Hahhahahahaa! More of these, please.
Thank you so much Seema! I hope I can continue surprising you...
Kashif Ali, you have impressed yet again! Your words are captivating, but...
You are much too kind Ganga. Thank you :)
This is superb Kashif! Love the text and the pictures.
Exif data tells me these photos were taken on the 3rd of March, 2018. I was a few months into my first job (job 1 of 3 as it would turn out) in Yangon and this was the first photo walk I had been on. A colleague and I decided to walk from my place in downtown Yangon to the port, catch a ferry from there and cross the river to a village called Dala. The plan was to walk around Dala for a bit, catch the ferry back and then head on over to the Maha Bandula Park that was hosting the 10th Yangon Photo Festival (here and here) with World Press Photo exhibiting. The Yangon Photo Festival also had exhibitions at the Secretariat building and we headed there after a quick lunch.
In hindsight, I don’t think I did a very good job of photographing the sights that presented themselves – I could have and should have done a better job of it. In my defense, I was picking up the camera after a longish break and my heart just wasn’t in it. It was an exercise in pushing myself and thankfully, subsequent walks around the city and other parts of Myanmar, got me shooting again. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that I’m absolutely rubbish at street photography (even though I did give something like this a go). It makes me incredibly uncomfortable, and it clearly shows in how awkwardly framed some of the photographs are. I struggle to take photographs of people unless permission is explicitly granted.
The photographs are broken across three sections – walk to the Pansodan Ferry Terminal, Dala and back to the jetty and then the walk from the Pansodan Ferry Terminal to the Secretariat.
A mix of phone and camera photographs follow.
The first building is the Yangon Central railway station. A structure I’d see pretty much every single day since it was about a 100 meters from where I lived. Sadly, I never got around to taking a train locally (other than that one time across the Gokteik Viaduct) and I believe it’s quite the experience. Most buildings in downtown Yangon are relics of its colonial past and the art deco gorgeousness is off the charts. Something, sadly again, I didn’t photograph as much as I should/could have.
The Myanma Port Authority. Gorgeous old building and part of the Yangon City Heritage List.
What you are looking at here is Strand Road. Named after the famous Strand Hotel, which opened its doors in 1901 and still stands as a landmark establishment. This road also houses offices of Myanmar National Airlines (right next to Strand Hotel), the British Embassy, the Myanma Port Authority and Red Cross Myanmar.
Onto the ferry that would take us across the Yangon river to Dala. In addition to paying the captain his toll to ferry you across, you also have to address the seagulls and their demands – crunchy treats, boiled/maybe fried maize? I didn’t get a good look. They would, however, inspire me to create my first, and only, “comic”.
I don’t think we wandered too far from the jetty where we had alighted. We did visit this shrine and an another one a little further down the road. I honestly wasn’t expecting to see a mummy when we walked into this place, but that’s the fun kind of surprise that walking around aimlessly throws at you once in a while.
People and dogs – frozen in acts of labour and enquiry, respectively and respectfully.
As we were crossing this bridge and I was taking these photographs, I knew I wanted to come back here again – prepared and possibly at different times of the day. The colorful panels of these boats, moving through the muddy waters made for some really striking images. Alas, I was not prepared and the light was too harsh.
I forget now. What this structure was supposed to be. I want to say a shed/locker room used by the local fishermen for their fishing gear.
My absolute favourite sequence of images from the day. You can probably tell why.
It was already hot, muggy and unpleasant (for me at least) by this time of the morning and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of my canine friend making the most of the situation. I think he/she really makes this photograph…work?
Gentleman here and the fishing boats made for some interesting portraits. What he was pointing out, I can’t remember now.
Photographing the people being ferried to and fro between Yangon and Dala probably deserves its own blog post. A website even.
I mean. Just look at the sheer scale of character, color, feathers, personalities and professions. Not to mention a healthy disregard for signboards!
Gorgeous art deco falling to ruin in downtown Yangon. Completely occupied and mixed use – residential and commercial in the same building.
This was the World Press Photo exhibition at the Maha Bandula Park. Part of the 10th Yangon Photo Festival that took place between February and March of 2018. The white obelisk you see in the first photograph is the Independence Monument. More on the park and its history here.
I mean. Like. Color me envious and inspired, these were some seriously mental prints and colors. In hindsight, I wish I had taken photographs of the placards that told you who these fine folk were. But, all things are possible with Google. So, this is what my research threw up. The lady in the photographs is Moht Moht Myint Aung, a five-time Myanmar Academy Award winning Burmese film actress, best known for her leading lady roles in several Burmese films from the 1980s to the 2000s. More on her wikipedia page and this link, which you will have you translate to English. If you feel so inclined. The gentlemen, well, good luck to you.
We stopped at this “south indian” food place for a quick lunch. A lot of these places are run by 2nd/3rd generation Tamilian families who were brought to Myanmar by the British during the 19th/20th century. Quick background on them here.
I ordered a lassi towards the end of my meal. And boy o boy, was I not prepared for what was presented. In india, the lassi is usually light and sweet. Creamy, sure, but generally it’s light and sweet. What I got was thick curdled milk/cream with a generous helping of palm sugar syrup. I think I’m still digesting parts of it in 2025/2026.
I mean. You see some really densely packed urban spaces in India, but the starkness between the old and new, not to mention the pista green meeting weathered grey, really stood out for me.
The first photograph is from inside the secretariat. More on the buildings and their history here.
And with that, we come to the end of this very long post. If you made it this far, thank you. It’s taken a me a fair while to sort these photographs out and put my thoughts together on an experience from a little over 7 years ago. While my memory of that time hasn’t failed completely, it’s been a task nonetheless.
I’m not done with Myanmar yet though. A few more posts to come from my time there and hopefully, I get to make my way over there in 2026.
