TRAVEL WITH PASSION 2015

BURMAA WORLD APARTNOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 11 2015

BETTER MOMENTS

BURMA

A WORLD APART NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 11 2015

Photo: Steve McCurry

A WORLD APARTN

OV

EMBER 30 -

DEC

EMBER 11 2015

Photo: Steve McCurry

A WORLD APART NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 11 2015

hristian Nørgaard is the founder and CEO of Better Moments. For years he has

photographed and travelled exten-sively and has received wide acclaim for his unique photographic talent. He will take you to one of his favorite destinations.

Burma is one of the last countries in Asia that has preserved its deep reli-gious and historical roots. Today, the country has just started opening up for foreign visitors.

Drift down the Ayeyarwady in an old river steamer, stake out a slice of beach on the blissful Bay of Bengal, or trek through pine forests to mi-nority villages scat tered across the Shan Hills.

Dig into the myriad dishes of the local cuisine, from a hearty bowl of mo hinga noodles for breakfast to the fermented tea-leaf mixture that’s a popular finish to a Burmese meal. Swap cocktails and cana pés for snacks and tea sweetened with con-densed milk at teahouses where you can shoot the breeze with locals.

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EXPLORE WITH CHRISTIAN NØRGAARD

Photo: Steve McCurry

A WORLD APART NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 11 2015

ITINERARY DAY 1 – DAY 1: BANGKOK – YANGON

You can choose to meet us in either Yangon Airport or Bangkok Airport. After check-in at our hotel in Yangon we will go for a photo tour to the Kyaukhtatgyi Pagoda with a 70-meter reclining Buddha, continuing the walk through the colorful streets of Yangon, and we will end the tour at sunset at the unique Shwedagon Pa-goda. We will perpetuate this historic pagoda with the sky saturated in pink red light, followed by a de-lightful welcome dinner.

DAY 2: YANGONAfter breakfast we walk to the main train station, where we embark on the local circular train. During the day we ride around the outer part of Yangon with a speed of approx. 10 km per hour watching the locals get on and off in a constant stream along the route with their goods, traveling from one local market to another. It is a ride that offers one of the most genuine and exciting cultural encounters, one can experience. We get off and on along the way to visit markets with plenty of portrait photo opportunities of inter-esting local people. We spend the rest of the day in the “Golden Val-ley” area, which is famous for its many artists. We will visit an art gallery founded by the renowned Burmese artist Min Wai Aung.

DAY 3: YANGON – MANDALAYWe leave Yangon and fly to Mandalay, the second-largest city in Burma, and the former royal capital.Then we visit the “Golden Palace Monastery” - Shwe Kyaung and Kuthodaw Pagoda with the engraved 729 stone slabs that make up the Tripitaka, which is the Buddhist canon.

DAY 4: MANDALAYWe spend the day in Amarapura, a former royal cap-ital and an important religious and spiritual center with many monasteries and thousands of monks. We will visit the beautiful U Bein’s Bridge, a 1.2 km long walkway across the Taungthaman Lake built in teak more than 200 years ago. The bridge is used

daily by the many monks and other locals, and is one of the most photographed structures in Burma. Amarapura is also famous for their exclusive Man-dalay silk and the more reasonably priced cotton fabric, which Burmese use for their characteristic longys worn by both women and men.

DAY 5: MANDALAY – BAGANIn the morning we go by boat to Bagan, and upon arrival we drive to the impressive temple area. Here we visit Thagyar Pone temple and get an introduc-tion to Bagan history. We focus our lenses on the historical buildings and local monks. In the afternoon we visit Ananda, one of the ho-liest sites in Bagan, as well as a few other temples normally not open to foreign tourists with cameras. We watch and shoot the impressive sunset over the horizon with the many stupas.

DAY 6: BAGANWe start the day with a visit to the colorful and pop-ular Nyaung Oo Market. You can easily spend hours just by watching and shooting the bustling activity.Then we leave town to go to a local farm where they grow crops. Sugar palms are a particularly impor-tant source of income, and we capture the farmers who climb up the tall palm trees to tap the syrup.

DAY 7: BAGAN AND AYEYARWADYLater in the morning we board our boat to sail up the famous Ayeyarwady River to Kyauk U Min, which is located about two hours upriver. Here we visit a small village and a couple of small temples. During the boat trip we learn about life on the river, the wildlife and the small villages on the riverbed. From the boat there will be unique opportunities to photograph the local fishermen in their small fish-ing boats. In the afternoon we drive in a carriage through the temple area and stop at a number of temples, including the famous Dhammayangyi temple.

DAY 8: BAGAN – HAN HO-INLE LAKEWe fly to Han Ho in Shanstaten, and continue by 4x4 vehicle to Inle Lake. We stay near the lake and spend the morning experiencing this beautiful area

with the one-legged cane, the many small pagodas, and the life around the lake. This area is most beau-tiful in the evening light, with great opportunities for great landscape pictures and portraits of the lo-cal fishermen.

DAY 9: INLE LAKEWe start the day with a visit to the local market where ethnic tribesmen gather and sell their goods. The ethnic groups are characterized by their local costumes and at the market we meet people from the Pa Oh, Inthar and Shan tribes. After visiting the market, we go to Inpawkhone, a village famous for its silk weaving. In the afternoon our boat will take us to a Pa Oh village at the south side of the lake. We will walk around grasping and shooting the atmos-phere.

DAY 10: INLE LAKE – HAN HO-YANGOWe leave Inle Lake and fly back to Yangon. In the afternoon we go for a walk in Yangon, where the theme is Buddhism and spirituality. Although Bur-ma is predominantly Buddhist there are many other religions represented in Yangon due to the mixed population. We begin in China Town, where we visit a Chinese temple, and continue to the western part of the city where we see mosques, Christian churches, Hindu temples and synagogues.

During the tour we will of course also have the op-portunity to experience the colorful street scene and to make stops at the small tea rooms, which Yangon is famous for. We finish the day by watching the sunset in Sule Pagoda.

DAY 11: YANGON – BANGKOKWe begin the day with a morning stroll through the city’s colonial architecture to the Beach Hotel, which is one of the few remaining historic hotels in Asia. Then we visit the gold gilded Shwedagon Pa-goda, one of Buddhism’s most outstanding symbols. Here we walk on the lower terraces in the com-pany of the friendly and devout Burmese, who often comes with their families, to pay their respects and pray for success for an upcoming exam or planned business. Early evening we leave for the airport and fly to Bangkok.

EXPERT: CHRISTIAN NØRGAARD

Photo: Steve McCurry

A WORLD APART NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 11 2015

Christian Nørgaard is the found-er and CEO of Better Moments. For years he has photographed and travelled extensively and has received wide acclaim for his unique photographic talent. In recent years he has also collabo-rated with Steve McCurry and other of National Geographic’s

leading photographers for exhi-bitions and events. His workshop in Burma and India is a unique opportunity for any photogra-pher to combine adventure, trav-el and report photography and work with one of the best in the field.

CHRISTIAN NØRGAARD

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