The BBC's Kate McGeown recently returned from a reporting trip to Burma. Here she answers some of the questions sent in by BBC News website users.
What tips or advice would you offer to the potential tourist?
Dan, Chiang Mai, Thailand
When you're there it's impossible not to give at least some money to the government, but you can minimise this amount by staying in local hotels - the Lonely Planet gives some ideas, and locals will often tell you as well.
It's also best to eat in local restaurants and buy from smaller family-run tourist shops.
As a rule, going on a package tour gives far more money to the government than travelling individually, but there are always exceptions. Check before you book.
When you're there, it's important not to put people at risk. Locals are really friendly, but many are afraid to talk about politics.
Don't ask them about Aung San Suu Kyi when you've just met them - talk about other things first, and then if they initiate the subject, which many often will, you might well get to have an interesting conversation.
How do the local citizens, in and out of Rangoon, receive international news? Do they have bloggers?
Rene Peritz, Bainbridge Island, USA
The media inside the country is heavily censored, and to get a less biased opinion, many people get their international news from foreign radio stations.
The BBC Burmese Service, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia all broadcast into the country, as does the opposition-run station Democratic Voice of Burma.
In the main cities, several internet cafes have sprung up in recent years, although internet access is somewhat erratic.
Several websites are banned, such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo, and while it is sometimes possible to see foreign news sites, I heard rumours that government agents take regular screen-grabs to monitor what people are looking at.
I'm afraid I don't know of the existence of any bloggers, although something tells me that, given the tenacity of the Burmese people, there must be some out there. If you're a Burmese blogger and you're reading this, please let us know!!
Why do you insist on "Burma" and "Rangoon" rather than Myanmar and Yangon? Is this head office recalcitrance or just bloody-mindedness?
Andrew Milner, Yokohama
Names can be a difficult and often controversial field for an international website. We continue to use Burma and Rangoon because they are the names we believe a large majority of our readers - who are mainly based in the UK and US - are familiar with.
We are always reluctant to start introducing place names that people may find confusing since we are trying to provide news that is clear and easy to understand.
Whether people agree with our decision or not, it is based on practical considerations rather than political ones.
Neither is it easy for us to switch to "Burma, also known as Myanmar" or some similar approach.
Our stories go out in lots of different forms - headline, summary, first four paragraphs, full story - all depending on whether they are going to mobile phones/BBC World TV/Ceefax/the web - and there is no room to write "Burma, also known as Myanmar" in a headline or summary.
Your description of Burma sounds somewhat like North Korea. How would you compare the situation there to other countries you have (or have not) visited?
Alan Sillitoe, Issy les Moulineaux
I've never visited North Korea, but while I was in Burma I heard many people compare the two countries.
Both are repressive regimes which tightly control what their people are allowed to do and see, and both have rulers that issue somewhat bizarre decrees.
But Burma is nowhere near as bad as North Korea, in several ways. As far as we know, few people have actively starved in Burma in recent years, although there are reports that some people, especially children, are malnourished.
The Burmese rulers are also far less successful at stopping their citizens having contact with the outside world - despite all the secret police, phone tapping and paranoia.
In some ways, Burma reminded me of some of the communist countries I have visited, like Russia, Cuba and Vietnam.
Did you get any impression during your time in Burma that the people have reached a breaking point and might consider revolting as they did in 1988?
David Bernstein
This is an interesting question, and one that is difficult to give a definite answer to.
In one sense, people have been living under this regime for so long that they're resigned to it. One man I met told me that most of his friends were just too tired from trying to survive day-to-day to have the energy to protest.
But there is a latent anger in Burma, and with poverty increasing and international pressure slowly mounting, it's an anger that is growing all the time.
Many are hoping for international intervention - I was regularly asked why America had chosen to topple the regime in Iraq rather than Burma.
But I think that if it is left to the Burmese people, they will avoid violence if at all possible. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD are taking the patient, peaceful approach, in the hope that one day their persistence will pay off without too many lives being lost.
I am just wondering what the local people think of the government's decisions that are made based on superstition/fortune-telling (planting nut trees, moving the capital, etc).
Mel O'Brien, Nottingham, UK
Fortune-telling is definitely a way of life in Burma, and people take it very seriously. As soon as a new baby is born, a family member will rush out and get an astrological chart compiled.
Many Burmese believe in astrology and animist spirits (nats)
But while people might believe in superstition, they are often unhappy about the way the government uses it to its own advantage.
While people think Than Shwe's charts may well have influenced the move to the new capital, they also point out that what's good for Than Shwe may not be good for them.
They can also see through some of the government's declarations on astrology. The authorities said that one of the reasons nut trees needed to be planted was because they were astrologically powerful.
But locals point out that there may be a more specific reason. The word for the trees translates as Monday-Tuesday, the opposite of Suu Kyi ( Tuesday-Monday), so many people think that officials are somehow trying to cancel out the opposition leader's power.
The military junta in Burma must and will go. My concern is - then what? Does the NLD have a workable economic plan to keep the various ethnic/geographic groups together, focused on national unity?
Edward Robinson, Sydney
The NLD is pushing for dialogue and reconciliation, and the release of its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
It is well-respected throughout the country, but critics say that the party has few policies for government on a national level.
As you say, Burma has many ethnic groups, all of whom are battling for their own individual rights.
The one thing they all agree on is that they are willing to unite under Aung San Suu Kyi.
But other than that, there are likely to be many differences that need to be worked through, and in reality it's unlikely that the removal of the military regime will lead to the immediate utopia that many Burmese people are hoping for.
Read complete Kate McGeown's six series of her Burma's trip...