Luminous Links and Books
Myanmar – A Luminous Journey
Myanmar – A Luminous Journey is a simply gorgeous coffee table book of David Lazar’s best Myanmar photographs. The Nat Geo contributor and multi-major award winner, made these fine art travel images over a six year period with multiple extended visits, including while leading Luminous Journeys photo tours! To order the book you can go directly to Lazar’s website.
Gail Gutradt – Author
First time author Gail Gutradt’s moving and inspirational account of working as a volunteer with AIDS affected children in Cambodia.
Gail is a dear friend of Luminous Journeys and of Wat Opot – Partners in Compassion, one of our Luminous Giving charities, on which the book is based. The limited first edition publication of In a Rocket Made of Ice has been released by Heian-kyo Media. Net proceeds from the limited edition all go to the children of Wat Opot. The Alfred A. Knopf / Random House edition is now available in bookstores everywhere, and here at Amazon. The reviews are stellar! “An extraordinary book about an extraordinary place…” — Amy Scribner, BookPage
Kyoto Journal – Art, Spirituality & Culture
Kyoto Journal was founded in 1986 by editor/designer John Einarsen. John’s vision was to blend art, spirituality and Asian cultures, and that he and his team have done with great success. John was also instrumental in the publication of In a Rocket Made of Ice, as well as creating the layout design.
Brahmavihara – The Best Little NGO on Earth
Founded in Phnom Penh on a shoestring in 2000 by the venerable Beth Kanji Goldring, Brahmavihara is the very definition of true compassion. Beth and her extraordinarily dedicated team work tirelessly to help alleviate the suffering and offer spiritual and human dignity to destitute and dying AIDS patients. Beth is an adviser to Luminous Journals and Brahmavihara one of our Luminous Giving charities.
www.brahmavihara.cambodiaaidsproject.org
Wat Opot – Partners in Compassion
A small NGO in Cambodia selflessly dedicated to making lives fir AIDS affected children and families. Some 65 children and a dozen adults are currently in residence. Founded by former Vietnam War medic, Wayne Mathysse, the Wat Opot story is the basis for the profoundly moving book by Gail Gutradt, “In a Rocket Made of Ice”. Wat Opot is one of our Luminous Giving charities.
David Lazar – Travel Photographer
Photographer David Lazar travel photo galleries from Africa, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico and more. David is a National Geographic contributor and the winner of the 2012 Smithsonian award for Travel Photography.
Interested in a David Lazar travel photography tour workshop?
Photographer Alastair McNaughton prints from Australia, Africa, Burma, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, France and more. “Snap” is a former Nikon Photographer of the Year and Leica Prize winner.
“Mac” is available for photo Burma holidays. Check out his Bio.
Wanderlust Travel Magazine
United Kingdom based travel magazine with a global reach, sharp enough to recognize LJ’s Frankie Naing as one the world’s best travel guides. Many articles on Myanmar travel, or as the UK still calls them, Burma holidays.
Samsara Films
Documentary film company founded by Indian American filmmaker, Nadeem Uddin. Samsara Films is best known for its award winning film on the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. Also notable is the extraordinary bio-doc on 60’s firebrand, Abe Isheroff, and the colorful film, Songs of the River, featuring mind-blowing footage from India’s massive religious spectacle, the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela.
Lonely Planet
Try as they might, and as good as they are, the good folks at Lonely Planet cannot possibly remain up to date on Myanmar Travel or Burma Holidays. That’s why you have us! Have a look at our Travel Essentials page and when you have questions, please try our handy dandy Contact page.
Here’s the Lonely Planet website’s Myanmar page.
Dave’s Travel Corner
Dave is one of those Bay Area California guys living the dream, only not having anything to do with Silicon Valley. He does it all running this travel blog that takes him all over the world. What a life!
Here’s Dave’s travel dream facilitator.
Travel Health & Trip Insurance
HTH Worldwide
Outstanding travel heath insurance company.
Travel Insurance – Trip Cancelation Insurance
Square Mouth is a good place to shop and compare travel insurance.
“The Trouser People: A Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire”Bangkok based Andrew Marshall’s ambitious crisscrossing of contemporary Burma, which to western eyes reveals a way of life that can at times be exotically unfathomable. The Trouser People is less analysis than witty, candid Myanmar travel reportage, highlighted by adventures into the remote territory of some of the country’s most intriguing ethnic minorities. A fantastic read.
“Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia” Thant Mynt U, 2011
From their very beginnings China and India have been walled off from each other: by the towering summits of the Himalayas, by a vast and impenetrable jungle, and by hostile tribes and remote inland kingdoms stretching a thousand miles from Calcutta across Burma to the upper Yangtze River.
Soon this last great frontier will vanish—the forests cut down, dirt roads replaced by superhighways, insurgencies crushed—leaving China and India exposed to each other as never before. This basic shift in geography—as sudden and profound as the opening of the Suez Canal—will lead to unprecedented connections among the three billion people of Southeast Asia and the Far East.
“A History of Modern Burma” Michael Charney, 2009
“An excellent work that deals with the period from the annexation of Upper Burma by the British in 1886 until the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. The focus is on the period from the 1930s, as self-government was gained in 1937. Charney, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at SOAS, is well-qualified to write this work and he offers a careful account, one that is particularly nuanced in its coverage of the civil conflict and totalitarianism of recent years. What would be welcome is a similar work by Charney on Burmese history as a whole.” – The Historian
“The Lost River of Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma” Thant Mynt U, 2008
An excellent and very accessible ‘personal history’ of Myanmar from past glories to the present, engagingly told. An excellent understanding of the country that will be of interest to anyone considering Myanmar travel.
“Burmese Days” George Orwell, 1934
Certainly one of the most famous men to travel Myanmar, Orwell’s first novel is a must read classic. It takes place in the waning years of British rule over Burma, where the author himself was a police officer for five years. A tale form the dark-side of “corruption and imperial bigotry”.
“The Piano Tuner” Daniel Mason, 2003
Another great first novel set in Burma, the basis for a 2004 opera of the same name, also made into a 2013 film by director Werner Herzog. The story is about a helluva lot more than a man sent into the jungles of 1886 Burma (the very year the British officially changed the name from Myanmar) to tune a piano. The artful writing writhes in intrigue.
“From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey” Pascal Thwe
Growing up as a Padaung Hill Tribe minority to become a rebel and then a Cambridge-educated writer, Pascal offers a moving account of his experiences. The many mysteries of Myanmar travel can be understood through the eyes of a man who understands through both Myanmar and Western eyes.