Yangoon

It’s this time of the year when you reflect on what happened to you this year? First and foremost I spent two extraordinary weeks in Burma. Seven of my top ten images are from Burma and I could have easily have more. I have started to find that challenging weather environment can result in unique, more interesting images than fair weather. My last three images illustrate this point: a thunderstorm in Burning Man, a very strong dust storm or a foggy evening on the San Francisco Bay.

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...

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...

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...