Flying into Yangon
Anyone need some flips?
Sule Paya in the background
Flooding in the streets, this probably happens all the time during the wet season
Yangon train station
Our guesthouse
Shwedagon Paya - 2500 years old and debating (it might be even older)
I love how the men carry their wallets in Myanmar, stuffed in the back of their longyi. This is how much you can trust others here. No one would steal it even though it is an easy grab.
Buddhist nun
Bling!
Craig (Aussie), a lovely monk who showed us around, and Jay
Storm approaching
Burmese flag
Shwedagon Paya at night with the moon
Great menu!
A betel stand. Betel is the nut of the areca palm and it is chewed here (and in other nearby countries) as a mild intoxicant. It makes your teeth totally red!
Typical way of transportation in Myanmar - stuff lots of people into a truck!
I love this photo - not because it is great (it isn't) but because the streets are totally flooded and this shop owner is just patiently watching life go by. My guess is that he is used to this.
Squatting is a way of life here
Look at the engine! I loved these trucks.
The road to Taungoo (and Mandalay, so this is the major highway between the two largest cities in the country)
You can donate money to the government to help cyclone victims. That way they can pocket the cash and give none of it to the people.
This is the newspaper the government puts out for the people that can read English. The propaganda is unreal. News is, of course, censored here. So this is what the government thinks the people should be reading. But no one in this country actually believes this stuff. I think those that can read it do so for a good laugh (or to get super depressed)
The view from our room in Tanugoo. A WONDERFUL guesthouse with wonderful owners.
View of rice fields from our room. We had hot water showers here because they built a fire under the hot water tank.
This was one of our best experiences in Myanmar. These boys loved us and we loved them. Note the older guy with his betel-stained teeth. He wanted to talk with Jay - so with help from our dictionary we had a fun conversation.
show offs
Dr.Aye and this AMAZING breakfast!
Jay, Dr. Aye, Julie, and a wonderful woman who helped out around the guesthouse
Our friendly monk looking at the view
The very excited monk we met on the train. He REALLY wants to go to America where he can get rich and send money home to his mother.
The monk wants this photo so he can find us in America when he comes.
Beautiful
Yummy passionfruit
Power is not a something you rely on in Myanmar. Everyone that can afford it has a generator.
Our packed mini-van to Kalaw. “It takes 4 hours” Yup - it took 6. We considered that a good time!
Our share taxi for the day
This man was carving a trough for his pigs outside his home
In many countries it is common to see friends (even if they are both guys) walking with their arms around each other. I love this.
Yummy jackfruit!
Pindaya markets
Pindaya Caves entrance
Inside the cave
Neat cave light
This lovely man had just gotten out of jail (he had been in for 6 years) because he protested his wages for working on the railroad
Look at the smile on the mother!! I swear that all the Burmese people have smiles this beautiful.
Light from inside a monastery
Setting the flowers into the mulberry paper
Mulberry paper
Making umbrellas
Finished product!
Heading back to Kalaw from Pindaya
Start of our trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake
Main mode of transportation on these roads - ox carts still rule
Traffic on the roads
Cute kids at a school
Jason (our Aussie friend on the trek with us) showing digital photos to the kids
Bringing maps to the school
Women picking tea leaves
These girls loved Jay's name - they just laughed and laughed at it.... very sweet
Coming into a Palung hill tribe village
green tea leaves drying (with smoke to help dry and flavor the tea)
Robin, our guide, serving green tea
Palung women - note the enlarged thyroid gland on the woman to the left (low iodine(?))
“Mayor” smoking his cheroot cigar
Jasmine
Community water pot and mugs
Chilies anyone?
chinlone - volleyball with feet and head - no hands
Our squat toilet for the night
Potato farmers - Paou hill tribe (I think)
School
Jason entertains with juggling
This woman was thrilled I asked to take her photo and fused with her head scarf
Gorgeous woman
Mud!
Our second night was spent on the floor of this lovely monestary
here is our toilet
Our tasty dinner at the monestary
Julie, Jay, the head monk (who had the same headlamp as me, another traveler must have left it for him), and Jason
Novice monks
Final road to Indein (a largely Pa-o village)
Neat rock formations
They munch on sunflowers a lot here
Long-necked Kayin
weaving
Fisherman paddling with his legs, how it has always been done on Inle Lake
Jay, Robin (our guide), Mying (our cook), Julie
General store in Nyaunghwe
Evening paddle around Nyaunghwe (Inle Lake)
Making cheroot cigars
Myanmar shower
Daily Burmese life
Inside another monestary
Drying rice
Cool dusk photo on the river
Our minivan back to Kalaw from Inle Lake
This is actually a LIGHT load for a pick-up
Mazda taxis in Mandalay
Mandalay
Curious girls in Mandalay
Our guesthouse in Mandalay
Climbing up Mandalay Hill - inside a temple that seems to put a lot of emphasis on the worshipper (there is a standing Buddha next to this guy)
Ayeyarwady River
The puppeters working their magic
The instruments here are so cool. We bought a single gong because the sound will always remind us of the monks and marionettes
We travelled on the jam-packed pick-ups sometimes. What a laugh!
Dancer at the nat festival
Inside a tea shop
Jay at a tea shop devouring one of the yummy donuts filled with roated coconut and sugar. Yum.
Julie and Than O - a wonderful Burmese man who adopted us for a few hours and explained the nat festival to us. And told us all about the bad bad government.
Look at those CRABS!
The choice mode of transportation around here
Taken from U Bein Bridge - a 1.2 km long teak bridge
Here's the teak bridge!
The awesome chapati stand in Mandalay. The women are rolling out the dough and the men are cooking/frying the bread over HOT iron
I explained the Moustache Brothers in captions from Jay's photos - basically they are comedians that have the balls to pick on the goverment. Par Par Lay (pictured here) has spent many years in jail because he (and his brothers) was brave enough to speak out. Now they perform in English only to travellers and the government probably doens't have the nerve to arrest them again because too many foreigners like them - providing some protection to these characters.
Here is Jay and Lu Maw. Lu Maw cracks a lot of slapstick jokes and talks in American slang. Quite funny.
Hsipaw
Mushroom vendor
See the huge chunks of homemade soap?!!!
Nice folks in Hsipaw care about us travellers
Our simple room
Lots of time was spent explaining that Canada and the USa are different countries to this school teacher. She was wonderful. She wanted to know if we went to Harvard.
Delivering more school supplies
Showing our postcard that we gave them from New York
school
The yummy tea shop where we ate many lunches
Samosas and yummy dip at our favorite tea house in Hsipaw
Np Pepsi here - no big international companies can do business in Myanmar (unless they are Chinese or France's Total energy company). So Myanmar makes up their own copycat soda.
I wish I could get tea this good back in the USA
Women sewing together longyi. The Shan style longyi were GORGEOUS.
Man making potato flat thingys
Isn't this balancing act awesome? The potato snacks are drying above on the table.
These characters are called the Moustache Brothers - this is Par Par Lay. He was put in prison 3 times for a total of 7 years because he made fun of the government in his comedy act with his two brothers. They continue to put on a show for travellers - but the show is in English and they are only ”demonstrating“ what they used to do for a show. The government now turns a blind eye because there is so much international interest in these guys - there would be a big uproar (I hope) if any of them were arrested again. The photo before this one is of another brother's wife, performing a Burmese dance.
Our sweet trishaw driver in Mandalay
Bus transportation is a way of life for backpackers and the Burmese. The government doesn't own bus companies, so they are a good mode of transport for smart travellers. even if they breakdown all the time.
Mandalay bus station
The MAIN road to Bagan from Mandalay - when they say one lane, they mean one lane
Great place to eat with wonderful tasty food
Beautiful Bagan
Jay and the keymaster at the Winidho Group of temples. He gave us tea and snacks and showed us all the frescoes inside the temples - plus he lead us up a bat-shit infested stairway to the top of a temple for an incredible view of the Central Plain and Old Bagan.
Payathonzu in the background
bee eater?
Woman with her goats in Bagan
Sulamani Pahto
Pumpkin curry yummy
Sunset spot
Neat “dry spot” under the tree
We had Buledi all to ourselves....for a nice (but mellow) sunset
Sunset watch from Buledi - a lesser known spot for sun chasers
My goodness - the food was YUMMY
Outside our room in Bagan
Inside Ananda Pahto - see the HUGE teak doors?
Shwesandaw Paya
Storm
Shwesandaw Paya - the sunset spot, even when it rains....
Over 2000 temples dot the horizon....
Those are my chacos way down at the bottom
Ananda Pahto
happy julie with Dhammayangyi Pahto in the background
Ching-ching - Jay liked to ring his bike bell!
happy happy happy
The main road to Yangon from Bagan was completely washed out in a flash flood - turning a 16 hr. night bus ride into a 20 hr. wonder. This is a tractor crossing the fast water - but the water was too fast for a bus. This happens often enough that a bunch of ramshackle tea shops have sprung up to take advantage of hungry travellers. All of that instead of a bridge. But the government never makes things easy for its people.
Pomelo - a yummy treat that is a bit sweeter than a grapefruit
Last cup of Burmese tea. Sad.
There are LOTS of copycats in Burma
Yangon
Our friends from Myanmar (back in Bangkok) plus an Aussie we scooped up because he is cool. Jay, Yves, Tess, Anne, and Hash
