Myanmar seems like a trailer for Southeast-Asia – all the beauty of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia is accumulated in the country of the golden pagodas in an amazingly untouched manner.

Looking at the numerous, little pagodas and monasteries, the fairy-tale like stupa panorama in Bagan or the amazing flora and fauna at Inle Lake with its famous single-leg-rowing fisherman – you HAVE to visit Myanmar. As Lonely Planet states there are even beautiful beaches in the south of the country.

Monks with selfie-sticks, traditional handcraft shops at every corner or old women with mega big cigars – everywhere there is something to feel amazed about. Obviously nobody in Myanmar gets tired of greeting every single tourist with a friendly “Mingalaba”.

Buddhism still builds a fundamental base for Myanmar everyday live – everywhere there are people praying on their knees, putting small golden plates onto Buddha statues and monks can been seen at markets doing their shopping tour for the new temple accessories.

Anyhow – Myanmar still has to be regarded as a development country – everywhere there is plastic rubbish, there is – sometimes – weird smell, tap water is undrinkable and lots of people are still living in very very simple conditions.

Slowly the country starts to organize the growing tourism sector: climbing at pagodas is forbidden, tourists are only allowed to drive e-bikes instead of motorbikes and have to be back in the hotel at 10 p.m. At Inle-Lake there are already organized sightseeing tours to force tourists to shop at handcraft shops and all around the country numerous bus companies are fighting to do the 12-hour-overnight bus tours. Curious how this will develop the next years.

I am totally glad that I finally did the stopover in Myanmar – otherwise I would have missed an amazingly beautiful and original country.

Tomorrow evening I am already heading towards Germany via Yangon, Bangkok and Delhi. “Bye bye Asia – Hello Germany.”