Travel photos and journals from across Asia [1997-2024]
Again the road beckons, I was heading across country to Inle Lake and not being a 25 year old backpacker any longer I opted for a 45 minute flight at 55 bucks as opposed to a ten hour bus ride. I know it is low season but being the only…
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It was time to leave Mandalay and the ‘express’ ten hour ferry down river to Bagan pulls out at 7am sharp. One of the pluses of travelling in the off season is that you’re not swamped with bus tourists and Lonely Planet toting backpackers, the boat was at less than…
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Today I’m riding into Shan State and the former British colonial hill station Pyin Oo Lwin at 3,500 feet, the town was established in 1896 as a place to escape the Mandalay heat. Escaping Mandalay is the first challenge as a traffic cop pulls me over for riding over the…
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Around Mandalay Not every day on the road is an adventure waiting to unfurl and offer wild new experiences. Today for example is the second time on this trip I’ve had a bad belly and need close proximity to a comfortable latrine (five feet away at the moment). Coupled with…
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It was time to leave the eclectic streets of Yangon and head north so I decided that a better way to see Burmese life would be from the open window of a train rather than a night bus or flight. The ticket cost just under ten dollars for ‘upper class’…
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The weather looks favourable today so I’m taking a walk to Shwedagon Pagoda, one of Southeast Asia’s most impressive monuments to religion. It is around 3km from my digs, so I venture through the Indian quarter first to reach the approach road which belies the sheer size of the stupa,…
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A short ferry ride takes me across the Yangon River and into the Dala Township which was virtually destroyed by cyclone Nargis in 2008. Today it is the poorest part of Yangon and home to 2 million people, many of which live in simple wooden shacks perched over squalid waterways…
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Circular Railway Yangon’s circular train runs on rickety narrow gauge rails from the city center, out past the airport and suburbs, and into rural lands surrounding the capital. The loop takes three hours, stops at around 40 stations, costs just a dollar, and is a great way to see life…
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Ever since my first foray into Burma in 2005 I had a deep desire to return to this mysterious land to the west of Thailand. First impressions from 20,000 feet are of an emerald green landscape dotted with tiny wooden villages and meandering coffee brown rivers. Descending to land in…
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As tourism increases in the beauty spots of Asia and development races ahead in a relentless tide of construction, many of the natural wonders that attracted people in the first place are being swallowed up. Beaches become concrete boulevards, primary forest becomes a parking lot and coral reefs simply don’t…
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