Burma. Part II. CitiesMapSeptember 28–October 2, 2013 Burma is actively building and developing as it tries to catch up after decades of stagnation and isolation. Soon, those who come here won’t be able to recognize the country. ![]() YangonMapAn awesome place. ![]() Simply fantastic. ![]() With shady green streets. ![]() With buildings covered in plants. ![]() With laundry drying outside people’s windows. ![]() With intricate wiring. ![]() With straight streets. ![]() With intimate back alleys. ![]() How delightful: because the houses are built so close together, people who own ACs have devised special screens to divert hot exhaust away from their neighbors’ windows. ![]() Policemen showering after a shift. ![]() The city is blossoming. ![]() But soon, all this will be gone. ![]() Restoration experts and barbarians with scrub brushes will descend upon Yangon. ![]() And it will become just another city. ![]() Bus stops. ![]() A fire hydrant on a massive pedestal. ![]() A traffic light with an elegantly perforated mast arm support (like in Bandar Seri Begawan or Singapore). ![]() Cross at the crosswalk. ![]() A street name plaque. ![]() Old and new electrical boxes. ![]() Dumpsters. ![]() This used to be a post pox. Or perhaps a lamppost. ![]() BaganMapA fairly lackluster place. ![]() With no trace of any urban planning effort. ![]() Which is why the pigs feel right at home. ![]() A big village, in other words. ![]() The surrounding countryside resembles rural Russia. But there’s one important difference. You can see the tops of various pagodas, stupas and temples everywhere you look. ![]() I can’t think of any other place in the world with such pure, sincere, large-scale madness. I’m sure photographers who come here start running out of space on their memory cards after half an hour. ![]() In terms of beautiful things, it’s also worth nothing the giant Buddha lying inside some kind of shed. ![]() And the world’s prettiest umbrella shop. ![]() Speaking of rain—as I was exploring one part of the archaeological zone, it began to rain, which cut off access to the hotel I had booked. Even trucks wouldn’t risk the swim across. I had to spend the night at a different hotel. ![]() MandalayMapBurma’s second largest city. There are concrete kilometer markers every hundred meters along the highway from the airport. ![]() The poor live under the power lines. No one placed them there on purpose, of course—they’re squatting on the land. ![]() And this is how people live downtown. ![]() Mandalay is a very boring, modern, nondescript, noisy, dirty Asian city with straight streets and cookie-cutter neighborhoods. ![]() Fire hydrants are often caged. To prevent what, I wonder? ![]() An Apple Store. ![]() Traffic light repairs. ![]() Power line repairs. ![]() A residential neighborhood downtown. ![]() A pathway of bricks strewn across a puddle is seen as a perfectly normal way to get to and from the buildings. Because puddles are compulsory and inevitable. ![]() A street sign. ![]() A bus shelter. ![]() The only point of interest in the city (and the only reason anyone comes here) is the giant Kremlin-like palace in the center. Its entire grounds are occupied by the military. ![]() This is where their barracks, headquarters, etc. are situated. ![]() In the very center of all this is a temple complex which visitors are allowed to see. The most interesting building here is the water tower with a spiral staircase around it. ![]() One indisputable advantage of Burma’s temples is that they haven’t yet been ruined by fire safety regulations. There are no smoke detectors on the ancient ceilings, no hideous illuminated exit signs above the doorways. ![]() Then again, there are also no rules against giving Buddha an LED halo. ![]() |
september–october
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september–october
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september–october 2013
Burma. Part II. Cities
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