Some moments from the Shwedagon Paya temple

After a long time of absence today a post in the Blog with a set of 8 photos from a railroad trip between Yangon and Mandalay.

Today, I present a slide show of a Moustache Brothers' performance.

The Moustache Brothers are a comedic trio from Mandalay, Burma. They are well known for their live performances and specially for their sharply satirical criticism of the totalitarian Burmese military regime.

Have a look at a home performance of the brothers and listen to Lu Maw talking about three generations of comedians and what happens after a performance at the home of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The first "democratic" elections since 20 years have been held today in Burma. The winners of the elections already were announced a few days ago. Probably more "old wine in a new bottle" as Lu Maw said at the end of the slide show.

More slide shows can be seen in the galleries selection of the website.

Lu Maw is one of the famous Moustache Brothers who have a daily "political incorrect" show in Mandalay.

This portrait is made after a show during an interview which, soon will appear on this website.

This couple (see the couple by clicking on the image), a physician and his wife where sitting in their garage while having lunch. They had a wonderful preserved car which definitely was part of the family.

From Mrauk-U it is possible to go by boat on the Lemo river to small Chin Villages where the elder women have tattooed faces.

In the first villages other travelers where visiting and it was more a show than an authentic feeling. We made our guide clear that we prefer to see more remote villages and met people there. After navigating upstream we arrived at a small village where just a few locals were at home. Houses were on poles and it just was a wonderful place. We had a chat with a friendly man, he said his mother is the only one woman with tattooed face left in the village. We visited the woman while she was laying on the floor, she was old and fragile. She was not able to stand up anymore, her family took care of her and her son just had done her hair.

She was completely aware there were visitors and was obviously happy about that attention. The grandchildren knew she was old and suffering, they where quiet and with great respect.

The images in the blog where too small for my taste, I changed the layout and now a bigger image (or a small slide show) is available.

Click on the image to see the new layout and blog slide show. Please let me know if something does not work well in your browser.

time to post another portrait from the last trip to Burma / Myanmar:

We arrived in Sittwe in the west of Burma late afternoon. During the daytime there was an solar eclipse and the street was full of emotions and excitement. I took an incredible number of images of the people in the street, this girl has been following me and definitively wanted to pose as well.

This portrait definitively is more soft and less intense as the previous one.

The girl wears traditional Thanaka face paint which is worn as decoration and sun block.