Taking this train in Myanmar was one of the top reasons for my visit. Seventeen hours on a train is a very long time. So is 20. When I took the 24 hour trip to Lhasa a few years ago, I documented what I did during that ride. What I did not document though, was the amount of thoughts that went through my head. Ever wonder what goes through someone’s head when they are on public transport for an insane amount of hours? Well I can tell you.
The overnight train from Yangon to Bagan is supposed to be 17 hours, it ended up being 20 hours.
I knew I had to do this trip before I even finished reading this post that introduced it to me. Oh man. This looks FANTASTIC. The whole idea of your commute being this insane experience you would never forget. The second I finished reading that post, I had to email the author to tell her about the irony of stumbling across it on the same day I read a post on a Las Vegas message board where someone had cancelled a reservation for a Strip hotel because she saw photos online where you could see the toilet when you opened the bathroom door. It was right out there and not tucked behind a wall. The horror!
I booked a ticket going from Yangon to Bagan. I knew that the sleeper car is a separate car that is only attached if they sell tickets for it. I ran the risk of being trapped in here with other people. It is not internally connected to the other cars on the train. You cannot walk through to get to anywhere. How many beds had to sell to attach the car? The booking agent I used stated on their website that if you wanted to guarantee a sleeper car would be attached, you could book all four beds for yourself. I am not sure why I did not do this. But I didn’t. And then spent time wondering who would be in the car with me. I was hoping to not spend the entire 17 hours being paid attention to for being a Westerner.
I arrived at the train station and took the obligatory photo of the “Warmly Welcome & Take Care of Tourists” sign.
