Monthly Archives: November 2008

One of the most revered temples in Bagan, its recently restored dome sparkled against the deep blue sky. Too bad the bottom half was obscured for further restoration work.

We finally closed out day six of our jam-packed adventure on a private boat. We cruised lazily upstream for a few miles, and floated back with the engine off as the sun set. Beautiful.

It’s hard to believe we did all of these things in just one day. We’re STILL on day 6 of the trip.

We visited another Buddha in a cramped temple at the Manu Ha compound, where the closed-in feeling of the place evokes the stress of captivity at the hand of a brutal Burmese king. Later, we paid a visit to the U Ba Nyein Lacquerware Workshop. I never paid much attention to lacquerware before, but now that I know how it is made, I have a much greater respect for it. The finest pieces can take two years to make – drying and applying the lacquer layer after layer – up to 24 deep.

We shot some videos of a bit of the manufacturing process.

Also, if you’d like to see more Burma images, check out my Picasa web album. It contains some images that didn’t quite make the cut on thedude.com, and it’s Cooliris enabled. (Cooliris is a MUST-HAVE plugin.) Also, if you are using the Google Screensaver, you can subscribe to my Burma album’s RSS feed here. If you do, you will automatically see my images on your screen as I update them. How cool is that?!

When we left off, we were floating peacefully above the Bagan plain watching the first of the two balloons land as planned in a field below us. We were too high to land, so our pilot, Ian, sized up the situation and decided to shoot for a sandy spot on an island in the middle of the Irawaddy River. This meant that we’d get a longer balloon ride, and that instead of taking a bus back to the launch area, we’d first have to take a boat. What fun! This unplanned adventure was just fine with us. The champagne tasted all that much better on the sandy beach as we toasted our crew and headed back with our new friends by boat.

At sunrise on our sixth day in Burma, (That’s right – we’re only half way through our amazing trip, folks.) we boarded a hot-air balloon and got a different view of the temples in the Bagan area. Our guide explains that it’s well known when the 1,500+ temples were built, but that it’s not clear exactly why they were built in this spot. What a sight!

Kelly completely overcame her fear of heights and thoroughly enjoyed the balloon ride. Her only wish is that the flight had gone on longer. In my next post, I’ll show why the unplanned can turn out to be the most memorable part of any trip.

We raced to the ruins by horse cart, but arrived at the best viewpoint two minutes after the light had faded. I immediately made plans to return under better lighting conditions, and continued snapping anyway. There’s plenty to shoot. If nothing else, there are always children. There are more adorable children in Burma than there are pagodas. Of course, they all have something to sell, and we bought whatever we could carry. The money we spent went directly into the hands of the Burmese people who need it most, and most of what we bought will go directly into your Christmas stockings. :)

Disclaimer: When you see a shot like the one below, you probably imagine your hard-working photographer came across the old woman after trekking for hours through dense jungle to some remote village never before seen by a westerner. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but these days, smiling children and cigar-smoking women can be found anywhere a hapless tourist might be in Burma. They’ll happily pose for you and wait patiently for a tip. I bought this pose for 1,000 Kyat – about a buck.

We spent just one night at Mount Popa. We both wish we had stayed longer, but we were not disappointed with our next stop – the lovely Bagan Thiripytsaya Sakura Hotel. Our room at the hotel has great views of the Irrawaddy River – Myanmar’s mightiest. There is also a huge inviting pool, and a very attentive staff. We’re glad that we have three nights here.

We got to our room just in time to hear John McCain’s concession speech. From this moment on, if we so much as mention the name of our new president-elect and we are showered with applause and smiles. This works everywhere we go in Burma. I call it the “Obama Effect”. It’s been a while since it felt this good to be an American overseas. Life is good.

We wound up later than day at in a spectacular bungalow at the Popa Mountain Resort. The resort is perched on the side of the mountain overlooking Popa Taungkalat – a 2,400 foot tall volcanic plug with a Buddhist monastery on top. We decided against climbing the 777 steps to the top, and instead got a massage.

I must have shot this scene 80 times, each time thinking the light would not get any better. Well, it did get better and better all afternoon, but the best light finally came early the next morning. (Thanks Steve and Grant! Without your lens and tripod, I could not have gotten this shot – one of my favorite from the trip!)

We said farewell to the Governor’s Residence and took a short flight on Yangon Airways to the Bagan airport, where we were greeted once again by smiling faces.

(On a related note, I just saw this story on FriskoDude’s blog. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our travel planner William for booking us on the only airline in Myanmar still able to obtain spare parts!)

On the long drive to Mt. Popa, we stopped at a local farm where Kelly took a turn making peanut oil the old fashioned way. We also saw how the male coconut trees were tapped for their flow of sweet toddy, which when reduced, yields a super-sweet brown sugar. Some of this sugar is eaten in this form with coffee or tea.

The rest is fermented in large vessels and distilled into a potent liquor which tastes a bit like tequila to me. This shot shows the last step in making double-distilled version of this liquor – bottling. The gentleman used the lighter the to show us that this stuff burns like jet fuel. Naturally, I brought a bottle home.

Also known these days as Bogyoke Aung San Market, the bustling market in the heart of Yangon offers something for every kind of nut.