The Road From Mandalay IS the Irrawaddy River

And so the real journey begins...

Jennifer, Mel, Tim and Carolyn are waiting to get on the airplane to Mandalay where our cruise down the Irrawaddy River begins. The airline's motto is "You're Safe With Us!" Not that reassuring if you have to say it...

First stop on the bus journey from the airport to the boat was a little enclave of shrines out in the fields accessed from the bus by walking across a wooden bridge traversing a small river.

This fellow appeared to be the official overseer of the bridge. 

We saw this scene repeated at nearly every stop along the river: people loading or unloading from a boat to a truck or vice versa, carrying coal (in this case) or rocks or wood or goods in baskets balanced on their heads. Some was commercial (above) and some was personal (below).

As mentioned previously, the children were especially friendly. Very importantly, they were not asking for anything; they had just come to greet and welcome us. We met this little contingent as we arrived at our ship, the Pandaw II, a beautiful vessel, "hand finished in brass and teak by traditional craftsmen" (per the Pandaw the literature). It proved to be a very lovely and comfortable ship for our excursion.

 This was only the third tour down the Irrawaddy by Vantage (our tour group), and several of the places we visited were a first for the Vantage guides. The Pandaw purser was often our ambassador to the new locations.

For those living along it, the river provides many of life's necessities including a place to wash both one's clothes and one's self. The colorful clothing created many interesting displays along the shore.

This village was a new stop for the Vantage crew, and these children were the first to venture down to the shore to greet us. All the people of the village were very friendly and welcoming; in fact, we created a little flurry of excitement as an ever-growing and ever-changing band of happy, giggling children followed us on our tour of the camp.

One of the most fun things on our trip for both the photographers and the subjects was sharing the photo or the video. Everywhere photographers would stop and show their photo, and it was nearly always greeted with a smile or a laugh—occasionally from some of the older folks, it was just a slight, wry smile and a nod. The video was particularly fun, and since Carolyn and I usually stick together, she has many shots of me sharing my videos, and I have many videos of her sharing her photographs. A fun time was had by all.

In many of the villages and towns, the women wrapped their hair in cloth, but in this town the comb was the most common adornment for the hair. 

 Another farewell from the ever present contingent of children at each stop.

Carolyn captured an appropriate finale for our first day on the river.

Myanmar Faces—The Friendliest People

These photos come from our first day in Yangon, Myanmar; January, 2012.
Click on any photo to see a large copy and to access the "slideshow."

The people of Myanmar (Burma) are incredibly open and friendly. This young woman is
wearing thanaka, or tanaka, a powder which is ground from the thanaka tree and mixed
with a very small amount of water. It is used as makeup (by women and children as well
as by some men), as sunscreen, as a skin-coolant, as a complexion smoother and anti-acne
protection, and as an anti-fungal agent. It is certainly unusual to the newcomer, but one
grows almost instantly accustomed to it.

Burmese parents are very proud of their children and very
generous in allowing them to be photographed, so we

took hundreds of shots of them....

Many of the buildings had ground floor businesses below high rise apartments.

Our first excursion in Yangon (formerly Rangoon)
was to the awe-inspiring Shwedagon Pagoda,
one of the most ancient and most magnificent,
which is surrounded by a huge enclave of shrines
and a wide variety of images of Buddha.

The visitors include pilgrims and worshippers, tourists and vendors,
and everybody is taking pictures. That's my father in the background
with the video camera. We each shot over 20 hours of video....

The Shwedagon Pagoda in all its splendor.

"What's that up in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?"
[I love the composition of this piece.]

The clothing is very colorful for both girls and boys.
This snowflake shirt is actually rather subdued by
Burmese standards. If you look closely, you can see
that this young man is wearing thanaka on his face.

Although they were incredibly friendly and gregarious, expressing

warm greetings and jovial personas, the second the camera was 

turned on them their smiles turned into stoic looks (like early 

photographs when the subjects couldn't smile because it took

too long to take the shot, so they would sit with that straight-

mouthed, wooden look on their faces). Then, the instant that the

picture was taken, they were all smiles and laughter again. Though

they seemed genuinely pleased to have their picture taken, nearly 

everybody, from old people to little kids, got that same serious look,

so it was tricky to coax a smile.

However, they have such beautiful smiles,
it was well worth the coaxing.

Some, of course, posed quite willingly for the camera.

Others were a little more tentative.

The vendors were everywhere, but they were the sweetest
and least aggressive street vendors that we have encountered
in our many years of international travel.

Here are my parents (Carolyn's in-laws), Jennifer and Mel McMullen,
capturing a street scene. 87-years old; married for 65 of those years:
they just might be the inspiration for the original "energizer bunny."

Interesting anachronistic juxtaposition—
Clothes drying on a stick and a "SkyNet" dish.

"This little light of mine" in the back room at a monastery.

Myanmar (Me an' My) shadow

This is the view from our hotel room at the Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake
in Yangon. That is Shwedagon Pagoda in the distance at the right.

Seconds later.