Sites like this one make me want to re-design mine. So clean. A perfect showcase for his amazing work.

The inhabitants of this village live their lives on the water. I’ll post more pictures from this picturesque place soon.

By the way, this image was shot with my cheap, workhorse 24-85mm Nikkor. Unfortunately, even zoomed all the way out, the lens was a bit too short for the shot. This is one of those instances where it’s really nice to have every one of the 12 megapixels the Nikon D3 provides. Because of all those pixels, I was able to crop the original image quite a bit to get the results you see above.

We left our beautiful room at the Inle Princess early in the morning to take in some of the sites on Inle Lake. On the way, we saw how leg-rowing can leave both hands free for untangling fishing nets. We stopped and had a delicious lunch and cool beers at a restaurant with beautiful lake views.

Click on the video to the left to get an idea of what it’s like in a boat on Inle Lake.

When Andrew said that he knew of a place nearby where we could see “tens of thousands of ladybugs clumped like piles of scarlet coffee beans”, I knew I had to see it. It also happens that Andrew’s better half is an entomologist known to many as the Bug Lady, AND the topic for this week’s photography class is macro photography, so the stage was set. Now all we needed was for the bugs to cooperate. And did they!

The hike darned near killed me, but it was well worth the effort. As you can see, we found millions of Convergent Lady Beetles, um, converging ten deep on the forest floor. There were so many of the tiny beetles that you could actually hear them. They seemed happy.

I shot the images above with my Nikon D3 and a fancy-schmancy 60mm Macro lens. My pal Andrew brought along his basic point-and-shoot and I was surprised to see that he was able to focus much more closely than I could. His camera also allowed him to shoot scary movies like this one.

BUGS!

After ten days in Burma we had come to expect the unexpected. We began our trip to the Inle Princess Resort in a noisy diesel-driven long boat. It was along the way that we saw our first leg-rowers. Yes, they really do row with their leg. It’s a balancing act you have to see to believe. And although the boat ride across the lake was a bit cold (yes, cold), it was blessedly smooth – a much-needed break from the terrible Burmese roads. But the best part of this trip was arriving in what was to be our favorite room. Wow!

Finally!

As we say goodbye to Mandalay, we begin what will be our best days in Burma.

Later that day we took an emotionally draining walk half way across the U Bein Bridge. Along the way the sites ranged from beautiful to bizarre. We might have walked back too, but opting for a boat ride instead meant we would not have to see the heart-breaking sights again.

Once in the boat, we witnessed a pretty decent sunset.

I’ll change the title of this entry as soon as my guide replies to my e-mail asking him where we were when we shot these. At least I remember why we came. It was to see an unusual Buddha. At this temple and elsewhere, it’s customary for worshipers to purchase a small piece of gold leaf and press it onto the object of worship. We saw people doing this at the Golden Rock. What makes this statue interesting is that so much gold leaf has been applied that the the gold is several inches thick over its entire body. Considering the thickness of gold leaf, (or should I say thin-ness) this is quite an accomplishment!

Yet another of ancient Burma’s mind-boggling sights on the grounds of the Kuthodaw Pagoda, this “book” consists of 729 stupas – each containing a single two-sided page from the massive Pāli Canon. Wikipedia has a nice shot from Mandalay Hill, which gives you a better idea of the size of this “book”.

After a boat ride back from Mingun and a delicious Thai lunch with our wonderful guide, we visited an ancient monastery – every square inch of it carved by hand.

This most beautiful teak wood building, was erected inside the Palace at Mandalay by king Mindon, the founder of Mandalay. After he died in 1878, his son king Thibaw Min – the last king of Burma – had the building moved out of the city. It is the only remaining structure from the original Mandalay Palace. All of the rest of the buildings inside the palace city were completely destroyed in 1944 by allied bombardment at the end of the second world war. (Thanks for the history lesson, Tun!)

Heh. While resarching Shwe Nan Daw, I can across this familiar-looking image. At first I thought it might be the very same young monk, but it’s not. Maybe it’s his brother. :)

You can avoid the throngs of children and the trinkets they they have for sale by taking advantage of the local transportation. Here we avoid the onslaught by taking a peaceful, but bumpy ride on an oxcart back to our boat.