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On The Road In Myanmar

from a visit in January, 1999

These statues, 53 miles outside of Rangoon, guard a cistern/pool in rural Myanmar.

This is Myanmar's main highway and only road from the capital Rangoon (now called Yangon) to the southern part of the country. Unlined, and often much narrower than this, it is used by buses (actually pick-up trucks carrying an average of 20 people), trucks, cars, bicycles (two and three wheeled varieties), bullock carts, pony carts, pedestrians, and road workers.

This is a typical Burmese "bus." These tiny Toyotas carry 15 - 20 people in the back, on the roof, on the tailgate. No wonder these same trucks can go 300,000 miles in the U.S.

Brahmins still pull carts along the main highway in Myanmar. These two are pulling a load full of a sweet white root that we ate raw.

Bicycle rickshaws are very common.

Tiny ponies pull carts in many Myanmar cities.

Selling and eating foot streetside is very common.

Discussing rice farming at an openair granery.

A village beside the highway.

A tidal creek slows to a trickle at low tide, revealing tiny lizards or salamanders (see closeup, below)

Actually, it looks like a walking fish.

Most of the dogs in Southeast Asia don't look like anything you'd want to pet, mangy and listless, lying in the roads, but this sad creature was the worst.

An amazing range of reactions to me and my camera.

Monks wait at the Martaban train station.