PING LONG - Myanmar Travel and Tour Agent Information

A YANGON company last week celebrated the launch of a weekly passenger boat service to islands in the Myeik Archipelago.

Khin maung Kyi and Associates Trading Company launched the service on January 23 using the Chindwin, a five-deck cruise boat which can accommodate 440 passengers.

The Chindwin would call at Myeik and also visit some of the hundreds of islands in the archipelago, including Co Co Island, about 260 miles southwest of Yangon, which was once used by the British colonial authorities as a penal colony. A round trip to Co Co Island would take four days.

Passengers on the Chindwin would have a choice of restaurants serving either Myanmar, Chinese or European cuisine.

King Maung Kyi and Associates has operated two-hour evening cruises on the Yangon and Hlaing rivers since 1996. The cruises, operated on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays between October and April. The company was also considering the introduction of a cruise boat service to destinations in Rakhine State.

ORGANIZERS have welcomed an increase in the number of foreign tourists at the fourth annual Naga festival held in the picturesque mountain country of northern Sagaing Division earlier this month.

The festival was held this year at Layshe, about 480 kilometres northwest of Sagaing, from January 12 to 16.

A feature of the festival is a series of spectacular dance performances by hundreds of chanting Naga tribesmen wearing traditional clothing and head-dresses made of hornbill feathers.

There were 178 foreign and 40 Myanmar tourists at the festival, said Phoenix Travel and Tours Company, which has organized the event for the past three years.

To reach the site for this year, visitors traveled by plane from Mandalay to Homalin, where they boarded boats for a journey up the Chindwin River to Htamanthi.

At Htamanthi they transferred to trucks for a six-hour journey along winding mountain roads to Layshe.

The visitors are accommodated in temporary bamboo huts built in the traditional style. All meals provided free of charge.

THE first music concert to raise funds for sustainable development and tourism in the southern part of Myanmar will be held at Yangon's Mya Yeik Nyo Hotel on January 31.

The main purpose of the concert is to provide necessary infrastructure to benefit the residents of Salone villages, the ethnic group also known as Sea Gypsies.

Twenty well-known vocalists and music groups - including Ringo, Graham, R.Zarni, Phyo Gyi, Htoo-L-Linn, Htun Eindra Bo and Tin Zar Maw - will perform.

The development of tourism also helps raise the living standards of local people by offering more job opportunities.

The four-day Salone Traditional Festival begins on February 14 at Ma-kyone-galet village on Bo Cho Island, one of about 500 islands that comprise the Myeik Archipelago.