It is truly a pleasure to travel to places like the Shan highlands during Burma’s cold season, when photos pop with an added crispness, and putting paint to canvas comes with added inspiration. Traveling across southern Shan State, and taking pictures of marketplaces in Taunggyi, Nyaung Shwe, Hsi Hseng, Heho, and Naung Htaung, I had a chance to learn about the socioeconomic day to day of the region’s inhabitants. It is best, I think, to peruse local markets to learn this sort of thing.
As I traveled through Shan State, I arrived by chance at Mount Myinmu near Myinmu village in Ywangan Township. Along the road from Taunggyi to Ywangan, stunning scenery unfolds, landscapes ideal for photography or the artistically inclined. This slice of Burma is still relatively unspoiled.
Colorful plantations, blue-tinted mountains and cool breezes all together make for spectacular scenery. Local villages are hospitable and never hesitant to welcome guests, a friend who knows about the region told me. The road linking Taunggyi, Ywangan and Mandalay is improving, and while this is certainly to the benefit of many, I cannot help but wonder what the consequences of better transportation will be for the region’s pastoral way of life.
