NYT Article on Myanmar
 

Interesting article
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/25/tr...mestravel&_r=0

I saw that article, too - looks beautiful! And it is a really interesting piece.

One of the things I found fascinating in this article is that while they tell us that the beautiful lodge at Putao is owned by Tay Za, somehow that is seen as a positive. They refer to Htoo group owning the "Malikha Lodge has the benefit of being connected to what is perhaps the best-run network of high-end hotels and resorts in Myanmar." Yipes! If that is the best-run network of hotels... the Aureum Palace is the place where a couple of people have been electrocuted in the showers there.

There are a good number of excellent hotels in Burma not owned by Tay Za or other cronies. I'd suggest the Inle Princess and Mrauk U Princess as two lovely places without the taint of Tay Za.

In general, what does it require to go to Putao?

The interesting thing about that article for me is that Mr. Schell, the author, omitted any mention of the Chinese presence in that part of Burma. It may be that they have not gotten that far north yet in their exploitation of the nation's natural resources. However, the same day that this article appeared online in the NY Times (Friday, January 23, 2015), the paper ran an editorial in which it criticized the Chinese for their voracious appetite and the Burmese military government (pseudo democratic) for its collusion in stripping Burma of its wealth without regard to the welfare of its citizens. Mr. Schell is really a China expert and, without casting aspersions on his motives, I do wonder if that has been a factor in omission of any mention of Chinese activity around Putao. In his defense, though, it could be that the difficulty of extracting the natural resources in that area versus the relative ease of doing the same on the upper Chinwin and upper Irrawaddy (where I saw it in September, 2014) means that there is no Chinese presence in the really far north. ZZ

"In general, what does it require to go to Putao?"

A visa
A flight
An agency may require reservations to go there as there is basically nothing there but that (very) expensive lodge.

And a permit!

Oh, yes, That too.

A prolific TA and TT poster has just returned from Putao- his comments are in posts 3 & 4 here-
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTop....html#63802093
SS

Thanks, SS. It sounds like not much has changed since I looked into going a few years ago, except that there are now a couple of inexpensive guesthouses.

seems that it costs a bit extra to get off the beaten path...