Myanmar/Thailand 2018

The train infrastructure owes much to the British colonial period so is rather ancient; we worked out that our 2 hour journey averaged 20 MPH as we swayed along on the long climb up into Shan State. We cycled from the station along an unpleasant stretch of main road, very dusty and lorry laden and then it started to rain ; hard. We took shelter in a bar and drank coffee provided by our support vehicle which had caught up with us. Then we climbed up country roads to the former hill station of Kalaw. We are slowly getting to grips with the food, not least now that our guide realises that we really are relatively adventurous eaters and want to eat with the locals rather than other tourists. It would have been difficult without Chan as in the local restaurants there are no English menus or English spoken. On the subject of other tourists, we realised towards the end of the trip that we had not actually encountered any other Brits at all! The majority ar...

The next section of the trip was modified from the initial programme because of the ongoing issues in Rakhine state relating to the Rohingya ethnic group. Following a drive up into the hills from the flat plains around Mandalay, our second train journey therefore took us from Naungcho to Naungpein village. Chan said that we would get a better view for the photographers from the local rather than the upper class tourist carriages and our initial reaction was slight irritation that he hadn’t booked us the comfortable window seats in time. However, in terms of overall colourful experience the locals carriages certainly provided despite the hard plastic seats! Food sellers, families with babies, constant noise and bustle for 4 hours. Outside of the train the Gokteik Viaduct, built in 1901, and the gorge and river below were the highlight of the journey. After a local snack of Shan noodles and later lunch of avocados (literally, but delicious), a drive took us back to...

Another early start, goodbye to Chan and a flight back to the capital to be met by Tun again. The latter is much more detached than Chan and has a tendency to swagger around as though he owns the place! He is also quite happy to talk about his political views and clearly has a lot of time for ‘the Lady’. There are not a huge number of memorable sights in Rangoon but over the course of the next day and a half we explored and had an enjoyable afternoon tea at the renovated Strand Hotel (we could have stayed over night with the services if our own butler for about £250 a night). The area around the Strand is very run down and it is sad to see many potentially very attractive colonial buildings unused or squatted in and in great need of repair and restoration. The Secretariat, where Aung San and 6 cabinet ministers were assassinated in 1947, is being restored and should be opened by the end of this year, hopefully a good sign. lady boy literally stopping traffic...