Magical Myanmar I

Well hello. It's been a while! I'm gonna put up here some of my favorite photos of our trip to Myanmar Nov-Dec 2016.

Go there before it gets spoilt by tourism.

Myanmar borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand however only few of them allow people to come into the country over land boarders.

Myanmar was formerly know as Burma and it has experienced a lot of political unrest for decades. At the moment it's ruled by first democratic party and first non-military president.

Land area - 676 578 km2 (Estonia 45 000m2, UK 242 495 km2 with 65 million people)

Population - 51 486 253 people
Language - Burmese
Religion - Buddhism
Capital - Yangon

Shwedagon Pagoda

The 99 m pagoda is situated on Singuttara Hill, to the west of Kandawgyi Lake, and dominates the Yangon skyline.

Gold. Gold. Gold. Everywhere is only gold!

Young nuns on their early morning walk collecting alms and chanting.

Myanmar is full of bigger and smalles temples. In every colour and shape.

You and me. Anywhere is good as long as it's together

Monastery up the hill overlooking the town of Kalaw. And we were only ones up there apart from few monks working.

Trekking from Kalaw to Inle lake

Fresh chilli drying up

Local boy found a honeycomb in a cornfield 

Hello, I'm tumeric. Nice to meet you!

Agricultural machines

Our young little guide. Myanmar people have the most wonderful smile. We found the locals friendliest in the whole South-East Asia.

Morning fog

Real kids real playground

On our two day trek we saw so different landscapes and soils, some more dry than others. This one provides water for a whole community througout the year, I hope they boil it.

Inle lake

Magical entrance to the Inle lake

Water gardens and houses on stilts

Women working hard

Souvenirs

Thats something just made out of buffalo teeth.

Local fishmonger. With a smartphone. Good business.

Market day

Hand weaving centre. This is where all the hard work gets done.

Beautiful weaver

This old lady walks the length of that "machine" all day every day and then she just swaps colours and keeps walking up&down up&down.

We love food.

In a lot of places ladies are prohibited to go closer. In Yangnon main pagoda ladies are even prohibited to go inside. Munk is a man.

Serious coconut it is

Every household needs a boat to leave their house. To go to work, to go to harvest vegs, to go to town, etc

Tranquil

This was a cat moanstery and cats were just jumping around these monks.

Inle lake traditional fisherman

Mandalay 

The second largest city in Myanmar called Mandalay is by the Irrawaddy River. The golden "statues" belong to this luxurious huge floating hotel. And obviously locals had a laundry day just at the entrance of it :)

Mandalay Royal Palace. The 413-hectare royal palace compound is surrounded by four 2 km long walls and a moat 64 m wide, 4.5 m deep.

Myanmar is full of temples. In every colour and shape.

This is how you steer a boat. Captain of Irrawaddy river!

Sunrise on Irrawaddy river. The river flows from north to south through Myanmar. It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway.

Our boat. Mandalay to Bagan.

Local riverboats