Nam Sa Bi Field Crew

Inventory work in the Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary was facilitated by a great group of field assistants from the village of Nam Sa Bi. The crew is resting under one of the buildings of our basecamp near the forest. Took about 45 minutes of walking to get to nice forest; most of this in a stream without about 6 inches of water in it. Slosh, slosh. New boots held up well.

To Htamanthi

Starting the trip north to the Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary in Sagaing Region. Am currently sitting in the transit area of the Mandalay airport waiting for my flight to Homalin. We'll overnight in Homalin and then take a boat to Htamanthi. WCS office made some lovely laminated tags for our bags showing the collaboration between MOECAF (Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry), WCS, and NYBG. As you can see, my trusty yellow North Face duffel is still traveling with me (see Duffel Bag). [NOTE: Nice to have WIFI in the transit lounge].

Forest Herbarium

A shot of the beautiful old wooden cabinets at the Forest Research Institute herbarium in Yezin. Established in 1925, the herbarium currently contains about 25,000 specimens. Although this may sound like a lot, for a country with forests as extensive and species-rich as Myanmar this is really not very many specimens. There is still a lot of botanical exploration and collecting that needs to be done here.

DIrector General

First door on the left down this hall in the Myanmar Department of Forestry building in Nay Pyi Taw is the office of the Director General, Dr. Nyi Nyi Kyaw. Had a lovely meeting with him yesterday morning (thx, Saw Htun) in which we talked about rattan, and community forestry, and botanical exploration. And smiled a lot. A really nice man in what, I would imagine, is an extremely difficult job. The meeting was certainly the high point of my trip so far.

Uppatasanti Pagoda

In Nay Pyi Taw there is, not surprisingly, a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon known as the Uppatasanti or "Peace" Pagoda. The main stupa is 12 inches shorter than the one in Yangon. There are also several white elephants on display in front of the temple complex. The truck shown in the foreground of the image above contains the forage for one of the numerous daily feedings that these animals require. This is quite a place.

More Shwedagon

Another image from Sunday's visit to Shwedagon Pagoda. The gold stupas had already started to glow in the evening sun. I am currently in Nay Pyi Taw, the capital city, for meetings with the Forestry Department.

Sunset at Shwedagon

Arrived yesterday to Yangon. First stop after dropping the bags at the hotel was the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda complex. Temples look great. Lots of re-gilding work, painting, and fixing-up going on. Full of tourists, and monks, and nuns, and sweeping brigades (see Sweeping Shwedagon). There are even a few ATM machines in the temple complex now and some advertising (sigh). And then the sun started to go down. [NOTE: Wish you had been there].

Checking Flight Times

Just arrived to Singapore's lovely Changi airport after an 18-hour flight from JFK. Plane to Yangon leaves in about 3 hours. There's the usual boards displaying the departure times (in multiple colors), and the Starbucks, and the designer stores, but you also have palm gardens (shown), and saltwater aquariums, and saffron-robed monks in flip-flops. A species-rich community of air travelers. I'm sipping a green tea and trying not to fall asleep.

Zen Priests

Deb Wood (right) helps Beth Goldring (see Beth Goldring) clip on a lavalier microphone to record her dharma talk while Susan Postal (see 49 Day Memorial Service) looks on. [NOTE: So how many Zen priests does it take to clip on a lapel mic? Two, I guess. One to clip it on and one to not clip it on. Old joke].