Burma Road from Lashio
across Gokteik Gorge
It's a dawn start and the German and I are both sleepy when we get to the train station. The bikes get stored in a wagon and we find some seats in the best class compartment, which has a jumble of stuff littering the aisle, with people obviously taking whatever they need for the journey and beyond. This feels like an adventure.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
The rail line is one for buffs as it goes over an old metal viaduct.
The German isn't going as far as me and he gets off while I stay on till the very end, which is Lashio.
It's dark when I arrive, after over 12 hours on board, which is about six too many.
Lashio is a small town not too far from China's border and a place once on the southern end of the infamous WWII-period Burma Road. Army supplies were transported from Rangoon by train to here, where the road started.
The railway was completed to Lashio way back in 1903, but it's now effectively the end of the road for foreigners with the tarmac route veering east basically off limits - like most of the North.
After a night in the only hotel that I can find open, my journey back towards Mandalay begins. It's another scorcher.
The road is OK - not up to Western standards, but smooth enough.
The route eventually goes down into the deep Gokteik Gorge and up a series of hairpins on the other side and I spend a night in a pretty grim hotel in a dusty town called Nawnghkio. It's all a bit grim and there's just one place to get a bite to eat. It's doubtful many tourists bother stopping. You wouldn't blame them.
The following night is spent a night in a village called Naungcha, which has a cheap hostel-type place. It's just a bunch of simple homes in the countryside.
To get an understanding of the Burma Road, read Donovan Webster's book, The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II.
At one point along the route I pass a group of five elephants and their mahouts, limbering along the near the quaint town of Pyin-Oo-Lwin, where I splash out on a 25-dollar room. I feel I've earned it, having ridden across some mountainous terrain in the sweltering heat for a couple of days.
To get an understanding of the Burma Road, read Donovan Webster's book, The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |