The Republic of the Union Myanmar is located between Thailand and Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal. The country occupies 261,789 square miles, making it slightly smaller than the state of Texas. Though the size is comparable to Texas the terrain could not be more different. The country is dominated by four major mountain ranges that are divided by three large fertile river valleys. The biggest of these is the Irrawaddy River valley. This river extends more than 2000 miles through the center of the country and is home to the majority of the population. The World Bank estimates that population 53.26 million. Myanmar is an ethnically diverse country with 135 different ethnic groups that have 110 distinct languages. This fact along with the hilly terrain has made unification efforts difficult. The ethnic Burmese who migrated from Tibet to the Irrawaddy River valley make up 69% of the populations. The smaller ethnic Indian groups are found in the east and ethnic Chinese are located predominately in the western hill regions.
As a personal reflection of this information I am looking forward to the food choice in Myanmar that are perhaps associated with a diverse population.