Well – we’ve left the country, so it’s time to look back. Here are 12 pretty random facts that stuck with us.

1. Supposedly, you have to bring prestine US dollar bills into the country if you wanna change. A dent and they won’t take it. Funny – among their local bills are pretty much the worst we’ve ever seen.

Wrinkle wrinkle little star…

2. Myanmar wants to give you power: Their plugs pretty much fit everyting. Seriously, I’ve tried every possible option on my world plug. All worked!

I haz power for you, stranger!

3. Apparently, there are no bank robberies. As in there has never been one. Ever. A local told us that, so no guarantee – but it might just be true: Every convenience store in Switzerland has more security than banks in Myanmar.

(No pic, well, because there’s never been one to take a pic of.)

4. They want you to race on their streets. I mean ,why else would they use Formula 1 style markings everywhere? Oh – and there are no speedcams.

Ready, set…

5. Streetfood seems to be the thing of the hour. Or decade. While it’s quite amazing, it’s funny to see all these adults sitting on what resemble child chairs and tables.

Now imagine me at 1.90m…

6. They touch their right arm with the left hand while handing you over stuff, especially money. Apparently a gesture of courtesy, showing they’re not hiding anything.

Yes, it’s staged. But what a beautiful arm, right?

7. Cars are mostly right driven – but they also drive on the right side, which is pretty freaky. That’s probably the reason why many cars have an additional rear view mirror on the left side of the hood.

Too small to be true.

8. It’s true: There are no motorbikes in downtown Yangon. Rumors about reasons vary, but it’s a fact that it makes crossing the street somewhat safer than in let’s say India. Not safe safe, there’s still a lot going on, but safer-ish.

Looks safe to me.

9. The train sucks, but the bus system is great. A bus will take you 10 hours through half the country for 12 bucks. With aircon, reclining seats, a small TV in the seat in front of you, and coffee & snacks. Oh, and hilarious local comedy shows on TV, too.

Yes, it’s big. And pink.

10. They use cordless corded phones. No kidding. Beats me as to why no just use cordless ones.

Yep, these babies have SIM cards.

11. There’s only one proper street up north. Two lanes each way, and it does the job just fine.

Image by The Irrawady. I was asleep at the time.

12. A while ago, the government decided to move the official capital from Yangon to an artificial city up north to a greenfield – where they started to build the artificial city of Naypyidaw, now the capital. Two strange things: In spite of the city only being constructed, they moved the Zoo from Yangon. Yep, the most popular city in Myanmar now has an empty zoo without a single animal. And secondly, they built the largest highway ever. Like, really, ever – it’s 20 lanes! Funny when compared to the 4-lane official highway that crosses the entire country, and probably features a dozenfold more traffic…

Image by Google Images – or whoever.

Keen to go there yet? You should be!