Escapisms

Having visited the Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung Monastery we made our way towards the train station located at Shwenyaung. Our train was due to leave at 8 but from what Zar Zar had told us – could be a bit later kind of depends on how many passengers. Sounded somewhat like the lovely GWR back at home!

To buy a ticket for the train ordinarily you need to turn up on the day of travel and for this particular train be at the station at like 7am. We were all rather glad that Zar Zar knew the station manager and arranged to have the tickets saved for us for this trip and that she would pay for them on arrival at the station. I’m not even sure that I saw a ticket office as we walked through the station and boarded the train. The journey was going to take around 3 1/2 hours, I loved the vagueness and explanation that it depended entirely on how much produce needed to be loaded on at one of the stops as to whether we would be much longer or not. (Produce from the local area was loaded on to this train whose final destination was one of the big cities and so it would be sold there). Our seats were all in the Upper Class category, for which we were very thankful. This meant that we each had our own allocated seat which, interestingly, could be swiveled and set in either a forward or backward facing direction for the journey.the springs in many of them were busted and even the fixings to the floor were loose on some so some of us had a more eventful journey than others. I was glad that I had taken my neck support for the plane with me to help reduce some of the jolts on my neck. One of the group was opposite a guy who was making the full journey from start to finish in Yangon which was something absurd like a possible 26 hours (I’ll need to double check that with Zar Zar though. He was certainly not very Burmese looking and it felt more like we were in Mexico with his leather jacket and numerous bags. He was noting but polite none the less and helped Sue to open the window by her which was closed meaning she wouldn’t see the view. Our bags were on route to Kalaw by the coach which would meet us the other end. To some the train journey seemed pointless as the bus was going that way and in a shorter time but I enjoyed the experience, certainly very different to train travel in the UK!!

The ‘air-con’ did make us all giggle a bit as it would have done very little to keep anyone cool and certainly didn’t look like it had been turned on in donkeys years!!

We thankfully did manage to leave on time, much to everyone’s surprise and delight and with a backwards facing window seat I was in a prime position to be able to snap away as we passed through rural Myanmar slowly climbing upwards to our final destination of the hill station of Kalaw. https://youtu.be/LKceRAVjaAk

The scenery was beautiful and I found it fascinating watching the colour of the earth change as we passed through the countryside. It was revolting the amount of rubbish that was lying on or near the tracks it must be said, mainly looked like plastic waste – another apt reminder of the urgent need to reduce single use non bio-degradable plastics.

Our first stop was not one that we could disembark at and as a result I didn’t get the name of it. There were several ladies selling treats at the windows of local delicacies. This lady was selling a sort of sweet biscuit/pancake thing made of rice flour and sugar cane which were clearly then deep fried in palm oil I think. Rather sickly sweet but also delicious (not sure if they didn’t upset my tummie a little or maybe it was just the oil content in them) and I had a couple to keep me going along the way. The Mexican man got LOADS of different things which Zar Zar asked to show us which he was apparently taking to his family and friends in his final destination.

This gave me the ideal opportunity to walk up and down the carriage to stretch my legs but also to have a nose at the ‘economy’ travel. This was exactly what Simon Reeve has travelled in on his recent travel documentary that I watched on iPlayer not long before coming out. Hard wooden benches with wooden backs and no seat allocation so I guess when full you would just have to hope that if I’m a group, you would be able to get seats next to if not near each other. I was glad of the rickety old seats I must say.

As we got under way again and just a little bit further down the track we saw a mother and calf that must have literally just been born as after looking for a while we all realised that there were still entrails of the afterbirth coming from the cow and that she was cleaning the new born calf.

We got off in Aung Ban while the goods were loaded on and were able to visit the facilities in the station, with my tummie going mental I was pretty desperate. They were HANDS DOWN the worst loos I visited on the entire trip. A hole in the ground, already slopping with liquid. Trousers around my knees, wipes and tissues to the ready did nothing to prepare me for the stench or the vileness of the amenity. I think I need to add a mini air-freshener to the loo bag I take on trips like this as well as a peg to put on my nose to stop me from retching from the stink. But, if you gotta go, you gotta go!!

On arrival in Kalaw our coach was awaiting us. As we got on the coach I saw a sign for a hotel called Morning Glory which made me giggle and reminded me of my time in Vietnam!