It’s not that I’m getting tired of looking at these beautiful images - no one loves them more than I do. It’s just that I’ve run out of disk space, so tonight I’m adding a 1.5 terabyte disk to my Linux server. It’ll take a few hours to migrate the data off the old 500 gig drive, so tonight all you get is this crummy panorama that didn’t turn out well enough for me to post under ordinary circumstances. But don’t despair, I’ll make up for it soon.

In the mean time, if you just have to see more images, check out my Picasa photo 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?!

Disclaimer: When you see a shot like the one below, you probably imagine your brave 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 appear 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 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.

(Thanks Steve and Grant! Without your lens and tripod, I could not have gotten this shot.)

(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. The large shot below 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.

The all-male dancers (Nat Kataws) impersonate these spirits and dance to a small, but unbelievably loud orchestra. Believers watch intently and often pin money on the dancers. The performances can go on for hours and involve lots of smoking and drinking, eventually causing some of the dancers to go into a trance.

To get the “full effect”, watch the video to the right.

By the way, if you haven’t yet noticed, I’ve been updating my earlier posts, adding lots of new images and even some videos, so be sure to scroll down the page.

I think it’s worth pointing out that this image was not staged - it was shot as it happened. Photo opportunities like this come at you constantly in Burma.

Thanks to Steve and Grant who were kind enough to loan me their expensive camera gear. I would not have been able to get some of trip’s the best shots without your lens and awesome travel tripod.

Thanks also to our friends who talked us into traveling to this amazing country in the first place. Don, Jum, Chris, Ben, Jerry and Tum - thanks for convincing us that a trip to Burma would be memorable. The trip proved to be everything you said it would be and more.

We’d also like to send a huge thanks to William Myatwunna and his crack team at the award-winning Good News Travels. William is articulate, professional, charming and extremely capable. He and his top-notch team managed to exceed our expectations through the entire trip. We consistently found ourselves in the best rooms in the best hotels with the best views. We felt like royalty. We can not recommend William and Good News Travels highly enough. Five stars.

But the highest praise goes to the guide William chose for us. We spent just two short weeks with Tun, but in that time we became incredibly close. We really looked forward to seeing him each morning - no matter how early. He quickly became much more than a travel guide. You might think we’re both nuts, but we really do miss him. We don’t know how we’ll face the morning without his smile and guidance. Thank you so much, Tun. Our trip was made magical by you.