Burma/Myanmar – Sule Pagoda
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...
Burma/Myanmar – Shwedagon pagoda
In January, I traveled to Myanmar (also known as Burma) for a 12-day trip. Myanmar is a controversial country and while travel is extremely safe and pleasant, the country’s image still suffers from bad reputation. But Burma is the crown jewel of Southeast Asia. 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 to 26 millions that went to Thailand. The Myanmar government is trying to encourage tourism and the number of tourists is increasing drastically. The year before, in 2012, only one million tourists went to Myanmar. Knowing this, I was very interested in visiting Myanmar sooner rather than later. The trip was organized by Insider...
Full moon over the Golden Gate bridge
Last night, it was going to be full and to rise above the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. After looking at the moon position, I did conclude that the moon would be aligned with the top of the tower with the Transamerica tower in the middle of the opening. The image above shows what my vision was. A very unusual hot weather is in effect in San Francisco right now, which meant that it was still in 70s at 9pm last night and there was no chance of fog and clouds to block the view of the moon. The combination of those factors had attracted a large number of photographers on the Marin Headlands, literally I was waiting for moonrise with 12 other photographers. Taking pictures of the moon is a bit tricky. First the moon moves quickly in the sky. Second there is a...