When I initially arrived in Yangon / Rangoon, I wanted to fly up Bhamo - one of the bigger towns north of Burma. I also considered exploring Myitkyinã - a town further north of Bhamo.

My Lonely Planet guide indicated that the only border crossing into China was to the east of Bhamo. My initial plans to Burma also included exploration of western China. However, I was disappointed by the military turning me back, despite the fact that my Lonely Planet guide said I could cross into China at Ruili.

I decided instead to fly to Mandalay, not only because it was cheap to do so, but it saved me a 20-hour bus ride there from Yangon.



I heard about a song for sailors.

“To be a real sailor, the sailor would have to have been to Mandalay way upriver”

I quite liked Mandalay.


The photo below, is of Mandalay Hill.
During World War II (20 March 1945), the British and the Japanese fought one another to gain control of the position on this hill.



The photo to the left is taken from the hill itself facing east - as you can see, it has an aerial view of the whole city, and puts any oncoming enemies at a disadvantage. Control of Mandalay was important during the war, as the soldiers were able to set up artillery and attack anyone approaching the fortress.

This hill was of big strategic importance.

The building you see near the shrine is a monument to the British regiment who managed to take control of this hill from the Japanese.

At the eastern part of the delta, a lot of logging takes place. There was a train line built that used to cart all the trees/wood for export to Thailand.



The moat around the fortress is man-made.
Although man-made, comes from the local river.

The original fortress was burnt to the ground.
The whole fortress covered an area of 2.5 x 2.5 km







The design of Mandalay was quite colonial, and surprisingly, most of the streets were at 90º to one another.

Overall, I found Mandalay the most expensive city to travel to in Burma.

No matter what one does in Mandalay, be it explore Mandalay Hill or the city itself, the locals always had “special” foreigner prices. It really annoyed me.

I tried to use local currency as much as possible. However, FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency) was more valuable and worth more to the locals. FEC is also used in China, and one tries to use local currency as much as possible. Any item you buy has 2 prices - and obviously it is cheaper to use local currency than to use FEC.

I must admit, even Mandalay Hill was not that nice for the price I paid to explore it. It was also expensive just to go into the fortress.

Surprisingly, I could not find maps of the area that was not more that 40 years old.

Politics . . .


There is a lot of politics going on in Burma that an outsider should not get involved in - Burma is one of those countries where political opinions are best kept to oneself.

In Burma, use of the Internet and mobile phones is illegal. This is the government's way of controlling the information entering the country. Even access to equipment such as laptops is illegal - the country is so poor that many could not afford such a piece of equipment.

I saw many young women queueing for their rations. They were standing so close together that I thought they were lesbians! *laugh* The girls stand close together so another person cannot jump the queue by pushing in.










The girls here are very young, some have barely reached puberty and are doing some very hard work.





There is a lot of critique by Amnesty International, of Burma's use of young girls to provide maintenance for the roads.

Medicine . . .

My girlfriend, Arumi, tells me one sees the wares of a 'Medicine Man' quite often throughout Asia.

Whether they sit by the roadside, or whether they own a shop in a building, one will see very similar items being sold around Asia.

The “pellets” you see here are in fact different types of roots such as ginger or some unknown vegetable, that have been sun or air dried.



You will see the antlers of various animals such as deer or even rhino. There are also skulls from different animals - some of these animals may be endangered species, but somehow you will see them being sold in these markets.




These skulls are definitely not being used as “trophies” around the house!

The Burmese, like many Asians, believe in using very 'natural' remedies to cure common ailments.




A Medicine Man may not necessarily be a “doctor” according to western standards - that means he may not have a university degree.

However, a Medicine Man, may be what we know as “witch-doctors”. Some of the remedies they know are very natural and useful.

Unfortunately, not all of these remedies work. Around Asia, you will see shops or Medicine Man selling items like tigers' paws and skulls, or ground ivory tusks. Many of these are sold as cures or enhancements for the sex life.

In Burma, there is virtually no wildlife left.





You will even find that even tobacco is sold naturally.

Not in cigarette form, but in leaf form! The laws in Burma are not quite the same as they are here. Marijuana is also sold very freely.




Lotus Fruit . . .


Quite often in Asia, you may see lily pads floating on the water. In fairy-tales, you hear about frogs sitting on a lily pad.

You will be amazed to associate that this fruit here, comes from the flowers/plant growing out of the water near the lily pads.

The yellow seeds come from the flower itself. The seeds are used often in many Asian desserts, and said to promote better blood circulation.

While, the root of the lotus plant is also a delicacy. It is white when cooked, and has a crunchy texture, similar to that of the water chestnut. Mainly used in savoury meals, although used as a dessert as well.

Personally, I think it is too much hassle retrieving the fruit! *smile*

Created: 31 Oct 2001

Schwedagon was a holy place with extremely large and beautiful temples.

To get to Schwedagon, you had to travel up very long escalators. I took this photo because these escalators were the only escalators I had seen during my whole trip in Burma. As Schwedagon is a very religious place for the locals, I guess to travel up these escalators give the sense of travelling to a higher and holier place.



The temples at Schwedagon were really impressive.






I was told that collectively, these temples were built with 39 tonnes of pure gold.








At the end of the day, the locals all contributed in cleaning the place. They clean all the tiles and are very organised.







Here is the 'Big Stuba'. All that gold...

Up close, the temples are a glorious sight. Especially at night!

Can you see those lights at the base of the Big Stuba? Each is a 'mini temple', illuminating a Buddha.






You can really see the magnificence of these temples!



There are lots of rules or procedures about the way one prays to the Buddhas - very complicated to an outsider!

I saw a couple of the buddhists pour water onto the statue of the Buddha. Depending on the day of the week a buddhist is born, the individual would pour the respective number of bowls for the day of the week. A buddhist believes that by doing this, it would bring them luck.

At Schwedagon, I noticed there were hardly any tourists, mostly locals paying homage.

Can you see how intricate the carvings are in the foreground?












The monks rung this bell to announce prayer times.

It brought luck to ring the bell.
For example, if you were born on the 1st day of the week, you rung it once to bring good luck. If you were born on the 6th day of the week, you rung it 6 times etc.

Burma/Myanmar surprised me in many ways. I would have liked to see more of Burma than I did, but due to military restrictions, I only had access to certain parts of Burma and was not able to see any of the indigenous people along the border as I had initially planned.Burma is a very poor country. It was difficult to travel... travelling 100 kilometres could sometimes take up to 6 hours.

One of the most beautiful places in Burma, I thought, was Bagan.

I took many photos in Burma, and tried to order them in the following pages:

• I spent some days in Yangon, which had a heavy colonial influence.
• Schwedagon was another place full of temples, a place laden with pure gold.
• Whilst travelling, I could not help notice how influenced the people were by religion, and Burma's politics is one thing an outsider should not get involved in.
• I was fascinated by what the Burmese used for medicine. They also had some rather interesting local fruit.
• Mandalay also had an interesting colonial battle history. Whilst there, I watched the “Mandalay Marionettes”.
• With the restrictions up north, I did not get to see much. But you would not believe how the Burmese play volleyball!
• Finally, at Mt Popa, I went there to see a local monastry, and saw a lot of wild monkeys there.

Yangon ( Rangoon ) . . .




This is the city-centre of Rangoon. Rangoon is the capital city of Burma.

It is actually a pretty big city if you compare it with other parts of Burma on a map.

Most of the buildings are from the old colonial period when the British occupied Burma. Unfortunately they have not been very well-maintained.

Can you see the green bits on the clocktower?





If you are thinking it is vegetation growing on it, you are right! There is quite a bit growing on most of the buildings in the city.







There were so many pigeons!

I managed to catch a pictures of a pigeon flying mid-air - can you see the blurred grey thing near the tree in the middle of the photo?



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Created: 22 Sept 2001

I took part in a photo competition in November 2001, using one of the photos I had taken during my trip to Mt Cook in January 2001. This photo was of Kevin, the alpine guide from my group in the technical climbing course.

The following photo and comments appeared on the Planet Fear website, in the Front Line Photography Competition - not long after I was notified that I was one of 20 winners, and I was even more surprised to find out that I had come third!

The comments above the photo were my comments that I had emailed to them when I sent the photo. The comments below the photo were (one of the judges) comments about my photo.

3. Rene Pallesen The attached photo was taken in New Zealand on the main range near Mount Cook. The valleys to the west are filled with clouds formed by the moisture from the forests underneath. The snowcovered mountains in the north are visible through the clouds. The photo was taking using a Nikon FM10 using a Fuji Sensia 100 film. Literally bathed in atmosphere. It would be easy to muff this high key exposure but Rene is spot on. The vertical format adds to a shot capturing all the euphoria of life on the tops. Reminds me of the legendary Mountain mag front covers. ~ Comment by Ian Parnell, Planet Fear

Feel free to see my photo on their website.

Also, you could go to the Planet Fear website to view the other winning photos.

Created: 18 Aug 2001 Last Updated: 16 Sept 2001

Mt Cook ( 15 ~ 28 January 2001 )


I decided to do a Technical Ice-Climbing course with Alpine Guides in New Zealand.

I spent 10 days at Mt Cook doing a very challenging course, but I learnt a lot. I learnt all the techniques required to do ice-climbing safely. I also learnt the necessities of surviving in the icy mountains.

Prior to the trip, a lot of preparation was required. Everyday, I went jogging to build up my fitness, so by the time I left for New Zealand, I could run 3km on the sand without getting puffed. I also had to buy some of the equipment. I had to buy cramp-ons (looks like spiked metal soles) to attach to my boots; ice-axe and ice-hammer; a new Gore-tex jacket (I needed a new one anyway) and some other clothing and equipment.

The photo on the right became a 3rd-place winner in a photo competition.



Our group consisted of 4 other doing the course. There were no prerequisites, other than a love for the mountains and a very high fitness level. Not all of us who do this course go on to climb the great mountains. We also discovered it takes guts and courage to stand on top of the world and feel confident. One cannot be an ice-climber if there is a fear of heights or if unsteady on the feet.





All of us in the group had come from different backgrounds. Søren was an experienced climber, who had aspirations of going to the Himalayas. Alan was a rock-climber who wanted to try the challenge of ice-climbing. Rob too loved the mountains and wanted the experience and challenge of being on the icey slopes of New Zealand. I had had quite a lot of climbing and mountaineering experience, but this was my first time ice-climbing.

The person holding the camera is Søren. I met him in NZ, whilst waiting for the bus for Mt Cook. To my surprise, he was a Dane living here in Sydney. He was a professional photographer (hence you see him holding the Nikon). He and I had similiar experience so our speed through the course was pretty much the same.



I actually ended up cracking a rib whilst on the course. I did this during a 'self-arrest' technique, where we actually throw ourselves down a steep slope and try to use our ice-axe to stop ourselves from falling any further. This technique is used in case you fall down a crevass and have nothing to hold onto.

Rob was the other person doing the course. He once dropped his ice-axe and one of us had to abseil down to collect it, as an ice-axe is a piece of equipment that is vital and you only carry one of these each.

We worked in pairs, but had to swap partners as our guide took turns working with each of us.



Ice-climbing is nothing like rock-climbing. You cannot use your fingers (well, they will freeze if you take your gloves off), so you really on equipment like ice-axe and ice-picks to anchor yourself into the ice. These pieces of equipment are really important, especially if you are sleeping on a ledge or stopping for a rest. Other than someone belaying you, using ice-picks to secure yourself into the ice is the backup should your belay fail.

We each took turns at ice-climbing! Alan is the one in the blue jacket, Søren is the one in the red.

I guess Søren has more photos of me climbing, whereas I can't take photos of myself!


In the following section, you will see a series of photos of Mt Cook.
If you want to have a look at the black & white version of this (quite artistic), click here.

Last September, Sydney held the Olympic Games. I saw a lot of the events on TV but was disappointed with the coverage of other countries' involvement.

However, I did manage to be at Olympic Park during the Games and also see the first handball match - Denmark vs Norway.

I managed to get tickets for the game and had a very nice day with my girlfriend and the Lenehans. I also managed to get some pretty spectacular photos of the Olympic torch.







Here is Stadium Australia, where the Olympic torch is held. Most of the major track & field events, as well as athletics were held here. It is a pretty spectacular building - and HUGE. During the Olympics, you could not go into just any of the buildings at Olympic Park. You had to have a ticket for an event before you could enter the building.



As you can see me, I am wearing my T-shirt supporting Danmark! This is one of the few days that I can wear the T-shirt.

It was a very sunny and warm day and the place was full of people. During the Olympics, you could only get access to the whole of the Olympic Park if you had a ticket. They had quite tight security, and had to go through a detector on the perimeter of the grounds after you got off the train/bus.




The handball game started at about 2pm and we managed to wander round for quite a bit before going into the arena wear the handball was.

The food as amazingly expensive! Normally a fruit salad would only cost about AUD$3, cost up to AUD$8 that day!. Bottles of water was double the price. They really made it a money-making event for tourists! The funny thing too, we noticed that as you entered Olympic Park, all of the signs were in French and English, and all the announcements were given in French first, then English. It was most peculiar!

As we got closer to where the handball games were being held, we saw a lot of Danes and Norwegians dressed in country colours! Danes in red and white and Norwegians... well, there was a guy there who had lots of cow bells around his neck and attached to his clothes. He was wearing a traditional metal helmet and dressed in old-fashioned gear. It was amazing to feel all the atmosphere - just to be there.



We were all in the true Danish spirit! Even my girlfriend was dressed in a white T-shirt and red pants! We painted flags on our faces with some face paint. We were definitely there to support the Danish team!

Even Lance could not help get caught in the moment with us! *smile*




A break in the handball game - Danmark vs Norway!

Danmark in red & white, Norway in blue & white.

We had pretty good seats - it was a matter of whoever got there first, had the best seats, although we had to enter through certain doors.

All the journalists and officials sat on the left. We even heard that the crown prince of Danmark was there for the game, even though we could not spot him. There were flags everywhere, Danish and Norwegian waving about. Everytime Norway scored, you could hear countless numbers of cow-bells being rung! A few times, some of the people tried to start a Mexican wave, but that did not work out.

It was a very fast and furious game. It was the only handball game that the Danish lost in the whole Olympic Games, and they eventually came first in the finals!










Just after entering Olympic Park, we managed to get a group photo!

As you can see the place is very crowded but very festive - you just had to be there!







A most glorious sunset!

After the handball match, we wandered around for a bit longer. The day had been quite warm, so the night was a beautiful clear night.

After the Lenehans left, Arumi and I had a look at a small Aboriginal art exhibition located at the Park. We sat on one of the few grassy patches, to watch the flickering of the lights and just enjoy the day.

We eventually went home, but Olympic Park was still swarming with people, who were there to watch events that went on later into the night. Although we did not get the chance to see any other events during the Olympics, it was definitely worth the day we spent there. We would have loved to see the final game when Danmark won, but as usual, we were not very organised...


Below, I have included photos taken on the night of the Closing Ceremony.

These were taken from Graham's apartment on a hill at McMahons Point. We had a spectacular view of the fireworks that went off after the Closing Ceremony. It was really windy on the balcony, but I managed to get some photos of the Olympic rings that were placed on Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Beautiful, isn't it?

A couple of the awards received by Aiden and Lucas

Lucas version of a Miro painting

We took the older children to see Peter Pan - this was their christmas/birthday presents.

My dad was here earlier in the year visiting.

We have started to take the boys climbing occasionally. Especially Aiden enjoys it and is able to climb to the top without being afraid.

Lucas just had his 5th birthday.

It was celebrated at the local park with his friends and we had hired an entertainer to do some activities with them.

Some photos from Aiden 7th Birthday













His party was at the climbing gym. Unfortunately he was sick on that day, so didn't enjoy it as much as he could have.






One of his presents was a crystal growing dragon - here is before and after.

Some photos from Aiden 7th Birthday













His party was at the climbing gym. Unfortunately he was sick on that day, so didn't enjoy it as much as he could have.






One of his presents was a crystal growing dragon - here is before and after.

Chinese new year with the boys.

A couple of funny faces

After our escursion to the park last week the family decided to go there for a picnic on this Labour Day (public holiday).

I was soooo tired after having food poisoning the night before...and wasn't able to eat anything...but the others were having fun.




Here is Kims dad with the four daughters.



What I didn't realise was that this was the park that KC and Chong got married in. The ceremony was in this spot where I took this photo of Kims dad with most of his grand children (the two youngest missing).





I also did some more peacock photos while we were there.



Afterwards there was cake and KC and Chongs place (it was his b'day a couple of days earlier)...but we were too tired to join them.

For the last couple of years work has has an annual photo competition. This year the theme was 'connected world' and I decided to participate.

Not an easy task coming up with an idea and doing a project like this with a new kid. With bit of brainstorming I came up with a couple of ideas and with Kims permission to doing a night shoot in the city I decided to put one of the ideas to life.



I am not sure if it is a strong enough photo to be a real contender, but it was fun trying to put it together. The photo was taking at the Domain in Sydney with the highrises in the background.

Yesterday we made the trip to Auburn Botanical gardens which is located about 25km from where we live.


I am paternity leave at the moment at this was a nice opportunity to get out of the house with Aiden and the newborn and also take some photos.



The garden contains a Japanese section full of Cherry blossoms in spring...unfortunately it is no longer cherry blossom season, but I did find some apple trees with flowers on them as well as other flowers.





There was also a bunch of peacocks around the place...one of them kind enough to show us its pride.

During the last couple of days I have been doing my first series of newboarn photos with the little one (still no name).

So far he is behaving like a typical newborn...wants a feed every couple of hours and sleeps a lot. He is doing his best to keep Kim awake at night...I try to get a good nights sleep and then look after Aiden during the daytime and get him out of the house (swimming, shopping etc.) so that Kim can get some additional sleep without too make additional interruptions.

Anyway...back to the newborn photos. I wanted to take these cute high-key photos with the newborn wearing a hat. It turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected...both due to the little one not behaving as desired, but also because there were a few adjustments that had to be made underway. In the end we ended up doing three sitting where the last sitting was the most successful one.



I knew that I needed to raise the head from the body to get the right pose but I found out that it was a mistake using pillows as they were too soft. After this I tried towels and linen but they were still too soft. In the end I used a hard camera suitcase with a towel on top which turned out to be perfect.





Over the next weeks I will get to take some more photos, so stay tuned...

During the last 9 months since Kim became pregnant I've been doing this project with a monthly belly photo.

On the morning of the 12th September 2012 at 6.10am our little boy arrived to this world. He was keen to get out and as expected (pretty much) he arrived two weeks early.







Labour actually started more than 24 hours earlier and was just dragging on with Kim getting contractions every 30 minutes or so...not close enough to quite panic about, but still with the knowledge that it is close to going to the hospital. At the time the little one arrived Kim had been in labour for more that 24 hours so she eventually ended up with another c-section.







Fortunately there were no complications with the procedure, the only downside was that everyone else in the whole area decided to have babies on the same day, so the hospital natal section was completely full. This meant that for the first three nights Kim and the little one were put in the acute section of the hospital. Very noisy and hard to sleep, but the good thing was that there was a 1:1 carer ratio and they don't normally see little newborns there, so both Kim and the newborn got a lot of attention and assistance.


After 5 nights in the hospital Kim and the newborn (still without a name) came back from the hospital.

The little one actually looks a lot like his older brother...same mold I guess.

Last night I went with Kim and Aiden to Darling Harbour for dinner. We wanted to go somewhere where it was also nice to go for a walk.

We ended up just buying a kebab and sitting on the steps outside eating it while Aiden had fun imitating the sounds of the seagulls trying to get to our foor (in the beginning he was a bit scared of the birds).




I had brought my camera along and took a couple of panorama shots of the harbour...love it, love it, love it. I was able to crank up the ISO and take this handheld with no problems and because of the high resolution it is amazing what I can do with it back home in terms of stitching photos together etc. The end result is a 100 Megapixel image so very big.

Afterwards we had coffee and tiramisu at Guylians...coffee was nice but had better cake before.

We are now 8 months into expecting our new little baby boy and we expect him to arrive any time within the next two weeks.

We did some pregnancy photos the last couple of days to make sure we have some nice ones as a family.

This Sunday it was Fathers Day here in Australia. Aiden had painted me a very nice picture at Daycare as a fathers day present.




In the morning he took me out of for a buffet breakfast at the Crowne Plaza in Coogee...and afterwards we enjoyed a the very nice warm and sunny day at the beach where he got to play in the sand.

This morning Sacha asked me if I'd like to do a sunrise shoot with him at the Opera House. I'd wanted to try out the new camera for landscape so said yes.

This was the very first photo I took and after that the light went pretty bad.




A very nice morning, but I am not sure if I'm cut out for the early starts (had to get up at 4.30am), especially not now that we are going towards summer.

Kim and Aiden stayed at home sleeping and they were still sleeping when I returned at around 7am.