#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Vietnam, Nepal and Burma  Travel Forum >  >  Bobcock in Yangon, Myanmar.

## Bobcock

Spent 5 days in Yangon recently and loved it.

Took over two thousand pictures, had some time to do some serious stuff, tripod et al.....

This thread is dediacted to Terry. It's not an attempt to out do Terry's pics, but some of his pics did inspire me and I tried to recreate some of them and get the eathy feel of what he took. I find it difficult sometimes to just take a simple pic, I always need to have something of interest rather than just snap a street and see what's going on in it.

Anyway I processed over 300 of these shots, I don't know how many I will upload here, maybe a 100 or so.

The rest are on my website, so if you would like to see that and all the other serious pics I have taken you can PM me for the link, I won't publish it here and I won't send it to people who I don't know on here.

We left bangkok on  the Wednesday morning arriving in Yangon just after 11am.

Our hotel was the Clover in Wingabar St which is near Kandawgyi Lake.

The taxi from the airport cost 6000 kyat. It used to be 10 USD but things are changing fast, so of the prices I was told to expect were actually lower and the need for US Dollars seems to be less than in the past. We used them, but at no point did it seem to be a necessity.

After lunch at the hotel we took a walk to the lake and it's surrounding park. It is the home of the Karaweik Palace which is a big restaurant that does buffets and cultural shows. Everything pointed to this not being something I wanted to see or do, so I photographed it but wasted no further time there.

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## Bobcock

The walk was really to stretch the legs and to digest the excellent lunch we had and to act as e precurser to the main event of the day, my first trip to the Shwedagon Pagoda, somewhere I've wanted to photograph for some time.

It didn't disappoint. the first day I went for late afternoon through sunset, Then on day 3 I went for the evening and on day 5 I went at 5am for the sunrise.



I put the tripod up and stayed in pretty much the same location for over an hour through sunset, so there were a hell of a lot of very similar pics.



I think I've scared a few Thai people off by telling them that my camera can pick up images of all the ghosts that haunt the place......

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## Bobcock

The main pagoda is 99m high and is surrounded by 64 smaller pagodas circling it's base. The temple complex has literally hundreds of buddah images, most of which I photographed..... well the bigger ones at least.







There is a smaller pagoda located in the North East corner of the compound called the Naungdawgyi Pagoda.

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## terry57

Nice one Bobby. 

You are top poster when it comes to out right quality of the picks hands down.

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## Bower

Looking forward to seeing more images I wish I'd taken when there.
Thank you

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## beerlaodrinker

Good one bob, keep em coming

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## Bobcock

I'll try not to overdo the shwedagon pictures too early....

Next morning we took a taxi downtown and got out at the Sule (Soo-Lay) Pagoda, and wandered into the Maha Bandoolah Garden to have a look at the Independence Monument.







From there we walked aropund some of the streets in the vicinity..... there are a lot of fortune tellers plying their trade in Yangon



Crossroads

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## Bobcock

Our designed route lead us back to the Sule Pagoda which is on a roundabout in the middle of the road.

So that was our next stop.....



They have a lot of these little umbrella things for sale at temples, seem to be a coomon thing to offer to whomever you are offering to.

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## Bobcock

On thing that is common in Myanmar is people with powder on their faces. They seem to leave it on all day whether it's needed or not.....

This lady just seemed to have taken this tradition a bit tooooooo far.....



Monks and mokesses seem to be in abundant supply in Yangon, I guess when a society is held back religion plays a bigger part in your life than if you suffering from the trappings of consumerism, greed and dishonesty like Myanmar's near neighbour.......

I found the people very pleasant and whenever a person started a conversation the angle that you are expecting the conversation to take in regards to what they are going to get out of you just never happens.

I had a long chat with a monk one time, he followed me around the Shwedagon Pagoda for 45 minutes watching me take pictures and chatting. I must admit to expecting to be asked for a donation to help further his studies, but no, he walked with me halfway back to his hotel before announcing his route to his monastery meant we had to part ways, shook my hand, wished me luck and off he went.



Young lad selling water, again, the price whilst probably higher than a supermarket was more than reasonable at about 12B for a litre.

If he is making 3B and saving me a walk to the supermarket which are few and far between. Good luck to the little fella. 

In this instance I wasn't thirsty so I beat him around the head and told him to Fuck Off after exploiting his image with my magic box.

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## Bobcock

Definately a large amount of Indians in Yangon.... couldn't find much in the way of decent Indian food, just unlucky I think.

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## Bobcock

After that we walked up to Bogyoke Market, formerly Scotts Market.



Standard big market for this part of the world, similar to the one in Saigon, lots of the usual wood carvings and lacquerware. Actually I didn't buy anything on this trip at all.

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## terry57

Regards the Indian restaurants Bobby.  We done a heap of walking around Yangon and staggered into a couple of beauties.

There out there.

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## kingwilly

Great stuff Bob. Appreciate the effort.

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## Looper

Nice stuff Bob.

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## Yasojack

great pics

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## fishlocker

Great job on the pics Bob. Keep up the good work.

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## Rural Surin

Nice work, Bob...
Per your usual. :Smile:

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## TonyBKK

Stunning photography! Thanks!!  :Smile:

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## Carnwadrick

Thank you for the awesome photos, don't think my brownie could produce this quality

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## Bobcock

After the market we walked through to the Park Royal hotel and had a couple of beers to refresh ourselves before deciding to tackle the famous circle line train. We wandered over the road to the train station. This is the main ticket hall, but you don't buy the tickets here. This remninded me of train stations in India.



We were directed to take the bridge over the platforms to platform 7 where there is a seperate ticket window for the train we wanted. These are the roofs of the platforms.



This is the ticket window where you get to pay $1US. I didn't try to pay in local currency so I'm not sure if you could or not. 



Some good shots to be taken of people on the other trains that come into the platform. Our train ended up going from Platform 4, so you just scuttle across the tracks.

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## theduderule

Guess I know where my next photography trip will be... was the hotel expensive?

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## Yasojack

Bob the temples which are the better built Thai or burmese, looks like the burmese have paid a lot more attention to detail?

Very impressive pics.

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## Bobcock

*THE CIRCLE LINE*

39 Stations, 46 kilometres, teaming with life. Fantastic for people watching. We went clockwise out of Yangon up around the airport and back to town, although we got off a few stops short as it was closer to our hotel. Took just over 2 and a half hours.

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## Bobcock

It gets quite rural up towards the airport and in parts you do get an idea how poor a lot of these people are.

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## Bobcock

Our hotel had a nice view of the Shwedagon pagoda, this is a pic of it taken at breakfast on Day 3

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## Bobcock

> Guess I know where my next photography trip will be... was the hotel expensive?


About $120US a night..... in Bangkok I would have expected to pay about 1200B for the room I got.

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## Bobcock

Day 3 started with a 4000kyat taxi ride back up towards the airport to Swe Taw Myat Pagoda. Known as the Buddah Tooth Relic Pagoda.









One of the problems with buddahs in Yangon is that they polish their faces so they gleam and just become a mirror which really sucks for a photographer.

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## Bobcock

Next stop was a 1000 kyat taxi ride back towards town called the Kaba Aye Pagoda. On the journey down the heavens opened and we spent at least 30 minutes waiting in the covered walkway up to the pagoda waiting for it to stop.

The Kabar Aye pagoda is not that big and not that huge a apectacle. There is a circular walkway inside the pagoda with a central room with this buddah image.



There are some paintings around the wals which seem rather grim but with a flas they seemed to brighten up a bit (not that my style brings bright to the party.....)





Again you can see how the polished face really doesn't work......

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## beerlaodrinker

^You stayed in the same hotel as me bob, top location and easy enough to get taxis downtown, i would stay there again although it was a bit pricey for what it was, did you notice any new hotel construction going on, They could certainly do with more i reckon, mightbring the prices down a bit, supply and demand and all that, Great thread,  crack on

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## Bobcock

Managed to get some nice shots of a group of nairns who were visiting the temple from up country....

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## Bobcock

After we went back to the area around the Shwedagon Pagoda / hotel for a walk and to get some general street shots before heading to the pagoda again for the evening.

Decided to stop into a local bar and enjoy a Myanmar Beer or two 



More of this infuriating polishing of the buddahs head.....





Lots of monasteries in the area, this one in an old colonial style house.

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## Bobcock

This one of Terry's shots I had to recreate.....



Street takraw at dusk...........

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## terry57

I really enjoyed walking the streets of Yangon and taking in the sights. Some posters who have been there did not like it.

Funny how we perceive a city in Different ways. I found it very interesting just banging around the place putting in the leg work.   

Great city for walking I thought.

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## Bobcock

> I found it very interesting just banging around the place putting in the leg work.


Been my MO for years, I only use transport when time dicatates, that applies in Bangkok as well.

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## Bobcock

Right, the evening of the third day I went back to the Shwedagon Pagoda complete with tripod and some time to compse some hopefully decent photos.

As Terry told us in his thread the Pagoda has 4 entrance at the North, South, East and West. There is a road around the hill at halway level. Each entrance has a covered stairway up to the Pagoda concourse. The East also has a covered walkway from the mid level down to the main streets below. These are lined on both sides with small stalls selling buddah replicas and other religious artifacts / offerings. I particularly enjoyed taking these shots of the walkways, I had time and a slow exposure combined with manual flash rear curtain sync produced the effect I required.

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## Bobcock

I had to post this one even though it's not a great shot..... this is taken with a 400mm lens with a 2X converter so 800mm..... incredibly difficult with the weight to take off a tripod and get reasonably still.... right at the very top of the pagoda.

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## Bobcock



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## Dead Metal

Quality, seems you have a good "eye" for photos, thanks for sharing.

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## Butterfly

great pics, bob, as usual

but to be honest, I found the monuments in those pics quite ugly and without much interests. All over SE Asia, you see the same things. IMO, the Rangoon Grand Pagoda are over rated.

The only interesting thing in those trips is to watch people in the streets or at the markets, maybe a few monks, but all those Asia monuments are quite dull.

I am amazed how European ancient architecture are far more interesting than those,

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## Bower

More great images, thank you.
I also appreciate the fact that the buildings, carvings etc stand up to close inspection, real quality in the craftsmanship.

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## terry57

^^

Wow Butters, I thought they where stunning.

Just as well we are all different  or there would be no monuments at all in this world.

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## Bobcock

Next morning we took a walk to another temple not far from our hotel. Along the road there was a lot of trading going on.





The first pagoda of the day was the Nga Htat Gyi Pagoda, located up on a hill just north of Bogyoke Park. We paid a two dollar entry fee, but were presented with a bottle of water and a warm greeting.

There isn't a huge amount there to be honest other than a rather large buddah wearing a nice shade of blue eyeliner and a natty waistcoat.

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## Bobcock

Just a short walk over the road is the Chauk Ntata Gyi Pagoda which again is somewhat plain other than a large reclining buddah which again is wearing a nice blue shade of eye makeup.

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## ossierob

Great photography Bob....you have become quite the master of capturing detail I reckon

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## Phuketrichard

the girls photo at the top post 24 is very very nice, one of ur best

also the one for the girl under circle line looking out the train window [post 23

I am heading to Mandalay  in  Jan,  Haven't been to burma since 1988 an looking forward to seeing if there have been any chnages.

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## somtamslap

Good skills Bob.

The food pic in post 32 is stunning.

I want to nick it.

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## terry57

Bobs Photos are Quite inspiring.

He has the eye and  the enthusiasm, also has the top quality camera Equipment, a match made in heaven.

There is another part of it though. This is too have the enthusiasm to actually put in the hard yards as a tourist or traveler. 

Walk the streets, get amoungst the locals and away from the tourists

The best photo's just don't jump out at one by sitting in a tour bus full of tourists.

Look at Bob's photo's,  Some of his best are pics of people.  

These are the essence of a great Photographer. 

Nice work Bob.    

I must get my Mandalay thread up.

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## Bobcock

If I take two days off from work combined with the Bank Holidays at the biginning ogf december i can get a 6 day trip somewhere.......

The kids are in school so the wife has said she doesn't mind if I go off alone somewhere.....

Too long for Mandalay,.... maybe combine with Bagan?....or.....

I'm thinking Calcutta or maybe Varanasi (Benares).....

I'll think next week.... this weekend is Phnom Penh....

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## terry57

^

I've done 3 trips to India but have never been to Calcutta. My traveling partner and myself will be kicking off our next trip in India from Calcutta in January.

I have some incredible Pics from India on hard copy. 

Need to scan them up on Teakdoor.

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## Bobcock

India is the photographers dream. I've been to Calcutta once, 1989

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## beerlaodrinker

> I'll think next week.... this weekend is Phnom Penh....


im off to phnom penh next week. Looking forward to that, its been a few years since i was there last

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## Phuketrichard

> ^
> 
>   I've done 3 trips to India but have never been to Calcutta. My traveling partner and myself will be kicking off our next trip in India from Calcutta in January.
> 
> I have some incredible Pics from India on hard copy. 
> 
> Need to scan them up on Teakdoor.


 Many many trips to India and a 8 month stint on a bicycle ( calcutta-Darjeeling-Across Nepal- thru Varanisi- up to Khasmir-Ladakh- than all the way south thru _Rajasthan_ -Bombay-Goa- Kovalam to lands end before taking the ferry to Sri Lanka.  First trip to Delhi was overland from Amsterdam in 1975   Richard Reitman Photography | India 1982-1990


Calcutta
An afternoon on the Howrah bridge will give u everything India has.  Great parks 

Planetarium is a great place to escape the heat of the city

Make sure u stay near or on Sudder street and IF you can, get a room at the Fairlawn hotel,  one of the few places that serve high tea every day.  We used to check in for a week and send the boy out for O ,  Rooms very affordable and a piece of history

India is a country you either love or hate, there is no in between.

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## terry57

^

India is a hard slog even for the battle hardened traveler. Many a newbies mind has been blown on first introduction to India.

Thanks for the Calcutta tips.

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## TizMe

> I think I've scared a few Thai people off by telling them that my camera can pick up images of all the ghosts that haunt the place......


love it!!
 :smiley laughing:

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## Bobcock

Oopps...just realised I wrote a post but failed to attach any pictures.....

Just a short walk over the road is the Chauk Ntata Gyi Pagoda which again is somewhat plain other than a large reclining buddah which again is wearing a nice blue shade of eye makeup.

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## Bobcock

Next was a taxi journey down to the river to visit Bohahtaung Pagoda, on the way we passed the shedagon Pagoda so I tried to replicate Terry's pic again.....

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## Bobcock

The one remarkable aspect of this temple is the inside of the main pagoda. The walls are covered with gold sheets and there is a central chamber with a "Buddahs Sacred Hair Relic....."

There was a sort of intensity there, something I sense far more in Hindu temples rather than Buddhist temples.

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## yortyiam

some beautiful work there Bobcock ! I love all the intricate craftmanship that goes into creating these places and figures of worship. It makes an interesting thread to include how the locals go about their daily business too. Super stuff! Thanks  :smilie_clap: .

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## Marmite the Dog

> Originally Posted by Bobcock
> 
> I'll think next week.... this weekend is Phnom Penh....
> 
> 
> im off to phnom penh next week. Looking forward to that, its been a few years since i was there last


I'm not allowed there any more - had too much fun when I was single.

As for Rangoon, I have to agree with Butters. Bob's pictures are amazing and appreciated, but the subject matter tedious for me after living in these here parts for more than a year or so.

That being said, it's always enjoyable to see photos taken by someone with a passion for their subject even if that passion isn't shared.

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## Bobcock

Damn I need to finish this thread, I never did finish my Dubai one, don't want that to happen but I get bored of my own photos very quickly, still hoping to make a trip to India next month.....

Right.... onwards....

Had a quick jaunt down to the river to see what local boats look like, this is a taxi across the river.....





Then we walked up to 50th Street to Bar 50 which was a lovely cool oasis with the best fish and chips I have ever had outside of the UK. It was fantastic, the chips were triple cooked and just superb.

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## Bobcock

The offal stall that Terry mentioned, see a lot of these.....



St Mary's Church.....



Walked back to the hotel over the top of the railway station.... newer train on the platform....

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## Bobcock

On the last morning I woke at 04:30 and headed off to the Shwedagon Pagoda leaving my bride asleep in the pit....



Again I took some pictures in the East Entrance walkways..... It was lovely and quiet....





Sunrise......

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## Bobcock



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## Bobcock



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## Bobcock



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## Bobcock

This pic deserves a post all of it's own, this pic is for Terry, he took the same pic and it made me want to take it.

Sadly the scaffolfding fucks it up, but at least it worked.

I took the street shot and fired the flash up into the walkway roof to give the framing some colour....

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## Bobcock

OK last batch, had a walk around the busy streets around the temple before heading back to check out and head to the airport.

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## Bobcock

OK, that's the end..... if anyone wants the link to my website where there are at least 200 more of Yangon and lots more other stuff then drop me a PM.

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## Phuketrichard

Thumbs UP :Smile:

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## terry57

Nice effort there Bob.

Cheers.

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## robinyates

you are a talented photographer Bob

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## Zeisix

These pics remind me of Hans Hoefers great APA Guide "Burma" in the 1980s.

Two thumbs up!

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## YorkshireMan

Brilliant just brilliant!!!!

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## MissTraveller

> This pic deserves a post all of it's own, this pic is for Terry, he took the same pic and it made me want to take it.
> 
> Sadly the scaffolfding fucks it up, but at least it worked.
> 
> I took the street shot and fired the flash up into the walkway roof to give the framing some colour....


I really like this one. I love how you used the doorway to frame the street shot. Something I would have probably done as well. I think the scaffolding gives it more character btway  :Smile: 

Thank you for allowing me to see Yangon through your eyes. It is a country I hope to visit someday. Adore all the temple shots. The place has so much history. Your portraits of people are so vivid and sharp. The thread makes me want to travel again soon and keep up my passion for photography as well.  :Smile:

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## MissTraveller

> 


Love it! The devotion on their faces..

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## upupandaway

> Our hotel had a nice view of the Shwedagon pagoda, this is a pic of it taken at breakfast on Day 3


Fant5astic pictures. Gets the travel juices up. Was it expensive. Or similar to a visit to Bangkok or PP in Cambodia?

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## Bobcock

Hotels are way overpriced but everything else is very cheap.

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## barbaro

Great thread and photos, bob.

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## barbaro

> ^
> 
> India is a hard slog even for the battle hardened traveler. Many a newbies mind has been blown on first introduction to India.
> 
> Thanks for the Calcutta tips.


I'd love to see an India thread.

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## Bobcock

I am going in February.

Kolkata, Delhi, Amritsar and Varanasi.

Booked it yesterday, making up for the disappointment over my cancellation last week.

Hopefully I will have my new camera by then, I'm waiting for my new passport to arrive and then get close enough to the date so I can get my VAT back which will be a good sum on this amount.

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