From Hsipaw I wanted to head south to the Inle Lake area, and hoped to take a bus south on a road to Taunggyi, but found out the buses don't travel that road because of its very poor condition. There are overnight buses via the road to Mandalay, but I don't like overnight buses. So on the foggy morning of the 23rd I walked to the train station to take the enjoyable train ride back the way I had come. On the way to the station I came across two guys cutting strips of bamboo with machetes and then weaving the strips into a pattern that is often used for the walls of houses. It was very interesting to watch how expertly they cut the bamboo. They used not only their hands but also their feet for the weaving.
About 30 other tourists were waiting for the train at the station. My upper class ticket cost about $2.75 to Pyin Oo Lwin. The train, coming from Lashio, arrived two minutes before its 9:15 scheduled arrival time and left right on time, 9:25. The morning fog had mostly lifted by then. The train consisted of a diesel locomotive, two upper class carriages, three ordinary class carriages (with wooden bench seats), and two boxcars at the end. Two little kids, a girl about six and a boy about ten, sat right in front of me. Both were bundled up with coats and wool hats and both had thanaka on their faces. They were shy, but friendly. They were traveling alone and got off at Kyaukme.
I again enjoyed the journey. We reached Kyaukme at 11, where I had a chicken, vegetables, and rice lunch right on the platform during our 25 minute stop. The train kept pretty much on time until the station just before the Gokteik Viaduct, where we were delayed about a half hour waiting for the train coming the other direction.
We crossed the Gokteik Viaduct about 1:30. This time the train, traveling very slowly over the viaduct, shuddered to a stop just before reaching the other side, and then started up again. That was a little unnerving, as there is no railing and a long drop down into the canyon. Once we had crossed I could spot the tunnel entrances in the cliffs across the canyon, which I hadn't noticed when I first crossed the viaduct more than a week earlier.
We reached Pyin Oo Lwin about 4:30, a little less than a half hour late. The train makes a long stop in Pyin Oo Lwin, before heading down to Mandalay, with a scheduled arrival time of 10:40. All the tourists got off at Pyin Oo Lwin. Several hopped in the open air pick up for the ride to Mandalay. I considered spending the night in Pyin Oo Lwin, at about 3500 feet elevation, but preferred the warmer climate of Mandalay, at only 250 feet elevation. I didn't particularly want to take a chilly ride in a pickup, though. However, two other tourists and I chartered a taxi to take us to Mandalay for about $25. It cost us each about four times the pick up fare, but was much more enjoyable. The taxi driver stopped at a particularly scenic spot so we could see the very orange sunset over the hazy plains below.
We reached Mandalay in the dark just after six. The taxi driver drove right along the lit up south wall of the palace and dropped us off near our hotels. I had been a little worried about finding a hotel room in this busy Christmas-New Year tourist season, but got one at the second hotel I went to. The night air felt warm compared to the hills. The restaurant I ate dinner in was chock full of tourists.
The next morning about 10 I took a motorcycle taxi about 20 to 25 minutes south to the main bus station area and upon arrival immediately got a seat in the front of a bus headed south to Meiktila. The small bus left about 10:45 and was soon jammed full of people, with several seated on the roof. But I was comfortable in my seat at the front across from the driver. The bus drove through the roundabout that marks the northern end of the new Yangon-Mandalay expressway, but took the old highway south. We soon crossed the river that flows through Hsipaw.
The road didn't have a lot of traffic and I enjoyed the trip. In places the road has been widened from what I remember from traveling on it in 1994. We made lots of stops to drop off and take on passengers as we passed by already harvested rice fields, other crop land, and several towns. I have been told that the Irrawaddy Valley has two rice crops a year, compared to only one per year in the hills, but I didn't see any newly planted rice. I guess it is too early, with the harvesting just being done. There are lots of trees along the route, and I saw lots of bullock carts and even some pony carts.
We reached Meiktila about 2, where I boarded an open air but roofed pick up jammed with cargo. Four middle aged ladies, laden with their own shopping goods, and I sat on boxes at the end of the pick up bed as we left about 2:30. It took only about 45 minutes to reach the small town of Thazi, a railroad junction east of Meiktila. I was dropped off right in front of the Moonlight Hotel, which I think is the hotel I stayed in three times in 1994. That year five of us banded together upon arrival in Yangon and hired a van, driver, and guide, as the public transportation was terrible then. On our twelve day trip (from Yangon to Bagan, Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin, and Inle Lake before heading back to Yangon) we spent three nights at this junction town because it had a very cheap hotel.
The town seems, and I'm sure is, much bigger and busier now. I walked to the train station, with a sign indicating the elevation is 700 feet, to check train schedules, and then walked around the friendly town. Some young men were playing barefooted soccer. I found two old, but newly and brightly painted, locomotives on display a little north of the train station. One was small and looked like it dated from the 19th century. The other was huge, with a coal tender on one end and a water tank on the other, something I've never seen before. It had a plaque that was heavily painted, but I could make out the year "1943." Nearby was a dilapidated old wooden private car. I could open the door and see the old kitchen, but the interior door was locked. A guy from the railroad yard told me there is also a bath room and a bedroom/sitting room.
I walked back to the train station just in time to see the 17:48 train from Mandalay to Yangon arrive, right on time, with many carriages and passengers. That night a loudspeaker near my hotel loudly blared music and what I suppose was a sermon until just after midnight. I think it might have been a Christmas Eve service.
About 30 other tourists were waiting for the train at the station. My upper class ticket cost about $2.75 to Pyin Oo Lwin. The train, coming from Lashio, arrived two minutes before its 9:15 scheduled arrival time and left right on time, 9:25. The morning fog had mostly lifted by then. The train consisted of a diesel locomotive, two upper class carriages, three ordinary class carriages (with wooden bench seats), and two boxcars at the end. Two little kids, a girl about six and a boy about ten, sat right in front of me. Both were bundled up with coats and wool hats and both had thanaka on their faces. They were shy, but friendly. They were traveling alone and got off at Kyaukme.
I again enjoyed the journey. We reached Kyaukme at 11, where I had a chicken, vegetables, and rice lunch right on the platform during our 25 minute stop. The train kept pretty much on time until the station just before the Gokteik Viaduct, where we were delayed about a half hour waiting for the train coming the other direction.
We crossed the Gokteik Viaduct about 1:30. This time the train, traveling very slowly over the viaduct, shuddered to a stop just before reaching the other side, and then started up again. That was a little unnerving, as there is no railing and a long drop down into the canyon. Once we had crossed I could spot the tunnel entrances in the cliffs across the canyon, which I hadn't noticed when I first crossed the viaduct more than a week earlier.
We reached Pyin Oo Lwin about 4:30, a little less than a half hour late. The train makes a long stop in Pyin Oo Lwin, before heading down to Mandalay, with a scheduled arrival time of 10:40. All the tourists got off at Pyin Oo Lwin. Several hopped in the open air pick up for the ride to Mandalay. I considered spending the night in Pyin Oo Lwin, at about 3500 feet elevation, but preferred the warmer climate of Mandalay, at only 250 feet elevation. I didn't particularly want to take a chilly ride in a pickup, though. However, two other tourists and I chartered a taxi to take us to Mandalay for about $25. It cost us each about four times the pick up fare, but was much more enjoyable. The taxi driver stopped at a particularly scenic spot so we could see the very orange sunset over the hazy plains below.
We reached Mandalay in the dark just after six. The taxi driver drove right along the lit up south wall of the palace and dropped us off near our hotels. I had been a little worried about finding a hotel room in this busy Christmas-New Year tourist season, but got one at the second hotel I went to. The night air felt warm compared to the hills. The restaurant I ate dinner in was chock full of tourists.
The next morning about 10 I took a motorcycle taxi about 20 to 25 minutes south to the main bus station area and upon arrival immediately got a seat in the front of a bus headed south to Meiktila. The small bus left about 10:45 and was soon jammed full of people, with several seated on the roof. But I was comfortable in my seat at the front across from the driver. The bus drove through the roundabout that marks the northern end of the new Yangon-Mandalay expressway, but took the old highway south. We soon crossed the river that flows through Hsipaw.
The road didn't have a lot of traffic and I enjoyed the trip. In places the road has been widened from what I remember from traveling on it in 1994. We made lots of stops to drop off and take on passengers as we passed by already harvested rice fields, other crop land, and several towns. I have been told that the Irrawaddy Valley has two rice crops a year, compared to only one per year in the hills, but I didn't see any newly planted rice. I guess it is too early, with the harvesting just being done. There are lots of trees along the route, and I saw lots of bullock carts and even some pony carts.
We reached Meiktila about 2, where I boarded an open air but roofed pick up jammed with cargo. Four middle aged ladies, laden with their own shopping goods, and I sat on boxes at the end of the pick up bed as we left about 2:30. It took only about 45 minutes to reach the small town of Thazi, a railroad junction east of Meiktila. I was dropped off right in front of the Moonlight Hotel, which I think is the hotel I stayed in three times in 1994. That year five of us banded together upon arrival in Yangon and hired a van, driver, and guide, as the public transportation was terrible then. On our twelve day trip (from Yangon to Bagan, Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin, and Inle Lake before heading back to Yangon) we spent three nights at this junction town because it had a very cheap hotel.
The town seems, and I'm sure is, much bigger and busier now. I walked to the train station, with a sign indicating the elevation is 700 feet, to check train schedules, and then walked around the friendly town. Some young men were playing barefooted soccer. I found two old, but newly and brightly painted, locomotives on display a little north of the train station. One was small and looked like it dated from the 19th century. The other was huge, with a coal tender on one end and a water tank on the other, something I've never seen before. It had a plaque that was heavily painted, but I could make out the year "1943." Nearby was a dilapidated old wooden private car. I could open the door and see the old kitchen, but the interior door was locked. A guy from the railroad yard told me there is also a bath room and a bedroom/sitting room.
I walked back to the train station just in time to see the 17:48 train from Mandalay to Yangon arrive, right on time, with many carriages and passengers. That night a loudspeaker near my hotel loudly blared music and what I suppose was a sermon until just after midnight. I think it might have been a Christmas Eve service.
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