Central Hotel

A faded old-timer that over the years has become a Yangon institution. It's used as a meeting point, a hotel, a restaurant, a black market bank, a bar and, maybe most importantly, an informal news centre where all that occurs in Myanmar is discussed and dissected.

With its whispered conversations and surreptitious glances, there is no place in which you are more likely to hear these immortal words -'Bond, James Bond'- uttered than in the lobby of this hotel. Day and night, locals and tourists alike dash in and out for secret rendezvous and intrigue just hangs the air. But away from the 007 fantasies the plain and sterile upstairs rooms contain no surprises - at least not of the Bond girl waiting in the bed or the bad guy waiting in the cupboard variety. To make up for this shortfall the managers have kept things nice and old fashioned with plenty of additional kitsch!