Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō)

Tsukiji Market (築地市場, Tsukiji Shijō) is one of the places a lot of people like to go to. It is a large wholesale market for fish, fruits and vegetables in central Tokyo. There are ten wholesale markets in the metropolitan area in Tokyo. Tsukiji Market is the most famous of thisbmarkets that handle the distribution of fish, meat, produce and flowers. At this Market they are handling over 2,000 tons of marine products per day. It is expected to move to a new site by spring 2016 supposed to be in Toyosu.

The busy atmosphere of scooters, trucks, sellers and buyers hurrying around, make Tsukiji Market a perfect photographic attraction. As the market had never been created with tourists in mind you can imaging, that the aging market's infrastructure is posing some problems.

There is an inner market where most of the wholesale business and the famous tuna auctions are taking place, and an outer market whose retail shops and restaurants carter to the public.

The wholesale area consists of hundreds of small stands in a large, crowded hall, where buyers and sellers hurry along narrow lanes with their carts and trucks. It is an exciting area to view and photograph the fish and the action.

I got access due to some connections I had working some time in Japan and hadn't the problem to fight with all the other tourists and photogs. Here a bunch of images to wet your appetite.

Sanda - San Shou

Sanda or San Shou is a sport that originates from China and is similar to Muay Thai and Kickboxing because it also involves punching, kicking and knee strikes. What separates San Da is that it also involves throwing techniques, takedowns and sweeps making it a great stand up art that is very suitable striking base for Mixed Martial Arts.

It’s the amalgamation and combination of these different fighting skills that have always distinguished Chinese styles.

A polished Sanda fighter must be able to display strong kicking and striking techniques and be able to apply throws, sweeps and takedowns quickly and efficiently.

This fighting style incorporates the following elements:

1. Ti –Kicking

2. Da - Striking

3. Shuai - Throwing

As far as I found out Sanda was originally developed by the Chinese military based upon the study and practices of traditional Kung Fu and modern combat fighting techniques. Sanda, in simple words, is face-to-face fighting with bare hands between two people, consisting of offensive and defensive effect and requires kicking at distance, pouching at stride distance and take-down throws when close.

You can find some general information at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanshou) and detailed information about it on the International Kickboxing Federation (http://www.ikfkickboxing.com/SanShouRules.htm).

Ba Trang

You are visiting Hanoi and intend to go to one of the classical handicraft villages but are reluctant to go to far? There is quite the solution at hand. The closest and easiest of this villages around Hanoi is Ba Trang which you will find just 10 km afar. The easiest way is by crossing the Red River on Chuong Duong Bridge and than following the dyke southbound accompanying the Red River not far away.

Ba Trang is the most famous ceramic village in the Red River Delta which has been transformed in something like a market town for the ceramics of this region. The old name can be translated in different forms from “bowl makers” to “bowl workshop” and last but not least to “100 kilns”.

charcoal patties at a wall

It is in my opinion one of the most visited handicraft villages around Hanoi due to its close proximity. The village itself has been founded around the 15th century. Due to some historians the making of ceramics can be traced down to the 13th century during the Ly Dynasty.

The village used charcoal kilns for ages and only some years ago changed the kilns to get heated by gas. So you can still find charcoal patties made of coal dust stuck up and ried like cowpats at the houses and walls in Ba Trang. The village has been always short on space and therefore is knit very tightly. Buildings are very close together and residential houses mixed among ceramic workshops. This creates an exceptionally web of narrow alleys.

Alleyway in Ba Trang

And here the fun begins. Take the time to go to this maze of alleyways. Take the time to get lost. Move from one handicraft workshop to the other. Marvel at the fine examples of ceramics you will find here and indulge in haggling for a good price if you find something you are lusting after. You can see the whole production line from preparing the clay, the shaping on to decoration and glazing the ceramic.

If you are now a little bit more interested I like to give you some more images to look at. If you really want to explore the village and like to have more information you should obtain an excellent guide called “Bat Trang, Traditional Pottery Village, A self guided walk” published by the Friends of Vietnamese Heritage Foundation.

Delivery of clay picture one

Delivery of clay picture two

Double Test Nikon D800E and Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art lens

Two O'clock early morning in Hanoi

First of all special thanks to Jean Dominique for providing lens and body.

At photokina 2012 Sigma announced a new kind of “Art” lens, which provides a lens portfolio of three categories: "Contemporary", "Art" and "Sports". These product lines don't apply to existing Sigma lenses, but any newly developed lens will be assigned to one of them. The first lens carrying the "Art" tag is the 35mm f/1.4 DG.

So, as I intended to get the Nikon D800E as a body and my friend bought the Sigma art lens I decided to have a look at how the lens performs as well.

As you can see the depth of field is very narrow at f1.4 and the bokeh quite pleasing.

At first glance I think that Sigma started this time really at the design board and came up with a result that is very impressive and quite different from what you might have seen from Sigma in the past. The 35/1.4 is built and designed very well. Parts of the lens tube are made from metal, including the focus ring, some parts are made from plastic if I’m not mistaken, so there's a bit of material mixture. In my opinion the lens really feels like a premium product.

And this is all I have to say technically. I just go for my gut feeling if I like a lens, body and so on and look at the images I can get and that’s it.

Nevertheless a 35mm lens is a really comfortable focal length especially for street photographers (at least in my opinion). Every now and then you might come across a camera or lens that hits a special sweet spot of image quality, usability and price that will make it a recommendation. The Sigma 35/1.4 is just such a thing - it manages the impressive trick of being substantially cheaper than the camera manufacturers' equivalents while matching or beating them optically..

walking through the streets of the Old Quarter and its surrounding I got some shots without stopping my stride.

I’ve had this lens one week and pulled off nearly 3000 frames with it. I’ve photographed street scenes with the Hanoi Photo Club. Usually I take my 24mm Nikon lens or a nifty fifty but I have to tell you …. Wow this 35 … it’s sharp. Wicked sharp. Sigma has done it for me. They created an incredibly affordable tool even if you are on a budget.

Here my opinion:

Pros: High-quality portrait lens at a great price; solid, functional build with an unpretentious design, it creates a shallow depth of field and a pleasing background blur

Cons: In low-contrast shooting conditions, the lens can take some time to focus from infinity to close up; the lens shows sometimes a hunting time for focus in low light;  no weather sealing.

That’s it guys if you are interested in the details and the technical things you should search it in Google as I am only writing about my personal and subjective visual experience. I’ll put out some images I like as a reference.

Hanoi and the little photographer

The area around Hoan Kiem Lake is like the spiritual and physical heart of Hanoi. At time of changing seasons and on holidays there is most probably no Hanoian who don’t visit this special place. If you happen to catch a glimpse of the head of the big turtle living here in the lake is considered extremely lucky.

Turtle tower at Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi

So I went there as well and didn’t get a glimpse of the turtles head but I got a glimpse of the little photographer taking his time shooting along different places in the area.

He photographed the turtle tower at the northern end of Hoan Kiem Lake. This tower has been build to honor the magic turtle who is said to still guard the sword of Le Loi.

Der Ngoc Son Temple is one of the picturesque temple in Hanoi and as well at Hoan Kiem Lake built on an islet at a place where in the 16th to 18th century you would have found a country villa. In the 19th century the site became a Buddhist pagoda.

It seems the little photographer was interested in the Old Quarter as well. He seemed to have a lot of fun.

Box training in Vietnam

South East Asia is one of the most touristic places in the world and sparks a bunch of different interests in people. One niche aspect are the traditional martial arts of the Indochinese peninsula. Most of them are related among one another, and can be grouped to southern Chinese and Indian martial arts.

The most popular nowadays is kickboxing.

Boxing in Hanoi

Apart from that there are some traditional arts as: Khmer Pradal Serey , Siamese Muay Boran (Ancient Boxing), Muay , Laotian Muay Lao , in Vietnam most and foremost VoVinam and/or Vietvodao. Apart from that there are some mixes in between with western boxing style.

I got an opportunity to visit one of the local training center. Watching the guys train, you could see that they where very fast, had good form and tremendous power.

The gym didn’t have a sandbags and a ring – just a plain open hall which is used as well for different other sports. Most of their work is shadow boxing and sparing. They do as well lot of things western boxer doesn’t do, such as sliding drills, punching drills, and blocking drills.  One cool guy kept switching his jabs, left and right hand lead. He didn’t actually change his lead leg, but twisted his body about 50% and lead with a right hand jab. It looked quite tricky and in a fight would certainly be a new way to look at.

As already said they didn’t have a ring, so all sparring is on the vast floor. Normally you can try to shepherd your opponent onto the ropes or into the corner and pound them. This is much harder in such an open fighting situation. The speed and stamina of the fighter gives them big advantage in such an open situation.

Quite a good opportunity to have my camera cope with the low light situation and luckily I just had to struggle with this and not with the fighters itself.

punch

Theatre and Concert Photography

The Hanoi Photo Club got the chance for some members to try some kind of  Theatre- and Concert photography at an event of the German Academic Exchange Service.

Here some ideas what you might think of if you have a chance to take images alike.

1) Preparation Before you leave home you need to be prepared for the task ahead. First there’s the obvious stuff. Pack empty memory cards, a couple of extra batteries
 
2) Theatre etiquette
Weeks or months of rehearsals and planning will have been put into the preparation for the show, so be under no illusion that you, as a photographer, are not going to get any special attention.
 
3) Flash or no flash.
The light levels are going to be very low, so it's very tempting to use flash. But the golden rule is, during the performance, absolutely no flash… ever!
 
4) Lens choice
Fast glass is the name of the game. Fast glass is lenses that have a wide aperture. f4 is OK but f2.8 is better. Image stabilizing lenses can help with camera shake, but motion blur is the biggest problem. When you get shutter speeds of 1/100th second or below you can expect to get motion blur on the hands and feet of the actors. Predicting when the actors are going to move is a skill you'll learn very quickly.
 
5) Camera settings
Shoot in Aperture Priority mode and open the aperture as wide as possible. Keep an eye on the shutter speed and stop down whenever you get the chance. ISO is often 1600 iso and record in RAW. Theatre lighting can be a mixed bag, so RAW allows to correct the white balance back home.
 
6) And finally…

Over shoot. Expect one in five shots to be sharp and perhaps only half of those to be good photographs. You may well do better then that, but it’s far better to have two many pictures then to few.

Here is a selection of images of this evening.

Myanmar seen in monochrome

As I’ve been in Burma traveling around some years ago I could see the big potentials as an exciting travel destination. It started to take a faster pace in 2011 as more and more tourists had the chance to visit the country. Now it has been raised from fourth place in 2012 to the top spot in 2013 in some of the traveler magazine ratings.

Mist over the Irrawady River

It’s actually not much of a surprise for me as you can find plenty of highlights in the country. There are the old grand colonial buildings in Yangoon itself not to mention the incredible Schwedagon Pagoda. In the north in Mandalay near the Irrawaddy River you will find a town surrounded by hills which are topped with pagodas wherever you look.

A stupa-studded plain in the middle of the country – Bagan – is waiting to be explored. And last but not least the vast Inle Lake here you can find fishermen in their canoes paddling an oar with one leg.

Everything is worth to be shown in bright and vibrant colors. That said I just got a call from a friend of the Hanoi Photo club who accused me to have given him a virus. A virus of black and white!

Canoe with fisherman in Myanmar

So I thought, as I already have some experience using it in my street photography, why not cast color aside as well for some landscape shots in favor for a timeless and beautiful look of monochrome? But to do myself justice I didn’t do it for the one and only reason many might try it nowadays.

All too often you can see that black and white is casually dismissed and just used for problem images. It seems to me, that it is often taken as a solution and quick fix when an image hasn’t worked in color. Why not try a b/w – wow!? – or may be not so wow at all.

I might look like an old grumpy grandfather - … back in the days when … But it is true back in the days of film b/w hasn’t been a safety net. You had to choose between color or b/w with film. To convert your color shots to b/w afterwards hasn’t been made a concept at that time as only a few photographer developed and processed their images on their own. Post-production was a thing you had a lab for.

Today with all different kind of post production software you can be your own master and just changing from color to b/w if your white balance settings are a mess, if the exposure is off or lighting is flat is very easy and tempting. Sometimes a good solution as well. On the other hand there is the downside that fewer photographers are taking their time to actually think in b/w.

Mandalay region

There might be hundreds of ideas why you should shoot in b/w at least once in a while – here just some few I was thinking of:

Timelessness

As I mentioned it before a b/w image gives you a classic look especially when you take portraits. It is a look very hard to reproduce in a color photograph.

Textures

As there are no color hues to distract you will see the textures and the different ranges in it much more.

Focus

By removing the color from an image your focus in the images will be much more prominent and you can guide the eye of the viewer easier than in a color image.

Shape and contrast

Light and dark are more obvious and shapes and shadows are there to help you create an image.

If you read some of the color studies you might recall that various colors give different emotional responses to different people – some of them are unique to individuals some are more universal. Our brain respond differently to b/w as it represents a reduction and gives us the chance to see the subtle charms of contrast, texture, pattern, shape and form.

Due to the still expensive gear concerning middle format photography I am shooting b/w film and as I like to develop the film on my own I opted for b/w and learned and am still learning in seeing things differently than shooting in color.

As I found the following article on the web: Black (and White) is Back by Brienne Walsh in Rangefinder Magazine I felt really good that it’s coming back. I am kind of drawn to the way they make me feel while shooting.

So just try to see things from a point of texture, shapes and the contrast between light and shadow and be surprised what monochrome images can give to you.

Wide - Wider - Ultra Wide

Wide lenses are the difficult to use well. Ultra wide lenses even more. They are actually not for getting everything into the frame, but for giving the viewer the feel that he experience to be into the middle of the action. They are as well called Fisheye lenses and they are just plain fun.

I had a chance to get hold of a 180-degree field-of-view lens which I tried out today. It is a joy just to point at various things — it is almost impossible to miss any action in front you.

The lens I got is an 8 mm Fisheye lens with an manual aperture ring — its smooth adjustments while shooting video make a difference compared to the abrupt clicks of most apertures. The lens doesn't communicate at all with my camera, which make it full manual, but using it with the Sony NEX 7 its fun nevertheless.

Vegetables at the wet market

Using them properly, you should be rewarded with dynamic images like putting the muzzle of a revolver right in your face. There is a caveat If you can't or are to shy to get close, real close – it’s not a lens for you.

Ultra wide lenses should push the viewer's nose into the image. They are not for the faint of heart. If you are out jamming the lens into the face of enraged and crazy people might get you apart from dynamic images as well some other difficulties.

It requires to get exceptionally close and personal to anything you are pointing the lens at. Even a fraction of an inch can make a huge difference in composition, so a lot of practice is needed.

You will get plenty of drama in trees and clouds, which are normally innocuous, and there plenty of distortion as well. Think of ultra wide lenses as the opposite of tele lenses where you tend to back away from objects.

If your camera is even slightly out of the horizontal, verticals will converge. Buildings will develop leans, which add a sense of drama to otherwise dull scenes. If you have a chance to try don’t hesitate. I’m still working on it. Here some examples I did in b/w and color.

Hung Shing Festival

Friends of mine in Hong Kong organized a trip for me to see the Hung Shing festival. This festival is held on the 13th day of the second lunar month each year in honor of the historical figure Hung Hei who once upon a time had been a respected Chinese official. It is said that he was an astronomer and geographer who working as governor of Panyu in Guangdong province in the time of the Tang dynasty.

He was later on deified for the service rendered by him towards the merchants’ and fishermen of the province by making use of his extraordinary ability of predicting the weather.

Lion Dancers excersing before the big event

The festival celebrates the birthday of Hung Shing Tai Wong, the God of the Southern sea. Temples all over the South China coast worship and savor him for centuries. The celebrations are full of song and dance and very colorful. Dragon and lion dance performances parade the streets while various games and competitions are organized as well.

Festivities are particularly lively in the Ho Sheung Heung, a village that is believed to exist now over 800 years. The Hau Ku Shek Ancestral Hall is certainly one of the places apart from Hung Shing Temple where all this ancient remains can be found.

A great performance of Chinese opera, or Sun Kung Hei, which can be translated as Opera Performances for the Deities is held in a bamboo theatre just build for this event.  Apart from this big official part there are as well the following celebrations:  : Chinese martial arts shows,  Fa Pau Competetion (firecracker competition) and a Thousand People Bowl Meal.

So if you are here next year in this time frame don’t miss it.

Rebirth of the Cool Jazz Jams in Hanoi

In essence, a jam is an organized musical space within which one can exercise one’s chops. There are certainly some rules of engagement that might vary from jam to jam, that I don’t know as I’m not a player, but there is the all important vibe. It’s certainly not a beginner’s training session, but it isn’t a clique, either.

It’s all about a supportive atmosphere, with jazz as an integrity that maintains each jam via a technique borrowed from modern parenting: tough love.

jean Dominique getting more musicians on the stage

In a medium that depends on split-second thinking the jam sessions are vital mental and tactical nourishments for players. And, if you love a good head-cutting session than that’s the place to check out.

Jam sessions became an art form during the golden era of jazz – 1935 through the early 1960s – when Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Monk, Miles, and Coltrane were still new. New York was ground zero for jazz and jamming back then; in many ways it still is. Musicians often don't call out tunes. They just start playing and the others catch on, or don't.

You can meet new people, see old friends, hear new music, play great music and gain plenty of valuable experience. It is a great thing to do for an evening, if you want a break from your usual routine of chilling out at home, watching a sports game on the television or something alike.

So, go to the club, buy a drink and relax.

Jam Session at Millenium - Cafe des Arts

Ready to check out a jam session? There's much more to jazz music—and to the "session" in particular—than meets the eye.

There might have been some loony’s talking about the jazz night at Café des Art in Hanoi that would just die. The present owner started this jazz sessions some time ago and the event has retained its attraction since than.

I like to say that "The act of making improvised music is not a sterile act" and the Café des Arts is not a sterile place. It is kind of perfect for Domino Jazz Band and I am just perfect and glad to have been a part of that -- and it's still going, thank goodness.

Jean Dominique has the lineup at sax and the sax added just the right touch, filling a vocal space in the sonic landscape  yesterday I actually prefer to actual vocals. You can close your eyes and just kind of feel the music without having to decipher the words. And let's face it, jazz lyrics are rarely that complex. Jazz has always been more about feelings than words.

Putting the melody lines aside, the solos from all the guys in the band were amazing, just like many times before. Unlike the last time I checked in, there was multiple guests performing along especially a couple of guest vocalists. This is an open jazz jam, and I was glad to see this element had grown.

The crowd size has also grown, be reminded not packed, but there was a solid crowd for a thursday night, and most people seemed to stay from beginning to end.

If you're a jazz fan, then this is one of the venues in Hanoi. Café des Art is a great venue to hear jazz, and the Jazz Jam is free. The show starts at least at 8 p.m. and ends around midnight, so you can get up for work the next day. No excuses get out there.

For more information you can get the contact at:

Tel: +84 (4) 38 287 207

Email : infos@cafedesarts.com

Address :

11B ngo Bao Khanh, Hoan Kiem, Ha Noi

Xe Om or fun fair ride

When you arrive in Vietnam especially in a bigger city you will get your free share of traffic frenzy, mostly consisting of hordes of motorbikes and scooters. Riding these vast bulk of machines are the commuters consisting of teenagers, families (you might not believe it first but yes - whole families) and sometimes you can see some scared looking foreigners clinging on their dear life onto the driver – that’s Vietnam style public transport.

scooters in Hanoi

As Hanoi is a large city and traffic congestions can make it feel a lot more outsized, motorbikes and scooters are offering a problem and at the same time a solution. To reach some destinations taxi or if you know the bus lines by bus can take 30 to 40 minutes as compared to approx. 10 minutes by xe-om.

Hanoian officials reckon than about 2 million motorbikes and scooters are servicing a population of about 5 million. Bus stations, the train stations and the airport are in different locations and the possibility to take a xe-om is often the most appropriate solution. 

If you like roller coasters and fun fairs than it should be quite hilarious for you to take a ride with one of this drivers. The Xe-ôm literally means hug vehicle and by the way passengers grab hold of the driver it is just the right name.  So getting on the back of a motorbike, hugging the driver and speeding through unknown streets, what more of a thrilling experience do you wait for.

I just came from the airport and as it is obvious stayed in a taxi which needed do to some road congestions 90 min for the 35 km ride. should have taken a Xe Om as well.

Nha Trang and around

Nha Trang, a city like a smaller Danang with access to beautiful beaches. On one hand it is very Vietnamese on the other is like a Western resort town with a lot of hotels, tourist shops, bars and international restaurants. Strolling to this part of town you could be anywhere in the world, apart from the ever constant hassling from xe om and rick shaw drivers, many seem to moonlight as pimps and dealers as well.

The city is otherwise quite beautiful, it is bordered by mountains and the beach is tracing an impressive swoop along a bay which dotted with a lot of islands. Nha Trang offers plenty to keep tourists occupied – from island-hopping boat trips and scuba diving, to mud baths and historic sites. But the main attraction for most visitors is lounging around on deckchairs at a beachfront bar and drinking cocktails in comfort.

typical visitor with T-Shirt

There are some things you should avoid in Nha Trang like combining of tours to make one, very packed tour. As well the tours to Monkey Island aren’t very nice especially if you kind of like animals. They have a monkey circus and you can go feed the elephants and monkeys. Its takes an hour by boat to get there and then another hours back so you're looking at 3 hrs in total. Quite frankly there are better things to do with your time and money.

at the beach

By the time you travel around Vietnam and get to Nha Trang, you will most certainly be aware of the ever present postcard sellers. But at the Big Buddha, they have turned guilt and selling postcards into an form of art. They will attach themselves to you and guide you around the rather small complex then at the end hit you with an obscene claim for a donation to help keep the Buddhist school on the site running. Cam Ranh Bay is considered as one of three harbors that have the best natural conditions over the world. Having the area of over 60 square kilometers and the 18-20m average depth, this bay is out of the wind as a result of being surrounded by many mountain ranges.

beach flair

Apart from all this things Nha Trang and its surroundings  are endowed with beautiful natural sites and sand beaches. Visitors can enjoy the group of five or six islands situated close to each other. The largest of the islands is Hon Tre, which is located 3km from Nha Trang. Nha Trang itself has long been renowned for being a sea resort with some historical sites as well: Cham Po Nagar Towers, Long Son Pagoda, Ba Vu Mausoleum, Bao Dai Palace, Hon Chong, Hon Yen, Tri Nguyen Fish Pond, Bai Tru, Suoi Tien, Dai Lanh Beach.

Cham Pagoda

Hanoi Jazz - Sax&friends

You like Jazz?  Than your heart might get a faster beat. There is a new place not directly in the heart of Hanoi, but they are churning out some Jazz session you might have waited for a long time. There's no cover charge and you can find they showcase some of the best local talents here.

It might actually be “The Place” in Hanoi to catch hot, live jazz. There is jamming with a variety of musicians ranging from talented Hanoian to top-notch international jazz players.

Capital Cuisine

Formerly only famed for offering local dishes, Hanoi is getting more and more involved to serve food from across Vietnam and I really like it this way!

Food alley in the Capital at night

Some years ago you just could find some basic Hanoian dishes in local kitchens and of course foreign restaurants. Conservative as the Capital has been this changed now over the years and the advantages of diverse menues has been adopted by many. Nowadays you can start your street food adventure by digging in some delicious bowl of banh da cua (a dish from Haiphong with freshwater paddy crab). May you follow up with Anchovy-dipped banh canh Trang Bang or even bun bo from Hue.

After work most of office workers are crowding into one of the street food stalls under lines of dim light bulbs strung into the trees and slurp hungrily on spicy noodles washed down with iced tea or even better a refreshing bia hoi (fresh beer).

You might consider to finish your adventure with banh canh Trang Bang a kind of medicinal dish with a lot of fresh herbs.

fresh vegetables waiting to be eaten

Bamboo Theatre in Kowloon

After its popular debut in 2012, the West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre had its second run just a week ago. While the Cantonese opera shows had been the main attractions, there has been as well a parade of different other events including Cantonese opera performances by young talents, Chinese dance by the Hong Kong Dance Company, contemporary music concerts, and a Bamboo Theatre Fair. This colorful New Year Fair was held at the future site of the Xiqu Centre.

The Concept Designer of the bamboo theatre and the surrounding space is William Lim who took his inspiration from traditional theatres of the 1950s.

The long-anticipated Xiqu Centre design model had been unveiled for the first time directly at its future home. The Xiqu Centre want’s to become one of the signature venues in the West Kowloon Cultural District("WKCD").

For more information about the Xiqu Centre you may visit the linked website.

Lunar New Year celebration was complimented with a Chinese New Year Fair! From traditional snacks and handicrafts to creative and innovative items designed by local artists and arts students, the West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre Fair brought some delightful surprises.

Make up and preparing for the Cantonese Opera

Bagan plane - or plane Bagan

Sun set over Bagans plane

If you are on one of the tourist points and happen to see a god and spectacular sunrise or sun set you might, apart from all the other tourist see scarcely any movement other than some fire smoke or a horse drawn art bumping along some dirt track. Majestic stone sheds are dotted all over the landscape as far as your eye can see. It looks like something you might have seen in an computer generated film or an Indiana Jones movie.

Bagan plane with stone sheds

All this thousands of temples in front of you still lay as undisturbed and quiet as they stood there since centuries. Due to the last tourism wave swapping into the country that will change very dramatically. To think I'd been just in modern Hong Kong some days ago and now standing atop one of the ancient temple is as taking a time travel.

Temple in Bagan

As Myanmar has just opened again a little more for all the tourists and the name itself seems to carry a mystique feeling it's quickly becoming a touristic hotspot at a pace not seen before. The roots of modern Myanmar can be traced to a Pagan Empire back in the year 1044. At this time the construction of all these temples and stupas took place and Buddhism cemented its foundation s the primary religion.

plane of Bagan

Bagan is still very much a sleepy backwater with country folk that is relaxed and friendly to visitors. The number of temples is staggering and this makes it truly one of Asia's most impressive sites. The lack of development will change rapidly in coming years but for now it's just a must see!

Mountain of flowers

Near Bagan you can find a landscape like out of a film scene. The spiritual headquarter to Myanmars infamous “37 Nat”.

This place is called Mount Popa and is situated not far from the cultural and archaeological site of Bagan. The name is derived from Pali, a Burmese word for flower. So you can think of this places as of the Mountain of flowers. This place has been known as the home of all spirits, called nats. In fact actually the home of 37 nats who are said to live in a monastery situated in the crater of an extinct volcano at an altitude of about 1,518 metres.

These Nats have different attitudes some of them are very peaceful, including spirits of trees, rivers, snakes; some of them keep the spirits of people who have met a violent or tragic death, and can therefore wreak destructive vengeance on people who annoy them and the significance of these nats in the life of modern Burmese people is still very high.

Travel to a remote country – Burma / Myanmar

The current reputation of Myanmar – or Burma - is without doubt, largely attributed to the fact that it was closed to all outsiders for such a long time. Visiting a country that is beginning to open up to tourism the Lonely Planet guide seems to be every foreigner’s bible and if you don’t have anything else you might become a devotee as well.

It is not easy to get the “big four” into one trip. The big four I refer to are:

Yangon – Bagan – Inle Lake – and Mandalay.

On the road to ...

Best you book everything in advance from flights to hotels, which isn’t as easy as in other countries. I did it the hard way and used only local buses and got my overnight stays always in a last instance when I arrived – it turned out quite pleasant for me but it surely not the usual way for everyone.

One good advice will be to be patient! The transport system isn’t as efficient as in any other places you might know. Just slow down and relax. If you are not as hectic as many visitors and just stay at a local tea house, slurp the incredible sweet tea  - you will notice and come acquainted with the smiley, friendly and laid-back people.

Visiting Bagan you will find a terrain of barren mountains and red earth. At first it seems not very impressive, but suddenly a myriad of temples and stupas begin to appear. They look like they’ve grown from earth itself and not constructed by men thousand of years ago.

Inle Lake another most thought of place is one of the best to trek in Myanmar because it provides you with unbroken mountain views, a crystal-clear margarita-cool lake to dip in, and a part of Southeast Asia that you might think existed only in your imagination.

Poetic though the name may be, Mandalay is a modern city, actually the second largest in the country. The dusty streets sprawl east of the Ayeyarwady and south of Mandalay you’ll find a stupa-studded hill looming over the flat cityscape. But for most the real attractions lie beyond the town in the nearby ancient city of Amarapura. There is a bridge more than a mile long and built only with Burmese teak. The bridge is named after "U Pein" who started the work.

Going to Yangoon the stunning Shwedagon Paya is the centrepiece of the city, a gleaming golden stupa visible from all over town. Closer to the waterfront, downtown Yangon is a warren of historic streets which are concealing some of the best British colonial-era architecture in the region.

Go there and have a good time, good food and a drink of the local beer.

Myanmar beer