Sixteen Scenes From Burma

Burma is a destination that feels like it's been designed by executives at Nikon as a playground for their high-end cameras.  You've never seen a place with more budding amateur photographers, all taking pictures of scenes out of everyday life.  But then again, everyday life has never been more beautiful, and the mouths of Westerners water every time we see a golden pagoda, or a group of monks walks by, or a fisherman does something on the lake, or a kid smiles at the camera.  Indeed, we're all still searching for that Burmese Photo Holy Grail: the photo of the monks teaching a child in front of a pagoda during sunset with a fisherman silhouette in the background.  That would be something special.  In the meantime, here are twenty favourites of mine (with captions for once!).

Sandamuni Paya, a collection of hundreds of pagodas, each one filled with a stone page from some important Buddhist book.  Just sounds like an excuse to build more pagodas!

Amarapura Teak Bridge

The air was heavy with stone dust in this corner of Mandalay where all those Buddha carvings are painstakingly created. 

Hiked through a part of Shan State that must provide most of the world's red hot chili peppers.  This child is obviously a fan.

On the road to Inle Lake, Shan State.  Thankfully not as hilly as Nepal!

Tone Le, Inle Lake: this school, like the rest of the village, is on stilts and only accessible by boat.  All the kids waved to us as we went by.  Maybe someone had taken their boats and they were waving to try to get our help.

Inle Lake traditional foot rowing technique.  Not as easy as it looks!

There's a quiet moment every morning around sunup, where the monks walk (barefoot) through town collecting alms from the local shops.  That warm feeling in my heart quickly subsided when I got back on the bus and we continued on one of the worst bus rides of the trip.

Burmese food may not be the most delicious in Asia, but it certainly takes the award for Most Side Dishes.

After touring the temple region of Bagan, I never want to see a Buddha statue again.  This one is one of my favourites, likely inspired by Buddha's love of the movie Alien.

There are well over a thousand temples still standing in the Bagan region.  Here are two of them.

This is Kaka, or attentive little tour guide we picked up during our first day in Bagan.  He is 8 and spoke excellent English, knew all the major temples, and could operate all of our cameras.

Kachin State: teak wood likely bound for China or another of Myanmar's very powerful neighbours.  Also, hungry cow.

Cruising down the Ayerwaddy River: this guy stands at the front of the boat during shallow sections and touches that stick to the river bottom to give a depth range.  We only ran aground once during the 24-hour trip.

Disagree.  Burmese pop rock is alive and well

Shwedagon Pagoda, the mother of all pagodas in Burma.  The very top is studded with over 5000 diamonds, which at night have the nice effect of twinkling high above a country that is one of the poorest in SE Asia.