"Until recently, Myanmar was a country few visited. I'm glad I did."

by Mamamia Team February 14, 2016

Their faces are scrubbed and make-up free, hair clipped to the scalp and barely an inch of flesh is on show. And I have never seen more exquisitely beautiful women in my lifetime.

I am at the Tha Kya Di Thar nunnery in Mandalay, Myanmar, and teenage nuns, resplendent in pristine pink cotton robes and tangerine sashes, are bowing beneath a flower festooned statue of Buddah.

“Teenage nuns, resplendent in pristine pink cotton robes and tangerine sashes…” (Image: Supplied)

Touching their foreheads to the ground, they rise and resume chanting. I feel tears well and my skin prickle with goose bumps. I am honoured and humbled to be witnessing what is normally off limits to the public, something so serene and spiritual it is for Buddha’s eyes only.

Should I have made my way to Myanmar on my own, my experience of nuns would be limited to fleeting glances in ornate pagodas – if I was lucky. But today, not only am I a guest in the nunnery, I will be serving the nuns lunch then joining them to eat it.

“But today, not only am I a guest in the nunnery, I will be serving the nuns lunch then joining them to eat it.” (Image: Supplied)

And so, after prayers, I ladle sweet iced coffee into the outstretched cups of the 170 nuns teaching and studying in the nunnery then join them to sit cross legged on the floor of the eating hall for a veritable feast I am party responsible for providing.

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It is yet another unforgettable experience on what is a truly remarkable journey through the culture rich country of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), nestled between Thailand and Bangladesh.

Until recently, Myanmar was a country few visited, thanks to world wide sanctions against its military regime which saw the jailing of activist Aung San Syu, massacre of monks and near on genocide of its Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority.

On the banks of Lake Inle. (Image: Supplied)

But that was the past and in recent years, Myanmar has begun its transformation back to a country best known for its gentle Buddhist population, cultural and natural wonders and bustling former British colonial cities.

However, Myanmar has remained very much the same as when it the military took power in 1962 (it unofficially ended in 2011), meaning it has not caught up in terms of roads, transport and tourism. A vast country which deserves to be explored in all its diversity, it is not easy to get around which is why I was delighted to join Trafalgar on its inaugural guided holiday through this incredible country.

Click through for a gallery of this incredible experience (post continues after gallery):

Wendy Squires: My trip to Myanmar.

Faces of Myanmar.