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After landing in Bagan early in the morning, we went directly to the Shwesandaw pagoda, which offers an impressive view of Bagan and makes you understand why it is so popular. From the upper terrace, you can see hundreds of Buddhist temples and monuments. Bagan was once the capital city of the first Kingdom of Pagan. During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survived to the present day. To give you an idea, it’s like starting a new temple or monument EVERY week (on average) for 200 years. While in Bagan, we went to the Shwesandaw three times (mid-morning, sunset and...

This year’s “supermoon” was on Saturday, July 12. A supermoon is when the Moon’s orbit brings it closer to the Earth (at the perigee) and make it appear larger (especially when it’s full moon and at moon rise). In San Francisco, any summer full moon is a challenging situation to photograph. The summer fog can play troublemaker and block any moon rise. My plan for that supermoon rise was to take a picture of the Moon sitting on top of the Coit Tower. Saturday night was a typical summer evening in San Francisco, cool, windy and with the fog rolling in. As I was waiting for the Moon to rise I took a couple images to show you the fog rolling in over the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin headlands. The East Bay was still visible and I...

The three pagodas are not as visited by tourists as the Shwedagon or the Sule pagodas but are absolutely worth a visit. First the Kyaukhtatgyi is home of a 229-foot long reclining Buddha statue. Almost across the street from the Kyaukhtatgyi Pagoda, is the Nga that gyi Pagoda which contains the 5-story high sitting Buddha. The Botataung is near the Yangon river and is 2500 years old. The fist image is the interior of the Botataung pagoda. It’s a maze of walls made of gold plates where people come and pray. It is believed that  the pagoda was erected some 2500 years ago by the Mon tribe. However the pagoda was completely destroyed by a RAF raid in 1943. The pagoda rebuilding process started on the same day that the country gained independence from the...

Kandawgyi Lake (or Great Royal Lake) is an artificial lake in the center of Yangon. It’s a pleasant place where locals start their day exercising (it opens at 5am and it’s free for all until 7am). I went there twice during my stay in Yangoon. The lake is famous for the replica of the Pyigyimon Royal Barge (Karaweik). The barge is made of concrete and was build in 1972. Karaweik or Karaweik Hall is a palace on the eastern shore of Kandawgyi Lake, and is now a restaurant. The restaurant is a tourist attraction because there is a traditional puppet theater show every night. The entrance of the restaurant is really impressive at night with all the lights, I wish we had come a little earlier to have a blue sky rather than the black sky, but we were...

Cute Alert ! Be warned there is a lot of cuteness in those pictures. I spent the last couple days in Montana, near Glacier National Park, photographing wildlife. The babies are born and they are so cute. It was fantastic to see them up close. It was a really short trip and I’m already back in California.

In my previous post, I told you that the number of tourists coming to Myanmar is increasing at a rapid rate. In some area, like the Shwedagon Pagoda or in Bagan, it was very obvious. In other area, like the Sule Pagoda it was not that obvious as we only saw a few tourists. However I believe this will change quickly. The Sule Pagoda was next to our hotel in Yangoon, our trip was only starting at 8am, so we woke up 1.5 hours before sunrise and went to take pictures of the Pagoda. Tuan, who had been there a couple mornings earlier, gave us a good tip on where to find a great view of the place. According to the legend, the Sule Pagoda was build before the Shwedagon Pagoda and is over 2500 years old. It’s not as big, nor as holy as the Shwedagon Pagoda but where...