Mandalay's streets were wet from overnight rain on the morning of the 17th. Clouds filled the sky all day. I had to get to Yangon for my flight to Dhaka in Bangladesh. There are all night buses from Mandalay to Yangon, but I dislike traveling at night. I wanted to take the train, a 385 mile trip. (It is 343 miles from Mandalay to Myitkyina and 178 miles from Mandalay to Lashio.). Trains leave every day at 6 in the morning and 3 and 5 in the afternoon for the 14-15 hour journey to Yangon. Again I didn't want to travel overnight, or leave at 6 in the morning, so I took the 3 p.m. train as far as Thazi, less than three hours from Mandalay.
The long train, with thirteen carriages, left Mandalay under dark clouds. Soon it was lightly raining. It rained harder while we stopped at Kyaukse at 4, but soon stopped. The train arrived in Thazi before 6 and I walked through the puddle filled streets to the little hotel where I had stayed three days before, and before that on Christmas Eve (plus another three times in 1994). It rained again about 8 or 9 that evening, but this time there was no monk or priest wailing on a loudspeaker all night.
The next morning at 8:50 I left Thazi on the train, another long one, that had left Mandalay at 6. My ticket for the more than ten hour journey cost only about $6.25. It was raining as we left, but soon stopped. My upper class carriage was uncrowded and comfortable, and I enjoyed the long train journey. I noticed the train tracks crossed over a very wide road, maybe 16 or 20 lanes, at Naypyitaw, the capital. I think it is the road from the airport.
The sun came out in the afternoon, a welcome sight after four days of cloudy skies. The countryside became greener as we headed south, with lots of vegetables and even some newly growing rice. In several southern towns there were enormous dilapidated wooden warehouses, often several of them, near the tracks. They looked empty, with ugly rusted metal roofs. I suppose they once held rice and other commodities. They must have been much nicer with tile or thatch roofs.
The sun disappeared into clouds over the horizon about 5:30 and it got dark between 6 and 6:30. I got off the train not at Yangon, where it was scheduled to arrive at 9, but at Bago, where it arrived just after 7, only a few minutes late after a thirteen hour journey from Mandalay. Just before reaching the station, I could see Bago's golden Shwemawdaw Pagoda, the tallest in Burma at 376 feet, all lit up. I checked into a decent hotel I had stayed in during my 2013-2014 trip to Burma and had my first cold shower in a while, bearable at Bago's low elevation and latitude.
It was cloudy the next morning until about 10. I wandered through Bago's interesting streetside market and spotted several whole ducks, plucked and with slit throats, on sale. I left Bago at 10:45 on a slow train coming all the way from Shwenyaung, north of Inle Lake. In fact, this is the same train that travels from Kalaw to Thazi. There were few passengers. Traveling very slowly once it reached Yangon, it took two and a half hours from Bago to Yangon's big train station.
I checked into a hotel, ate lunch, and then looked around. I enjoyed being back in Yangon, and wouldn't have minded a few days there. I walked past the old colonial buildings in the center and noticed that one had been completely renovated, by a bank, and another was being renovated. Plenty of others, though, are in varying states of disrepair. I noticed the large, white Immanuel Baptist Church had a sign with the times for services in English, Myanmar, Chinese, Telugu, Kayin, Shan, Mizo, and Lisu.
I walked to the huge Secretariat, the government center of British Burma, built in 1889. I had seen a photo of President Obama visiting it in November and wondered if it had been renovated. It is still a massive ruin for the most part, though it seems an inner courtyard may have been renovated. Tourists aren't allowed inside, unless, I guess, you are President of the United States. Aung San was assassinated in the Secretariat.
I walked through the street sellers all over the main streets and came across an English language street tour, which I followed for a while. The air felt humid and it was warmer than Mandalay. I broke off the tour at the Strand Hotel and sat inside for a while, until past dark, before making my way back for dinner and my hotel. The newly renovated bank building was covered with strings of lights. The city hall next door was also lit up, as was the golden Sule Pagoda down the street.
The long train, with thirteen carriages, left Mandalay under dark clouds. Soon it was lightly raining. It rained harder while we stopped at Kyaukse at 4, but soon stopped. The train arrived in Thazi before 6 and I walked through the puddle filled streets to the little hotel where I had stayed three days before, and before that on Christmas Eve (plus another three times in 1994). It rained again about 8 or 9 that evening, but this time there was no monk or priest wailing on a loudspeaker all night.
The next morning at 8:50 I left Thazi on the train, another long one, that had left Mandalay at 6. My ticket for the more than ten hour journey cost only about $6.25. It was raining as we left, but soon stopped. My upper class carriage was uncrowded and comfortable, and I enjoyed the long train journey. I noticed the train tracks crossed over a very wide road, maybe 16 or 20 lanes, at Naypyitaw, the capital. I think it is the road from the airport.
The sun came out in the afternoon, a welcome sight after four days of cloudy skies. The countryside became greener as we headed south, with lots of vegetables and even some newly growing rice. In several southern towns there were enormous dilapidated wooden warehouses, often several of them, near the tracks. They looked empty, with ugly rusted metal roofs. I suppose they once held rice and other commodities. They must have been much nicer with tile or thatch roofs.
The sun disappeared into clouds over the horizon about 5:30 and it got dark between 6 and 6:30. I got off the train not at Yangon, where it was scheduled to arrive at 9, but at Bago, where it arrived just after 7, only a few minutes late after a thirteen hour journey from Mandalay. Just before reaching the station, I could see Bago's golden Shwemawdaw Pagoda, the tallest in Burma at 376 feet, all lit up. I checked into a decent hotel I had stayed in during my 2013-2014 trip to Burma and had my first cold shower in a while, bearable at Bago's low elevation and latitude.
It was cloudy the next morning until about 10. I wandered through Bago's interesting streetside market and spotted several whole ducks, plucked and with slit throats, on sale. I left Bago at 10:45 on a slow train coming all the way from Shwenyaung, north of Inle Lake. In fact, this is the same train that travels from Kalaw to Thazi. There were few passengers. Traveling very slowly once it reached Yangon, it took two and a half hours from Bago to Yangon's big train station.
I checked into a hotel, ate lunch, and then looked around. I enjoyed being back in Yangon, and wouldn't have minded a few days there. I walked past the old colonial buildings in the center and noticed that one had been completely renovated, by a bank, and another was being renovated. Plenty of others, though, are in varying states of disrepair. I noticed the large, white Immanuel Baptist Church had a sign with the times for services in English, Myanmar, Chinese, Telugu, Kayin, Shan, Mizo, and Lisu.
I walked to the huge Secretariat, the government center of British Burma, built in 1889. I had seen a photo of President Obama visiting it in November and wondered if it had been renovated. It is still a massive ruin for the most part, though it seems an inner courtyard may have been renovated. Tourists aren't allowed inside, unless, I guess, you are President of the United States. Aung San was assassinated in the Secretariat.
I walked through the street sellers all over the main streets and came across an English language street tour, which I followed for a while. The air felt humid and it was warmer than Mandalay. I broke off the tour at the Strand Hotel and sat inside for a while, until past dark, before making my way back for dinner and my hotel. The newly renovated bank building was covered with strings of lights. The city hall next door was also lit up, as was the golden Sule Pagoda down the street.
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