Mandalay (မန္တလေးမြို့)

is one of the biggest citys (1.6 Million people) in Myanmar. It used to be the royal capital of the burmese kingdom from 1857 to 1885 until the british conquerors chased King Thibaw Min away to India.

It was our first stop on our travel around Myanmar and it impressed us a lot. The views of everyday situations on the street were so interesting, the people so friendly and the culture so mysterious.
Every day you can see monks, often kids walking around and singing, giving their blessings to the people around them. In return they recieved rice and money.

In genereal you see monks everywhere around the city in the typical cloth doing their work. They are a big part of the everyday life in Mandalay.

One of the first things we noticed was that the sidewalk pretty much doesn't exist here. People use this extra space for their shops or as a extended part of their house.
This makes walking on the street, near the traffic pretty much unavoidable.

The life happens on the street in Mandalay, like in the picture above. A barber has his workplace on a certain spot and is doing his buissness outside.
This made Mandalay a streetphotography paradise!

The people were extremely friendly, I got invited A LOT for tea, talks and cigarettes ;)

Thinking about Mandalay now, in soon to be cold Germany makes me want to go back again. I feel like ive seen only small drop of the whole lake...

Thank you for your time!

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>all photos I post are taken by me with a Canon 6D these in particular with the Canon 50mm 1.4 lens. come and visit my profile for more photography and travel images :*