Riding the Yangon’s ring train
In Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) there is a circular train route that loops around the city providing transport for the local people into Yangon. The British built the railway in the 1950s. It does a full circle around the sprawling city and its surrounds. The journey is almost 46 kilometers and the train stops at 39 stations. The cost of one ticket is one US dollar. The circular train is the cheapest away around the city for the people. They use it for travel, transport, trading, business and a whole lot more.
The ride is hot, crowded, and chaotic. The train cars are old and weathered with hard bench seats. The windows have neither glass nor bars. Merchants boarded the train at the market station, hauling their enormous sacks of produce with them. Ladies with thick layers of “thanaka” (a paste made from tree bark worn to protect and soften the skin) on their faces sit chatting together, while men dressed in traditional “longyis” (sarong style skirts) chewed betel nut and spat its bright red juice out the window. On board people carry furniture, huge sacks of vegetables, electrical equipment, bundles of brushes, live chickens. Local ladies sit peacefully with their plastic baskets, monks peacefully stare out the window, eager food and drink vendors wander the carriage trying to quench the hunger and thirst of every passenger. Many people are quick to sit next to you just to strike up a conversation – you will be possibly the only or one of the few foreigners they have ever had contact with. This is Myanmar.
Riding the Yangon’s ring train
In Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) there is a circular train route that loops around the city providing transport for the local people into Yangon. The British built the railway in the 1950s. It does a full circle around the sprawling city and its surrounds. The journey is almost 46 kilometers and the train stops at 39 stations. The cost of one ticket is one US dollar. The circular train is the cheapest away around the city for the people. They use it for travel, transport, trading, business and a whole lot more.
The ride is hot, crowded, and chaotic. The train cars are old and weathered with hard bench seats. The windows have neither glass nor bars. Merchants boarded the train at the market station, hauling their enormous sacks of produce with them. Ladies with thick layers of “thanaka” (a paste made from tree bark worn to protect and soften the skin) on their faces sit chatting together, while men dressed in traditional “longyis” (sarong style skirts) chewed betel nut and spat its bright red juice out the window. On board people carry furniture, huge sacks of vegetables, electrical equipment, bundles of brushes, live chickens. Local ladies sit peacefully with their plastic baskets, monks peacefully stare out the window, eager food and drink vendors wander the carriage trying to quench the hunger and thirst of every passenger. Many people are quick to sit next to you just to strike up a conversation – you will be possibly the only or one of the few foreigners they have ever had contact with. This is Myanmar.
