After hearing about the “most beautiful train ride in the world”, which also includes a massive metal viaduct 700m long and 100m tall crossing a valley we knew we had to go. We had planned to travel from Pyin Oo Lwin to Hsipaw by train both there and back, with a few days spent exploring the mountains and local Shan villages of Hsipaw in between. Things rarely go to plan though…
Day 75 – Getting to Hsipaw, a change of plans…
The alarm was set to make sure that we were having breakfast by 7.15 so we could get to the station for 8am to pick up the reserved tickets and board the train. Except that when we got there we were informed that there would be no train as it had had an accident further down the line. No train today. Oh dear!
At least a full refund was given, without showing any proof that we’d brought a ticket in the first place! So it was back in the tuk tuk for a lift to the bus station. He offered us the ride for 3000. We should have haggled probably but didn’t think about it until after we’d got in. Must do better at this!
Luckily the bus to Hsipaw goes at 9.30 so we had plenty of time to figure out what to do. Our tuk tuk driver spoke some English so he was helping us work out prices etc. The bus is 7000 each (28k total), and the private taxi came in at 54k, no haggling room seemingly. But another man approached us outside offering 40k. We suggested 35k and he accepted, barely any more for a private taxi than for the bus for four people so we went with it.
Seatbelts clearly aren’t a thing here, the ones in the back were stuck behind the back seat and, when we asked him to free them so the kids could be strapped in (it was a 3 hour drive on these crazy roads), they were so dirty Adin had to get a cloth and wipe them clean!
Our taxi driver, Adin, was super. He was actually on his way home to Lashio anyway so he’d accepted the low price. He was learning English off his wife so we were able to get some conversations going along the way and he was really keen to teach us about his country.
Our drive was an excellent example of silver linings, or one door closing and another opening as we were really pleased to see a different bit of the country (we have to repeat the train journey again in a few days to get back), and we got to see the Gokteik viaduct from the road.
The viaduct carries the train over a massive gorge, which cars still have to cross normally, involving a steep drive down hill around many hairpin turns, and then back up the other side, taking about 20 minutes to travel less than a km across the gap. The drive down itself was thrilling, as there are massive lorries running up and down this road shipping things in and out of China. At one point the lorry coming up the hill had to swing onto our side of the road to get around the bend, so the taxi also went on the wrong side of the road. As the oncoming cars followed the lorry this wasn’t an issue. Truly organised chaos! No one here gets mad on the roads, they just drive around each other calmly, always beeping to make sure others know they’re there.
The road is a toll road, and still two lanes most of the time, a super wide road which means that you never really get held up by any of the many types of vehicle on the road. Genius!
About half an hour out of Hsipaw Adin needed to stop for food so we pulled over into the equivalent of a truck stop for taxi drivers. A buffet lunch was available but it was 11am so we weren’t hungry yet. Instead we settled for a cold drink and getting stared at as usual.
Here we got our first go at squatting toilets. They’re not so bad. The bigger issue I had was that the ‘mens’ and ‘ladies’ signs were in Burmese, which is a totally different language from ours and therefore not readable. Which one to go into?? The only option was to wait for a local to use them and see which way they went. Haha.
The land continued to change as we moved further into the hills and we started to see rice paddies along the side of the road. As we kept asking what the piles were on the side of the road, Adin stopped to show us some sweetcorn kernels drying by the side of the road. These will be taken to China where they will be used as seed for new corn plants apparently. Seemingly, due to the previous government control, they are very linked to China and pretty much everything Myanmar makes is exported to China! The people we spoke to about their government were not complimentary about the old one, but were optimistic that things were changing towards a democracy and will improve.
Just as we arrived at Hsipaw we passed the Baw Gyo Pagoda, which looked really interesting, so Adin offered us a look and pulled in. Here we parked and, after removing our shoes, walked around this incredible building covered in tiles with mirrors. It was built as a monument a Burmese King’s wife on the spot where she mysteriously died. She must have been well loved!
Evie was pretty upset as there is a central bit which women are not allowed to enter! Myanmar tradition rather than anything to do with the temple itself apparently. I guess we should be glad that she’s growing up in an age when the thought that women are inferior is inconceivable to her. I think that’s going to be something hard for her to swallow during our travels as we move through more traditional countries where their attitudes to women aren’t quite the same as our own…
Aiden was having a great time though, especially when he was actively encouraged to ring the gong!
This pagoda was truly beautiful, with a mountain backdrop. A great introduction to the pagodas of Myanmar and our first official temple of the many which are sure to come!
Outside, Adin showed us to a large pond absolutely heaving with fish. He brought a loaf of bread which the fish literally demolished in minutes!
We weren’t sure whether he planned to ask for more money when we arrived at the hotel in payment of all the extra stops, and after paying for our drinks, a donation and for the bread, but when we pulled up he said nothing. We insisted on 40k in the end as he’d been more of a tour guide than a taxi driver and we’d thoroughly enjoyed the three hour trip. He tried not to take it but we insisted. Seemingly not everyone’s out to take us for a ride – he was just offering us the extra info and time out of kindness. What a lovely man.
Our hotel was a really nice one, set up on the hill overlooking the town and mountains, with gardens and a pool. A treat for Aiden’s birthday at double our usual nightly price! Little man was loving it though!
After checking in we got the free shuttle into town to a recommended restaurant, the River View, for a quick lunch. We weren’t super hungry so picked some cheap options. The food was super slow coming so we enjoyed cool drinks sat by the river side and played cards.
Once done we wandered back into the town of Hsipaw to the edge of the Central Market. We had been wondering where people get things as we had seen no supermarkets or proper shops. Seemingly places like this, inside this dark labyrinth the narrow paths are lined with vendors selling all sorts of things, from clothes and shoes, to snacks, toiletries and salted fish. Not for us!
We did need some toothpaste so asked the price when we saw some. 1000kyat, about 50p. Should we haggle? Not for 10p we decided so paid and headed off. We also bought some chocolate wafers for the offered price of 200kyat (10p). Again, not haggling for that amount! We managed to find our way out and get to the Central Pagoda, which was very unspecial in time for our tuk tuk back to the hotel. We were in a bit of a rush as we also wanted to fit in a walk to the waterfall, which required around 2 hours to get there and back. At 3.30pm we were now pushing it to get out there and back before sunset at 5.30…
The hotel we were at is sat on top of a small hill to the north west of Hsipaw itself. From here you can just see the falls in the mountains behind and there are paths between the houses which take you to the main waterfall track, saving us going back down to the main road and along to where most people start the walk from. One of the young men from the hotel had to lead us the first 15 minutes as there are many turns. From there it’s one main track that winds through the local farmland; mainly rice. The walk was very pleasant, passing wooden houses, and farmers working the land. With stops for bird spotting and photos we got there pretty slowly – it was much further than we thought. Usually when a path is advertised as about 45 minutes walk, that means about 30 minutes for us so we were pretty cocky. It actually took us nearly an hour to reach the falls, with the path pretty narrow, uphill and through vegetation at the end.
The falls were pretty; there’s not much water at this time of year, but it all crisscrossed on the way down in a most unusual way 😊.
We had about 40 mins till sunset when we arrived so should have probably headed back as we would have to manage to take all the right turns on the way back, in the opposite direction to which we’d come. Doing that in the dark seemed a little harder, but Chris fancied a swim in the pool at the base so we stuck around for 5 minutes. These falls deserved much longer!
We motored on the way back, I put the binoculars back in the bag to avoid distractions and we actually made it back in 35 mins, bang on 5.30pm.
We were all pretty hot and sweaty by this point so a dip in the pool seemed like a good idea. It was pretty cold though, and the air temperature dropped a lot once the sun was down.
Then it was up for a late dinner at the hotel, which offers a pretty Western menu. The food was very slow though so we ended up with a late night. We also met a couple from Belgium (Olivienne and Rene) with their 4 year old son called Finn. They’re doing a 2 month holiday before he starts school and are part way through Myanmar after travelling Thailand. Next for them is the Philippines. We’re hoping Finn will play with the kids on Aiden’s birthday…
Day 76 – Exploring Shan villages and monasteries
The whole day today was spent with Mai, our guide on our tour. He picked us up with a tuk tuk at 8am for a lift to the jetty in Hsipaw where we got to board one of the longboats used by the locals.
With a fair amount of cloud cover it was a very pleasant temperature chugging down the river in the boat. Very green.
After a while we arrived at our first stop and pulled up to the bank to pick up the narrow trail through some Shan farmland. A chance to see some of their local crops – like this pineapple. This is definitely organic farming – you can hardly see the pineapple plants amongst the weeds in some places!
We passed the simple hut of an old Shan woman, who wanted to touch us all, and was very keen to show Chris that she didn’t have any teeth left. A little bit odd! She was tiny and lived here alone apparently, except for an equally tiny cat.
We carried on and discovered that our guide, Mai, was also keen on birds so the walk turned into more of a bird spotting trek at this point. Sorry family! There aren’t as many birds here as I expected, given that there are over 1000 different species found in Myanmar. And they’re pretty shy, with many flying off long before we got near them on the path. Birdwatching here is hard! The intense heat probably meant that many were hiding though. At least the countryside was green 🙂 and there were plenty of spiders to spot to keep the kids entertained! Chris, as the tallest person around, had to be careful not to walk into the webs…
As we approached the monastery we could hear a base beat, and walked to the edge of the monastery to the tune of some heavy dance music being pumped out of some massive speakers rigged on the back of a truck. These were surrounded by people, mainly women, standing and chatting (and then standing and staring as we walked past). No dancing at all. Definitely one of the more surreal experiences of my life so far, given that in England this sort of music is played between the hours of 10pm and 6am only to drunk people in night clubs…
The kids got some requests for photo’s with locals!
To make it even more disparate from our expectations, some children in monks robes with shaven heads were playing with rather realistic toy rifles, complete with bayonets! So odd!
The music and the women were because it was the annual donation festival for women, so they travel to their nearest monastery and make donations. And play dance music…
After removing our shoes we headed inside the monastery. Inside was pretty busy with women come to leave donations and pay their respects to their guide (Budda is not a god). Whilst we sat and drank green tea and biscuits, Mai chatted to us about Buddhism and the monks (and many other things). We learned that the monks are not usually for life. People are expected to do two stints at the monastery in their lives, dressing like a monk and studying. The amount of days depends on age, with a minimum of 7, but is generally one day per year of life, so it pays to get at least one done young! The monks are brought food donations by the villagers, so they do not cook.
The sun was out for the hot walk back, but at least it was mostly downhill. From here the boat carried on upstream to the convergence of two rivers.
We stopped to look at the maize being dried on the side, Aiden said it was like torture, being able to see so much sweetcorn and eat none of it!
Back on the river to head back downstream to a Shan village. Here we were fed Shan noodles under a stilted village house. Simple rice noodles in a tomato based soup. Pretty good.
A lady there said she had no children and did Evie want to live with her, or something that was translated to about that!! Luckily for us Evie decided she’d stick with us. Although there was something rather lovely about the village. Approximately 100 people live here, in wooden homes, largely on stilts with the lower level being used as a work area and cool place during the day. As they work most days in the fields from 8-5 we didn’t see many at home. Those that were home were working, stripping the maize or making bamboo chairs.
It was very peaceful, and we caught ourselves thinking it would be nice to live here. On second thoughts I’m not sure the life of a Shan would be that fun, but still, a simpler life definitely has a draw to it…
Unfortunately, here we could also see all too well the plastic waste issue with the river. I kept thinking I’d seen a bird in the bushes on the banks when I saw flashes of colour, but most of the time it was some rubbish. On the shore here we could see lots of litter ☹. Sad, and part of the massive waste problem here in the East. Every shop still gives a plastic bag, coffee cups are handed out in a plastic bag carier, most take out food is served in polystyrene and straws are given out everywhere. A lot of this is for improved health as well as convenience and presumably because it’s cheap. There are many reasons why stopping the waste problem here is a mammoth task and I find myself feeling pretty depressed about it and thinking that it’s a battle we cannot win. Thinking that my small changes in the UK are making a difference seems pretty silly right now ☹.
Time for our final boat cruise back to the jetty in Hsipaw, and a tuk tuk to Little Bagan. I had initially planned to walk the 2km from town here (and back) until we saw that it was on this tour. Boy am I glad we didn’t! We’d have been thoroughly disappointed as it only consists of about 5 small, old brick stupas and a lot of tiny cats! It was more exciting when we couldn’t get there as the road was filled with cattle…
One last stop, Sunset Hill, in time for sunset! Unfortunately there were so many clouds about again by this time that we couldn’t see the sun at all, let alone see it setting or the sky. It was still a beautiful place with great views across the valley over Hsipaw, to our hotel on its little hill and then the mountains beyond. Perhaps we can come back tomorrow??
Then back to the hotel for dinner and bed. We learnt a lot today from Mai about Myanmar and Buddhist culture. About local plants, the government, local life and Buddhism. Really enlightening!
Day 77 – A birthday in Myanmar
So we didn’t get up to much today. Aiden got to pick what we did, which meant a day of playing Minecraft on his kindle, swimming in the pool and eating whatever he wanted from the rather expensive restaurant at the hotel. Lasagne for lunch and pizza for dinner. Not very Burmese! Aiden also got a half Belgian, half English rendition of Happy Birthday sung to him multiple times throughout the day by Finn! Cute!
Due to the time difference the later afternoon and evening was spent on the phone to various family members and friends before a late night.
A good day for him, a nice relaxing one for us too and the reason we’d paid double the normal budget to get this place to hang out on his birthday.
Over lunch we met the hotel owner, who we chatted to for a while about the area and the hotel. Unfortunately, since he started building around 5 years ago, the fighting in the North has started up again and so, despite there being some growing levels of tourists in Myanmar, up here he is seeing a decrease. The hotel is not full and he’s making a loss. Oh dear.
Day 78 – The train ride from Hsipaw to Pyin Oo Lwin and the Gokteik Viaduct. The most scenic rail journey in the world?
We said a fond farewell to our beautiful hotel room and got in the tuk tuk to the station with our friends from Belgium, who were also heading on to Mandalay.
We decided to get the tuk tuk a bit earlier than the hotel recommended so that we could be near the front of the ticket queue and get the seats on the right of the train. These give you the best view of the viaduct and put you on the shaded side of the train.
Our plans failed though, we ended up being the last people in the queue! Although we weren’t the last there; some people turned up after us but there seemed to be some sort of express lane and most people turned up with a taxi driver or someone from their hotel who talked to another person. Someone we asked talked about preorganised tickets, so perhaps there is some sort of pre booking system which we hadn’t been told about?
Either way, we ended up with seats on the left. Ah well. At least we’d gotten seats in first class, which come with padding.
The stations here are not large at all. The track is overgrown with grass, and the office is tiny so it is essentially a covered area with some seats and a number of vendors selling fruit and snacks.
The train was only 10 minutes late, which was significantly better than the 3 hours delay of the day before! We were excited to see that the carriages have massive windows which open all the way down, but when we boarded our first class carriage the windows only opened half way and were very dirty. Poor kids couldn’t see out at all! The seats on the left hand side of the train in this direction are in blocks of two, and the seats swivel round, so we could all face each other which was nice. They also recline and have tables so they are pretty comfy, if rather old and a bit broken. There are fans on the ceiling, but only a couple seemed to work and we were in the sun on our side. Thank goodness it was a fairly cloudy day as when the sun came out it was super hot!
The train set off at a leisurely pace, rocking back and forth through the villages and fields. Whilst there are a fair few cuttings when you can see nothing (but get some lovely shade), most of the journey treated you to views across the fields to the mountains beyond, dotted with bamboo and corrugated metal huts, buffalo, and at this time of year, with tons of yellow flowers like sunflowers.
The journey to the viaduct took around 3 and a half hours, and we were lucky enough to get a seat on the right from a lady who went to view the viaduct with her friends in another carriage. Prime viewing!
The approach to the viaduct is slow, but goes along the side of the valley for some good views down.
We stopped before the tunnel and could see the viaduct we were about to cross. Whether this is to let all the tourists get into position at the windows on the right hand side or for a practical reason I’m not sure! At 689m long and around 100m tall, the Gokteik Viaduct, built around 1901 by the British colonials (although revamped in the 90’s so it’s safe!) was the longest railway trestle in the world when it was built.
It was time for the crossing, first the train passes through a tunnel, at the end of which were a couple of locals playing music and singing! Why? It’s not like anyone would have had time to pass them some money if they were busking and it was quite a hike to the town!
With everyone hanging out the windows, the train edged its way onto the massive metalwork bridge, moving at walking speed to avoid rocking the bridge. It’s quite a drop!
After the viaduct, the train stops almost immediately at the little station stop of Gokteik, where everyone jumps off the train to get a picture with the viaduct in the background during the 3 minute stop at the station.
The whistle signals departure and everybody scrambles back aboard. After this the train climbs its way back and forth up the remainder of the hill, offering some last views of the viaduct, before picking up speed again and heading for Mandalay.
The speed picked up. Seemingly no one keeps the plants back from the tracks, the train does that itself, with leaves that have grown too far forward being chopped off by the passing train windows, creating a shower of leaves on everyone. The kids were playing with the flowers and seeds which came in – free toys!
The rest of the journey was much of the same; farmed fields, wooden houses and rice paddies with a backdrop of green hills.
At many of the small stations people were selling snack foods, vegetables and drinks. I was a bit late realising what was going on, but when people got back on the train with hot food I jumped off to get some too, at the back of the queue, and with only a minute or so until the train left. There was just about time for the ladies to stuff the remains of their pots into my box before the train whistle blew and I had to throw some money at them and jump back on. 70p for lunch each – not bad!
We rolled into Pyin Oo Lwin a few minutes early, which was pretty impressive! We tried to get off first in order to get the dibs on taxi’s as we’d made a booking in Mandalay for the Marionette show in the evening. We’d heard rumours of a festival and a resultant lack of taxi’s so fingers crossed.
Unfortunately, you had to show your ticket on the way out, and ours were buried. We also helped our Belgian friends off the train with all their bits so by the time we headed out there was only one taxi left, and he said there were no more in town to take our friends! So we parted ways, we took the taxi as we had a prior engagement and left them to figure out what to do!
The taxi ride was straight forward. The driver, who had initially seemed a bit unfriendly in his negotiations, offered us a toilet break on the way so perhaps he wasn’t so bad after all. As we came down from the hills the temperature went up by a lot and we could feel the muggy air like a wall. Take us back to the mountains!!
There were lots of locals stopped on the switchbacks, watching the sunset. We could have done with being delayed by about 15 minutes!
It was also rush hour, so the traffic was crazy busy. Coming down all the hairpins was like a race. How anyone pulls out onto these roads from the side when they’re this busy is beyond me – I’d still be there hours later ☹.
Keep reading for our arrival into Mandalay, the capital, and our explorations of the many old capitals here (coming soon), or head back to the cool, green mountains of Pyin Oo Lwin.