Yangon

Sadly we're now in the big city Yangon (formerly Rangoon) staying in a pretty large, soulless 5* hotel.  The government decided a few years ago to ban motorcycles (much the favoured form of transport as its cheap and you can easily get a family of 5 on one bike) and consequently the traffic is a complete nightmare as a good 40% of the vehicles are taxis.  No one will give an inch and lane markings don't mean anything.  Hooting is illegal but luckily most people ignore that which is probably as well as even more accidents would happen. Our coach driver was dreadful and would swerve from lane to lane to get in front and one time he braked so hard both Ian and I were actually thrown from our seats.  I ended up on the floor between our front seats and the refrigerated box and Ian somehow managed to get a foot hold and stop himself being thrown towards the windscreen.  The next day I insisted our seatbelts were untied so that we could actually use them!

The first morning we kicked off our sightseeing with a visit to this reclining Buddha, unfortunately the building resembled an aircraft hangar with harsh lighting and gantries in the way.

One of reasons the original Buddha was special was because he was born with 108 markings on his feet.  With tattoos so popular nowadays I wonder what our descendants will make of bodies found 2000 years from now - will they be similarly deified?

But the eyelashes were to die for.

From there we drove around the lake to see the Royal Barge, a popular place for wedding couples.  This bride was having her make-up done but happy to be photographed.

After lunch we walked through the streets downtown (still don't understand what that means!) and took in the sights and smells of street life.

I'm not sure why this fly paper was so prominently positioned

We saw quite a few commercial rose growers when we were on the Irrawaddy and they seem to protect the buds quite early on, so the fields are full of these white tips.

This little girl wasn't looking for fleas as we originally thought, but for grey hairs which she then pulled out.  We pointed to Ian's head and all had a good laugh.

Then late afternoon we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most famous and probably the oldest pagoda in the world   It sits atop a hill and is 99 meters high, the main gold-plated dome is topped by a stupa containing over 7,000 diamonds, rubies, topaz and sapphires, the whole giddy concoction offset by a massive emerald positioned to reflect the last rays of the setting sun.   

The pagoda is said to contain eight hairs of the Buddha and as Myanmar's most revered shrine it has always been customary for families, mendicants and followers of the Buddha to make the pilgrimage to the Shwedagon in much the same way that Muslims feel compelled to visit the Kaaba at Mecca at least once in their lifetime.

Once again access is either by a long covered walkway or by lift.

Ringing the bell 5 times for good luck

It was a nightmare to photograph but does look beautiful illuminated at night (viewed from our balcony).

The following day we had just a 2 hour sightseeing programme including another pagoda but it was rather an anti climax after Shwedagon.  

And that brought our holiday to Myanmar to a close - it was absolutely fantastic, we loved the place and especially the people.  I hope you've enjoyed following us around. 

Monks, Nuns and Buddhism

Around 89% of Burmese are Buddhists and it is such a fundamental part of their daily life, I felt it was worth a post on its own so I’ve deliberately held most of my monk images back.

The country’s buildings are largely low rise and the golden stupas dominating practically every skyline are striking reminders of the enduring popularity of the religion, having been erected, enlarged, and embellished for generations by local rulers and still to this day by local communities.

Support for the monasteries is also a constant, around 500,000 young men are members of a monastic order and around 75,000 women are nuns – a higher share of the population than in any other country.  A greater proportion of income is also donated to religious orders than anywhere else.  

Where practicable, every Buddhist boy spends at least a few weeks living as a monk in a monastery from the age of seven (the exceptions being if the boy needs to work to support his family).  Some who don’t go as a child/teenager or who don’t stay the distance (Nylon our guide hated it and only lasted a week aged 13) aim to go back at some point in their lifetime and many undertake annual retreats even for just a couple of days.

One of the most defining sights in this country is the long lines of monks in their saffron or wine coloured robes collecting food in their alms bowls.  Monks have no money and just a few possessions; their robes, sandals, umbrella and alms bowl so they are reliant on the generosity of the community for everything else – plane/taxi/bus rides, food etc are all freely given as the Burmese consider “merit making” will improve their chances of better future lives by doing good deeds in the present one.

It’s amazing how ones attitude to something changes so quickly, when we were in Cambodia and Laos earlier this year I was thrilled to see a monk simply standing still, now with so many everywhere I looked I then wanted a monk “doing something” – a striking parallel to Nature photography when the judges say “Oh it’s just another bird on a stick, anyone can take that” which is totally wrong of course as birds are incredibly difficult to photograph even when they’re posing for you.

Every pagoda we went into had many large glass collecting boxes and if you visited at the end of the day these were generally stuffed full of money and practically everyone gave offerings of flowers.  The stupas are sometimes covered in gold and some Buddha statues are seriously deformed by the amount of gold leaf that has been stuck on them by the devotees (only men are allowed to do this)

It was striking to witness how important religion is to the young people as well; time and time again we saw teenagers at the pagodas doing their devotions.  Apparently most people aim to visit the pagoda twice a day, morning and evening.

So, some random images most of which are grab shots as generally it's not the done thing for monks to pose!

And my favourite of all, this lovely little boy from the orphanage

Inle Lake - Day 3

Our last day on beautiful Lake Inle and I was lucky enough to be at the front of the boat for the 1hr ride to the south west to visit what VJV described as the “unknown” Inthein Pagoda complex!

The early morning light was once again very flat. 

I badly over-exposed this image but in a weird way I like it.

We had to go through quite a long inlet in which they'd built some kind of lock system to control the water and it was rather run - like shooting rapids.

Then our route took us past a school and through the village, the covered walkway up was again lined with stalls.

This man was more than happy for me to photograph him working.

The complex which comprises 1,054 stupas, most dating from the 17^th and 18^th centuries and in different states of disrepair.  It is a very atmospheric place and you can wander around among the stupas.

Actually the crumbling old ones looked much better to us than the ones that had been restored as all restoration work has the same appearance, irrespective of its original style and design.

On the way back down we bumped into some more tea towel heads.

Then all too soon we were back in our little dragon boat heading back to Nyaung Shwe to pick up the coach for Heho Airport so we could fly to Yangon (Rangoon) - not looking forward to it!