YANGON, Myanmar — At the Savoy Hotel in Yangon, Burmese writer and scholar Thant Myint-U told a group of journalists that, “It’s probably not incorrect to say that we are at the most important historical watershed for this country at least since 1962, perhaps since independence in 1948.”

At a conference hosted by GlobalPost and Open Hands Initiative, he noted that the nation would have to make difficult choices, and would have to undergo much more change in order to successfully acclimate to the 21st century.

BAGAN, Myanmar – The van, packed with our team of eight journalism colleagues, set out from the airport and rolled through lush green fields dotted with red-brick and white-washed Buddhist shrines and pagodas. An impressive silence descended on the vehicle as we took in literally thousands of the structures that dot one of the world’s most memorable, spiritual landscapes. To think that such grandeur and engineering was possible more than 1,000 years ago is quite humbling, to say the least.

YANGON, Myanmar — On the first morning we set out into Myanmar to discover how the country is changing, we went to one of the places in Yangon that for centuries has largely stayed the same: Shwedagon Pagoda.

The 368-foot gold structure predates the city itself and serves as an emblem of the country. It has existed in its present form for centuries, and archeologists believe that the pagoda houses more ancient structures within its gilded walls (Burmese Buddhists believe it also houses eight hairs plucked from Siddhartha Gautama’s head).

YANGON, Myanmar — In the shadows of the ancient Buddhist shrine at the Shwedagon Pagoda, they emerged out of the sweeping monsoon rains into the faded, colonial elegance of the Savoy Hotel.

Lugging hard cases loaded down with cameras and audio gear, shouldering backpacks stuffed with laptops, notebooks and umbrellas protruding at awkward angles, they did not look much different from so many other generations of journalists drawn to this place over the decades to document Myanmar’s dramatic and still unfolding history.