Myanmar is famous in the world because of its golden pagodas and the golden-hearted people. But the country suffered at the hands of the dark clouds of Cyclone Nargis that smashed into Myanmar on May 2 and 3 2008, battering the former capital Yangon and the Ayeyarwady delta costal regions. With winds that sometime exceeded 190 kph cyclone wreaked havoc. The deadly tidal surge that accompanied at some places was over 5 meters. It swept away everything in its path, human settlements, livestock, people and all infrastructures -- roads, bridges, communication and electrical facilities. According to reports at least 78,000 people were killed and another 56,000 are missing while some 2.5 million survivors are at risk from disease, starvation and exposure to monsoon rains. Even Yangon International Airport was closed down temporarily due to safety concerns and all riverine traffic also halted. In Yangon huge trees, some more than 100 years old, were uprooted.

But now the dark clouds have passed. The airport is now fully operational. Flights and trains are running on schedule. All services like Immigration, Customs and baggage handling are now functional as before for both the domestic and international travellers. All major hotels, except for some local guesthouses and inns, are offering full service to their clients as before. The city has been cleaned up and fallen trees and all debris cleared. Electricity has also been restored to almost all households in the city and things are back to normal. The golden Shwedagon Pagoda still shines brightly as well as all other tour sites in and around Yangon. What is more interesting is that the cyclone did not affect the Myanmar beaches at Ngwe Saung, Chaung Tha and Ngapali despite the fact that they were near the storm's path.

Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake and other tourist sites are also not effected. Life continues as normal at these places.

The Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA) and Myanmar Marketing Committee (MMC) are deeply involved in the relief work for the cyclone victims. A joint taskforce "Tourism Volunteers for Nargis Victims Relief" has been formed to manage the relief efforts. As the first phase, cash donation to the amount of USD 10,000 was handed over by UMTA to the relief fund plus essential items like food, clothing and medicine were distributed directly to victims together with other items contributed by MMC. Up to date the relief work is still on-going with the forward operation team heading out to the worst affected villages on daily basis. UMTA has also formed 5 teams: forward operation team, fund raising team, info and P.R team, admin team and tourism recovery team to effectively and speedily despatch of necessary aid supplies to the affected areas. The forward operation team is stationed at 'Pyapon', one of the worst affected towns, and headed by Executive Committee members of both UMTA and MMC on rotation.

We would like to invite all of you to come and visit Myanmar at this time and see for your self how the people of Myanmar are valiantly coping with the disaster and also invite your help to rebuild our devastated regions with the tourist dollars contributed by you.

Thank You