MYANMAR

What’s Going on?

Myanmar has been quiet in the media lately and we keep receiving questions about the current situation.

Carsten Schmidt, our Group Director of Operations & Products, who has been living in Myanmar for over 18 years, returned to Yangon on 10 December from a two-month stay in Europe.

He says that “the situation in Myanmar remains tense and there is no immediate solution to the conflict in sight. Nothing can be glossed over in this regard.” Nevertheless, life in Yangon, Bagan and Inle Lake carries on as normal. Restaurants and bars are open and people go about their business. However there is still a curfew in place from midnight to 4am.

The good news is that there is no more testing on arrival! This regulation was abolished on 1 December.

Entering the country is not as easy as for Thailand, for instance, but still, the procedures are not too complicated:

• During check-in for your flight to Yangon, the airline will usually ask to see the visa for Myanmar, which needs to be arranged online in advance here.

• A health insurance needs to be purchased in advance as well with Myanma Insurance.

• During the flight to Yangon, the airline staff will hand out a Health Declaration Form, which is one page and easy to fill out. It basically needs some personal data, flight number, seat number, etc. and if you are fully vaccinated or not and whether there are any flu-like symptoms.

• Upon arrival at Yangon International Airport, visitors are first guided to the health desk and the staff will ask for the Health Declaration Form and the insurance. The stop at the health desk maybe takes just 30 seconds and you can proceed to the immigration counter afterwards, where it is business as usual.

During his return trip, Carsten was not asked once to present any vaccination certificate, however, we recommend to have it available at any time in any case.