Out of Norm Travels - Myanmar travels: Part I - Bagan

-
Myanmar recently reintroduced itself to the world after it held its first general election in 2010 following the release of politician and human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi and the lifting of EU sanctions in 2012. I was fortunate to have visited this beautiful country with world renowned national geographic photographer, Michael Yamashita and Jock Montgomery of Compass Rose expeditions in early 2014. 

 Of the many locations visited during this whirlwind 10 days photography experience, Bagan stood out as a must visit location. 
 
Bagan (Burmese: ပုဂံ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Burma (Myanmar). It was the former capital of the Kingdom of Pagan in the 9th to 13th century. There remains over 2200 temples, monasteries, stupas and monuments and pagodas day. Info taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagan.

It houses the highest density of Buddhist architecture in the world and boosts a jaw dropping landscape. What will definitely seal the deal will be taking a hot air balloon to view the sunrise. I highly recommend Balloons over Bagan who is by far the most safety conscious balloon operating company out there.

Here are some captures taken on that unforgettable balloon trip!


Till the next time, Onto the world and beyond!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out of Norm Travels -Beijing China - Walk up to Great Wall of China (JinShanLing section) on 21 May 2012

-
Image
This is a tick of my "to-do" list - Climb the Great Wall of China. There was never a doubt in my mind that I will do this climb & I was fortunate enough to do it again before I turn half century old.  Unlike my recollection of my first trip up along the Great Wall where I had little time to explore the Great Wall, this trip was arranged specially to ensure that I got to travel from one end of the Wall to another. As a result, I got to spend a significant time taking photos of the journey up along the Wall (without the thousands of best friends that would get their head into the picture). I specifically avoided the more popular Badaling section is where hordes of tourists are ferried when it comes to climbing the Great Wall.  This time the climb was carried out at the JingShanLing section of the Wall - where the old section of the Wall is still standing. This meant that in most areas my group of 3 was very much walking up along the Wall on our own with not many other t...
Read more

Out of Norm Travels - Iceland The Land of Contrasts

-
Image
As I wrote this, I had already finished my last bits of  Skyr, Iceland's famous low fat yogurt  and with that last bit, all my lovely memories from a land I had visited in early February 2016 started flooding back.  This land is located some 12,680 km/7,878 miles away from home and took me some 16+ hours over 2 airlines before I finally landed on  Keflavik   International Airport ,  Iceland's international airport located in   Reykjavik, which is also Iceland’s capital. Reaching Iceland has been nothing short of a dream with my travel into extreme cold where "normal" means 0 degrees or less. For me, Iceland is a country of contrasts where Fire meets Ice, Water claps hands with the Earth, Skies says hello to the Earth and the Land where Giants, Trolls and Elves used to roam.  Our travels across this vast land first brought us towards  Kirkjufell  (West Iceland) on the nor...
Read more

Out of Norm Travels -2010 - Bhutan 11-20 June 2010- Day 1

-
Image
Reminiscing of my 1st Photo trip with my DSLR - Bhutan, the Land of the Dragons aka Happiest Place in the World.  I woke up at 3a.m. in Bangkok for a 3.50a.m. checkin for the 5.50a.m. flight using Bhutan ’s national carrier, “ Druk Air ”, the only flight that travels from Bangkok to the only airport in Bhutan that is in the area of Paro. We touched down in Paro at 750a.m. Bhutan is 1 hour behind Bangkok i.e. 2 hours behind Singapore .   The touchdown was fairly exciting as the plane had to navigate through a maze of the mountains and valleys and flight path was almost in a zigzag manner. I managed to get exciting birds-eye view of the flight path. For the first few moments after touchdown, passengers like me was busy taking photos of the exquisite airport with the intricate carvings and paintings. Immigration for 11 pax took some time as there was only 1 copy of the group visa for us to gain entry into the country. Here’s my fav shot of the airport. Accordin...
Read more