Up until my last day in Myanmar, I did not see one western restaurant. No Starbucks, no McDonalds, no Pizza Hut etc… On my last day in Myanmar, I was scouring Yangon's airport for wifi, when I stumbled upon a KFC… There he was, Colonel Sanders in his majestic white hair, staring me down... Almost 1 week in a foreign country without a blatant reminder of western consumerism (with the exception of all the snapback and fitted hats of course).
Here is a list of things in Myanmar that I have seen more of, than Western Restaurants (excluding the KFC):
Monks
Temples
Men in Skirts
Stray Dogs
Stray Cats
People traveling for longer than a year
Burmese pizza parlors
A Stock Exchange
Temples/Pagodas
People with things painted on their face
Friend requests from locals
Kids dancing and singing to Ed Sheeran
Classmates from The College of New Jersey
As a traveler, it is nice to have a safety net of familiarity, especially when you've had just a little to much of the local cuisine... However, accepting these restaurants could be a slippery slope for any country, as it ultimately leads to the dilution of its own heritage and cuisine...