The train from Rangoon to Naypyidaw took 9 hours and cost £2.80. The train from Naypyidaw to Mandalay, further along the same line, took 6 hours and cost £1.85. These prices are for 'upper class' tickets. It's a decent enough train, if slow, but it was bumpy as hell and more than once a bump lifted me clean out of my seat. God knows how people manage to sleep on the night train. Admittedly this line is a fairly dull flat route, apart from the bumps: the real scenery is to be found en route to smaller places like Kalaw and Inle Lake and Pyay. Something for me to remedy next time.
In Mandalay I made perhaps my worst social faux pas of this trip. (Worse even than that time I semi-drunkenly wandered into a women-only carriage on the Osaka subway.) I was sauntering down a dusty road, squinting against the sun, when a roofless minivan drove past carrying women singing through loudspeakers. I assumed it was some sort of home-made political broadcast, so I took a photo and waved gaily at them, grinning, as they passed. Then I looked to my right and noticed the appproach of a huge, gleaming black hearse, topped with flowers and Buddhist icons; it was followed by a long train of more roofless minivans, all crammed with mourners. The song had clearly been a Burmese funeral dirge for some local big cheese, and several dozen people were now looking somewhat askance at my gormless grinning mug. I would have hidden away with shame, had there been anywhere to hide, which there wasn't.
Burma has been in the news recently, what with the election and the military's apparent acceptance that this time they're not going to get away with just ignoring the result. However in my time here the revolution has not been on display. I haven't witnessed any kind of political rallies or gatherings, nor any kind of turmoil or repression. But of course I'm unable to read the local newspaper headlines, or to understand the conversations I overhear; and just possibly the police and soldiers may not be quite as nice to locals as they are to tourists. So I can't say I've gained any real understanding of what's going on that I didn't already have from the news. All I can do is wish the Burmese people well in their hopefully peaceful transition from tyranny (where one is governed by arseholes who nobody voted for) to democracy (where one is governed by arseholes who other people voted for). Don't get fooled again.
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| Mandalay Castle, south-east corner. Each side of the square castle grounds is 2 miles long. For those of you who didn't do A-level maths, that's 8 miles of moat. |
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| Inside the castle grounds |
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| Myanmar!!! F*** yeah!!! |
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| At the very top of Mandalay Hill: an oasis of peace and tranquility. Apart from all the smartphones with loudspeakers...yes, even here... |
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| As above |
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| Looking south from Mandalay Hill over the castle grounds. You can see part of the eastern moat in the distance. Squint and you'll see a bridge - it's exactly 1 mile from the bridge to the far end of the moat. |
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| Temples below the hill, lit up at dusk |
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| A typical Mandalay street scene |
