta areas that suffered most are now in the rehabilitation phase. Most of the damages have been repaired and life is slowly returning back to normal. Commerce has revived and schools have re-opened. Many storm survivors have left the relief camps for their native villages and are provided with necessary provisions to make life easy for them during the initial re-settlement period. Regular health care services are being provided to the survivors, both still at the relief camps and also to those at the villages. Rice growing has been re-started at many areas with the assistance of the government, INGO and NGOs providing the farmers with seeds and power tillers to replace the lost draught animals. Buffaloes and cattle are being transported from other districts unaffected by the storm to help in the tilling and ploughing work. Fishermen are being granted loans and free issue of fishing equipment to help them with their livelihood. Buddhist monasteries, Christian churches, Hindu temples and Muslim mosques are provided with zinc roofing sheets and other necessary items without discrimination to help them repair the damage.

As for the relief support to the cyclone victims we have formed "Myanmar Tourism Cyclone Relief Team" jointly among UMTA and MTPB and relief works were carried out since May 17th based in Phya Pone District covering Phya Pone, Bogalay and Daedaye Townships and managed to reach 70 villages and over 5000 bags of relief supply where distributed to families which were in desperate in need for the relief supply for their day by day survival. In the early days of our operation we were the first to reach these small villages which often took us 5-6 hours boat trip. Since a month from the storm hit the region, assistance from large scale INGOs have being seen reaching the remote villages with dedication to the sustainable long plans. Therefore we have decided to give ourselves a break to the relief operation but at the same time committed to help refurbish primary schools, many of which has been partially or completely damaged by the storm. Plan are also provide with the necessary school books, stationery and uniforms which would not only lead to giving the children the education they need to face life but also be a means to overcome the psychological trauma that they had faced recently. We now come to realize if the children could not go to school then most probably they will never go back to school. Education in the rural areas is not that important to many parents and once kids involve household thing such as helping their parent in the field or looking after home etc. So far we have involved refurbishing total 15 schools in Phya Pone district collectively plus one in Thanlyin (about one hour drive from Yangon) with our owned individual fund which hopefully be complete by the end of the month thus children would have a better learning environment there. We are also considering helping better learning environment for some of the orphanage schools and free education facilities provided by the Buddhist monasteries.

The cyclonic Nargis not only leave a magnitude of devastation in the country but also leave a major impact on Myanmar tourism. Despite of the fact that things arte brought back to normal and all tourist destinations such as Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Kyaingetong and Mrauk U and pristine beaches are not effected but there were many cancellations. Major concerns of the travelers were based on the negative reports by the international media. The travelers were afraid of disruption to their holiday plans due to uncertainties in terms of warnings of disease outbreaks, electricity and clean water supply, photos of pathetic looking cyclone survivors and dead bodies etc, despite of the fact that situation has been brought in to a total control by joint force of UN, ASIAN, local and Intl NGOs and government.

Although it's small scale by nature, tourism due to its positive multiplier effect is one of the most effective ways of helping people help themselves. Its certainly is the win/win situation for both travelers and local host alike. Therefore we strongly urge International travelers to consider visit Myanmar NOW should you consider visiting Myanmar at all. We want you to think that there is NO better time to visit Myanmar then this due to it needs of humanitarian assistance and your commitment to visit Myanmar means your commitment to assist local people in Myanmar tourism industry who depend on tourism income by mean of providing service to International tourist.

The Golden Shwedagon Pagoda " glittering with gold like sudden hope in the dark night of the soul " write by Somerset Maugham in his Gentlemen in the parlor still claimed to be truth as it shines brightly as always been.