Yangoon, Myanmar -- Editor's note: Myanmar -- also known as Burma -- was recently devasted by a massive cyclone. This 2002 story by Miami Herald Travel Editor Jane Wooldridge offers a glimpse into this isolated country.

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YANGON, Myanmar - The broom ladies appear at dusk, dozens of women in long dark skirts sweeping the dusty day from the cool stone terrace. The last orange glints of sun sparkle against the mountainous gold-leaf dome of Shwedagon, Yangon's vast temple. The terrace takes on a greenish hue, overflow from the fluorescent bulbs now lighting literally thousands of Buddha statues standing sentry about the platform. Incense, tart and sweet, drifts past. Beneath a pavilion, a half-dozen monks swathed in cotton the color of koi chant before a swirling image of a Buddha surrounded by flashing lights and another, on a video screen.

A gong tones. A bald-shaven teenager in monk's orange approaches, firmly shakes hands.

"Hello. Where are you from?" 'America' brings a wide grin. Here, at least, it's not a dirty word. Here, China plays the heavy.

'Here' is the land known by British Colonials as Burma, a flame-shaped wedge of Southeast Asia that is touched by Thailand, India, Bangladesh, China and Laos. Slightly smaller than Texas, it lays claim to 21/2 times the population - about 50 million. Since 1988, when a military junta took control, the country has been called Myanmar, though the U.S. - which bans investment there by U.S. citizens - still calls it Burma.

Among rights activists, taking a holiday in Myanmar / Burma is generally considered sleeping with the enemy. Visit the country, they argue, and you contribute financially to a repressive junta that has ignored election results and silenced opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. WHY GO? Why, you might ask, would someone even want to visit a poor, overpopulated country with limited facilities and a government philosophically aligned with Attila the Hun? But adventure is as personal as the novels you sneak when no one from work can see you. For some, adventure means some physical challenge; for others, it's a chance to let go of caution and let happen what may. For me, it's dipping a toe into the relative purity of cultures not yet devoured by an insane pace, stock market fever and Survivor. And places where Buddhism dominates hold special appeal for me. Myanmar - largely secluded from the West for much of the Old Century - surely fits the bill. But visiting felt treacherous, like going to South Africa during the apartheid years or taking a holiday in a posh Havana hotel when so many of my neighbors' lives have been ripped apart by the Castro regime.

Recently, though, things seemed to be looking up. In October 2000, the junta began closed-door reconciliation talks with Aung San, who remains under house arrest. Two dozen offices of Aung San's National League for Democracy, closed in the mid-1990s, have reopened. Some believe a recent shakeup within the junta indicates the government is serious about eliminating corruption. And while it is illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba without permission from the U.S. government, Myanmar is fair game for Americans.

Final absolution came from Lonely Planet founder and independent travel guru Tony Wheeler, roundly criticized for publishing a guide to Myanmar. Last January, he and his wife returned to Myanmar to decide for themselves if tourist dollars were going to local people or simply propping up the government. His findings: that local people were better off now than in the late '80s, that contact with outsiders was important to them, that locals often talked openly about the government, that even supporters of Suu Kyi see tourism as a protection against the military. And yes, that much of the money spent goes directly to their pockets.

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