“We want to make sure that everyone who wants to take a meditation course is able to do so whenever they have the time. We don’t want them to miss their chance just because a meditation centre is too full,”

UP to half the fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Myanmar are spoiled or wasted before they reach the consumer, says a South Korean expert in post-harvest technology.

THE recent discovery in Bangladesh of the world’s biggest population of vulnerable Irrawaddy dolphins is good news for their 75 or so cousins dwelling in the Ayeyarwady River north of Mandalay, said a spokesperson from the Myanmar office of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

IT’S back to the soil for the next generation of nation’s agricultural experts as Yezin Agricultural University has decided to send third- and fourth-year students to work on the farm.

AIMING to boost tourism in Southeast Asia, each ASEAN member country is forming two new tourism boards to raise the standards of training programs in the travel industry, said U Hpone Thant, the secretary of the Union of Myanmar Travel Association.

“We are planning to carry out a marine resources survey in cooperation with the Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Centre (SEAFDEC) so we can determine the current situation off the Rakhine coastline,”

“We got lost while we were trying to get around Yangon at first,” Ms Kean said. “We asked some local people for directions but they didn’t understand us. So we walked in a big circle and ended up back at our hotel where we started.”

SHWEDAGON Pagoda’s board of trustees has invited well-wishers to donate images of the Buddha for households devastated by cyclone Nargis, an official from the board said.

“As soon as they were freed, the ship’s second officer, Ko Tin Oo Maung, telephoned me to say they were heading for Kenya to do some repair work on the ship and conduct medical checkups for the sailors,”

“My employer would turn on the television every morning to check the latest stock market report even before breakfast. He is often angry and tells me he might send me home even before my contract ends,”

A LOCAL organisation called Wainayyathukha Yaichansin donated bottled drinking water valued at K4.5 million to the pilgrims who visited Shwedagon Pagoda on October 14, the full moon day of Thadingyut.

“Myanmar is rich in natural resources, particularly plant life, and many local residents plant orchids in their homes. We think tourists and orchid fans will be very interested in the range and variety of our flora. Another aim of the festival is to protect the rare species of Myanmar orchids,”

“The travel writers from the previous two trips were satisfied with our program. After visiting, they realised that cyclone Nargis didn’t hit the main tourist destinations like Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake, and even the beaches were virtually untouched,”