Last week, I spent time with a few very wonderful friends aboard a small expedititon cruise ship in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Throughout the trip, I was proud to show off my meticulously selected gear. Here’s a general summary of what I brought…
Thanks to GoViral Organizers and my amazing conference colleagues Rolf Potts, Gani Abadan, Daniyar Amanaliyev, and Saken Nigma for an engaging panel discussing long term travel, working remotely, and the changing landscape of digital productivity.
Go Viral is an international festival sponsored by the U.S. Mission to Kazakhstan that brings together innovators in media, culture, business, and technology to learn about the latest trends and big ideas from leading thinkers and influencers in various industries. Festival speakers are active, creative, and passionate professionals from the United States and Central Asia.
During November 2015, I traveled with my family to discover Cuba. We explored Havana, and then got out of the city to travel to the southern coast and around a variety of towns, farm villages, beaches, mountains, and monuments. Here’s how it went…
Our itinerary took us through Havana, Trinidad, Las Terrazas, Remedios, Santa Clara, and Viñales. It was great seeing a wide range of places within Cuba, especially since we had a little more than a week to do it. The full daily log is below.
To get to Cuba, we flew Xtra Airways, a charter airline, from Miami, Florida direct to Havana, Cuba. The flight was great, and very straightforward. For visas, we each got a slightly different visa – my visa listed me as a reporter, since I was taking photos to write this story.
To travel around Cuba, we took a variety of Taxis within Havana, and then hired a private driver and van for the out of town sections. Since we were a group of 5 with limited time, it was very very convenient to have a dedicated, local driver to get us around. Had I done it with a single partner and had more time, it would have been fun to do it backpacker style with public transportation etc. But for our group and time constraints, the way in which we did it was great.
While in cuba, I shot with four cameras. The Apple iPhone 6S, Sony RX100m3, GoPro Hero4 Silver, and Lytro Illum. All four were interesting cameras to shoot with, and allowed me to be flexible in both capturing the shot I wanted, and in being mobile and unencumbered most of the time. For more on the innovative Lytro Illum Lightfield Camera, click over to my full review. Although all four cameras are great for their own purpose, by far my favorite is the Sony RX100m3. It’s small and lightweight, is relatively easy to use for its size, and takes absolutely amazing photos. I love the flexibility of being able to shoot from waist level, as well as the bounce flash trick, and smooth video.
Here’s Cuba through my lens….
We did LOTS in Cuba. Here’s a quick daily log of our activities – far from complete, but a good overview:
Throughout the trip, I shot a series of lightfield photos with the Lytro Illum Camera. I was testing and reviewing it on behalf of Lytro, and had a great time learning about lightfield photography. If you’re interested in more about the Lytro, check out the full review: Shooting Lightfield Photos in Cuba with the Lytro Illum.
Earlier this year, while I was traveling through Beijing, China, I stayed in Leo Hostel. During my short stay there, I was interviewed by a Chinese school group producing a short segment about travel in China. In the segment, I speak a little about my travel experiences, and why I think it’s a great idea to stay in hostels while traveling solo.
In short, staying in hostels is cheap, and gives you great opportunities for meeting new people, joining interesting tour groups, and enriching your travel experience overall.
Here’s the segment on YouTube.
After a brief 10 days of guiding in Israel, I joined up with two new friends to trek from Israel into Jordan.
I felt like traveling to Jordan, as well as other Arab nations, was a very important bit of travel to do after touring Israel. With such a heated political situation between many different groups in the area, everybody has their own opinion on what’s going on, who’s wrong and right, and what should be done. I was eager to experience more of the Arab view of the conflict in Israel, as well as experience the culture and country in general. Luckily for me, two of the participants I had been guiding the previous 10 days on Birthright decided to come along with me for the first few days of my trip.
Starting out, we had a basic plan, but left most of our specific itinerary to chance – we all traveled with a small backpack and minimal gear, making it easy to move around and adjust our itinerary. Also of note, during this trip I was shooting photos with my iPhone 5 and Sony RX100M2
Starting out, Chelsea, Hannah and I met up at the Florentine Backpackers Hostel in Tel Aviv, Israel – a fantastic hostel, with good basic accommodations, a lively and social rooftop, and within easy walking distance to the old town of Jaffa. Of note, Jaffa has some great street art, and a lively bar and shopping district.
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To get to Jordan, we took a Taxi on a Saturday all the way to the Sheik Hussein northern border crossing, which was uneventful and easy to get across.
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Finally, in Jordan!
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After crossing over into Jordan, we hopped another taxi into Amman, with a quick lunch stop. Even stopping at a roadside restaurant, we were immediately impressed with the awesome food in Jordan – definitely a step above the Israeli fare we’d been eating the weeks prior.
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Once in Amman, we found the Farrah Hotel, a basic, but comfortable accommodation, where we had our own 4-bunk room.
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The first two days Chelsea, Hannah and I spent exploring Amman. Sites visited included the Citadel, Roman theater, various shops and tea spots, the mosque, and the world’s largest (freestanding) flagpole. Additionally, we found a bar or two on Rainbow street that served beer – which is quite a rare thing in Jordan. After two days exploring, the three of us felt comfortable walking around, and generally knew our way around the few neighborhoods we explored.
Chelsea checking out some books
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Selling dyed chicks and chickens
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An Egyptian weaver, making a rug while watching camel racing in Abu Dabi on TV
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On our way to the roof for sunset, we saw this guy
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Sunset in Amman
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Black tea with mint, all the time.
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Roman Theater
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World’s Largest Flagpole! (on left)
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Temple of Hercules
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Exploring
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Mosque
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After two days of exploring Amman, and with our new friend Sarah, I rented a car and the four of us took a road trip east on Route 10, into Jordan’s eastern desert. We would have driven all the way to Iraq if we could have, but unfortunately didn’t have the time or security detail. Instead, we did an incredible loop through the desert, stopping at epic desert castles and a tranquil desert oasis.
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Desert Castles, quite spectacular
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This tea was made from sage and other stuff from a nearby tree, and we were told it would cure Hannah’s headache.
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Oasis
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The harsh eastern desert – but we had fun!
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After day three, Hannah and Chelsea traveled back to Israel, and I traveled solo down to explore Petra. Petra was an incredible experience, and the rock formations were truly incredible. In Petra, I stayed a night at the Valentine Hotel, and then moved further south to live with a group of Bedoiun at the Seven Wonders Bedouin Camp.
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Seven Wonders Bedouin Camp
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Exploring Petra
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Tea break, looking to the south.
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Petra by night was a great experience – a bit crowded, but sneaking away from the crowd and exploring the Siq in the dark was mystifying.
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After a week of exploring Jordan, I got a little antsy to get out of the desert, and hitched a ride with with a guy from the Bedouin camp back up to the Amman airport. Next stop, Beirut, Lebanon.
Coming up starting on May 19th, 2014 I’ll be guiding a ten day adventure across Israel with Birthright Israel and Israel Outdoors. During the trip, I’ll be working with two other expert staff members – Allison Bell and Asher Drimmer, traveling with a group of 40 guests. Years ago, I actually participated as a guest in this exact same trip, and it’s an exciting honor to now have the opportunity to lead it. Israel Outdoors calls this itinerary “Israel By Bike“, but it’s a lot more than just that. We’ll be biking, hiking, swimming, sightseeing, and relaxing all throughout Israel, experience as much as the country has to offer. In addition to the many activities and locations we’ll be discovering, we’ll also be developing our own personal relationships with both the land and the people of Israel. During our trip, we’ll be joined by a few members of the Israeli Defense Force, to learn firsthand what their lives are like living in Israel and serving in the military – a unique opportunity to make deep connections.
Here’s a quick outline of what we’ll be up to during our ten day itinerary:
We’ll be able to squeeze all of this into a quick ten day timespan with a bit of crafy planning, a dedicated transportation and security team, and our expert and experienced Israeli liasion. Israel Outdoors has been running this trip for years, and they’re the absolute best in the business – a pleasure to work with them.
Next up in preparing for the trip now that the itierary is set, everybody’s airline tickets have been locked in, and everything is in motion is to pack! Shortly I’ll be posting my quick packing list of what I’m brining with me on the adventure. I’ll be traveling ultralight, and ultraversatile to adapt to the variety of situations we’ll encounter while traveling. Stay tuned!
Interested in your own adventure in Israel and the Middle East?
One former traveler’s home videos from Summer 2013:
[column type=”two-thirds”] This year, the New York Travel Festival is taking place April 26-27, 2014 in New York City. I’ve been selected by the organizers to act as the resident expert on Antarctica. Read my bio on the NY Travel Festival website.
The New York Travel Festival aims to reinvent the consumer travel show for tech-savvy, immersive travelers. We go beyond booths and brochures to provide interactive experiences to people who see travel as a means of experience, not just escape. NY Trav Fest brings together a unique blend of consumers, media and industry to mingle and discuss the future of travel together.
Here’s what I’ll be up to during the event:
NY Travel Festival Full Official Schedule (Bio on Sched)
Get your tickets now and come see me in April – use these promo codes:
Code ‘JEFFZILLA’ $30 Weekend Consumer (instead of $35)
Code ‘JEFFIND’ $80 Weekend Industry (instead of $100)
[button href=”https://bitly.com/NYTF2014″ title=”Purchase Tickets” target=”blank” shape=”square” size=”regular” block=”true” circle=”true”] Purchase Tickets [/button]
[/column]
[column type=”one-third”]
Based on geolocation data from Panorimio, here’s an excellent map of the most photographed places on earth, but together by Bluemoon.ee. While I’m sure a good portion of this map data corrolates with “population density of those who can afford cameras” as Reddit user kingleo1 points out, it’s still an interesting study of where people take pictures.
Now, after looking at this map, my first thought is – I want to go find the least photographed places! Who’s up for a trip to Mongolia?
Most photographed places in the world via @Earth_Pics – Imgur.
Google is quickly developing products for presence in the Travel space, and with their existing scope and technology resources, I can see them making a significant impact if they want, giving emerging startups like BonVoyaging stiff competition. Here’s my rundown of some recent Google Travel projects…
Top five travel items that make me think Google may be trying to take over the travel industry:
https://youtu.be/pGy_coSCIN4
Are you an expert on all the best places to eat, shop and play in your city? If so, then we want you to join the Google City Expert program and start receiving exclusive perks!
The Google City Expert program brings together the most active users on Google Maps who write reviews and upload photos of local places. As a City Expert you will receive: Access to fun, exclusive events in your local area, Free custom swag, Special online recognition
Google tightens grip on future of the travel industry – also puts startups in a tough spot – Tnooz.
After spending three months living and working in Antarctica with the United States Antarctic Program, I was dropped off in Christchurch in February, 2013, and spent the next three and a half months traveling up through Australia and New Zealand, around Southeast Asia, and finally up to Japan. It was an incredible opportunity, the trip of a lifetime, and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.
All of my blog posts about Traveling Through Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia, and Japan, including most photos can be found at:
https://JeffreyDonenfeld.com/blog/tag/southeast-asia-travels-2013/
Related Media:
During my travels, I travelled technically alone – I wasn’t specifically traveling from the beginning with any other person. However, throughout my journey, I was rarely actually alone. I ended up meeting lots of fellow adventurers and locals in all of the countries I visited.
My very general route of travel was:
Below I’ve written a few summaries on various topics from my travels, as well as linked to all major media items, and articles written about my time in each country.
After I was dropped off in Christchurch, I had about 50lbs of gear with me, spread out over three bags – my Black Diamond Quantum 55L backpack, my Deuter 30L backpack, and my Patagonia Black Hole 90L duffle. This was mostly gear for the climate in Antarctica, and a bunch of personal comfort stuff like books, magazines, hoodies, slippers, etc that made life at the south pole much more comfortable. Obviously it was way too much to travel with on my own – and luckily, it was easy to sent home. For 10 days after I arrived back in Christchurch, I was given access to the APO Post Office. The APO is a military post office, and provides users with postage rates similar to what you’d find domestically. So I packed up everything except for a few items, and sent it all home in a giant box – all for about $45.
I packed all of my travel gear in one single GoLite Jam 50L backpack. I had my father send me the backpack for pickup in Christchurch, and it was great. The Jam 50 is an ultralight, minimalist backpack, with just the right amount of space and features to make adventure traveling with it a pleasure. Once packed up, all of my gear weighed about 11kg, and included capability for me to go camping, swimming, hiking, and clubbing in cities. Everything fit in my GoLite backpack. When I needed a daypack, I simply emptied out the GoLite, cinched a few straps, and it was quickly the size of a daypack – very convenient.
Here’s a list off the top of my head of my travel gear:
“>Prana Linear swim trunks black
Photography was a BIG part of my trip, and one of my main hobbies while I’m traveling, or really doing anything. Since I was traveling alone and as light as possible, I had to strike a balance between high quality, versatility, shooting comfort, and weight. In the end, I decided to ditch my (somewhat broken) Canon 5dMk2 SLR, and instead went with just two small cameras – my Sony RX100 compact, and my Apple iPhone 5. Traveling with the Sony RX100 turned out to be great. I had loved shooting with that camera at the south pole, and shooting with it while traveling was just as good. It’s very small – I can fit it in the pockets of my jeans. Yet, it still has full manual control of all camera functions, and just barely enough hand controls on the body to make it relatively easy to handle while shooting. Additionally, the other extremely important factor for me while shooting was the responsiveness – and the RX100 is great with that – controls feel snappy and responsive, and the feel of pushing the shutter button is tight. Not quite as instant and seamless as the controls on my SLR, but pretty darn close. When I’m shooting with my SLR, I know it well enough and it’s responsive enough that I can easily stop paying attention to using the camera, and devote full attention to shooting photos. With the Sony RX100, I’d say I can get about 75% of the way to fully forgetting about the camera. Not perfect, but pretty darn good for a compact.
The RX100 takes great quality pictures, and I loved shooting on it. I shot mostly with it on Manual mode, taking RAW files. Occasionally i would have moments of laziness and shoot in Aperture priority or Program mode, but for the most part it was manual. Also, I assigned one of the settings memories to a low quality reference image mode – shooting JPG at a small picture size, full automatic, with a locked in high ISO of 3200. I used this mode for quickly shooting reference images, only for my use – pictures of descriptive signs, menus, receipts, business cards, maps, and other things I wanted to be able to refer back to while editing, but didn’t want to burn too much memory card space on. I didn’t delete any photos.
Being able to pocket the camera, and take it anywhere with me made for a very versatile setup. I could move around easier, and didn’t have to feel like I was sheparding it around, like I do sometimes with my SLR. Also, when I was shooting, it was much less obtrusive and obvious than a larger camera. People took less notice, and I could fit it into tighter spaces.
There were a few downsides to shooting on a high end compact. First of all, although the camera has good manual hand controls, it’s still not at the level of control of an SLR. Changing some settings just takes longer when you have to go find it in a menu. The buttons are responsive, but not instant like on my 5Dmk2. Button response makes a BIG BIG BIG difference when shooting in the field. Also, the fixed zoom lens on the RX100 is nice and bright wide open, but slows down when zooming. The zoom on the camera is fast, but it’s an electronic control. Having a consistently fast zoom lens with manual zoom controls like my Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L is a distinct luxury. One final distinction with the smaller size is the smaller mass and moment of the entire camera. The RX100 is small and lightweight, and therefore it’s easy to move around and shake. Shakes are not what you want when taking photos – and because the RX100 is so light, there’s very little “buffer” to any hand shakes. It’s also physically small, so what little mass it does have is concentrated in a smaller space. In comparison, the 5dMk2, with the 24-70 lens is HEAVY, and with the long lens and overall larger dimensions, that weight is distributed over a larger area. That means that is naturally is more difficult to shake, so small hand shakes get somewhat buffered out. This may seem like a small detail, but it becomes hugely important when trying to handhold longer exposures, and trying to shoot with as low of an ISO as possible.
I traveled with my Apple Macbook Air 13″, and used Adobe Lightroom to organize and edit photos. Although I loaded all of my photos onto my Macbook, I also kept backup copies on the memory cards I was using – I didn’t erase any memory cards, and instead bought more memory when I needed to. This was a bit more expensive, but allowed me to keep two copies of my photos – one on my laptop and one on a small memory card, and still keep on shooting. When I traveled, I usually left my laptop back where I was staying, and carried my memory cards with me – SD Cards are relatively small and portable, and a few of the cards I used were MicroSD w/ an adapter, which is even easier to carry taped to a card in your wallet.
See my full set of photos from Asia on my Flickr Stream.
Planning my various adventures and expeditions is usual something I’m very meticulous and calculating about. The trips I do are often times complicated and dangerous, requiring a high degree of advanced planning and consideration to make them work. However, for this trip, I did very little advanced planning. I got my job in Antarctica a mere 5 days departing, and then chose not to take the time while at the south pole to plan out my travels. By the time I arrived back in Christchurch, New Zealand, I had my next week of mountaineering with friends from the ice planned out, but that’s about it.
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The rest of my travels were done in the moment, based on what I was feeling at the time – and it was the absolute best thing to do. Since I was traveling alone, I had the freedom to meet anybody I wanted, and instantly modify my route when I felt like it. This opened me up to lots of fun possibilities, and great spur of the moment adventures.
I slept in lots of different places during my travels, and mainly kept to the budget end of things. In Bali, I was fortunate to be able to stay at my friend Jessica’s house for a while. I slept on a few boat, and lots of hostels, hotels, and guesthouses. At the beginning of my travels, I was usually making accommodation reservations a few nights in advance – however, as I traveled more, I transitioned to making bookings on the night of. I found that most hostels weren’t completely booked, and since I had a single lightweight bag, it was easy enough for me to walk around to find a cool place. This also allowed me to check out the “scene” of a place before I stayed there.
Since I was traveling alone, staying in hostels and hotels with active social scenes was a great thing for me. Places like Julie Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, Thailand have nice common areas with food and wifi, where fellow travelers meet up to talk about places to go and things to see. I’d meet lots of cool people this way – both groups, and other single travelers. Meeting people while traveling is easy, and I was very rarely doing anything alone.
While traveling, it was essential to stay connected – both to other people I was traveling with, contacts I would be meeting up with, as well as my friends and family back home. I also updated this blog frequently while traveling, so I needed some sort of connection.
I carried two communications devices with me – my Apple iPhone5, and my Apple Macbook Pro 13″. Both were great.
My iPhone came from AT&T in the USA, however when I was in Sydney I found an online service that unlocked it for me – no need to jailbreak or anything, and I got my phone completely unlocked. So, with an unlocked GSM phone, I could easily buy SIM cards in most of the countries I went to, and stay connected on the local cell network. In Thailand especially, staying in touch was easy – I bought a SIM card for about $2, and then paid about $15 for unlimited 3G data access for 30 days. Since I mostly used data, and not text or voice, this was perfect.
On my phone, I relied on a number of apps to stay connected.
My Macbook Air was a great resource – It’s very thin, lightweight, and strong – perfect for jamming in my backpack. And it’s also fast enough to use Adobe Lightroom with, and for web surfing and messaging. Although naturally I’d prefer a 15″ retina display for photos, the 13″ standard res display was adequate for traveling. After owning this computer for about 3 years, and traveling the world with it, it’s still in great shape.
I never ever felt the need for a tablet, and frankly feel like it’s completely unnecessary. I have my macbook with a full keyboard for typing out messages and doing photo editing and everything else you use a computer for. And then I have my iPhone for mobile computing and messaging. Movies can be watched on either. I really don’t see where I would need a tablet – it’s too underpowered and doesn’t have a full keyboard, so I can’t use it for the more intense messaging and blog posting, and it’s larger than a phone, so I can’t pocket it and have it everywhere. My Macbook Air is so smal that there’s no reason not to have it, given how much it can do.
Wifi was abundant almost everywhere, and in places with no Wifi, I could easily tether my macbook to my phone, and use my unlimited cellular data connection. Easy.
Blog posts from my recent travels, by country:
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Cambodia
On our way down to Hue, we made one brief, but solid stop at the Vinh Moc Tunnels. From Wikipedia:
Vinh Moc (V?nh M?c) is a tunnel complex in Quang Tri, Vietnam. During the Vietnam War it was strategically located on the border of North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The tunnels were built to shelter people from the intense bombing of Son Trung and Son Ha communes in Vinh Linh county of Quang Tri Province in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The American forces believed the villagers of Vinh Moc were supplying food and armaments to the North Vietnamese garrison on the island of Con Co which was in turn hindering the American bombers on their way to bomb Hanoi. The idea was to force the villagers of Vinh Moc to leave the area but as is typical in Vietnam there was nowhere else to go. The villagers initially dug the tunnels to move their village 10 metres underground but the American forces designed bombs that burrowed down 10 metres. Eventually against these odds, the villagers moved the village to a depth of 30 metres. It was constructed in several stages beginning in 1966 and used until early 1972. The complex grew to include wells, kitchens, rooms for each family and spaces for healthcare. Around 60 families lived in the tunnels; as many as 17 children were born inside the tunnels.
Since the area above the tunnels was continuously pummeled by bombs during the war, bomb craters are everywhere – and huge.
Concrete ditches run everywhere, allowing the people living in the tunnels to sneak around on the surface, and fight against enemies on the land.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamfan2/9456183528/in/set-72157634959634759
The tunnels sit on a hillside looking over the South China Sea. It’s a beautiful view.
Inside, the tunnels are very very small and cramped – it’s amazing that anybody was able to live in there for as long as they did.
After departing the beautifully abandoned Cuc Phuong National Park Resort and stopping to see a few monkeys and turtles, we hopped on bikes to complete the next leg of the journey through Cuc Phuong National Park.
There’s a reasonably well maintained concrete road that winds its way through the park – perfect for leisurely biking.
Our main stop during our day of biking was at the Na Mo Cave of Prehistoric Man. From Wikitravel:
The Cave of Prehistoric man is the site of the one of the earliest discoveries of human habitation in Vietnam. Excavated in 1966, the cave revealed human graves, stone axes, pointed bone spears, oyster shell knives, and tools for grinding dating back 7,500 years ago.
Exploring the cave was interesting – it wasn’t particularly difficult to access the entrance – but when we arrived, it was realized that nobody had brought a flashlight or headlamp except for me. I was lucky to have my headlamp with me, but everybody else used the flashes on their smartphones as flashlights – lame, but it worked. In traveling alone through asia, I got to meet all sorts of people – including ones who go caving without a proper light! It was all in good fun, though.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamfan2/9448100044/in/set-72157634944112311
Taking the slow boat to Laos is a travel pilgrimage that I had heard of for years, and after a few days in Chiang Mai, I was finally ready to embark on the journey.
From Mandalay, I pushed on by bus to Bagan. This ancient city is a major historical and archeological site, and its land is covered by Temples and Stupas, as far as the eye can see. Truly a spectacular place, I spent two days here exploring and taking photos.
My transport from Mandalay to Bagan was via bus – and although I try not to travel by bus whenever possible, to get to Bagan this was the only way. The day I departed it was raining, and women splashed around in the mud parking lot selling snacks and meals to travelers.
Arriving in Bagan, I linked up with some other fellow travelers, and together we negotiated for a ride over to the Winner Guesthouse. The place was basic, but inexpensive and clean enough. Notably, it seemed like they were in the midst of a major renovation, and were building yet another building in the backyard. This was actually the vibe at most places I stayed at in Myanmar. Open for business, but rapidly expanding their operations. Tourism is new in Myanmar, but growing quickly, and with good reason – the country is absolutely beautiful, and the people are wonderful.
A bit about Bagan – it’s simply incredible. Everywhere you look, there are brick temples and stupas dotting the landscape. In peoples gardens and beside roads, there are small ones, as small as a few feet high. And looming in the distance are temples hundreds of feet high. There are stupas of every size, shape, and variety. Each one has a name, and a unique story to it. Walking around the area is bewildering, with so much packed into such a compact area.
Bagan (Burmese: ????; MLCTS: pu.gam, IPA: [b??à?]; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Burma (Myanmar). From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.
Architecture
Bagan stands out not only for the sheer number of religious edifices but also for the magnificent architecture of the buildings, and their contribution to Burmese temple design. The Bagan temple falls into one of two broad categories: the stupa-style solid temple and the gu-style (??) hollow temple.Stupas
A stupa, also called a pagoda, is a massive structure, typically with a relic chamber inside. The Bagan stupas or pagodas evolved from earlier Pyu designs, which in turn were based on the stupa designs of the Andhra region, particularly Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda in present-day southeastern India, and to a smaller extent to Ceylon.[19] The Bagan-era stupas in turn were the prototypes for later Burmese stupas in terms of symbolism, form and design, building techniques and even materials.[20]
Originally, an Indian/Ceylonese stupa had a hemispheric body (Pali: anda, “the egg”) on which a rectangular box surrounded by a stone balustrade (harmika) was set. Extending up from the top of the stupa was a shaft supporting several ceremonial umbrellas. The stupa is a representation of the Buddhist cosmos: its shape symbolizes Mount Meru while the umbrella mounted on the brickwork represents the world’s axis.[21] The brickwork pediment was often covered in stucco and decorated in relief. Pairs or series of ogres as guardian figures (‘bilu’) were a favourite theme in the Bagan period.[22]The original Indic design was gradually modified first by the Pyu, and then by Burmans at Bagan where the stupa gradually developed a longer, cylindrical form. The earliest Bagan stupas such as the Bupaya (c. 9th century) were the direct descendants of the Pyu style at Sri Ksetra. By the 11th century, the stupa had developed into a more bell-shaped form in which the parasols morphed into a series of increasingly smaller rings placed on one top of the other, rising to a point. On top the rings, the new design replaced the harmika with a lotus bud. The lotus bud design then evolved into the “banana bud”, which forms the extended apex of most Burmese pagodas. Three or four rectangular terraces served as the base for a pagoda, often with a gallery of terra-cotta tiles depicting Buddhist jataka stories. The Shwezigon Pagoda and the Shwesandaw Pagoda are the earliest examples of this type.[21] Examples of the trend toward a more bell-shaped design gradually gained primacy as seen in the Dhammayazika Pagoda (late 12th century) and the Mingalazedi Pagoda (late 13th century).[23]
Hollow temples
In contrast to the stupas, the hollow gu-style temple is a structure used for meditation, devotional worship of the Buddha and other Buddhist rituals. The gu temples come in two basic styles: “one-face” design and “four-face” design—essentially one main entrance and four main entrances. Other styles such as five-face and hybrids also exist. The one-face style grew out of 2nd century Beikthano, and the four-face out of 7th century Sri Ksetra. The temples, whose main features were the pointed arches and the vaulted chamber, became larger and grander in the Bagan period.[24]Innovations
Although the Burmese temple designs evolved from Indic, Pyu (and possibly Mon) styles, the techniques of vaulting seem to have developed in Bagan itself. The earliest vaulted temples in Bagan date to the 11th century while the vaulting did not become widespread in India until the late 12th century. The masonry of the buildings shows “an astonishing degree of perfection”, where many of the immense structures survived the 1975 earthquake more or less intact.[21] (Unfortunately, the vaulting techniques of the Bagan era were lost in the later periods. Only much smaller gu style temples were built after Bagan. In the 18th century, for example, King Bodawpaya attempted to build the Mingun Pagoda, in the form of spacious vaulted chambered temple but failed as craftsmen and masons of the later era had lost the knowledge of vaulting and keystone arching to reproduce the spacious interior space of the Bagan hollow temples.[20])
Another architectural innovation originated in Bagan is the Buddhist temple with a pentagonal floor plan. This design grew out of hybrid (between one-face and four-face designs) designs. The idea was to include the veneration of the Maitreya Buddha, the future and fifth Buddha of this era, in addition to the four who had already appeared. The Dhammayazika and the Ngamyethna Pagoda are examples of the pentagonal design.[21]
As soon as I was checked into the guesthouse, I quickly changed clothes, and went out to the road to find a horse carriage driver to show me around a bit. Since I had just arrived, and hadn’t done a ton of research on the area, I figured that hiring a guy to take me around for a few hours was good. And it was great. My driver was a 28 year old guy who had lived near Bagan his whole life. He had bough his horse – Juliette – from his brother a few years ago, and he and horse had been giving tours of Bagan ever since. He seemed to really like his job, and was very knowlegable and fun to hang out with. For the afternoon, we went around to a bunch of the temples dotting the landscape. Some of the structures are Stupas, meaning they are solid brick. Most are protected, but a few are able to be climbed. Since tourism is new in Myanmar, it’s pretty much open terretory here – very little regulation means that nobody will really stop you if you climb on the structures – I’m hoping this will change in the future, to properly preserve them. But for now, climbing is mostly allowed and unregulated. I did climb to the top of one or two, and went on the roof of one of the hollow temples.
Although the brick structures look old, and the place feels like an ancient archeological site, there are still new stupas and temples being constructed today. Going inside a brand new, under construction temple was an interesting experience – the architecture looked like the same historical architecture that the rest of the temples exhibited, however the brickwork, plastering, and everything else was brand new and nice. It was like a master-planned house built to mimic a classic american home – same same, but different.
Exploring the interiors of the hollow temples was a transporting experience. Walking through the giant gates and into the cool, quiet interior was meditative and serene. The brick walls echoed back sounds, and when I was alone in the temples, the sounds of the plain were incredible. A light breeze swept through the interiors, and it was almost as if you could feel the process of time sweeping by. Occasionally a monk would silently turn a corner and walk past, on his way to the buddha statue in the interior.
At the end of my first day in Bagan, a cool drink with a few of the temple guards.
On my second day, I met up three other travelers, and the four of us decided to get a van ride over to the mystical Mt. Popa. On our way there, we also stopped by a homebrew palm whiskey distillery. Palm nuts are harvested from the trees, and then a bull is used to smash the nuts and extract the juices. It’s then all boiled down and distilled into a VERY potent mixture.
Looming in the distance, Mt. Popa is a small mountain that juts out of the mostly flat landscape. Surrounding the mountain are more stupas, which spiral their way up the flanks of the mountain, giving way to a few cliff bands, and then reappearing in golden splendor at the top. Of course, we hiked our way up to the top, followed by monkeys and cats. We even got into the local culture and had some of the local women smear Thanaka face paint on us.
Bagan was amazingly beautiful, and 2 days certainly was not enough time to fully explore the place. However, the next morning the four of us set out for the illegal teak harvesting camps outside of Taunggyi.
