On the morning of our ninth day in Burma, we took another slow boat ride up the Irrawaddy. This time, our destination was the huge, unfinished Mingun Pahtodawgyi.

If it had been finished, it would have easily been the largest pagoda in Burma – nearly 500 feet tall! In its ruined state, it’s merely the largest pile of bricks in the world. View in Google Maps.

We climbed up to the top to take in the view of the river and the stunning Mya Thein Tan, which will be featured in my next post!

This well-dressed man ran up to us and asked if we were American. When we said yes, he held up this newspaper and nearly shouted, “Obama! I love this man! I’m going to frame this picture and hang it on my wall!”

We were greeted with this sort of excitement about our president-elect everywhere we traveled. It felt good to be an American in Burma.

OMG, check out the hilarious Santa Tantrum Awards!

And it looks a lot better “in person” than it does here. It’s nearly five feet tall – the color and sharpness are excellent, and the metallic Fuji Pearl paper really shines! Move your mouse over the image below to compare my PhotoShop visualization with the actual print on the wall.

Now that the Christmas carnage is over, I can finally share another of those “Man, it’s a small world!” moments that happened to us while in Burma.

On the eighth day of our trip, we told our guide that we were too tired to go out that night. We said we’d just stay in and maybe catch a bite to eat at the restaurant in the Mandalay Sedona Hotel, which is exactly what we did. While sipping my first martini, I saw the back of a man’s head, and thought to myself, “Man, that looks like the back of Michael Freeman’s head – but what are the odds of that!?” Well, a few minutes later, I walked over to see if my hunch was right, and to my total amazement, it was! Un-friggin’-believable!! So, here we were on our first ever visit to Burma, and we’re chatting and laughing at the dinner table with a friend! (Who happens to be a world-class photographer and author.) As it turns out, Michael was in Burma with the film crew and director of Baraka. They are working on a sequel, named Samsara, due out next year. The crew had actually been shooting earlier that day at the monastery we were visiting. The director was quite upset because some clueless tourist with a flash had ruined half a day’s shooting. (No, it wasn’t me!)

The very last thing we thought we’d be bringing home from Burma is Christmas cards! We bought these from one of the many children who descended on us at every tourist stop.

Anyway, I’m glad we bought them – they are so unusual. :)

This beautiful temple is on Sagaing Hill, has a great view of the Irrawaddy River and a fantastic tile floor. We loved the colors and the geometric patterns.

The shot was made by stitching eight images together. The view encompasses a bit more than 180 degrees.

This is not my favorite Buddha, but the light is nice, and you can see the LED halo better than on most of my shots. Tomorrow I’ll post one of my favorite panoramas from our trip.

This is one of my favorite pagodas. Tun, our guide, told us that Kaung Mhu Daw is special to the Burmese people, for it was built by one of the greatest kings of the era, and it is said that the begging bowl of the Buddha is enshrined inside the pagoda. It’s appealing shape is said to be that of one of the king’s favorite wife’s breasts.

Yesterday’s image was shot inside the building on the far right.

This was shot inside one of the five prayer halls flanking the pagoda. I have some nice shots of the pagoda itself which I will publish in a day or two. I think this one needs to stand alone.

You can’t see it well in this shot, but like many of the Buddha’s we saw, this Buddha has a brightly colored swirling, LED halo. It’s the sort of thing you might expect to see in an Asian disco, and to me, it’s a strange mix of the very old and the very new.

On day 8, we saw how colorful silk fabrics are assembled one thread at a time at Thein Nyo Silk Weaving. The very detailed work is slow and repetitious, taking up to a month or more to finish a single piece of fabric. Workers are paid by the piece so sisters sometimes team up to finish the work faster.

The fished products were just beautiful – an irresistible spending opportunity for Kelly.