Our last major stop and probably the most beautiful place in Burma was Inle Lake. The lake is fairly large but not that deep (2.1m to 3.7 m at the deepest point). The main mode of transportation is a flat boat. The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering […]
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Up to this point, we had done a fairly standard Burma trip. Two destinations on our itinerary were off the beaten path. First, on our way to Inke Lake we stopped for one day and one night in Pindaya. The second one was the Kyaiktiyo pagoda also known as Golden Rock, which was an extra two
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One of the most common questions about Burma I get is about the food and/or the hotel or lodging quality. So let’s talk about our trip and our experience. First we went with a small group and with a very experienced travel agency: Insider Asia. They have been organizing custom trips to Asia for many
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Mandalay is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located 445 miles (716 km) north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, the city has a population of one million, and is the capital of Mandalay Region. Mandalay is the economic hub of Upper Burma and considered the center
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Monks are very present in Myanmar, there are between 400,000 and 500,000 professional monks in a country of about 50 million people. Our photo leader (Tuan) had arranged that we could photograph some young monks (called novices) during an entire afternoon. Monks rise very early for the alms offering and then have their lunch quite early
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Those 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-feet 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.
Burma/Myanmar – Kyaukhtatgyi, Nga Htat Gyi and Botataung Pagodas Read More »
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.
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In january, I travelled to Myanmar (also known as Burma) for a 12 days trip. Myanmar is a controversial country and while travel is extremely safe and pleasant, the country image still suffers from the bad reputation. But Burma is the crown jewel of Southeast asia country. It’s the second largest country by landmass in Southeast Asia and one of the least visited. In 2013, a little over 2 millions tourists went to Myanmar, compared that to 26 millions that went to Thailand. The Myanmar government is trying to encourage tourism and the number of tourist are increasing drastically. The year before, in 2012, only one million tourists went to Myanmar. Knowing this, I was very interested in visiting Myanmar sooner than later.
I’m going to structure my view not by day but by location. Our first location is Yangoon, the capital city of Myanmar. It’s probably there you will arrive. The first thing you will visit is the Shwedagon Pagoda in the heart of Yangoon.
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Our trip to Burma is winding down. It was an amazing experience, this country is really a photographic wonderland. My friend QT Luong summarized it well: “Burma will spoil any of your future southeast Asia travel experiences”. In 14 days, I shoot more than 3500 images. Last night we had our group photo sharing session
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Mingalaba from Burma (Hello from Burma). I have been in Burma for 10 days now, it’s an amazing country. You have Pagodas, buddhas and monks at every corner. We saw every sunrise and sunset since we got there. We are having fun while filling up our compact flash cards… See you soon! (or not :-).
Postcard from Burma Read More »
