Monday in Yangon

Our photo holiday proper starts this evening. Today I had the pleasure of spending the day with our tutor and our lovely guide.

We went to the market in the city. People have stalls for fruit, veg, meat and fish on either side of a narrow street. Some sit with baskets of goods in the centre. If a lorry needs to drive along the street, the centre folk scatter with their goods and the ones on the outside pull the umbrellas, that protect their goods from the sun, to one side. It is quite a spectacle.

There are indoor markets too. I dived into the textile one and was in a crowded world with fabrics from floor to ceiling. There is hardly room to walk between the stalls and the smallholders themselves are sitting or standing high up and have to stretch down to take money.

I had a brilliant time. I practised my two phrases and smiled and laughed a lot with people. Some had a smattering of English too.

Our time in the market ended with a visit to the indoor meat market and my blip is one of the butchers hard at work.

I have loads of images I would like to show you, but it’s proving hard to fit in time for blipping.

My task for the day was to shoot at the widest aperture and to shoot into the sun. I found that quite challenging.

After a lunch of noodles, we three took the ferry across the Yangon River to an area where there is another market and people are undoubtedly poorer.

We visited a small private orphanage housed in two small huts and run by two men. They have something like 12 children at present, from 2 months to 15 years. The little ones were there and were gorgeous, but I recognised their abnormal over friendly behaviour immediately.

I’ll try and post more images when I have time.