The People of Bagan

Bagan, Burma

August 15-20, 2012

Bagan and the surrounding rural area are populated by primarily farmers. 

      

Horse and carriage is still a very popular mode of transport. I did feel bad for some of the horses tho, they looked so skinny.

I thought this map was quite cool to see the States and Caribbean in written Burmese. It is such a neat script!

Bagan: Temples of Ancient Burma

Bagan, Burma

August 11-25, 2012

The area of Bagan is an ancient and magical place. Comparative to Cambodia's Angkor Wat, but not quite as impressive, Bagan lies along the Irawaddy river to the southwest of Mandalay and consists of thousands of Buddhist and pagan temples made of stone and brick. The above and below temple is the Dhamma-Yazaka Pagoda.

These temples vary in size and shape but all have the worship of Lord Buddha and the nats or spirits, as their primary purpose. The area has had its rise and fall and seen much destruction since its creation in the 9th century. Starting with the Mongol conquors and may wars there after, today many of the temples have been restored. The above temple, Thatbyinnya Temple, is the largest.

Another example of Jenny's inspiration in her rustic design work. Check out Jenny's website to see how she has incorporated something like this into her modern designs.

Perfect light spilled into this temple lighting up the Buddha perfectly. I love this time of day, the Golden Hour... it is the best time for photography and gives everything and everyone that warm beautiful glow.

We definitely had to take advantage of getting some photos of us in and around these beautiful temples and in the beautiful light of the sunset. Jenny did a great job of using my camera and I actually got some photos of me for once! Thanks Jenny ;)

The above image is an HDR image and one of my favorites. It is the exact vision I had of the exotic Burma of the olden days with its temples in the misty horizon. 

 

After seeing all the famous, large and impressive temples, Jenny and I rented a bike and went off the beaten path. We found a small temple and sat for about 3 hours. Each of us chose our doorway, each with a different Buddha, and we sat and let the warm wind of Bagan blow through us. It was one of my favorite things we did in Burma. Sitting and feeling the ancient wisdom of religion, ancestors and feeling a general calm and peace, it was perfect.

Yangon's City Streets

Yangon, Burma

August 11-25, 2012

The streets of Yangon were quite an adventure to explore. 

The streets are filled with vendors, markets and people going about their business.  (see my previous post on the markets and street food!) I saw the below little guy wearing this angry birds shirt and thought it was pretty ironic considering how isolated Burma seems to be yet he is wearing the trendy online app game.  

The architecture is a melancholy reminiscence of the English colonization mixed with the current crumbling political situation.

These two photos are some of the rustic inspiration Jenny uses in her interior designs.

Along with the crumbling city streets there are the many Buddhist structures and statues that are very visually scattered around the city. The below pagoda is the city center where the Yangon road grid system is based around.

The place we stayed was ironically named the White House. It was tiled the entire 7 floors head to toe. This budget hotel had a very nice proprietor who helped organize transport and exchange the imperfect US bills we kept getting thrown back in our faces. Not only did it have wifi (weak as it was) they also had a breakfast buffet that would give some of the better hotels a run for their money. Although the rooms are small and a bit musty it was a bit of a refuge for us in Yangon.

Shwendagon Pagoda

Yangon, Burma

August 11-25, 2012

I did a brief post about this amazing pagoda a few weeks back on my other blog but want to share more of the photos I took from that day. 



This is one of the biggest paya's or temples her ein Myanmar. The Shwedagon Paya is the most special to the people of Myanmar and most hope to visit it at some point in their life. It has a very interesting history and is a beautiful place to visit.

As for the photography of it, it was a bit of an overcast day so seeing as how I am on vacation and can do whatever I want in the photography department (YAY!) I decided to play around with the HDR effects in Photoshop. This brings details into the washed out overcast sky, and also brings out the details in the shadows, as well as adds texture and more color saturation. I think it looked amazing to the naked eye but looks pretty spectacular with the HDR effects.

Jenny and I got into the religious atmosphere with the Reclining Buddha.

The paya was filled with things that made it sparkle... gold, mirrors etc. I had good fun with the reflections in the mirrors and got a little creative with the reflections. 

It is just incredible how much detail and how ornate this temple is, quite stunning and well worth the visit.