For a brief moment, Myanmar was open, a rare pause in the cycle of conflict, a chance to step into a country that had spent decades hidden from the world.

They say Myanmar was once Southeast Asia’s richest nation. Today, it feels like a place history abandoned. Grand colonial buildings, once symbols of power, now stand in slow collapse, facades crumbling, balconies rusting, vines reclaiming walls that once held influence. The streets whisper of a country that was, and a country that still could be, if history had played out differently.

Yet, even as time chips away at its past, Myanmar refuses to fade. Golden stupas still shine through the dust. Markets hum with life. The people, unshaken by the weight of history, move forward, not with urgency, but with quiet persistence. Myanmar may have been forgotten by the world, but it refuses to disappear.