Madame Yin Myo Su, or the Hand of Fate...

What an epic story for the Lady of the Lake! Born in 1972 on the shores of the great and magnificent Inle lake in the Shan state, she was barely four years old when her father opened a countryside Inle Inn to welcome remote and rare western tourists. For lack of activities in the area, her family tought the little girl to entertain the guests with traditional dancing at night and that was the trigger for the little girl to gain confidence and discover the outer world through the innocent questions a child may ask to foreign guests. A first lesson in human relationships which she never forgot and may have saved her years later, when she participated in the students' rebellion in 1988. Her father was arrested and imprisoned and her family decided to exfiltrate her abroad, thanks to the help of French protectors who had never forgotten their stay in her father’s guest house years before...

At 18, without knowing a word of French, she finds refuge in a small but respected hospitality school in the French province, one hour away from Reims, the world-famous city for Campaign. Three years of hard labour and training from which Myo Suu now says: "it taught me discipline, the love for the job done to perfection, the cultural openness and the special sense of terroir in Reims, that creates the link between family, culture, craftmanship and the environment: in fact, a bypass to rediscover my own roots and many ideas".

In 1996, with the slow evolution of Myanmar, Su decided to return to Myanmar to launch the Inle Princess resort, made up of 46 refined traditional chalets, which she's running as Managing director with the help of her family and the villagers ("my extended family"). Ever since, her success and achievements never ceased, notwithstanding the setbacks and difficulties ("an opportunity for challenge and a ladder for the next step to take" she says..): in 2007 she launched Mrauk Oo resort, in the utterly desinherited state of Rakhine which she maintains in spite of foreign visitors'scarcity. She's an adept of the "triple WIN" concept, where she claims that success is not measured by a two parties number of positive transactions but inclusive of the third parties who contribute to the overall success: wealth of know-how, culture, relationships of the surrounding community and nature...a philosophy inspired from her grand-parents teachings about the "middle-path". Most benefits go the support of a Vocational school of hospitality and the Heritage Foundation which is supporting "visible and invisible richness" of local traditions: re-introduction of the Burmese cat, bio-farming, Bamboo school for primary education promoting creative and critical mind. So much more to say that cannot be accounted for unless writing a book. Su has won many awards, among which the 2013 Goldman Sachs and Fortune Women leaders award and the French recognition 2016 Chevalier de l'ordre national du mérite. Born from the Inthar tribe, modestly raised in a context of civil and harsh upheavals, sent on exile, taking up the risk of returning, Su never forgot her childhood eyes, her curiosity for foreign cultures as well as her own, her soul in believing that "if you rely on yourself, have compassion, use your positive energy, then you will learn so you can never loose". Su likes to receive more than simple holidaymakers, rather she would define her ideal guests as responsible "holiday stakeholders"...