International Railroad Discussion > Bagan to Yangon Myanmar

This is the first time I've had really usable internet at least for uploading. I'm in Beijing, tomorrow it's back to North Korea, but using a VPN in this hotel everything's good.

A few days ago I traveled from Bagan in Myanmar to Yangon for a flight to Bangkok and then Beijing. The train from Bagan to Yangon, and there is only one overnight train a day, is a treasure. It's slow, takes 15+ hours to go a few hundred miles. It has coaches and this time of year one sleeping car. Usually a Upper Class sleeper, 8 or so 4 berth rooms. I ended up with one of the railways "Superior" sleepers. These cars have 4 private rooms with 4 berths, slam door entry to each from the outside, a private bathroom, and no access through the train. I believe the reason the car was on the train this day was because there was management onboard. Though I can't imagine how this was a plus for them. The car had no lights, I was offered a handful of candles and a lighter, the explanation, "no wiring sir", well no thanks, for the candles,(the car had food paneling and very old curtains) but I kept them for cheroots I bought for the occasion along with the Myanmar rum I stocked up on. Bagan has a sort of grand station for the small number of trains that call here. The delayed monsoon finally hit that afternoon so most of the trip took place with hard rains, nothing better than to start a train trip in bad weather.

The Bagan Station


Ticket counter. If you are foreign yo show your passport, get invited into the office while they write the ticket, and write it by hand in quadruplicate using carbon paper and a pencil they do.


Pouring rain, notice the steam engine behind the DMU.

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The rain cleared,almost like magic for the moment, a tie train switching on the platform.

Rain Back. The station buffets.....

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Superior sleeper. My room for the next 15+ hours. Just about ideal. Lots of bouncing, shaking, noisy, no AC, but great elemental train travel. At the longer stops the restaurant crew came up provided beers, food and water, that a few good Myanmay cigars and rum, what else is there? At time the bouncing was so bad I had to stand up and hang on. But that was what train travel was like in the beginning, it still exists, why not enjoy while it still lasts?


I know no train shots aren't always appreciated but this is the sort of thing you see out the window, like something from a movie. At the same time you see the real Myanmar, so poor, so frozen in time. A terrible government devoted only to the welfare of the military, the interests of a few wealthy, the future for all of us? Look it up if it hurts your sensibilities, this is how that world really is.


Unloading concrete ties Myanmar style. No OSHA here, no FELA, this is what an unregulated world looks like, it's not theory, this is the reality.

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More out the window when things weren't bouncing too much, luckily the Olympus Omd Em1 has superb image stabilization.

People travel with the freight loads.


Tomorrow 20/06/2014 it's on to some time in North Korea then some time in Japan to visit a one of my fathers students back in the early 1950's and the town where I was born. After that the Trans Manchurian route from Beijing to Moscow and after that Transnistria and eventually home. Got to get this train riding sort of out of my system.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/14 07:12 by GettingShort.

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Wonderful pictures.

I remember the monsoons well from my year in the Mekong Delta. The rains were relentless.

Thanks,

Fritz in HSV, AL, USA

I really enjoy the human element. Thanks for sharing and I hope to see much more! Enjoy your trip.

navy5717th Wrote:
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> Wonderful pictures.
>
> I remember the monsoons well from my year in the
> Mekong Delta. The rains were relentless.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fritz in HSV, AL, USA

Fritz I'm sure your experience of them was far more intense and miserable. Thanks for the comment, I appreciate them all.

Excellent window into this part of the world that most have never heard of (myself included). Thank you for posting!

Thank you for the Paul Theroux-esque travelogue, look forward to seeing more. Many former colonial states have not fared well. Arbitrary borders, consolidation of power and then handing that power off to local governance results in one ethnic or religious group lording it over the others, or military juntas or dictatorships, or back and forth depending on the revolution of the day. Thailand is having it's regularly scheduled coup at present.

A few years ago there was a video uploaded to youtube that purported to show a steam locomotive in North Korea burning used tires. I wonder if that's still around.

-M

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

Thank you so much for this fascinating series.

This is great stuff. I'll let you be my travel agent

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA