"God dammit, there's a bunch of selfies in here." I muttered to myself while I was looking at the photographs I had taken in Bagan, Myanmar. But hey, I had seen dozens of Hunter S. Thompson and Jack Kerouac's self-portraits while they were in some exotic locations. I figured I also deserved some self-deprecating images, with the timeless Bagan temples dominating the background. It certainly looked better than the thousands of "selfie" shots taken in the bathroom, bedroom, conference room, and even the frigging train.
Self-Deprecating Images in Bagan | Myanmar
The Value of the Travel Portrait
I was usually embarrassed to ask someone to take my picture. I grinned at seeing the puzzled look on their faces whenever they took my picture because I rarely smiled at the camera. But sometimes I did love having my photograph taken. For posterity's sake, especially if the camera was distanced at least ten feet away and the background was stunning and would produce an image that could launch a thousand clicks of "likes" on Facebook (haha).
It was crazy to even look back at my experience in Bagan, Myanmar. It seemed like everywhere you looked was postcard material. The stunning stupas and pagodas littered by the hundreds across a desert-like terrain. Just climb up a random temple, and you would see them all spread out far and wide.
Cycling Through the Desert-like Terrain
After lunch on our first day, when the temperature reached a fever pitch at forty degrees Celsius, I took a short bike ride to nearby temples. I parked my bike by the road and proceeded by foot on sandy trails while rolling twigs passed me by as I stepped over cactus and other thorny bushes, just to get closer to some of the not-so-easily accessed temple ruins.
It was a great feeling just capturing the moment in a single frame, and multiple sounds of shutter clicks later, I stopped and stared in awe at my surroundings and decided I needed to have some images with myself embodied in it. The day I arrived home, I quickly showed my pictures to my brother, and minutes later, he was checking airfares to Myanmar. It was that easy, really, for a photograph to speak a thousand words and inspire anyone to see those places where we took photos with their own eyes.
A Different Form of "Highness"
I told myself, if ever I got imprisoned for the rest of the year for some mischievous, cooked-up case, the trip to Myanmar would be enough to make my year an epic one. Anything else was just icing on the cake. It was a different form of "highness"—the feeling of stepping into a once-mysterious country. Whose struggles throughout history I was familiar with, yet I had been clueless about what the real situation there was like. At least then, I had gotten a glimpse of the country.
From movies, CNN clips, and my former colleague Leland, who had spent some years as a volunteer in Myanmar, my first-hand experience added to my overall knowledge of the country. Something which formed that itch to come back in the near future. Hopefully, for a much longer stay.
A Memento to Inspire Others
I still had a lot of things to write about our trip there. I did not know where to start other than kick-starting it with a bunch of those self-proclaiming images. But hey, it was Bagan, Myanmar. Everyone should have a picture of themselves in that place framed and sitting on top of their table, like a proud memento you could show to your friends and family. In my case, I was sharing it with this blog's readers, hoping it would get their urge started and they would soon find their way to that timeless place.
