I was fortunate to travel to Myanmar in January 2017 on a travel photography tour with Nathan Horton of Nathan Horton Photography Tours.  This tour was titled "Tribes and Trekking" and included several days on which our group of dedicated photographers hiked to visit some of the hilltribe minority people of Myanmar.  On hiking days we were thrilled to encounter very few other travellers (actually i think we saw 3 other westerners on the busiest hiking day!).  We were told that some of the villagers on the first hiking day had never travelled to the nearest big town - Kyaing Teng.  

We also visited some of the more well-known areas, but Myanmar is certainly not yet overrun with tourists.   Bagan, Inle Lake, Mandalay and Yangon are probably the most often visited areas, and were certainly all fascinating in their own ways.  Lovely scenery, rice fields and agriculture, bustling markets and street scenes made compelling viewing, and  the portrait opportunities were a highlight.

The country is predominantly Buddhist, with many beautiful temples, pagodas, monasteries and stupas - fabulous photo opportunities abounded.  With the emphasis on photography,  we had many early mornings to capture the best lighting and to gain good vantage points to shoot from.

Myanmar has only opened up to tourism quite recently, and much of the infrastructure is under development, but we found the people to be warm and friendly.  If you have a desire to visit this remarkable country, I urge you to go sooner rather than later!