As I dragged my luggage through the long terminal of the ridiculously hot and humid Yangon airport a few days ago, I thought back to my previous visit to Myanmar, in November last year. We touched down in Air Force One and I sat in the cramped jump seat of US President Barack Obama’s limousine as we made our way into town. In the months since I left government service, my standing and style of travel have, shall we say, changed somewhat. Still, I was looking forward to seeing for myself the remarkable changes inside Asia’s newest baby tiger.

The first surprise was the presence of mobile phones. Myanmar has long been considered a land of the disconnected in a networked world. But a nationwide telecommunications tender is under way and there is sporadic coverage in the bigger cities. My young customs official was momentarily distracted from my passport by her ringtone, a sudden blurt of Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s pop hit, “Call Me Maybe”. Progress can cut both ways.

Yangon in 2013 is a mixture of many places – Shanghai in 1980, Saigon in 1987, Moscow in 1990 and Gold Rush California in 1849.