There are things about Myanmar that make it truly different from any other place. That is it’s charm. But it is also the source of many headscratching moments. Here are a few that we found the most fascinating:

Half-hour time difference — Myanmar has a time zone all to itself. It is one of a handful of half-hour time zones around the world, and it is a half-hour behind the rest of SE Asia. When it is 11:00 in Bangkok, it is 10:30 in Yangon.

Driving on the right with the steering wheel on the right — Driving on the left in Burma was a vestige of British colonial rule (which ended in 1946) — In 1970, reportedly on the advice of his astrologer, General Ne Win declared the country would switch to driving on the right. Despite the change, Myanmar continued to import cars from Japan with the steering wheel on the right. The government finally got around to banning importation of right-hand drive vehicles in 2017, but grandfathered the existing ones. Most of the vehicles on the road today (including buses) have the steering wheel on the right but drive on the right hand side of the street.

Longyi — The longyi is an anklet-length cotton skirt worn by men and women – women wrap it with the tie on the side, men wrap it with the tie in front. The longyi is very practical and attractive and has patterns that can communicate one’s ethnic group – if the wearer cares to do so — much like Scotland where men also wear skirts with patterns that communicate one’s clan. Men wearing skirts is quite rare in the modern world, but Burmese men at all levels take pride in wearing theirs.

Written Burmese – The Burmese alphabet has 33 characters (vowels are expressed as marks on these characters) — many of them a variation of a circle or semi-circle. Words are written all together — only phrases are separated — making it even more difficult to distinguish the characters. Burmese is related to two Indian languages — Pali and Sanskrit.

Names — Unlike most other naming systems where some part of a child’s name shows his or her family relationship, Burmese names do not show the individual’s connection to a family. In fact, a Burmese child’s name may bear no relationship to names of either of his or her parents.

For the majority of families, the parents would not name their child – they would go to an astrologer with the child’s birth day and time of birth and the astrologer would choose a name. There is a naming convention based on the day of the week on the which the child was born (this day figures significantly in other aspects of life). A child born on Sunday would have a name starting with one of the first four letters of the alphabet. A child born on Monday would have a name starting with one of the second four letters of the alphabet. Once the name is chosen, the parents host a naming celebration.

A minority of parents choose a name for their child themselves — and may base it on crazy things. In any event, the name for that individual does not identify his or her family connection.

Capital moved to Nay Pyi Taw – (Royal City in the Sun) by the military government in 2005. Nay Pyi Taw is a modern city created to be the capital for its central location — it is midway up the Irrawaddy between Yangon and Mandalay. It is reported to feel like Brasilia or other similarly soulless expanses created to house government offices. The effect has been to isolate government workers. Embassies have refused to move and remain in Yangon.

Burmese Cuisine — Located between India, China, and Thailand — at some point, the Burmese must have decided not to try to compete with these exemplars of hot and spicy food. Myanmar restaurants offer relatively few variations on the theme of curry — and the term curry is applied to a thick sauce on meat, not a soupy sauce that can be soaked up by rice. The curry sauce is not spicy like India’s. In fact, there are few instances of spicy Myanmar food. That is not to say that the food is not tasty, but rather that it is, with some exceptions, unimaginative.