Scenes from a newly opened Myanmar

In the remote region of Hpa An, a ceremony welcoming girls into the Buddhist nunhood in Hpa An included an elephant.

After a half century of isolation, a newly open Myanmar is hungry for foreign tourists.

Formerly known as Burma, the country was long closed off from the outside world and best known for its oppression of political prisoners.

The most famous of those, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been released from house arrest and been allowed to participate in nominally free elections.

Armed military checkpoints still dot the landscape, but tourists have been given more freedom of movement than they had enjoyed in decades.

Beyond its vibrant marketplace, the town of Bagan is best known as home of one of Myanmar’s most prominent attractions, the Shwesandaw Pagoda.

The gilded pagoda dates to the 11th century and is said to contain a tooth and hair of the Buddha.

In Inle Lake, homes on stilts sat among floating gardens of vegetables, fruits and flowers at 3,000 feet above sea level.