shwedagon paya

yes, i know, obligatory burmese photo, but the grandeur of this place merits a pic. this was the first place visited in my first morning in rangoon, and i'm glad i did it then, as the temperatures in the later afternoon would have killed me here.

overall, a pretty busy day - went to shwedagon, lunch at decent (by burmese standards at least) restaurant, over to inya lake (some photos of aung san suu kyi's place from a distance - no swimming of course), attempted a taxi ride past suu kyi's house, but they did have the road blocked today, a visit just down the street to the new us embassy, oh, yes, and then the incident.

i don't usually visit my embassy when traveling, but being as the one here is supposed to be magnificent, i thought i'd go by. while pulling up to the front, i wanted to get a snapshot of the sign out front - turns out we're not too into that. immediately the guards came running to the taxi, guns out, forcing us to stop. camera snatched from hand, searched, and then questions as to where the photos were stored (i never did actually get the picture). it may have been easier before the digital age, as they simply would have ripped the film out and exposed it, but now i was being questioned about a "secret" file saving program. furthermore, i have so many pictures going back to past trips, so explaining seattle, dar es salaam, lilongwe, home took some time as they searched through the collection.

fortunately, they were quite polite at the end of the ordeal, and being american definitely helped the situation, as any other nationality might have had some more explaining to do. in my defense, there's a tiny "no photo" sign out front, that i didn't even notice until i was being investigated. so, photocopy of driver's license, address in rangoon, hotel room, passport number, telephone number, and itinerary delivered to them, and i was on my way.