"Here there are almost no tourists," the 28-year-old Russian tourist said.

"We can go everywhere without any crowds, and see only locals around us. Here I can feel that I'm an explorer," Viadreslav said while resting with two friends in a shady corner of Yangon's spectacular golden Shwedagon Pagoda.

When tourists arrive here on flights from neighbouring Thailand, they set their watches back 30 minutes to adjust to Myanmar's unique time zone.

But many say they feel they have gone back 30 years, to a time before Asian cities were clogged with traffic and pollution, to a slow-paced town where men still wear traditional longyis instead of trousers, and women and children paint their faces white with sandalwood makeup.

Viadreslav said he and his friends knew little about the country, which used to be called Burma, before they arrived.

After 45 years of military rule, Myanmar is one of the world's poorest countries whose rulers have largely sealed it off from the outside world.

Motorcycles are banned here, leaving the roads to decades-old Nissan Sunny's that would have long ago landed in the scrapyards of Myanmar's better off neighbours.

Myanmar only began allowing tourists to visit in the last 20 years, and movement outside the main cities and temple sites are still restricted.