Long Train Ride
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2006
1
5
17
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Yangon, Myanmar
Friday, February 17, 2006
Anyway, we arrived at Yangon Railway Station a full hour early to find our place in our luxury compartment for the 15 hour train ride to Mandalay. While I was waiting, a very smiley monk tried to practice his English on me and said to me "I want to know my brother's name." I thought to myself, "You ask ME to tell you YOUR brother's name? How the hell should I know?" Eventually I realized that that was an excessively polite way of him asking me MY name - referring to ME as his brother.
About a half an hour before departure we boarded our train and, as it turned out, the only thing luxurious about it was the price we paid. The compartment we were in, which was supposed to be the super duper luxury wagon, turned out to be an absolute shithole. And for that we paid $50 each to the penis-potato-boat boys. What a rip-off. We went to the station master to complain and all we could manage was a 2 dollar reduction in the price of our tickets. Whoop-te-doo!
We had the pleasure of sharing our compartment with a couple of locals and I asked them what they had paid for their ticket: 6,170 kyat - which works out to $5.41. So we paid nearly ten times the local price. The locals knew that we were paying $50 - and they seemed to find that a bit amusing. I didn't find it amusing at all.
The train left on schedule at 15:15 and the first few hours of the trip were swelteringly hot. By nightfall, though, it turned freezing, and we had to put on sweaters and socks. While lowering the bunk to make my bed, the thing came crashing down on my hand, trapping it - and nearly removing three of my fingers. In the end I lost a bit of blood and skin and I was glad to have my first aid kit with me. This was the first time I've ever used it while travelling, and boy was I glad to have my antiseptic cream and band aids with me.
