In an almost unknown country, on an obscure branch line, I had one of the most satisfying train journeys ever. I left the comforts of Rangoon's Strand Hotel - a Burmese Raffles but without the tourist masses - and a bouncing, bucking 50mph "Express" sped me up-country on the railroad to Mandalay. Three hours short of Burma's second city, I alighted at the junction town of Thazi. A station and some dusty streets were all it seemed to offer. But at 8am next day it revealed a hidden gem: the slow train from Thazi, a day-long meander through the hills to Shwenyaung, the railhead for beautiful Inle Lake.
I settled back in my stained and battered armchair and the train set off hesitantly, finding a pace around 15mph. Old-fashioned semaphore signals cleared our way, seemingly transplanted from the 1930s. The countryside was lush and green and dusty, and there was nothing between you and it, just a wide open window. The track twisted and turned, in some places spiralling over itself to gain height. At one point the train ascended a sheer jungle-covered mountainside on a series of switchbacks, zigging and zagging until the climb was done.
The train called at the old British hill station of Kalaw, its mock-Tudor station building strangely familiar to British eyes, and finally in late afternoon it arrived at Shwenyaung, a 25-minute taxi ride from Inle Lake, where a beautiful village of wooden houses stands on stilts, and fisherman still fish from traditional wooden boats. It was well worth the day's ride.
