On my bucket list:
I thought we were going to wait until the government took a stance against the continuing mass murders of Rohingya Muslims? I guess they realized that saint Aung San Suu Kyi wasn't going to back down from her position of tacit approval of steady genocide or maybe Coca Cola pushed enough money under the noses of those who were making the call. I'm sure the people are lovely and it has great beaches and wide open markets.
I would argue that normalization will always be objectionable and unfortunate to some, but it also hastens the process by which the rest of the country is brought into the daylight. Most Americans, assuming they've heard of Myanmar and Burma, don't know that they're the same country. A tiny percentage of those might wonder whether Crab Rangoon is actually Burmese. Ethnic genocide is the sort of thing where they need awareness before they can care, and unfreezing trade is, I hope, a start towards that process.
Just sayin... This was the party line for the last few years. The chamber of commerce has also been sending in advance teams with executives from Coca Cola and a few other big American firms for over a year now. There is some conflict in our Myanmar policy and it looks like we are heading in the direction of opening markets before human rights. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it didn't work out great with Pinochet. Aung San Suu Kyi deserves the Nobel about as much as Obama does, that is she might deserve a chip off it but when you look at the whole picture it's more about the media and aspirations than acts and facts.
Hell yeah, it's the country I most regret not having the time to visit during my SE Asian trip. Everybody I know that went said it's amazing. Also, it's in this phase where everybody is repeating the same "you got to go now because it's gonna be too touristy in a couple years" speech... I don't really get this disdain against everything touristy: we're tourists. And a couple years back when my friend went, there were absolutely no ATMs anywhere. Now they are in every little town. How is that not a positive thing?
I have a personal interest in Myanmar that goes back a while now, and this is such fantastic news. The major political transition has been pretty damn peaceful, and, while the govt has been friendly towards China, I know many people in the country would much rather pivot towards relations with the US and the rest of the western world. They still have many hurdles to overcome, but things are slowly looking brighter for the the people and the new democratic government of Myanmar. I would say just go now before the tourism industry really digs in, but, after the recent earthquake, and considering the shoddy reconstruction of many of the temples, I'd give it a little while. However, cannot recommend a general trip to Myanmar highly enough for many other reasons :)