Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/569741
FALL 2015 DREAMSCAPES 13 Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling, among others, and many of the Victorian features enjoyed by these illustrious guests have been well maintained. The hotel's colonnaded entranceway opens out into a vast marble-inlaid lobby where butlers in tighpone dress jackets and tra- ditional longgyi and slippers coax the ancient elevator into submission. And black-lacquered ceiling fans swirl beneath concentric rings of banisters and the atrium skylight high overhead. "With its huge diversity of cultures, people and fabulous history, Myanmar is the tourism treasure trove of Asia," says Swiss general manager Philippe Delaloye, who has 30 years of experience managing hotels in Thailand. "Its relatively slow development has preserved the beautiful ecology and unique way of life." EVOCATIVE SITES AND GEMS Yangon's Chinatown is always a hive of activity and the go-to hangout for locals of all ages. Buddhist monks and nuns in orange, burgundy and pink robes sweep past fortune tellers fringing Sule Pagoda, said to contain a hair given by the Buddha to two Burmese merchants. Along busy Maha Bandoola Road, potholed pavements front gold shops, Chinese medicine ven- dors, restaurants and bakeries. Shwedagon Pagoda is the country's most sacred site and its mystical ambiance has to be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated. The 2,500-year-old complex of temples, stupas and statues has withstood earthquakes, invasions, fire, out-and-out pillaging and foreign occupation. The main stupa in itself is mindboggling, covered with hundreds of gold plates and crusted with innumerable rubies, sapphires and an alleged 4,531 diamonds, the largest of which tips the scales at 72 carats. But Myanmar's greatest gems are scat- tered countrywide. FRONTIER EXPLORATIONS River cruising globally has boomed over the last few years, and options to explore Myanmar's life-giving waters have grown, too, capturing the sense of frontier explo- ration that characterized the colonial era. Last year Belmond launched Orcaella in the wake of Road to Mandalay. Like her big sister, Orcaella cruises the Ayeyarwady from Bagan to Mandalay but also reaches Yangon and goes up the Chindwin River to Homalin—the first luxury cruiser to explore this section of the river through the jungles of the north, forgotten villages and ancient towns near the Indian border. In Mandalay, the former capital city of the Myanmar Kingdom one hour by air from Yangon and 20 minutes from Bagan, Man- dalay Hill Resort lies at the foot of Mandalay Hill facing the distinctive architecture of the Royal Palace and its beautiful moat with a panoramic view of the city's myriad pagodas. When safari camp-inspired Bagan Lodge opened in Bagan in 2013, it offered trav- ellers a luxurious base from which to explore the plain of temples without FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: An Intha fisherman balances precariously on board his boat on Inle Lake in the northern Shan State of Myanmar. Courtesy of Bagan Lodge Accommodation facilities at the elegant Mandalay Hill Resort impress the most discerning of guests. Mandalay Hill Resort The Belmond Orcaella cruises the Ayeyarwady River from Bagan to Mandalay but also reaches Yangon and travels up the Chindwin River to Homalin. Belmond Management Services