annemoff's journal

My Scholarship entry - Yangon Circular Railway

MYANMAR | Monday, 24 November 2014 | Views [555] | View Larger Image

The carriages are filled with vendors peddling their wares: bananas, newspapers, tobacco, smoked fish, chicken and quail eggs, lurid melting icy poles in clouded plastic bags. As the train approaches each station, more traders run along the platform. Before the train has stopped they mount the steps with dexterity and begin singing and shouting at anyone who will listen.

The Yangon Circular Railway takes three hours to loop around the city. It’s a muggy 30-degree day when I purchase my ticket, and an attendant excitedly tells me that the carriages are “air-conditioned”. I find out later that this is in the form of open windows and spluttering, tired roof fans that do nothing more than add to the cacophony. A policeman half-heartedly taps one of the fans with his baton each time it drifts to a halt.

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Bright blue and green paintwork snakes around the tracks, cracked from use and weather. If the train is moving slow enough to disembark between stations, passengers throw bags and packages from doors and leap from carriages before fading into the distance. The best way to gauge the cause of an unexpected stoppage is to stick your head out the window.

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annemoff's journal

My Scholarship entry - Yangon Circular Railway

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