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One of my favorite activities is simply to walk around and watch how people work and live their lives in other countries. I would normally take pictures on these walkabouts, but I used my GoPro this time and shot video instead. And my favorite place for these walkabouts is anywhere…

A mere ten-kilometer boat ride from Mandalay lies what some people call the largest pile of bricks in the world at Mingun. This astonishing pile of bricks was intended to be the largest pagoda in the world. It was never finished, and it was badly damaged in an earthquake. Yet,…

Mandalay is not that far from Bagan. I believe it is about 170 kilometers by road, and if you need to make that trip to catch your flight, there are a lot of very comfortable and reasonably-priced buses waiting to take you. Some of them will even come to your…

Eyesore or wonderful vantage point for viewing the Bagan Archaeological Zone? That was the question I wanted to answer about the Nan Myint Tower, or the Bagan Viewing Tower. I had a bit of a struggle finding my way there, which seems odd considering it was supposed to be an…

It was another very windy day in Bagan, and I jumped on my rented e-bike to do some more exploring. I had a vague idea of some of the pagodas and temples I wanted to visit in the Bagan Archaeological Zone, but I also wanted to be open to surprises…

There are well over 2,000 pagodas, temples, and other religious structures in the Bagan area of Myanmar. One of the most famous is the Shwezigon Pagoda, located just a couple hundred meters away from my guest house in the small town of Nyaung U. This was my first day in…

About 430 miles (690 kilometers) separate Yangon from Bagan, and I decided to cover that distance by train. I’ll always go somewhere by train (as opposed to a bus) if that is an option. I like to be able to get up out of my seat and walk around and…

With some illnesses and a failing computer, I have been off the Internet for a while and just enjoying life in Yangon. On this day, however, I decided to take my camera with me as I went to visit one of the most famous pagodas in the city. The Botataung…