After I did a little research, I created this master list.

It contains about 20+ spas in Yangon and Mandalay. The link provided shows their offers.

If anyone would like to contribute to this Google spreadsheet. Please DM me; I can share this file directly to you so that you can add your comments and make further contributions.

Personally, I have never been to Myanmar because of the conflict. Now, it seems safer, and tourism has begun to boom. So I hope this master list can help you, and if anyone traveling to Myanmar, Please drop your trip report.

Love.

AsianExplorer.

As of the time of writing, Myanmar is under a military dictatorship, sex work and sodomy is illegal. The economy is not doing well unless we are talking about the illegal economy. Conscription has also freaked out a large part of the young population who got dismal prospects for the future. 

Please bear this context in mind if you do come to the country. Grindr remains the number one app for hookups in Rangoon. You will find visitors there, MBs (spa boys), and HF sellers HF = high fun, drugs. Please be wary of scams on the apps too.

The traditional apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook etc. don’t work without a VPN, and you need to change servers frequently. The most used apps are Viber and Telegram (the last one for historical and current connections with Russia). Telegram is not blocked. You will find that call and SMS are increasingly your go to means of communications in certain instances.

On X you will find a very large number of spas offering boys of varying kinds. Please note that they are geared towards the local market, and that they may not offer their services to foreigners. I don’t recommend them unless you have local connections. It would be better for you to use Grindr. Please bear in mind that once you start discussing things that might look like money, you change to a different app or switch to SMS (to avoid a grindr ban).

KANCHANABURI - Karen rebels have issued an ultimatum to Chinese nationals illegally operating scam centres and other illicit businesses - leave all areas under their control by the end of this month.

Thai authorities have, meanwhile, intensified the crackdown on the smuggling of fuel into Myanmar, as the gangs attempt to work around the ban on the supply of electricity, petrol and diesel from Thailand.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) released two statements on Sunday.

The second announcement said Chinese running illegal online gambling sites, casinos or restaurants and those trading illegally or operating other scams must leave Phayathonezu township in Kayin state by the end of February.

Anyone defying the warning would suffer the legal consequences.

The DKBA would also step up patrols and take other measures to prevent Chinese from entering areas under its control, Col Saw A Wan said.

The warning was released shortly after the DKBA issued a statement on Sunday informing its people it would take action to help them, after Thailand cut off the supply of electricity, petrol, diesel and internet signals to Phayathonezu and four other border locations in Myanmar on Wednesday.

The rebel group stressed the importance of creating trust with the Thai government in the hope Bangkok would reconnect the power and resume deliveries of fuel.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2957918/karen-rebels-give-chinese-gangsters-deadline-to-leave

 

Military-ruled Myanmar, already notorious for cracking down on free speech, has enacted a new cybersecurity law with wide-ranging controls on the flow of information, according to a text of the measure published Friday in state-run newspapers.

Existing restrictions on freedom of expression under the ruling military have generally involved charges under broadly defined national security laws concerning online content.

There have also been actions to block websites and apps at the network level, keeping end-users from accessing content the army doesn’t want them to see. Technology from China and Russia, the ruling military’s top allies, is used for monitoring and censorship purposes.

The new law, which came into effect on Wednesday, has extensive provisions mainly targeting means of communications and providers of services such as virtual private networks — VPNs — that can help evade network blockages. VPNs connect users to their desired sites through third-party computers, effectively masking from internet service providers and snooping governments what content they are accessing.

A Myanmar rebel group claims to have seized a major regional military headquarters in the city of Lashio near the border with China, in what would mark a historic and humiliating defeat for the country’s military junta.

In a Chinese-language statement published on its Facebook page yesterday, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) said that it had completely captured the military’s Northeastern Regional Command headquarters at 4 a.m. that morning, after 23 days of fighting. “The liberation of Lashio will mark a historic victory in our revolution,” the group declared.

The MNDAA also claimed to have established effective control over the city of Lashio, which lies 110 kilometers south of the Chinese border.

“Our army has won a decisive victory and is now clearing out the remaining enemy troops. The city is now declared completely liberated,” it added, urging the public to remain calm and comply with its administration of the city.

However, the situation remains fluid and conditions on the ground are hard to verify. The Irrawaddy, citing “sources close to resistance forces on the ground,” reported that the city of 170,000 is not yet under full MNDAA control and that clashes are still going on in parts of the city. Myanmar Now, citing local sources, reported that fighting was ongoing but that MNDAA troops “have already entered the city’s downtown core, and were seen approaching the airport [yesterday] afternoon.”

For what it’s worth, the military State Administration Council (SAC), the junta’s official name, denied that the Northeastern Regional Command had been overrun, with spokesperson Zaw Min Tun stating that its forces military were currently conducting clearance operations near the headquarters.

The MNDAA’s sensational announcement came a day after its ally, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), reported that it had established control over Mogok, a ruby-mining center around 230 kilometers west of Lashio.

The MNDAA and TNLA are members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which has been spearheading a multi-pronged offensive against junta positions across northern Shan State and parts of Mandalay Region. During its initial phase from October to January, the surprise offensive, known as Operation 1027 after the date of its commencement, saw the groups capture large swathes of territory in northern Shan State, including numerous towns and several important border crossings with China. The most significant of these was the MNDAA’s reconquest of the ethnic Chinese-dominated Kokang region, from which the military had expelled it in 2009.

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers in Thailand have to remit a part of their wages to their country’s ruling junta or risk losing their jobs under a new rule aimed at collecting foreign exchange and perpetuating army rule.

Myanmar’s economy has been in crisis since the military overthrew an elected government in early 2021, facing significant economic challenges as conflict, macroeconomic instability and dislocation constrained production. The kyat currency has plunged from about 1,350 to the dollar before the coup to about 4,500 to the dollar now, fueling inflation.

The junta, battling a growing insurgency and widespread opposition to its rule, has responded with various measures including cracking down on gold and rice traders to stop them putting up their prices and on the property sector to prevent people buying condominiums abroad. 

In another effort to boost foreign reserves, the junta announced late last year that Myanmar nationals living and working in Thailand were required to pay Myanmar income tax, and it also began pressuring migrant workers to send their salaries home.

Now it is seeking more. In a directive that came into effect on Aug. 1, the junta said that the estimated 250,000 migrant workers in Thailand under a labor scheme agreed by the two governments must pay a quarter of their salary, or at least 6,000 baht (US$170), through junta-owned banks and agencies, over the three months before they apply to renew paperwork allowing them to stay in Thailand.

Displaying a map of the area, he provided an overview of Myanmar’s geography and its strategic position between China, India, and Southeast Asia. Kevin traced Myanmar’s tumultuous journey from the colonial era to its current state, marked by internal strife and external interests. He detailed Myanmar’s colonial past, the Anglo-Burmese Wars, and the British East India Company’s role in shaping the country’s history.

Thai banks have become the main financial lifeline for Myanmar’s militarygovernment, enabling it to buy goods and equipment for its brutal campaign against pro-democracy resistance and ethnic minority groups. This revelation comes from a UN report released yesterday, June 26, by Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.

The report details how Myanmar’s military junta, formally known as the State Administration Council (SAC), has circumvented sanctions from the US, EU, and other states by switching to new financial and military suppliers. With Singapore firms pulling out, Thai companies have stepped in to fill the void, keeping the junta well-armed.

The report, titled Banking on the Death Trade: How Banks and Governments Enable the Military Junta in Myanmar, stated that over the past year, 16 banks in seven countries processed transactions for SAC military procurement, 25 banks have provided correspondent banking services to Myanmar’s state-owned banks since the coup.

Since seizing power in February 2021, Myanmar’s military has violently suppressed nonviolent protests, leading to a full-scale civil war. They face accusations of widespread human rights violations, including the bombing of civilians. Despite international efforts to isolate the junta, gaps in sanctions enforcement have allowed it to continue its reign of terror.

.

Geneva, Switzerland – Three years of military rule in Myanmar have inflicted unbearable cruelty, leaving people trapped in an unending nightmare as the conflict spreads, the UN human rights chief said Friday.

The junta is crushing all forms of dissent with total impunity, Volker Turk told the UN Human Rights Council, urging the United Nations’ top rights body and countries to focus on preventing further atrocities.

“The human rights situation in Myanmar has morphed into a never-ending nightmare, away from the spotlight of global politics,” Turk said.

“Armed conflict has escalated and spread to nearly every corner of the country. Three years of military rule have inflicted — and continue to inflict — unbearable levels of suffering and cruelty on people in Myanmar.”

He said the junta was cracking down on any opposition with “total abuse of power”, while development in the southeast Asian nation was now in freefall.

The junta came to power in the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected government, ending a 10-year experiment with democracy and plunging the country into bloody turmoil.

continues at

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/myanmar-now-a-never-ending-nightmare-un/

Myanmar’s junta is enforcing a law allowing the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve for at least two years, it said on Saturday, as it struggles to crush opposition to its 2021 coup.

The country has been in turmoil since the military seized power that year, with massive pro-democracy protests morphing into widespread armed resistance.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10th, 2024,” the junta’s information team said in a statement.

The law was authored by a previous junta in 2010 but was never brought into force.

Saturday’s statement did not give further details but said the junta’s defence ministry would “release necessary bylaws, procedures, announcements orders, notifications and instructions.”

Under the 2010 law, during a state of emergency the terms of service under military command can be extended up to five years and those ignoring summons to serve can be jailed for the same period.

A Myanmar rebel alliance group has gained control of a key town along the country’s volatile northern border with China after weeks of fierce fighting with junta troops, it said in a statement late on Friday.

The “Three Brotherhood Alliance”, as the group is known, said it took over Laukkai town after the military’s regional headquarters located there surrendered.

The fall of Laukkai is the latest victory in a sweeping offensive by an alliance of rebel groups that began in October and has become the most significant threat to Myanmar’s military government since it seized power in a 2021 coup.

“All Kokang (Laukkai) region has become a land with no Myanmar Military Council anymore,” the statement said.

A junta spokesman did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.

The alliance comprises three groups with extensive fighting experience – the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and the Arakan Army (AA).

They were accompanied by individuals from the loosely organised People’s Defence Force, supported by Myanmar’s parallel National Unity Government (NUG), suggesting that the rebellion is taking on an increased level of coordination and planning.

The capital of Myanmar’s restive Kokang region, Laukkai has a reputation as a gambling den and a hub for online scam operations. China, a key junta ally that also has close relations with some ethnic Chinese militias along the frontier, has grown increasingly frustrated in recent months by the Myanmar’s junta lack of action on closing down the scam centres.

by Reuters

By Barry Kenyon

The cash-strapped military government of Myanmar is demanding that its overseas workers remit part of their monthly wages, no matter how meager, to a junta-controlled bank prior to returning home or trying to obtain a new passport. Separately, foreigners of all nationalities residing within Myanmar for 183 days a year, or more, are expected to pay income tax on their worldwide income amounting in most cases to 25 percent.

Around 1.5 million Myanmar nationals work legally in Thailand on labor permits, mostly earning minimum monthly wages of 7,500 baht or US$200. They must now remit 2 percent or 150 baht to the junta government. The Myanmar embassy in Bangkok says that the payments should be made there or in approved banks before the workers try to return, lest they risk losing the right to travel abroad for three years and are refused mew passports.

Better paid, white-collar overseas workers must give up 10 percent of their wages, whilst the select few on salaries of US$14,200 a year are to be taxed at 25 percent. They are expected to pay their remittances regularly into Myanmar banks which are controlled by the military. Myanmar embassies in Singapore and South Korea have also made similar announcements. The Global New Light of Myanmar, a junta mouthpiece, has not commented widely on the income tax demands but claimed the sliding scale of remittances from 2 to 25 percent was fair.

As regards foreigners living permanent residents in Myanmar, there are believed to be around 2,000 in the country. They are mostly working for international organizations or businesses and include small numbers of Chinese, American and European expats. The demand that they pay taxes on their income or assets is not new, but is apparently now being enforced more strongly. Most will be subject to a rate of 25 percent payable annually or monthly to Myanmar banks. The government website says nothing about exceptions or double taxation issues.

The military government, led by senior general Min Aung Hlaing, is believed to be short of money after an incipient civil war which has already ceded swathes of rural territory and at least 30 towns to insurgent forces. China has recently brokered a deal between the junta and its domestic enemies in the areas close to the Chinese border, but there is no sign that the fighting has eased in other areas. Already over a million Myanmar nationals have been forced to flee the violence and many have ended up on the Thai border, particularly in the city of Mae Sot.

Almost three years on from its bloody coup, Myanmar’s military junta is facing the biggest threat to its hold on power as it fights wars on multiple fronts across the South Asian nation.

In recent weeks, powerful armed ethnic militias have joined with resistance forces to mount major new offensives with unprecedented coordination, exposing the limits of the deeply unpopular junta’s capabilities as it loses strategic border towns, key military positions and vital trade routes at a scale not seen in decades, according to experts.

“The junta is actively collapsing right now and that’s only become possible because there is this wider effort across the country,” said Matthew Arnold, an independent Myanmar analyst.

Calling it an “existential moment for the military,” Arnold said the resistance is “now focused on taking major towns to fundamentally defeat the junta.”

An offensive named Operation 1027, launched in late October by an alliance of three powerful ethnic rebel armies in the country’s northeast, has since catalyzed into a nationwide push to take control of towns and areas in Myanmar’s north, west and southeast.

Nearly 200 civilians have been killed and 335,000 people newly displaced by the fighting since October 27, according to the United Nations. Civil war between Myanmar’s myriad ethnic armies and successive military governments has raged for decades. But the latest escalation in fighting comes off the back of nationwide public resistance to army chief Min Aung Hlaing’s February 2021 coup, which sacked the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar’s military junta has used foreigners including Thais as human shields in northeastern Shan State, where fighting the junta and an ethnic alliance is escalating, according to The Irrawaddy online.

Instead of sending them back to their respective countries, the junta’s anti-human trafficking unit sent them to military camps, the online quoted a humanitarian worker as saying. Apart from Thais, other foreign nationals were those from Nepal, Ethiopia and Laos.

“The army is using them as forced labor to build bunkers, dig trenches, and carry timber. They are practically human shields.”

The foreigners are being held in front-line outposts in Laukkai town where their lives are at risk from fighting that could erupt at any time. They could possibly be caught in the crossfire, the Irrawaddy online reported.

The Brotherhood Alliance could launch attacks against Laukkai [any time]. And if they do get killed during rebel attacks, the junta will presumably attempt to frame the Brotherhood Alliance for targeting foreign civilians.

The Brotherhood Alliance, made up of the Arakan Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, has captured dozens of junta bases in and around the towns of Mong Ko and Chin Shwe Haw, northeastern Shan State, since launching its “Operation 1027” offensive a week ago.

Fears are now mounting that the fighting will spread to Laukkai, a border town sandwiched between Mong Ko and Chin Shwe Haw and controlled by the junta-allied Kokang Border Guard Force and militia.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2655306/myanmar-says-image-tarnished-by-chinese-thriller

From CNBC

By Jonathan Head

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s defense ministry and two banks used by the ruling military junta to buy arms and other goods from foreign sources.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the military has relied on foreign sources, including Russian entities under sanctions, to purchase and import arms, equipment and raw materials to manufacture weapons to support its “brutal repression”.

Washington accused the defense ministry of importing goods and materiel worth at least $1 billion since the 2021 coup in which the military leaders seized power.

State-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB), were also hit with sanctions. The Treasury said they allowed revenue-generating state-owned enterprises, including Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), access to international markets.

The banks receive and transmit foreign currencies for Myanmar’s government.

“

Burma’s military regime has leveraged state-run access to international markets to import weapons and materiel, including from sanctioned Russian entities, to continue its violence and oppression,” the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement.

The United States and other Western nations have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Myanmar’s military leaders since they seized power in a coup in 2021, overthrowing the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and killing thousands of opponents in a crackdown.

From Radio Free Asia / The Thaiger

From Thai PBS World

A total of 40 political parties in Myanmar have been dissolved for failing to re-register, which includes the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD), according to state-owned media.

Myawaddy News announced on Tuesday night, during their regular news program, that the Union Election Commission had set Tuesday as the deadline and, as such, parties which failed to register will no longer be recognised.

The National Unity Government (NUG), a parallel government that was formed during the fallout from the 2021 coup, had denounced the would-be election and so had the NLD.

Not only is the legitimacy of the election questioned, but so were the strict new laws that were implemented in January 2023.

The new rules will prevent parties and/or candidates, deemed to have links to individuals or organisations “designated as committing terror acts” or seen as “unlawful”, from running.

The parties that also want to contest the national election, scheduled to be held in August this year, will also need to have at least 100,000 members within three months of registration. They will also need at least 100 million Myanmar kyat deposited in the state-owned Myanmar Economic Bank.

The amount is 100 times more than what was required under the old law, enacted during 2010.

The parties must also have representative branches in at least half of all 330 townships across Myanmar within 6 months, while also having representatives to contest at least half of all constituencies.

Opposition to the military-run administration still rages, especially in rural areas and regions with a strong presence of the NUG’s PDF groups and ethnic armed forces.

Military chief Min Aung Hlaing announced that “decisive actions” will be taken against those “unlawful groups” at the recently held military parade that marks Myanmar’s armed forces day.

By Barry Kenyon

The Myanmar Tourist Board has confirmed that the majority of international tourists to the conflict-torn country are in fact Thai vacationers. The Board claims that around 15,000 tourists a month as an average land at Yangon international airport, the only entry point, although observers think the number is significantly inflated. According to the independent Mizzima news site, more than half are Thai nationals visiting cultural sites in Yangon or to attractions such as the Kyaikhiyoh historic pagoda. The estimate is supported by the fact that most daily international flights from and to Myanmar actually service Bangkok.

The Thai government still enjoys good relations with the coup leaders in Myanmar, particularly at senior army level, and there is even encouragement for Thai vacationers to book holidays there. Thai TV’s Channel 7, owned by the army, carries promotional material on behalf of the Myanmar hotel and tourist authorities. The military administration of senior general Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader, tries to promote the country in Thailand through virtual shows, group discounts, colorful videos and even dance troupes.

But Myanmar’s tourist ambitions beyond Thailand have fallen on stony ground. The senior general has warm relations with Russia and has praised Putin as the guy ensuring global stability. In return, the coup leader has been made an honorary professor at Moscow’s military university. But Russians enjoy beach venues for a vacation and there are none located near the single airport which can receive tourists. Myanmar’s relations with China have cooled, thanks largely to perceived Chinese plunder of the country’s natural resources, and western tour group companies, based in Australia and UK, have shown no interest in resuming their former links with such a troubled and violent destination.

Travel gurus say Myanmar’s documentary entry requirements remain cumbersome whilst parts of the country, outside tourist districts, are closed or under curfew. A 10 days notice of intention is required to visit some of the more remote temple districts. The real tragedies of Myanmar are the 200,000 Myanmar economic refugees, mostly women and children and 72 percent of whom are undocumented, who have fled to emergency Thai camps at the border to escape bombing and military conflict. The last thing on their minds is the attempted revival of Myanmar’s international tourist industry.

All passport applicants must now wait for the immigration department to reopen, after the government temporarily suspended operations at the passport office.

The announcement came from Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation, saying that a notice had been received of a temporary cessation of all new passport-related activities.

In recent weeks, the internal affairs and labour ministry decreed that only job-related passports were to be issued through a “Green Channel”, with the issuance of all other kinds of passport stopped since the end of December, 2022.

A special exception was, however, granted to agencies providing pilgrimage services to Bodh Gaya, but this was also stopped after complaints that some agencies were abusing the special rule.

Many netizens believe that this was to address the rampant corruption within the passport office, with officers making massive profits off agencies and individual applicants.

They also believe that the decision to block the issuance of any more new passports temporarily is to keep more people in the country for the upcoming elections, in which that the military-led government is seeking retain power.

There is yet to be any announcement as to when passport processing will resume.

From Thai PBS World / AFP

(AFP) – Ousted Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to another seven years in jail as her long series of trials ended on Friday, with the Nobel laureate now facing more than three decades behind bars.

A prisoner of the military since a coup last year, Suu Kyi, 77, has been convicted on every charge levelled against her ranging from corruption to illegally possessing walkie-talkies and flouting Covid restrictions.

On Friday she was jailed for seven years on five counts of corruption related to the hiring, maintaining and purchase of a helicopter for a government minister, a case in which she allegedly caused “a loss to the state”.

Suu Kyi — sentenced to a total of 33 years following 18 months of court proceedings that rights groups have dismissed as a sham — appeared in good health, a legal source familiar with the case told AFP.

“All her cases were finished and there are no more charges against her,” said the source, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Journalists have been barred from attending the hearings and Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been blocked from speaking to the media.

The road leading to the prison holding Suu Kyi in the military-built capital Naypyidaw was clear of traffic ahead of the verdict, said an AFP correspondent in the city.

Former Myanmar president Win Myint, who was co-accused with Suu Kyi in the latest trial, received the same sentence, the source said, adding that both would appeal.

YANGON: Myanmar's junta will allow tourists to apply for visas after a break of more than two years, state media said Thursday (May 12), sparking calls by an activist group for foreign travellers to stay away.

The country closed its borders to visitors in March 2020 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to prevent infections rising.

It was further isolated after the army toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, prompting huge protests and a bloody military crackdown on dissent.

"With an aim to develop the tourism sector ... e-Visa (Tourist) applications will be allowed and accepted from May 15, 2022," said a notice in the Global New Light of Myanmar.

It did not give details on when the first visitors could be expected to arrive.

Activist groups warn that the military's vested interests in swathes of the economy - including mines, banks, petroleum, agriculture and tourism - mean tourist dollars will likely end up in the junta's coffers.

"Even if foreign visitors avoid hotels and transport owned by the Myanmar military and their associates, they will still fund the junta through visa fees, insurance and tax," said activist group Justice for Myanmar.

"We call on anyone considering a holiday in Myanmar to boycott."