makes trying to use the toilet rather
interesting. Fortunately it slows right
down (although it’s never going that fast)
when crossing the viaduct, so you get
amazing views as well as not bouncing
off the track into the gorge.
We got up early next morning (and I
mean 3am!) to go to the candle-lit night
market, then took a small boat up river
and went for a walk through orchards of
mango, papaya and pineapple, calling in
at a village monastery. It rained on and
off so the boat man gave us broadbrimmed bamboo hats to wear, calling
them “Shan umbrellas”. The Shan people
make up around 9% of Myanmar’s
population and Hsipaw, where we were,
is in the northern part of Shan state. The
hats were remarkably effective, though
we did look pretty silly!
The following day we headed south
again, to Mandalay. This is a pleasant
city, busy but somehow less manic than
Yangon, with wide, tree-lined streets,
beautiful old monasteries, a moated
palace (destroyed by the Allies during
the Second World War and partially
reconstructed in the 1990s) and lots of
small, traditional artisan guilds, such as
gold leaf making, puppet making (puppet
shows are really popular here and based
on a whole host of ancient stories), wood
carving and silver work. There’s a lot to
see and we spent a few days exploring
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