south east asia | Without an H

Posts tagged ‘south east asia’

The Devil of Mandalay and other pictures

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I don’t have many regrets about my autumn trip to Myanmar, but I do wish that I’d spent a little more time in Mandalay. The pictures here are some of my favourites from the trip, but there are too many others, not shown here, where I just didn’t quite capture the mood. Still, at least it gives me an excuse to go back another time.

This will be my last post of the year, so I’d just like to say a big thank you to everyone following the site. I know I’m not very good at replying to comments, but that doesn’t mean they go unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you, and happy new year, everybody.

The Devil of Mandalay

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Betel

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Chewing betelnut (actually a combination of betel leaves and areca nut, Wikipedia tells me) is a major part of the culture in Myanmar. Betel provides a mild stimulant, but also stains the chewer’s teeth red and is a major cause of cancer. This series of pictures from Mandalay shows the areca nuts being sliced and sorted; the betel leaves being arranged in baskets for sale at the market; a street stand selling parcels of nuts and leaves; and a betel smile.

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The Nay Pyi Taw Experience

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There’s a huge amount of beauty in Myanmar, but very little of it is to be found in Nay Pyi Taw, the newly-built capital city. The military regime decided early this century that the country needed a new, modern capital, and so set about building one from scratch in the middle of nowhere, at roughly the halfway point between the former capitals of Yangon and Mandalay (I have a mental image of a general sticking a pin in a map and saying, with a shrug, “yep, that’ll do.”). Government ministries and military headquarters were duly moved from Yangon to the new city about ten years ago, while pretty much everyone else stayed put, resulting in a sprawling, desolate, uniquely charmless and oddly fascinating capital, made up of traffic-free multi-lane highways and largely deserted open spaces. It feels like a city designed by a committee of people who have never lived in, or even been to, a city. In fact, it barely feels like a city at all. It’s more like someone tied a motorway in knots and randomly scattered some buildings about.

I spent a couple of days in Nay Pyi Taw at the beginning of November, scooting around on a rented motorbike in blazing sunshine, looking for something interesting to photograph. I wouldn’t say it was the highlight of my trip to Myanmar, but I can honestly say that it’s quite unlike anywhere else I’ve ever visited and, while I never want to go there again, I’m glad I had my Nay Pyi Taw experience.

Uppatasanti Paya, the only Buddhist pagoda to appear austere and unwelcoming

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Myoma, south-east Asia’s most boring market

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Twenty lanes, two vehicles

Entrance to the Ministry of Something

Just a few years ago, this was farmland, and much of Nay Pyi Taw’s vast open space still feels rural, as farmers do their best to ignore the city that is being built around them

See the sights of Nay Pyi Taw – don’t miss the State Guest House or the Government Office

It’ll be nice when it’s finished

In Mawlamyine II

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Some more pictures – but not many words today – from Mawlamyine in south-eastern Myanmar.

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Dusk to dawn at the Golden Rock

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The gold-covered, gravity-defying boulder at the top of Mount Kyaiktiyo is an important pilgrimage site for Burmese Buddhists, and an increasingly recognisable image of Myanmar. I spent an evening and a morning there, watching the colours change as the sun set and rose.

Pilgrims attach gold leaf to the rock’s surface

4.45pm. Blue and gold

Offerings

5.30pm. The last light of day

Pilgrims light candles. Many of these visitors will stay all night

6.00pm. As the sunlight fades, the rock is flood-lit from behind and below

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5.15am. The dark before the dawn

5.45am. Sunrise

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Monks ask for alms in front of a mini Golden Rock

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In Mawlamyine

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I’m a big fan of sleepy, gently crumbling riverside towns in south-east Asia. Kompong Cham and Kratie in Cambodia, Savannakhet in Laos – these are some of the places that I’ve most enjoyed visiting over the last few years. To that list, I can now add Mawlamyine in south-eastern Myanmar. It’s not a place with any really jaw-dropping sights – the town itself is the attraction, with its weathered colonial-era buildings, its pagodas, mosques and churches, its dockside market and its friendly, curious people.

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A bicycle made for two

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A quick shot from Mawlamyine in southern Myanmar. I spent four weeks travelling around the country in October and November, taking a ton of pictures which I am just now starting to sort through. So there’ll be more – quite a lot more – soon.

Another barbershop quartet

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This is a belated sequel to this post from November 2013.

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Meat

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The title says it all, really. In the interests of balance, picture #3 also features some vegetables.

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Island life

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The island below Long Bien bridge in the middle of Hanoi’s Red River doesn’t feel like it belongs in the city at all. When I spent an autumn afternoon there, my first visit in far too long, I found wilting banana trees, bamboo construction work and naked swimming guys.

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