Visiting Myanmar, which feels like taking a step back in time to a forgotten place filled with red-robed monks and bicycle rickshaws, has just gotten a little more competitive.

Now that the country, formally known as Burma, is gradually opening its doors to visitors, the outside world is rushing in at breakneck speed, and Myanmar is having a tough time maintaining sufficient infrastructure for the influx. The more than 800,000 people who visited in 2011 represent a 30 percent jump in just one year, though this number is still significantly smaller than the 19 million that chose Thailand, the Associated Press reports.

Fortunately for those who’d like to visit before it’s taken over by McDonald’s and Starbucks but don’t want to worry about finding a hotel room, we at Embark are planning trips there starting in 2013.

The AP reports:

New laws are being drafted to make it easier and tax-friendly for foreign hotel chains and others to do business in Myanmar. Auctions are under way for dozens of colonial buildings that some developers want to restore as boutique hotels and others want to tear down. Tourism authorities say the country needs more restaurants that cater to international tastes, more car rental agencies, more airplanes to shuttle tourists to the sacred temples in Bagan, more English-speaking tour guides, more everything.

Tourism has risen starkly since Suu Kyi, who is now running for a seat in parliament, was released in late 2010. To avoid becoming an urban jungle overflowing with backpackers and sex tourism, the country is considering a limited, higher-end tourism market like Bhutan.

“We want to handle Myanmar with care,” said Su Su Tin, who runs a travel agency and is an executive member of a consortium of more than 100 hotels, airlines and tour operators. “It’s a fragile thing.”