Twilight at Shwedagon's South Gate
It was our first day in Yangon, and we went out in late afternoon to find the western gate for a special shot of the golden pagoda of Shwedagon. It turned out to be a lot farther from our hotel than we thought. The light faded and we were nowhere near our goal. Finally we jumped in a taxi and told the guy to take us to the western gate. Oops! he spoke no English, but when we saw this spectacular sight, we stopped the car.
The scene didn’t seem as we remembered it from our city tour, but we began shooting as the night descended. Shwedagon is the golden spire on the far right. The building that looks like a pagoda to you and me is just the entrance with its mythical animals guarding this holy place.
No matter that we were in the wrong place. It was beautiful.
We had a hard time walking back. Traffic was heavy. All the taxis were full. Cars would not stop to let us cross the street. There were no Burmese pedestrians that we could “piggy-back”. It was dark by the time we got to a restaurant a few blocks away. We ate roast duck and drank tea and debated just what it was we had photographed.
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