Three Foreign Films Worth Your Time

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

Tags

"45 Years", "A War", "Anomalisa", "Brooklyn", "Carol", "Embrace of the Serpent", "Mustang", "Only Yesterday", "RAMS", "Room", "Son of Saul", "Spotight", "The Big Short", "The Bridge of Spies", "The Club", "Trumbo", "Where to Invade Next", Best Foreign Film, Films, Movies, Oscars

So it’s the morning after the Oscars, and most of the expected results indeed occurred. I see no need to add my two cents, particularly as I have already had my say about many of these films.

However, I was pleased to note that we had seen four of the five Best Foreign Film nominees (Son of Saul, the winner, A War, Embrace of the Serpent, and Mustang), only missing Theeb, which I had tried to see but somehow missed. I’ve found that over the years we tend to see more foreign, documentary and small budget films than mainstream, big studio films, and thus I’ve focused, so to speak, MillersTime film reviews on these.

Anyway, I’ve had this post in the works for a number of days but was delightfully delayed in completing it by the early arrival of a lovely granddaughter (postings on that, no doubt, will be coming).

I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these very different films .

Embrace of the Serpent****1/2

Embrace2

A wonderful and unusual film about the Colombian Amazon, inspired by the journals of two early 20th century explorers. The story focuses on an Amazonian shaman, who may be the last survivor of his people.

The first part is the story of the young shaman (Karakate) and a very sick German scientist who needs a particular healing plant to stay alive. The second half of the film takes place 40 years later when Karakate (then an old man who is losing his memory) meets a second scientist who is looking for the same plant.

In what almost seems like a documentary (it is not), we see the Amazon largely through the eyes, mind, and life of Karakate. One of the beauties of this film is that it is colonialism as seen through the eyes of the indigenous population.

But it is the filming of Embrace of the Serpent, done largely in black and white, that leads to my high rating above. It felt as if we were in the Amazon a hundred years ago.

(About three-quarters of our film club thought the film was good or excellent and 80% would recommend it to a friend.)

Son of Saul****1/2

son

Another Holocaust film?

Yes.

Someone said there are at least six million Holocaust stories.

What makes this one different from many of the others is that it is told through the perspective of one concentration camp prisoner. The camera rarely leaves the face or presence of this man Saul, a Sonderkommando, a Hungarian Jewish prisoner whose job it is to assist in the herding of prisoners into the gas chambers and disposing of their remains.

Saul seeks to find a rabbi to give a young boy, who may or may not be his son, a proper burial. This is an almost impossible task but one that Saul undertakes with a fierceness that is unrelenting. At the same time, other prisoners are trying to convince him to join a fruitless rebellion against their captors. He largely ignores their efforts to engage him in actions.

The usual scenes of the horrors of camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau (where this film takes place) are only barely visible in the background. But that somehow only seems to increase the horror. The film is shot in a square picture format and not in the usual wide screen format, and that too adds to the uniqueness of this film.

Directed by Laszlo Nemes, his first film, co-written with Clara Royes, and starring Geza Rohrig, the film is different from most other Holocaust films, and it is riveting.

Last night, it won the the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

A War****

awar

The particular war in this film is one that takes place in Afghanistan, tho the title A War suggests a universal theme.

The particular story focuses on a Danish company commander, Claus Pederson, and his struggles to lead his men on a particularly difficult peace keeping mission. Meanwhile, his wife struggles to keep their family together at home as their three kids miss their father. The film flips back and forth between these two struggles.

When Claus makes a decision in the midst of battle that leads to the death of 11 civilians (eight of whom are children), their stories come together as Claus is sent home to face a courtroom trial.

Enough said.

This film is one that begs for discussion. And I’d love to talk about it with any of you who may have seen it or do see it.

(Our Sunday cinema club gave A War an excellent/good rating of 89.41% and the recommend rate was above 90%.)

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

In addition to the three films above, I’ve noticed that many of the films we saw in our movie club, in the Philly Film Festival, and a few others we saw and rated last year are now out and in the theaters. (Those below in red italics are linked to mini-reviews I wrote in earlier posts.)

Anomalisa ***

The Big Short ****

Bridge of Spies ****1/2

Carol ***1/2

45 Years***1/2

RAMS ****1/2

Trumbo***1/2

Where to Invade Next***

“There’s a Time to Leave the Party”

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

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Tags

2016 Baseball Season, A "Mensch", baseball, Big Papi, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Derek Jeter, Fenway Park, Final Season, Ortiz's Final Year, Red Sox, Sox, Time to leave the party, Yankee Stadium

My dear father Sam Miller told me frequently over the last quarter of his life, “There’s a time to leave the party.”

I told him I understood and continually asked him, “How do you know when that time has come?”

“That,” he said, “is something you have to figure out for yourself.” (I do think he hinted it was better to leave too early than to stay too late.)

Of course, the “party” can be many things. (I think he first mentioned his mantra when I was considering whether to retire from the school a group of us had created and operated for 30+ years, but he also often mentioned “leaving the party” when he was talking about the end of his own life.)

For those of you (un)lucky ones who may not follow the Boston Red Sox too closely, David Ortiz, Big Papi, told the baseball world on Nov. 19, 2015 — his 40th birthday — that 2016 would be his final year in baseball, saying, “After next year, time is up.” (To see and hear his full announcement, go to the video Ortiz posted to The Players’ Tribune.)

davis_st2232_spts-15912-8840

I’ll spare you a review of how good Ortiz’s season was in 2015 and all the things he’s done with his bat, what he’s meant to his team, to the Red Sox Nation, to the city of Boston, to baseball in general, and to his countrymen in the Dominican Republic. There’ll be innumerable articles about all of that throughout the coming season. It’s fair to say, I believe, he’s as close to a lock on getting into the Hall of Fame (may be even the first year he’s eligible) as it’s possible to be.

(Also, check out these two articles, Ortiz still hungry but ready to pass the torch and Papi’s swan song will be a celebration for baseball.)

But the purpose of this post is to give you a heads up for this final year. It won’t be the way Derek Jeter did it, who, in my humble opinion, stayed at the party too long. (Despite his playing for the “Evil Empire,” I always liked Jeter and thought he was one of the class guys in baseball.)

Ortiz’s leaving will be more subdued, less scripted. But if you have a kid, take him to see Ortiz, or just go yourself so you can tell your grand kid you saw him in his final year. You don’t have to go to Fenway to see him. Go to a Sox away game, especially if it’s in your own home town, where it might be easier and less expensive to get tickets to a Sox game.

It’s hard to know when Ortiz’s last at bat will be, but here are two dates to know: the final regular season away game is at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 29th. And the Sox’s final regular season home game is October 2 at Fenway Park. If you’re a Sox fan, you hope, as always, that there will be a post season and that whenever his final at bat occurs, he will be able to match Ted Williams and hit a home run.

And wouldn’t it be something if Big Papi won the World Series for the Sox with a walk off home run? But I digress.

That’s not really what’s important.

Not only has Ortiz has brought much joy to many of us (and three World Series), but he will be remembered as one of the Red Sox all time greats, probably the best Designated Hitter of all time.

On top of that, he’s a mensch. Just ask anyone associated with the Sox, even the just added David Price, who once thought the worst of Ortiz.

Think about seeing Big Papi in his final year.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

For those of you who may have missed an earlier post this week, I’ve announced the 2016 MillersTime Baseball Contests where you can join others who know anywhere from almost nothing about baseball to those who think they’re experts.

Consider joining this year. There’s no cost, other than a bit of your time. And if you don’t know much about baseball, maybe someone in your family or one of your friends does. Pass it on to them, and if they enter, mention your name, and win, then so do you.

Winter in Iceland: Thru Ellen’s Lens

20 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Amazing Tours.Is, Blue Lagoon, Ellen Miller, Ellen Miller's Photos, Geothermal Hot Springs, Geysers, Glaciers, Haraldur Guojonsson, Hot Springs, Iceland, Northern Lights, Reykjavik, Super Jeeps, Winter in Iceland

Iceland. Opening Ohot_Lights

(Photo by Haraldur Guojonsson, Amazing Tours.Is, our Northern Lights guide and photojournalist in Iceland. We are the two ‘orange clad’ people closest to the jeep.)

We’d been thinking about a summer trip to Iceland for a few years now, but after learning about an “adventure hotel” about an hour outside of Reykjavik where it was possible to see the Northern Lights from one’s room, we decided that winter was the perfect time to go. (After all, we had all the necessary clothes after going to Antarctica, and we reasoned a winter trip need not take the place of a summer one.)

For all but a day and a half of our week in Iceland we were the countryside.

We never tired of the landscapes, the waterfalls, the lakes, the hot springs, and the glaciers. We explored ice caves, farms, small villages, and snowmobiling. (Ellen loved that. I liked it more after we finished than while I was ‘driving’ the machine.) For two days we had a guide who drove us in a four-wheeled Super Jeep and delighted in off road driving. In fact, he seemed to make a practice of avoiding anything that resembled a road or well-worn tracks. But he was knowledgeable about his country and was as good a driver as I’ve ever had. (He also rescued several other drivers while we were with him, which gave us a lot of confidence, When on one of the two days our own vehicle broke down, he quickly used his cell phone to call a buddy back in Reykjavik who within an hour arrived with two vehicles, one to replace ours and the other to tow the broken one back to be repaired.)

Most of the time we felt we were on another planet: one that was rocky and snow covered, with whipping winds that blew the snow across the road and across the glaciers. We saw ponies and sheep hovering in the freezing temperatures (although the daily temperature generally reached 30 degrees, it did get precipitously colder at night), isolated farms, small villages, churches, and lighthouses. We found the natural geothermal hot springs fascinating with their billowing clouds of steam rising out of the ground. On the coast, the water was deep blue, many of the beaches were black (think lava), and the waves looked steamy as they crashed into the shore. We explored a hot water extraction and distribution plant, took hundreds of pictures at the geysirs (geysers), heard a story about why many farmers painted their roofs red, and learned a lot of Icelandic history. The sun didn’t rise each day until 9:45 AM, and it set around 5:45 PM. All the sunrises and sunsets differed, and all were all spectacular.

So was the food. From the dark breads, fresh butter, gravlax, and skyr (yogurt) to the endless varieties of seafood soups (one better than the next) to the langoustines (Icelandic lobsters), Artic Char, Icelandic cod, shrimp, scallops, mussels, and lamb in many forms (including the lamb soup we ate for lunch at a tourist rest stop), every meal was a feast.

And we were fortunate enough to get three evenings of Northern Lights. Having seen this wonder in Alaska, we wanted to see them again. Our first night out with a photo journalist/guide was only partially successful. He took us to a mountain, and we were able to see a bit of Northern Light activity. On our way back to our lodge, the lights had gotten stronger (see photo above), and he taught Ellen how to photograph them (see photo below and others in the slide show). The next two nights, however, these dancing lights of the Aurora Borealis were stronger, and we indeed could see them from our room. The dancing lights are a result of electrons colliding with the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere, and if you’ve ever had the good fortune to see them, you will not forget them. The night sky gave us an amazingly clear view of millions of stars and the Milky Way.

Towards the end of our week, we left our lodge in our rented SUV in the midst of what they called ‘snow squalls’ but seemed to us to be a snowstorm with whiteout conditions. It took us two hours to cover a distance that usually takes only an hour, but we made it back into Reykjavik safely. There we spent just a short time exploring the city — quaint with modern touches, a nice harbor area, one fabulous church, beautiful arts center, and great food — before deciding to go back into the countryside and along the western coast. On our final day, we spent four hours at the Blue Lagoon, an outdoor hot springs pool where you can relax in a 99-102-degree hot springs while still being in the middle of a 32-degree wondrous landscape.

The 12 photos below will give you a first glance at what we saw and the slide show following will take you deeper into Iceland.

We will return. Not only during a summer but also for another winter week.

It was certainly a feast for the eyes.

Thru Ellen’s Lens:

Iceland. Thru the car mirror

Iceland. Trees

Iceland. Watyer with sky reflected

Iceland.Ice

Iceland. Wooly Sheep

Iceland. Glacier

Iceland. Hot Springs

Iceland.surise_set_

Iceland. Blu Glacier

Iceland. Northern Lights.

To see Ellen’s entire slide show (66 photos), use this link: Winter in Iceland.

For the best viewing, click on the little arrow at the top right of the first page of the link to start the slide show and see all the photos in the largest size possible (use a laptop or desktop computer if you have access to either).

2016 MillersTime Baseball Contests

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Go Sox

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

"MillersTime" Contest, A. Bartlett Giamatti, baseball, Baseball Contests, MillersTime Winner, MLB, Prize T-Shirt, Spring Training, World Series

Spring

YES.

Spring Training has begun, and so, of course, it’s time to turn to the MillersTime Baseball Contests to test your baseball knowledge, hopes, luck, fears, prejudices, and ignorance.

The contests have evolved from just Red Sox (and Evil Empire) focused questions to ones that involve all of MLB as the majority of contestants are no longer Sox fans (poor souls).

You don’t have to enter all of the contests, and if you’re not baseball obsessed (pity), you can easily just choose a couple of contests to enter (see #1, #2, Extra Credit).

While it might be tempting to wait until late in Spring Training to submit your answers, you do run the risk of losing out to someone who submits a similar winning answer earlier.

Also, in addition to the prizes listed in each contest, all winners get the exclusive, one-of-a-kind “MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner” T-Shirt, a much ‘valued’ prize.

Winner

backwinner

Justin B models

his ‘prized’ T-Shirt

Contest # 1:

Pick your favorite MLB team (or the team you know the most) and answer the following questions to prove whether you’re just a homer (“Someone who shows blind loyalty to a team or organization, typically ignoring any shortcomings or faults they have”) or whether you really know something about baseball.

a. What will your team’s regular season record be in 2016?

b. Will they make the playoffs, and if so, how far will they go?

c. What will be the most important factor (hitting, starting pitching, bullpen, an individual’s performance, the manager, injuries, etc.) in determining their season?

Prize: Two tickets to a regular season game with your favorite team (details to be negotiated with moi.)

Contest #2:

Make a prediction about something that will happen during the 2016 MLB season.

Your prediction could be about a team, about a player, about a new record, about an ‘event,’ or about something, hopefully unique, you think will happen in 2016. One prediction only.

Of those that come true, MillersTime readers will determine which one is the best prediction. Voters generally have selected the most specific prediction, one that showed baseball knowledge, and/or one that predicted something unusual.

Prize: Join me to see a Nats’ game next year in wonderful seats. If you don’t live in this area, can’t get here, or don’t want to come to DC, you can give your prize to someone who can get here, or I can take a kid to a game in your place.

Contest # 3:

Part A: In 2015, the top ten MLB players’ Batting Averages averaged .322. Will the average of the top ten players batting averages be higher, the same, or lower in 2016? What will that average be?

Part B: In 2015, the top ten MLB players’ OPS (OBP/On-base Percentage + SLG/Slugging Percentage) averaged .931. Will that be higher, the same, or lower in 2016? What will the OPS be in 2016 for the top ten hitters?

Part C: In 2015, the Top ten MLB pitchers Earned Run Averages averaged 2.38. Will the top ten pitchers ERA average be higher, the same or lower in 2015? What will that average be?

Part D: In 2015, the top ten MLB pitchers won 183 games. What will the number of wins be for the top ten pitchers be in 2016?

Prize: Your choice of one of these books: The 20 Best Books Ever Written About Baseball.

Contest #4:

Part A: Choose two teams whose combined won/loss record in 2016 will be closest to .500.

Part B: Which MLB team will make the most improvement in their won-loss record in 2016?

Part C: Which MLB relief pitcher will have the most saves in 2016? How many?

Prize: A copy of A. Bartlett Giamatti’s wonderful collection of baseball writings entitled A Great and Glorious Game.

Contest # 5:

Predict who will lead the AL and who will lead the NL in getting the most All Star votes in 2016. Which of the two will receive more votes?

Prize: Join me after the All Star break to see a Nats’ game in wonderful seats. If you don’t live in this area, can’t get here, or don’t want to come to DC, you can give your prize to someone who can get here, or I can take a kid to a game in your place.

Contest #6:

Predict the ten (10) teams who will be in the 2016 playoffs. Which two teams will make it to the WS? Which team will win it all?

Prize: One ticket to the 2017 World Series.

Extra Credit:

Make up your own question about MLB in 2016 and then answer it.

Of those that come true, we’ll put it up to MillersTime baseball readers to decide who wins the prize. And that question will be incorporated in next year’s contests.

Prize: Your choice of one of these books: The 20 Best Books Ever Written About Baseball.

Additional Details:

All winners get the ‘one-of-a-kind,’ specially designed MillersTime Baseball Winner T-Shirt.
Enter as many or as few of the contests as you want.
Be sure to answer all parts of each contest you do enter.
If you get a friend (or a foe) to participate in these contests, and he/she wins and has mentioned your name in their submission, you will get a prize also.
Get your predictions in soon. In case of ties in any contest, the individual who submitted his/her prediction first will be the winner.
Submissions should be sent to me in an email – samesty84@gmail.com or can be sent to me by snail mail – Richard Miller – 2501 Tracy PL. NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Deadline for Submissions: Opening Day: Apr. 3, 2016, 1:05 PM, EST.

Five Good Reads

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

"Burial Rights", "Just Mercy", "Lila", "Some Could Get Hurt", "The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2015", "The Door", "The Short & Tragic Life of Robert Peace", Bryan Stevenson, Drew Magary, Hannah Kent, Jeff Hobbs, Magda Szabo, Marilynne Robinson

Each year, I try to read at least 12 books (one a month) that contributors mentioned on their lists of favorite reads over the past year.

So far, in this new year, I’ve read four of those books and want to call your attention to all of them. Plus, I’ve added a fifth book here that a reader recently mentioned, even though it was not on her 2015 list.

As I’m exploring ways of having more exchanges on this website about books we’re enjoying without having to wait until the end of the year to do so, here are five that I have particularly enjoyed this year already:

The Short & Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs (NF), recommended by Anita Rechler (“Offers lessons about how hard it is to overcome life’s challenges even when there are opportunities, role models, and caring people.”), Cindy Olmstead (“Named a best book of the year by the NY Times Book Review…poignant yet tragic.”), Hugh Riddleberger (“This book is compelling for those of us interested in how to help kids of promise who come from challenging neighborhoods and backgrounds…explores the deepest questions of why…why did it happen to Robert and why do good intentions fall short…far too often?”), Matt Rechler (“A fascinating story that raises the question of how the death of someone with so much potential could have been avoided.”).

An accounting of what happened to a gifted African American young man from a troubled area of Newark who makes it to Yale and after graduation returns to his neighborhood. Written by his white roommate at Yale, it explores Robert Peace’s upbringing, his path to and through college, and what happens afterwards. It raises a myriad of questions, none easily answered, but worth thinking about and discussing.

Ellen and I are planning one of our Sunday night ‘pop up’ dinners and discussions around this book. Let us know if you are interested in joining us. We will probably schedule the evening for some time in April or May.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice & Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (NF), recommended by Sal Giambanco (“This may be the most important book of 2015.”) and Emily Nichols Grossi (“I haven’t been this moved by a non-fiction, book length work in some time.”).

This book is written by an African American man whose path through life turns out quite different from Robert Peace’s. After attending Harvard Law School, he moves to the South and devotes his life to working with individuals in prison on issues of the death penalty, life imprisonment, and youth sentencing.

It’s an interesting read in conjunction with the Robert Peace book, but that is not the (only) reason I found it so involving. It’s hard to put this book down once you’ve begun to read it. The accounts of his years working with prisoners, their families, prison officials, courts, prosecutors, judges, and our legal system will, I suspect, give you new understandings and insights into what has been called our carceral state. It’s one of the best presentations of those issues and of the changes we need to make in our society that I have read.

For me, Bryan Stevenson is truly a hero and deserves to be read, appreciated, and honored for what he has done with his life and for some of the most unfortunate citizens in our society. In addition to his work as a lawyer and advocate, he’s a good writer and a good story teller.

The Door by Magda Szabo (F), recommended by Larry Makinson (“Story of a cantankerous but unforgettable character in postwar Hungary.”)

Larry was at our house near the end of 2015 when he was reading The Door and couldn’t put the book down.

Now I understand why.

It’s a character study, the story of two women (one a writer and one a housekeeper) who are very different in many ways and whose lives become intertwined. One of the two women is unlike any individual I’ve encountered, in life or in literature. The setting is Budapest after World War II.

I’ll leave the rest for you to discover yourself.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (F), recommended by Fruzsina Harsanyi.

When we were recently traveling in Iceland, Fruzsina wrote to us that we had to read this book, set in the north of the island in the early 1800s.

Both Ellen and I started it while we were there (ah, the wonders of downloading books) and finished it shortly after we returned. We both found it fascinating.

It’s a first novel by a young woman from Australia, and it’s hard to believe she was only 28 when she wrote it. Although it is a novel, it is based on historical events that took place in northern Iceland in 1829. Two women and a man have been condemned to death for the killing of two men. The main focus is on one of the condemned women — and the young Reverend who has been appointed to minister to her. As in The Door, the portrait of the woman is riveting. The writing is superb, particularly when the ‘voice’ of the main character tells her story, and when the author describes life in rural Iceland in the early 1800’s.

Both The Door and Burial Rites remind me of my favorite Marilyn Robinson book, Lila. These are three stories of women we — I — rarely ever encounter.

Someone Could Get Hurt by Drew Magary (NF), recommended by Brandt Tilis (“Funny book that relieved some of the angst about becoming a father.”) In addition to being my son-in-law, Brandt is just a few weeks away from welcoming his first child into this world. He also recommended the book to my other son-in-law and reports that father of three found it hilarious.

Magary is a columnist (GQ magazine, Deadspin, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, The Atlantic, etc.), interviewer, book author (The Postmortal — about a cure for aging — among other books), and humorist.

His memoir will resonate and will make you laugh, whether you’re about to be a father/parent, already are a father/parent, or once were a father/parent and now have entered the grand parent stage.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

If you’ve read and enjoyed one or more of the books recommended by others in the 2015 Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime readers, please let me know, (samesty84@gmail.com), and I’ll pass those comments on to other MillersTime readers.

Myanmar/Burma: Thru Ellen’s Lens

04 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Aung San Suu Kyi, Ayeyarwady River, Bagan, Balloons Over Bagan, Belmond, Buddhist Temples, Burma, Hot Air Balloon, Inle Lake, Irawaddy River, Mandalay, Myanmar, Pagodas, Stupas, Temples, Yangon

Not an Ellen Miller photo but one taken remotely by the Balloons Over Bagan company that took us on a truly unforgettable sunrise ‘flight’ over the temples, pagodas, farms, and villages of Bagan, Myanmar.

Ellen and I, and friends Fruszina and Ray, recently returned from almost two weeks in Myanmar, formerly Burma. After largely being closed to the outside world, the country is now “open” and in transition, moving from almost 50 years of military rule into some form of democracy.

The first half of our trip was largely on the Ayeyarwady (Irawaddy) River and through the countryside and rural areas with only brief stops in three major cities — Yangon (once the capital and now the largest city), Mandalay (nothing close to the romantic image we and others have/had of this city), and Bagan (also a former capital and a region known for its Buddhist temples and pagodas). The final portion of our trip took place in the Inle Lake area.

The pictures in Ellen’s slide show are roughly broken up into four groupings:

1. Hot Air Balloon Ride in Bagan. Clearly this adventure was one of the highlights for all four of us. We rose before daylight, and with some trepidation, joined others (16 people per balloon) in baskets below one of 10 balloons, and floated over the city and countryside as the sun rose. We each had different words to describe the amazing experience, but all agreed it provided a new perspective on the world below. There was something almost mystical and magical about the hour we spent floating above Bagan, and it certainly gave new meaning to the term “bucket list.”

2. Views from the Ayeyarwady. We spent seven nights on a Belmond boat/ship on this main river of Myanmar. It turned out to be more of a hotel than a cruise as the water levels were low, and we were only able to explore a small portion of the Ayeyarwady. Much of our time was spent taking side trips from the boat to explore small towns, villages, markets, Buddhist sites, and various cottage type industries. We spent many hours wandering in markets and observing daily life in these rural areas of Myanmar and were intrigued by the lives of hundreds and hundreds of young and not so young monks devoting themselves to living and learning the teachings of Buddha. It was a terrific insight into how people live, work and pray. We loved it. Some of Ellen’s most cherished pictures are in these grouping of photos.

3. Pagodas, Stupas, and Temples. Overwhelmingly a Buddhist country, Myanmar has literally thousands and thousands of temples, pagodas, and stupas (I never did learn the difference between a pagoda and a stupa). Despite my usual lack of interest in churches, cathedrals, and temples in other parts of the world, I never seemed to tire of seeing another Burmese temple or pagoda, though I could have done without so many statues of Buddha. There was one temple with over 535,000 (yes, five hundred thousand) images of Buddha, one ‘forest’ of 1,000 Buddhas, several resting, reclining, or standing Buddhas that were longer than a football field or taller than most buildings throughout Myanmar, and much gold leaf decoration of temples and pagodas built to honor Buddha (and hopefully guarantee the sponsor an auspicious return in his/her next life). We all were surprised by the variety and attraction of these structures.

4. Inle Lake. After our time on the Ayeyarwady, we flew to an area further east where we spent four days on the banks of Inle Lake, a fascinating area where each day the four of us would set out with a guide in a narrow, small, flat bottomed boat. We traveled to floating villages, observed floating farms, watched fisherman row boats with one leg while using their two arms to fish, and learned about a way of life that has existed for more than a thousand years. This area was the verdant Myanmar we had imagined it to be, and it was spectacular.

On our final night in Myanmar, on the picturesque lawn of Le Planteur restaurant in Yangon, and over a wonderful dinner, we reviewed our two weeks, trying to identify what each of us most enjoyed and would most remember. We all agreed: the hot air balloon ride was a remarkable and unforgettable experience; our time walking in the markets and villages was insightful, and we encountered wonderfully friendly people; our Inle Lake explorations opened our eyes to a unique way of living and working; and the Burmese people we met throughout our two weeks were gentle, friendly, hospitable, and resilient. The trip exceeded most of our expectations.

We only saw a small part of the country, and while we were aware that the country is in a political and economic transition, we did not have a clear sense of what the next few years will bring. (Unfortunately, we only had limited opportunities to explore the political realities of the transition to the new Aung San Suu Kyi inspired democratic era.)

All four of us will be curious and watching to see what happens now and in the next few years in Myanmar.

Thru Ellen’s Lens:

BOB.1