Also see: Our photography tour to Myanmar
As a country that is just transitioning into modernity and beginning to open up to rest of the world, Myanmar offers many charms of yesteryears to travellers. For photographers on the move, the country offers delightful opportunities in the corners of its cities, in its tropical landscapes, watery expanses and the monastic centers. Here is a collection of inspirations from Myanmar for all photography enthusiasts who enjoy travelling.
1. A Journey in Yangon’s Circular Train
The three-hour journey on the circular train in Yangon takes you through its suburbs, rural areas, markets and the city itself. On a journey with your camera in the train, you can catch conversations, photograph the life in and outside the train and observe the flurry of activity at busy stations.
2. The glittering Shwedagon Pagoda
One of the holiest sites in Myanmar is also one of the most photogenic. The golden pagoda glitters in the darkness and subdues everything else around it.
3. Monks and nuns seeking alms
Millenniums after Buddha has come and gone, the tradition of seeking alms is still practiced by the monks and nuns of Myanmar. In some places, you see pious donors coming to offer donation in a monastery. Or monks walking in long lines with a bowl in the streets in the morning hours.
4. People Working in the Streets
Myanmar’s markets and old towns have a feel of its past. You will see crowded streets filled with small shops, busy porters moving back and forth, wholesale and spice market with a characteristic pungent smell, rickshaw drivers and cart pullers and much more.
5. Flower Vendors
Go to any market and you will see a shop or two selling fresh colourful flowers. The flowers are meant to be kept as offerings to Buddha at the altar in the homes.
6. Wet, tropical landscapes
There are places in Myanmar that sees plenty of rain, which is obvious from the dark green vegetation and the abundance of paddy fields.
7. The Intha Fishermen of Inle Lake
The Intha fishermen of Inle Lake are well-known for their unique technique of rowing a boat using their legs, keeping both hands free for fishing.
8. Wood-Fire Kitchens in the Monasteries
The monasteries, like everything else in Myanmar, are modernizing. Again, like everything else in Myanmar, you will always see a glimpse of past by walking around a bit.
9. The floating markets of Inle Lake
Inle Lake is a small floating universe, where everyday life depends on the lake waters.
10. Pagodas everywhere, old and new in various degree of dilapidation and restoration
For thousands of years, people of Myanmar have been building pagodas. Some have weathered the test of times and some are being restored back to what they were in their good days. One doesn’t have to go too far to find a cluster of pagodas anywhere in Myanmar.
11. Cluster of glittering Pagodas
And very often you will see pagodas painted in golden colours shining in the sun. Put a bunch of them together and they stand out distinctly from their green surroundings.
12. The old way of life
There is a timelessness in everyday life in many parts of Myanmar.
13. Expanse of Pagodas in Bagan
Seeing Bagan’s vast expanse of pagodas is every traveller and photographer’s dream.
