Mandalay to Bagan (35mm Kodak Portra 160)
Golf Caddies. Girls and boys in Burma where wet tree bark saw dust as makeup.(35mm Kodak Portra 160)
Lady selling flowers at the golden, 1000 year old Shwezigon Pagoda in Bagan which enshrines a bone and tooth of Buddha. (35mm Kodak Portra 160)
CunCun, Valorie, Daisy & Brian
Daisy gives money at the small temples because she noticed the devotees & tourists only go to the big ones (6x6 Fujichrome Velvia 100F)
Brian had enough of temples and went on temple strike (5d)
Brian and Daisy had enough temples - leaving only Valorie and me admire the walls covered with ancient frescos in these building from a millennium ago (5d)
Sunset in Bagan. Temple building was in its heyday 1000 yrs ago. There are about 3000 stupas, monasteries and temples in Bagan as sign of the enthusiasm for Buddhism which started more than 50 generations ago. Another 3000 were destroyed in the earthquake of 1975 -- and there were also quite a few wars over 1000 years taking their toll. At its best the city was home to tens of thousands of stupas. Several stupas and temples are still covered in gold ( real gold ) and gems. (5d)
CunCun and his horse, MoMo pick us up at our hotel at 6am each day and take us around Bagan (5d)
Girl in a factory etching lacquer ware (5d)
Girls in a factory etching lacquer ware (6x6 Fujichrome Velvia 100F)
Photo taken by Brian of a sunset on the Irrawaddy river (5d)
Monk with a metal leg at the HeHo town market, Shan State (35mm Kodak Portra 160)
Arriving at the hotel Daisy orginized for us on Inle lake (5d)
On Inle Lake people make string from fiber pulled from lotus stems, weave it with silk into cloth and dye it. (5d)
Typical monistary along the river (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Checkpoint at the boarder between the Shan state and Kayah state - we later tried to return to Sagar by road but it was impossible as all routes are closed other than the river due to a war with the Pa'O people (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Daily life along the Balu Chaung river to Sagar ( 35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Daily life along the Balu Chaung river to Sagar ( 35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Tarkong pagoda - Sankar lake - this temple is built to sit well into the lake during the wet season. It is currently off the tourist path as the region is not yet fully stable (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Tarkong pagoda - Sankar lake (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Tarkong pagoda - Sankar lake (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Tarkong pagoda - Sankar lake - kids climb on the ancient ruins (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Sagar is a bit of a hot deserted ruin without many people other than a few kid-monks on push-bikes, possibly because there has been some wars going on around here. Car drivers refuse to drive the road to Sagar for fear of being drafted into the army. Boat drivers refuse to drive the river to Sagar for fear of getting stuck in the mud. (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Valorie and Daisy at Sagar (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
It struck us that Burma is really clean without much plastic and litter(5d)
The market at Maing Thauk (5d)
School kids at Maing Thauk (5d)
Kids not in school at Maing Thauk (5d)
Bezy kids at Maing Thauk (5d)
Brian on a row boat in a floating tomato field in the middle of Inle lake (5d)
SanRei pushing our boat in shallow water (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Fertilizing a floating tomato farm. Floating farms are far into the lake and, built on a floating mat of grass under a bed of soil, rise up and down with the water in the dry and wet season. (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Kid paddling through floating lotus farms at Maing Thauk. (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Kids running on the pier at Maing Thauk. The market is on the land but to get to the houses one needs to go to the pier and get on a boat. Kids learn to paddle young and they paddle standing on one leg, paddling with the other leg, so they can fish with their hands. With this method, they paddle boats at speed like a one might drive a car, drink coffee and smoke. (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
The deck of our hotel in the middle of the lake. Banana milk shakes are a mainstay. (5d)
Tired eyes on a fast boat - we did a lot on this holiday (5d)
Pulling up fish traps on Inle lake (6x6 Kodak Ektar 100)
Morning traffic in Nyaungshwe (5d)
Morning traffic in Nyaungshwe (5d)
Banging the holy gong at the 1700 year old Kakku Pagoda is bad manners (5d)
Kakku P{agoda, Shan hills (5d)
The history of the Kakku Pagota which is about 45 KM past Taunggyi in the Shan hills starts in the third century BC and enshrines some more Buddha parts such as a tooth and a bone along with a lot of artifacts depicting the journey by boat and elephant of those bits to these hills. (6x6 Kodak Ektar 100)
Home of a local Pa'O family in a modern village. There are 5 qualifications for a village to be "modern" in the Shan state of Burma. The village must have: 1) a temple, 2) a monastery, 3) a well, 4) a school & 5) a cemetery. (5d)
Pa'O lady in her house chating over tea (5d)
Kham, our Pa'O guide. It is required to have a guide when going past the check points to Kaku. Kahm graduated from one of the only two language universities in Burma and speaks English, German, Burmese, Pa'O language, is a local historian and hiring Kham from the government as a guid costs $3 USD for the day. (5d)
Burma, Shan Hills, farm worker pulling weeds on the Aythaya Vineyard in April ( after the Grape Harvest which in in March ) (5d)
Burma, Shan Hills, farm worker pulling weeds on the Aythaya Vineyard in April ( after the Grape Harvest which in in March ) (5d)
Burma, Shan Hills, Aythaya Vineyard, farm worker getting off work after a long day pulling weeds. (5d)
Intha fishermen on Inle Lake (6x6 Kodak Portra 800)
Intha fishermen on Inle Lake (6x6 Kodak Portra 800)
Intha fishermen on Inle Lake (6x6 Kodak Portra 800)
Brian with me at 6am on a row boat taking photos of Intha fishermen on Inle Lake ( Kodak Portra 800 )
Brian helping SanRei drive our longboat (5d)
Rangoon — King Tharrawaddy donated the 42-ton Maha Tissada Gandha bell to Shwedagon Pagota 1841.
The history 2600 year history of Shwedagon Pagoda is laden with stories. For example, in 1608 the Portuguese adventurer Philip de Brito e Nicote plundered the Shwedagon Pagoda and his men took the 300-ton Great Bell of Dhammazedi, donated in 1485 by King Dhammazedi. De Brito's intention was to melt the bell down to make cannons, but it fell into the Bago River when he was carrying it across. To this date, it has not been recovered. Remembering that a dump truck of sand if 5 tons, I researched bells and found that the Bell of Dhammazedi was the largest working bell ever cast on the this planet by several multiples. (5d)
Shwedagon Pagoda with a 2600 year history stands 326 feet tall above Sanguttara hill in Rangoon to enshrine 8 hairs of the Gautama Buddha. For some idea of scale: to reflect the sun the golden orb at the top is ten inches wide, has a 76 carat diamond at the top and total of 4351 diamonds which are 1800 carats. Below the orb the weather vane is 4 feet wide and including a half ton of gold and jewels. Below the vane, the umbrella is 13 meters tall and made of another half ton of gold and 83,850 jewels weighing a total of 5 tons. The upper half of the pagoda is covered in gold plates and the lower half in gold leaves. (5d)
Rangoon (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Brian with a friend from Korea in the Governors Residence pool in Rangoon (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
Rangoon (35mm Kodak Ektar 100)
