Burma

[Graham Welland]

Prudence suggests that you don't take your most expensive gear and definitely avoid photographing anything 'official' which I would include things like airports, police stations, train stations, civic buildings etc. There are so many scare stories from even relatively sophisticated countries of problems of photography of any type of government, military or civic locations. Only recently a load of british air enthusiasts were jailed for taking photos of planes at the airport in Greece - I'm certain that Burma is much more paranoid, particularly following the recent Tsunami which they've effectively put a news black out on.

Take care.

[Bobtrips]

Oh, forgot to add.  

I may be there week after next.  (It's there or south India.)

And it's Myanmar now....

[tbside]

Hello,

I about to set off for a month trip in Burma.  I'm fully aware the the goverment is very "goosey" on the subject of "pro photographers", that said what I'm looking for is input from photographers who have been there recently.

Thanks in advise for your sage words and thoughts.

[Bobtrips]

I've been there three times. (First trip in 1984.  Then in 2000 and 2002.)  

It's a very safe place.  I wouldn't worry at all about theft.

I've never had anyone even raise an eyebrow about me photographing boats, bridges, railways, or government buildings.  

I've never had any interest in photographing airports.  I'd ask first.

You're unlikely to encounter anything military unless you go out of your way to find it.  I've only seen the occasional solder carrying a weapon.  

Once was in the train station - two guys in uniform with their rifles and suitcases clearly on the way to another assignment. They were wearing flip-flops.

And once close to the Thai border.  There had been some problems with robberies in the boonies and a couple of solders climbed on top of the local bus as an escort.

(That's not to say that there aren't some nasty things going on in the country.  You're just not very likely to get to those areas.  They're closed.)

(BTW, there was no clamp placed on tsunami damage.  The government's reports seem to be quite accurate.  And that's not to say that the government people aren't out of line.)

If you'd like some suggestions for places to shoot drop me a PM.