Events of Sunday, September 23rd, 2012
I was up early and took breakfast around 6.00 a.m. in the Restaurant of 'Road to Mandalay', still at her midstream mooring at Bagan. After saying a final 'goodbye' to staff on the ship, 'local boats' took us ashore about 7.00 a.m. We made the steep climb up the steps for the last time and joined our respective guides and buses to be transferred to Bagan Airport.
All went well on our flight back to Yangon so it was still quite early when I met up with my guide for the day in Yangon, a pretty young lady with excellent English. Of course, my idea of an itinerary was not quite the usual - A trip on the 'Circle Line', tracking down a 'plinthed' locomotive in the '"People's Park" and a visit to a bookshop with English-language books on Burmese History.
We started off by spending a couple of hours travelling part way around the 'Circle Line', ending up at Yangon Central Station. This part of the day is described separately here, but I've included a link to the pictures below as a lot of the photographs are 'social history' rather than 'railway technical'.
On a previous trip, I'd driven past the "People's Park" in Yangon and spotted a couple of 'plinthed' locomotives and, more improbably, a gunboat. On that occasion, I didn't have the opportunity to stop but, this time, we parked our vehicle and walked along the outside of the fence to where I'd seen the exhibits. We spotted a steam locomotive and brake van which a sign claimed to be the first locomotive in Burma, but it was rather hidden by trees so we determined to go inside the Park in the hope of getting a better view. There was no sign of the larger locomotive or the gunboat which our driver believed had been scrapped.
Inside the park, we walked towards the locomotive but found our way stopped by civilian security guards - that part of the park was currently off-limits. The reason given was rather curious. Apparently that corner of the part has a number of commemorative tree dedicated to member's of Burma's military regime. Following the slight liberalisation which is taking place, there were fears that Burmese might attempt acts of vandalism on these trees so the public are not allowed in.
However, just outside the restricted area, we did find a 'plinthed' Aveling Barford steam roller, a long way from its birthplace in Grantham.
For a bookshop with English-language books, my guide recommended Tab Book Centre, not far from the "People's Park". This is situated in the Taw Win Centre, a modern shopping mall of the type I detest but the bookshop was excellent. I didn't expect to find a 'Marks and Spencer' shop selling cosmetics, but the picture below shows it's there. I'm afraid I think it's a 'fake' store.
It was time to head out of the city towards the airport for my international flight back to Bangkok. With a little time in hand, we stopped for a snack at an open-air restaurant, with gardens and a garden centre, overlooking Inya Lake. The gardens are particularly popular with young couples at the weekend and we saw lots of young people enjoying their free time.
After this relaxing break, we continued to the airport. I said goodbye to my guide and driver and started my long journey back to Birmingham. Check-in ticketed my luggage for all three legs (Yangon-Bangkok, Bangkok-Dubai, Dubai-Birmingham) and I wondered if I'd ever see it again (in fact, it popped out on the luggage carousel at Birmingham safely). Security at Yangon was painless and prompt and the flight to Bangkok pleasant.
I'd a few hours to wait at Bangkok for my next flight to Dubai. Emirates now have a well-appointed but not too large Lounge which I was able to use. First of all, I was able to have a shower and change my clothes which made me much more relaxed. I passed the time snacking and working on the computer.
My inbound flight was late but I was still in a reasonably good mood by the time I boarded the A380 for Dubai. Although I slept a little, I was quite tired by the time we arrived in Dubai. I woke up enough to make my way to the huge (and busy) lounge in Dubai. The wait here wasn't long and then it was off to join my final flight to Birmingham. Here, Emirates provided a car back home so before long I was at Brewood, exhausted but happy after another wonderful trip.
Photographs:
Circle Line Revisited
People's Park, Yangon
Yangon (includes pictures from earlier trips).
