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Leaning over to check how fast we're going - 150 km/h - I notice for the first time that the taxi driver has fallen asleep at the wheel. Behind us, the road stretches out straight and long, and I wander how long it's been since he nodded off. We nudge him gently, with a cautious hand hovering over the steering wheel in case he wakes with a start. Instead, he wakes slowly, almost lazily, and then grins sheepishly as he winds the windows down and turns the radio up. This proves insufficient stimulation, so he speeds up even more - 175 km/h. "To keep awake", he replies to our raised eyebrows, as if it's perfectly reasonable and should have been obvious. A surprisingly-cold wind shrieks through the cab in close-fought competition with the latest Thai pop sensation, as we hurtle through Bangkok's pre-dawn darkness toward the airport. Assuming I survive the taxi ride, I will soon be in the air, heading toward a South-East Asian country I have always been fascinated by - Burma/Myanmar...

Burma One: On the road to Mandalay...

Michael Meadows
2007-01-23 12:03:47

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no doubt, of soft & stable beds - I was awakened by a loud thump that sent a shudder through the whole bus, and the screams of other passengers jerked abruptly awake. Dreading what we'd see, (another traveller had just told us about the time his bus struck & killed a young child on this very route), we climbed down to investigate with everyone else. Luckily it was just a flat tyre, and we were on our
Showing little kids the photo I'd just taken of them,
way an hour or so later. Not able to get back to sleep, (dawn had just broken, flooding the cabin with a cold clear light), I watched the beautiful jade-green scenery flowing by, and read from my book of "Quotable Quotations", (the only English-language book I'd been able to find in the bus station). Produced by the military junta government, (which goes by the Orwellian name of the 'State Peace & Development Council'), it contained quite a collection of quotes - some that were very interesting, some amusing, many contradictory and a few that were just downright bizarre. I'll close each of the Burma entries, (judging by the length of this one, it's set to be a trilogy!), with a few examples I copied down.

We both really enjoyed Mandalay - a smaller, sleepier city than Yangon, a place of messy, tree-shaded streets, bustling road-side markets, and red-robed monks hurrying around on mysterious errands. (Almost 60% of Burma's monks live in the Mandalay area!) We spent our days there wandering around the temples & markets, and also took a full-day trip around the "ancient cities" that surround Mandalay - Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwa. As for the nights, it seems that not much has changed since 1882, when colonial commentator Shwe Yoe observed that "going about at night in Mandalay was not much practised." We did go to see a very impressive display of yok-thei pwe, (Burmese marionnette theatre), as well as attending a performance by the Moustache Brothers. The oldest ...