Myanmar (also known as Burma) has only recently opened up for tourism. For a couple of years now it is gaining on popularity and attracts tourists from different parts of the world. Regulations concerning visa processing as well as prices and tourism infrastructure changes quite rapidly here. But if you dream about Myanmar undiscovered (which still exists), you will mostly appreciate information about the parts of the country still closed to foreigners. You should not get discouraged right in the beginning, while planning the the trip. The best is to verify all the information you have after arrival, with local people, as they know the best what the situation is in each region. It’s always better to ask more people and a good idea is to contact other travelers who have already been to places you wish to explore. Apparently there are a lot of places which are not easy to access and you won’t make it there without a local guide or extra payment. Our experience shows that it all depends. Please do not understand us wrong – we do not advise to disregard warnings or do anything illegal. What we want to say is that it’s worth to double check and verify each information you find. It took us some time and efforts to actually understand how things run in Kayah State but then we managed to visit some allegedly inaccessible places, at least for people without some particular permissions, that we heard and read a lot about. We can only say that what we experienced there will always remain one of the most interesting adventures in our lives 🙂 Obviously if you do not have to worry about a very limited budget, then it’s always safer to actually take a guide or at least a driver. We reached two out of three visited places hitchhiking. For the third one we needed a driver as we started running out of time. Before we accepted his offer we asked him a lot of questions and made sure that he understands our expectations, so that we don’t end up in a touristic place. It turned out to be a good approach.