In Myanmar, tea shops on the streets are a big part of local life. Above we are at a tea shop with our wonderful guide, Tin Soe and his wife.Above left, the Shwegadagon Pagoda in Yangon is a place where we, with thousands of other people, wanted to spend time. Praying, meditating, making offerings, and mostly watching people. There were novitiation ceremonies for young b0ys to make merit for their parents by going into the monkhood for a few weeks or longer, and families make a pilgrimage to be pray at this large pagoda complex. The photo does not begin to do justice to the size and magnificence of this special site.
(Left) Street scene in the city of Mandalay and, when we purchased a coconut to drink, the ladies we sat and visited with at the market stand. Also below is a photo of traditional Burmese dance.
Below is a photo of our taxi driver, Koye, at the wall of the palace at Mandalay.
We climbed the many stairs to the top of Mandalay Hill to the hilltop temples to see the beautiful view of the vast walled palace grounds, the city, and the Irrawaddy River in the distance. We met these teenage monks who wanted to practice their English and this young vendor girl. We talked and took photos together, then walked the long way down together and gave the monks a ride back to their monastery in the back of Ko Ye's tiny 40 year old taxi.
These shots are of our trip up the Irawaddy River to the ruins and pagodas of Mingun (bottom photo). We were the only ones on our boat. Ox carts provide taxi transportation from the river in Mingun.
