I finally got around to putting all of my photos up, so I decided to do a trip review.

I am mainly focusing on Myanmar for this, I may throw another review of Chiang Mai and Bangkok, but those do not really compare to Myanmar.

The main reason for this trip was I had a friend who asked me if I wanted to tag along with him as he goes to visit his parents who teach in Yangon. That, generally, is enough to get me to book a trip. Hell, if he asked me to go to Tajikistan to try a beer, that would be all it takes for me to go on a trip. So Myanmar was a simple sell, and he knew I would tag along.

His parents have been there for 8 years now, so they have seen the changes. His parents also taught at my American School in Dubai, so I knew them fairly well.

General plan:
Oct 18th: Arrive in Yangon
19th: Yangon
20th: Fly to Bagan
21st: Bagan
22nd: Fly to Inle Lake
23rd: Inle Lake
24th: Fly to Yangonn
25th: Yangon

So, we had a week there. I do feel that we saw most of the main sights there. If you get the chance, go now. It will be ruined. it will lose its charm soon. Prices can only go up. The people are, in general, extremely nice. A lot of people speak english, so that wasnt an issue.

The main things (that we saw) in Yangon was the main pagoda. I will say that it was impressive. It has put every other one to shame that I have seen. I will note that it was (according to his parents) a lot more crowded than it was in previous years. The other main attraction is the main market, a lot of vendors and street food. Another thing of note, there are no ATMs. You have to bring new US bills and exchange them. This leaves you with a pile of bills that you have to carry in your backpack. It is fun, but they only gave me bills equivalent of roughly $1 bills. I had a nice chunk of bills to throw around.

Yangon pictures:









































The power went out at this point....happens a lot.




After Yangon, we caught an internal flight to Bagan, Myanmar. This place is just plain impressive. Over 2000+ temples literally everywhere. They were build around 700 or so years ago (some sooner) but it was crazy just to see them everywhere. We started in a market and then headed out to a pagoda and then all of the temples.

































































































The last stop is Inle Lake. It more or less is known for it stilted villages and the way they fish. We had our own boat and guide who took us around.

It started with a temple and then headed to a market and then onto the lake.

Great pics. Been wanting to go for a while now. Buddy of mine did the hot air balloon ride at Bagan, sounded like a lot of fun.

Yeah, the hot air would have been nice if it wasn't $300+ a person....just not in my budget.

thanks for sharing those. definitely need to get there before it opens up and becomes Angkor Wat...

incredible, thanks.

Beautiful pics with all the water.

But seeing these pics makes me realize I don't think I'll ever have any desire to go there! Just not much in those pics piques my interest.



well, except for the one on the left

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing

What up with the tech shirt?

I went to Tech...pretty much everyone knows that on here.

I use this site because it is about the only localized travel forum I can find.

Very cool!

What type of Camera and which lenses did you bring with you? I love all the interior shots with the super wide angle fish eye lens. I need to get one of those sometime. The sunset pictures at the end were amazing. It's too bad the sky was so clear for all of the temple pictures in Mayanmar. Could have been so cool if there were some clouds up there to add something interesting in the sky to look at.

Why did they build so many temples that close together?

quote:

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Very cool!

What type of Camera and which lenses did you bring with you? I love all the interior shots with the super wide angle fish eye lens. I need to get one of those sometime. The sunset pictures at the end were amazing. It's too bad the sky was so clear for all of the temple pictures in Mayanmar. Could have been so cool if there were some clouds up there to add something interesting in the sky to look at.

Why did they build so many temples that close together?

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I have a Canon 60D. The lenses that I generally carry are a Canon 10-22mm, Canon 18-135mm, a cheaper fisheye (cost around 300 on amazon...but I like just having that available but didnt want to spend too much on it.

As far as the temples...they were built somewhere between the 11-14th centuries and were build by wealthy families for religious reasons. Pretty much in every single one of them, there are buddhas and all of that.

Thanks for sharing. I'd love to get my hands on a fisheye lens like that, just dont think I would ever use it enough to buy one. I have the 18-135 and love it. I use it for almost everything.

I'm about to take a trip to NYC though and might be picking up the 10-22 for some landscape shots there.

10-22 mm can be addicting but you have to switch out of it once you start using it. I found myself using it for everything after I first got it. I really like the lens (I like doing landscape/skylines) and it does great at that.

I have been eyeing to upgrade my 18-135 and get something like a 20-70 USM F2.8 or 1.4....something in that area. Just havent looked yet.

And I want to start traveling with a tripod...but I cant bring myself to pack one...especially on these types of trips. I need something that is compact but can actually get good shots.

Must've been awesome! Thanks for the report.

Defroach: love the pictures. I travel with my camera as well and found a 'real' tripod (one that I would be willing to put thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment on) that is about as portable / packable as possible. The legs fold down around the head and I'm able to fit it easily in a carry on size suitcase. I picked up last year before a trip to Antelope Canyon because I knew I would have to have a tripod for that trip. If you are interested I can send you the specifics--but it is a Feisol tripod with a photo clam ball head. I got it from reallybigcameras.com. I've been extremely happy with it.

I'm bookmarking this because I hope to make a trip to Bagan one day--I travel to Bangkok about once a year for work and want to make a trip to Bagan at the tail end of a Bangkok trip.

I can probably google that tripod and look I to it. Thanks for the recommendation.

As far as Bagan...AirAsia now flies Bangkok (Don Mueng Airport) to Mandalay for a reasonable price. From Mandalay, there are about 3-4 tourist airlines that do the "circuit" of cities (Bagan is about 30 min and Inle is about 45). Other than the main pagoda in Yangon, I'd say it's skippable. Air Asia also flies to Yangon FWIW.

I may try to get a tripod by March as I have Cambodia/Laos then.

Thank you for the tips on flights out of Bangkok. When my trip to Asia is finalized I'll probably come back to you with some specific questions. Bagan is on my photography travel bucket list.

Do you think that there would be any problems traveling there alone?

The specific Feisol tripod I got is the CT-3441T. When you look at the reallybigcameras.com website they have 6 or 7 Feisol tripods, so that should help narrow it down. It was specifically designed as a travel tripod, so it folds down as compactly as any carbon fiber tripod out there. If you email the owner of reallybigcameras and tell him what gear you have he can recommend the correct ball head and mounting plates. He was amazing to work with--very responsive.

I also just found a great travel photo backpack. I've had a Tamrac forever, but it sucks for anything other than camera gear. The one I just got is from f-stop gear. They have removable inserts for camera equipment, so I can scale up or down depending on what gear I want to take. It has a ton of room above the camera insert for clothes, food, water, so for a couple of day hiking trip I could pack everything (including camera gear) in the backpack.

Thanks again for that.

I did a quick look on amazon and they are not the cheapest tripods out there, but the money issue isn't that big of a deal for something that I can pretty much use with any camera for a long time.

As far as traveling alone, I tend to travel alone and did not on this trip (just due to who we knew).

I think the biggest issue traveling alone will be your budget more than anything else. I do not know how you travel or where you typically stay, but there are not that many "budget" places in Myanmar that are nice. There are a lot of nicer hotels (which we were staying at) that were still reasonable priced for now. In a year or two, I am guessing their prices will double (they apparently had in the last 3 years as well). We were averaging 100 a night split between two of us.

I also do not usually travel with a guide...but at this sort of place, we did. It made it incredible easy to get around and show us the sites...and I can highly recommend the guy that we used (if needed, I can get his name from the people who got him for us, but do not have it off the top of my head). I did not pay for the guide as our hosts did, so I cannot give you that price.

If you wanted a more budget route of traveling alone, I can get that from my brother. He went there about 3 months before me by himself, stayed at budget places, and had no guides (but rented a bike).

Great input on the hotels and guide, thank you. I typically put price at 3rd or 4th down on the list when looking for lodging. $100 a night to $150 a night is typical, so sounds like I'll be OK. More important for me is proximity to what I want to see (since I tend to get up early for sunrise shots), clean, and connectivity so that I can keep in touch with my family (I understand that connectivity in Burma is almost non existent though).

I was asking more along the lines of being alone with a lot of camera gear early morning and late evening (best light for landscape shots) in what appears to be a pretty isolated area. Everything I've read about Bagan is that there is a good chance you'll be the only one in many of the areas, so I didn't know how safe it was. My guess is fine, but I thought I would ask someone who was there recently. I'm comfortable traveling alone (meet some great people along the way usually), but I also don't want to put myself in a situation that I shouldn't be in.

I will definitely hit you up later for the info on the guide.

How hard was it to get from Bagan to Inle lake? I assume that you fly back to Mandalay and then transfer to a flight to Inle? Then a taxi from the airport to the village / town on the lake?

Regarding the tripod, you are correct, it isn't the least expensive, but from what I found after a month of searching, it was the best combination of size, weight, height (I'm 6'3"), cost, and capacity that I could find. My total for the tripod, ball head, mounting plates, and spike feet was about $650. After using it for the last year (and not having a good tripod for 7 years of photography before that) I can tell you that it is the second most important thing I have spent money on behind lenses. For my landscape / travel photography, the tripod and a couple of good filters (circular polarizer and neutral density) have made a huge difference.

And I also agree with an earlier statement you made about the 10-22 mm lens--it is addicting. I love that lens.

Since landscape is generally what I do most of, I should probably invest in something better.

As far as safety, Myanmar felt incredibly safe. I did not have a single issue. You may be mistaken about the lack of crowds around, it is definitely growing. The two people we were with that live there said they were there 5 years ago and no one was really there, but at sunset now, the good temples were covered with people.

I cannot say about the mornings...I wish I had gotten up and used the guide to take me somewhere for sunrise (I was awake at 5 AM every morning just due to jetlag).

They do offer a hot air balloon ride in the mornings that give you great views but come at a steep price ($250/person I believe).

As far as the hotel goes, I believe it was called Thande Hotel in Old Bagan. It was right on the river and in the old town. There was not much around there as far as restaurants/nightlife, but it had a good sitting area and decent (Americanized) drink prices.

It also had strong enough wifi to use skype and do all the normal things on the computer.