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Mandalay manufacturing – Betel stall
Walking through the streets of Myanmar you will spot a popular practice mostly executed by males. Chewing areca nuts wrapped with lime and tobacco in a small package betel leaf. The packages are produced in roadside stalls all around the country. The ingredients give their consumers a heavily red stained saliva which they are spitting…
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Mandalay manufacturing – Buddha statue workshops
Many of the gold leafs produced in Mandalay will be used in the Mahamuni Buddha temple. This temple is one of the most important pilgrim sites in Myanmar. The Buddha itself is not allowed to be approached by women. They have to wait outside while men are allowed to enter the shrine area where the…
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Mandalay Manufacturing – Gold Leaf Shop
Worshipping is a common practice all over Myanmar. People donate different types of goods to the buddha statues. This includes sticking tiny sheets of gold leafs to the buddha statues themselves. Almost all of the gold leafs used for this type of appreciation are produced in small mom and pop style shops around the 36th…
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Sun rising over Bagan
When we rode our electric scooter to the Dhammakaya temple east of New Bagan at 05:30 AM it was still dark. After the sky turned lighter we waited on top of a abandoned monastery to see the sun rising in the east. The sky was hazy and so it felt like the sunrise would not…
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Bagan sunset
Today we rented an electric scooter and cruised the temple fields of Old Bagan and Nyaung U. In the afternoon it was time to meet my old friends Christian and Daniela who just arrived to Bagan after traveling through Myanmar the last 3 weeks. After a few welcome drinks we were off to another round…
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Village on the shore
Somewhere between Mandalay and Bagan The cruise included a stop on the shore to visit a local village. The population is basically farmers. They earn a little extra by selling straw hats. The whole village seems to be a vital part of the production process. I was able to enter one of the buildings without…
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The kitchen
The boat trip was scenic no question. Nonetheless I didn’t want to stay on the upper deck taking pictures of shores with pagodas the whole day. I ventured off to the lower deck of the back of the ship. A kitchen was located right above the engine room. The staff were hesitant to let me…