Burma, the new place to be

Burma... the name whispers promises of adventure, exploring a mystical land tinged with danger and which has been closed off to tourism for so long that many travelers see it as the final frontier of the Asian continent.
At least, that was the impression I gathered from my fellow explorers as we jostled impatiently along the cramped footpath outside the Burmese embassy, already fatigued by the early morning Bangkok heat.
Why Burma? "Because whenever I tell people I've been to every country in Asia, they say 'but what about Burma?' so I want to tick it off my list," one middle-aged American NASA astrologer tells me. He goes on to say he's already visited every continent in the world. "Even Antarctica?" I ask. "Yes, twice!" he replied proudly.
His experience of the most secretive country in Southeast Asia will be confined to a four-day packaged tour of Rangoon, while a pair of bronzed, golden-haired Europeans tell me they're heading straight to Mandalay, the home of English journalist and author George Orwell's literary classic, Burmese Days.
A harassed and exhausted Canadian, fresh off a flight earlier that morning, wants to know how she can get a transit visa to permit her to enter Rangoon airport for a two-hour stopover. We gather around to puzzle over the only two options offered by the kind but not particularly helpful Thais selling application forms - should she take a tourist visa or a business visa? Both are in excess of 1000 Baht - perhaps not a significant amount when translated into Western currency, but still a straightforward revenue source to the Burmese government.
"Whoever heard of paying for a transit visa - I'm not even leaving the airport!" she lamented when the officials finally told her she could use the tourist visa form and would be required to pay the express processing fee of 1285 Baht, approximately $42, - her flight was scheduled for the next morning.
By opening their country up for the tourism trade, Burma's rulers are fast-filling their coffers.

As a rough estimate, if every one of these several hundred tourists are granted equivalent visas each day, the Burmese government stands set to gain 200 applications @ 1000 Baht each = 200,000 Baht = approximately $6666AUD/US - and that's just for it's Bangkok branch.

By 9 am the line of hopeful adventurers straggled all the way down the street and a little shop on the corner was doing a roaring trade by offering visa application forms, photocopies and instant passport photos for a few Thai Baht. We discussed whether the shop was officially affiliated with the Burmese embassy, or if they were simply an enterprising start-up business, selling whatever was, and forgive me the pun, hot on the block that month.
And visas for Burma are certainly in high demand, if the hundreds of expectant travelers queuing in the oppressive early morning heat outside the uninviting concrete compound of the Burmese embassy are anything to go by.
Later on, in Bangkok's tourist mecca, the jostling, pumping Khao San road where travelers from all over Asia seem to congregate to share their stories, accounts of the magic of Inle Lakes and Mandalay are trumping over tales of tubing in Laos.
The next day I take my place in line all over again, this time in the late afternoon, amongst a few hundred other travelers restless with nervous anticipation, and am handed my passport with an official visa stamp - single entry access granted for 28 days of adventure exploring Southeast Asia's final frontier.