Hot Spot

Turning back the clock is part of the charm of Burma, a land where oxen still pull wooden-wheeled wagons past pagodas in a tableau unchanged for centuries. Even in Rangoon, a languid, musty capital of tree-lined boulevards, visitors find themselves in a city locked away from the world and seemingly set in time.

For a traveler with deep pockets, there can be no better way to surround yourself with history than a stay at Burma's best hotel, the Strand. The Sarkies brothers built it a century ago as one of their grand dames of Asia, which also include Raffles in Singapore and...