The November full moon is cause for celebration in Taunggyi, Myanmar. The Hot Air Balloon Festival must be seen to be believed. It was a wild and wonderful way to end our trip.

As beautiful as they are, still images can not adequately capture the cacophony of light and sound. Have a look at the videos below to get a better idea.

This was one of the most beautiful sights we saw during our trip to Burma. The parade was the first act of our most amazing evening.

The Balloon Festival in Taunggyi has to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest party in all of Burma. This incredible event takes place during November’s full moon, and has to be seen to be believed. These shots were taken as the sun went down and spirits began to heat up.

Come back soon to see the shots of the amazing parade.

We visited this delightful old couple in their home on the way back from Kakku. Although we could not understand a word of what they said, their warmth and hospitality could not be missed. It’s impossible to imagine living like these two, but at nearly 80 years old, they seemed as happy as any two people I’ve ever met. It was lovely to share tea with them.

Well, it’s been five months since we returned from Burma, and I’m still looking at the pictures pretty much every day. Luckily, I like looking at pretty pictures of things and places I’ve seen. No matter how good (or bad) you think these images are, they definitely look even better to me, and hopefully, Kelly too.

Photo blogging is a selfish endeavor, but it sure beats the pants off an old-fashioned photo album. Long live the Internets!

On the morning of our twelfth day in Burma, our guide told us we would be taking a three and a half hour drive to Kakku. This is the amount of time required to drive 26 miles on Burma’s horrible roads. Our rough ride took us to yet another truly amazing site – more than 2500 stupas crammed into a small square patch of land.

Our visit coincided with a Pa-O tribe festival – probably related to the full moon. There were thousands of people at Kakku on this day, many in traditional Pa-O garb.

Here’s another look to give you a sense of the scale of this place.

Kelly enjoyed a pedicure at the spa at the fabulous Inle Princess on day 11 of our Burma trip.

Later, we had a bottle of wine delivered to the room where we relaxed as the sunset. Later still, we were surprised to see a grass fire in the distance. Based on the reaction of the hotel staff, we determined that the fire was intentionally set by a nearby farmer.

I can not believe that it’s almost March, and I’m still posting images from our November trip to Burma! These were taken on a lovely hill above the five day market in Indein. The 800 temples are in various states of disrepair, but a few have been meticulously restored.

It’s day 11 of our trip now. We left our room at the Inle Princess and floated to this huge market where we did a bit of shopping and a lot of people-watching.

After the silk-weaving, we moved on to another labor-intensive activity – turning leaf springs into knife blades.

We’ve seen this sort of work before, but the way this team of men worked the hot steel was something to see. Here are a couple of videos.

This has to be one of the most labor-intensive jobs we saw while in Burma.

We saw a lot of meticulous work being performed by Burmese women, but these women had less to show for a full day’s work than most – a few yards of colored lotus silk thread.