Visas do need to be arranged in advance. I ended up getting mine in Bangkok after jumping through some hoops. While you do not need to purchace $200 worth of Foreign Exchange Certificates upon arrival, I did get a few as change which I spent easily.

Bring plenty of cash, US Dollars, as there are no ATMs and from what I was told the best place to change travellers checks charged "only" 20 percent. I tried to change Pounds and when the money changer said to me, "Oh, could I see the notes? I have never seen pounds before" I knew the rate he was going to give me would be less then stellar. They don't want Baht either. Places to stay want dollars and most locals want Kyat. The black market exchange rate was about 1,300 Kyat (pronounced chat) to the dollar, depending on what town or moneychanger I went to. As I hadn't really planned to go to Myanmar, I ran out of cash. There is a travel agent with offices in Yangon & Bagan that take credit cards for flights, but charge 4 percent and it takes two days as they charge it from Vietnam. My fights from RGN to NYU (Bagan) was $74, the boat to Mandalay was $16, the flight from MDL to HEH (Inle Lake) was $32 and back to RGN $66 all through independent travel agents. They are able to offer discounts. Bear in mind that the airports for MDL and HEH are an hour taxi ride from "town", and the taxis will try to shake you down. In HEH I took local transport, got to sit on the roof of a truck with fruit, bamboo and flowers and had a great time with the locals.

I agree with the other posts. Bagan and a boat ride on Inle lake are the things to do. I could have easily given Mandalay a miss.

I thought I would be more likely to be mugged than see a tour bus, but that wasn't the case. Mostly because there were many tour buses (especially around Bagan) and the locals are so friendly it is unbelievable.