Visiting Myanmar, one of the most isolated countries in the world, makes Uledev Viadreslav feel like an explorer back in the old days before air travel started making the world feel smaller.

"Here there are almost no tourists," the 28-year-old Russian tourist said.

"We can go everywhere without any crowds, and see only locals around us. Here I can feel that I'm an explorer," Viadreslav said while resting with two friends in a shady corner of Yangon's spectacular golden Shwedagon Pagoda.

When tourists arrive here on flights from neighbouring Thailand, they set their watches back 30 minutes to adjust to Myanmar's unique time zone.

But many say they feel they have gone back 30 years, to a time before Asian cities were clogged with traffic and pollution, to a slow-paced town where men still wear traditional longyis instead of trousers, and women and children paint their faces white with sandalwood makeup.

Viadreslav said he and his friends knew little about the country, which used to be called Burma, before they arrived.

After 45 years of military rule, Myanmar is one of the world's poorest countries whose rulers have largely sealed it off from the outside world.

Motorcycles are banned here, leaving the roads to decades-old Nissan Sunny's that would have long ago landed in the scrapyards of Myanmar's better off neighbours.

Myanmar only began allowing tourists to visit in the last 20 years, and movement outside the main cities and temple sites are still restricted.

But that's part of the appeal for travellers like Viadreslav, who have slowly but steadily pumped more and more money into Myanmar's struggling economy.

Last year, Myanmar's official statistics showed that the overall number of foreign visitors here dropped by about five percent to 630 060 people, mainly due to a fall in cross-border traffic.

But airport arrivals by big-spending international tourists were up 16 percent, so Myanmar's tourism revenue climbed by nearly eight percent to $164-million.

Supporting the junta?

That's a lot of money for a cash-strapped regime that is under US and European sanctions over alleged rights abuses, which is why supporters of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi have urged foreigners not to visit.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner who has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest, has urged foreigners not to come to her country until the ruling military junta agrees to restore democracy.

A German tourist, who identified himself only as Manfred, said he believed tourism was one way of helping Myanmar's impoverished people, but added that he was trying to avoid spending his money with businesses controlled by the government.

"It's better to buy from local people instead of from the government. Everything is better if it goes to local people," he said.

Many guidebooks to Myanmar indicate which companies have strong links to the government to help travellers avoid financing the regime.

The government still hopes that more tourists — but not too many more — will keep coming.

"Some tourists just want to avoid the crowds"

It has agreed to allow new international flights to China and Thailand by private carrier Air Bagan, which could start in April.

Tour operators say bookings have been up for the peak travel season, which began in October and will end in May.

"All the tour companies got more tourists during the current high season. We also believe that more tourists will visit this year because we already have many reservations for the next high season, even though it's still early for booking," one tour company manager said.

She said tourists come here despite the tough political situation because Myanmar offers an experience that few people have had, and without the crowds that pour into destinations like Angkor Wat in Cambodia or Phuket in Thailand.

"Some tourists just want to avoid the crowds," she said.

AFP