More sights to see through the open windows – a man plowing the fields with his oxen…View image, more people selling food and water in big jugs always balanced perfectly on their heads…View image….it seemed as if the train stopped hundreds of times.

By now, those wooden seats (with perhaps their half-inch of padding) were creating major pain and agony. There was NO comfortable way to sit so we amused ourselves the best we could. Kent dug out his hat purchase and posed…

Keith and his Burmese hat suffering through the Burma train ride

…played guessing games on exactly what the food was being sold….View image…had a fly-killing contest…tried to read or write, anything to keep our mind off exactly how many hours were still left in purgatory.

Eventually, the train passed through “Watermelon Country.” …View image… First came the red watermelons…

selling red watermelons along the Burmese train tracks

…Then yellow watermelons…View image…

selling yellow watermelons along the Burmese train tracks

They looked pretty darn tasty but we were afraid to eat in fear of having to visit the — dreaded train toilet.

How could the day possibly get worse? A discovery that mice were running around the floor of the car working on our packed lunch boxes! Shoot me…just shoot me…but no one in the group had any strength left to left to put me out of misery. Fourteen and one-half, excruciating hours later, we staggered off the train to the Inya Lake Hotel, Rangoon…the only hotel with hot water. Beyond caring about anything and completely exhausted, there was only one united thought shared by the group…we were leaving Burma tomorrow and flying to Bangkok!

Schlock hotels, dead bugs in water bottles, “The Daylight Express,” the multitude of inconveniences, politics…the trip was over and memorable not only because of the sights, but by a wonderful group of adventurous travelers who laughed and made the best of everything unexpectedly flung at us.

Why have we returned to Myanmar (formerly) Burma three times since then? The extremely gracious people of Myanmar and wonderful children, all hungering for contact with the outside world. And the Plains of Pagan and Shwedagon…never to be forgotten…along with all the other magnificent sights.
Eighteen years later, Myanmar has delicious food, wonderful hotel accommodations, REAL “Upper Class” trains, new areas constantly being opened for tourism, and the people are still gracious and hospitable. THAT is why we keep returning and hope you too seize the opportunity to visit this picturesque and still unspoiled country.

young initiate lamas entering the Buddhist Temples of Burma