The alarm of my smartphone woke me up at 2.00 am, and I swiftly packed and braced myself for checkout. We settled the bills, and marched out into the chilly quiet streets with our backpacks on our shoulders.
It may sound weird, but I loved how the streets were at early wee hours; it was barren, cool and quiet. What a total opposite of day time! Although there were poor street lighting, and we were virtually alone, except for occasional "Hi, you want motor taxi" yells from passing by motorbikes. To be honest, I was least worried that we would be mugged here, and this bizarre sense of tranquility felt so comfortable to me.
After a 20 minutes stroll we eventually arrived at the railway station, which looked more like a hotel to me from the outside. Along the way, there were the homeless sleeping on the streets with merely a dirty unsightly blanket, and that was really sad; we could see children hugging each other for warmth in between their parents on a used unwanted sofa on sidewalks, with stray dogs wandering around entertaining themselves with their own game of tag.
Inside the railway station however there were already a small crowd waiting to board the 3am train to Hsipaw. Somehow, everyone was very courteous to foreign tourists, and we had no difficulties locating our train nor our seat. USD9 for an upper class seat - a semi-functioning reclining chair, with ample leg space too! - is already comfortable enough for me.
As the whistle blowed, the train slowly rattled and started crawling along the tracks towards the northeast. I dozed off almost immediately when the train exited the stony concrete jungle of Mandalay into the rural area, and as we woke up, we were already approaching Pyin Oo Lwin or Moulmein around 9 am, which is a hilly escapade for locals, but a more rundown version of Malaysia's Cameron Highlands.
The train only had a 30 minutes halt in each major stops; so there was sufficient time for peddlars to hope on trains to sell their wares, or for passengers to leap off the train to stretch their legs and buy something to fill their effervescent hunger. I bought some fried noodles and deep-fried bird that looks like chicken, while my buddy bought some strawberries. We expected it to be sour, but to our surprise it was not too bad! We came at the right season where Pyin Oo Lwin is packed full with strawberry harvests!
Train services in Myanmar are very slow, and inefficient; it is almost twice the normal travelling hours via a bus, but cheaper. Only at 11.00 am did we arrived at our most anticipated sight of wonder - the Goktheik Viaduct. This architecture wonder (well, it was considered to be amazing in 1900) spanning almost a kilometres across a deep valley, has been described by Paul Theroux in his "Great Railway Bazaar" as "a monster of silver geometry in all the ragged rock and jungle, its presence was bizarre". The train gently danced it way across the viaduct, as we gasped with vertigo while we looked down and frantically take photos of every angle we could. It took us around 20 minutes to span the entire viaduct, and soon we were on our way to Hsipaw.
Hsipaw is a small little town located to the northeast of Mandalay, in the heard of the Shan region. So far, this laid-back town has been gradually prospering from the increasing tourists visits, but still the people here are very much friendly and we still enjoy the "Hello" and "How are you" from the locals. We arrived here around 4 pm, and stealthily sneaked past the touts who ambushed the other foreigners like vultures.
I almost fell in love instantly with this cowboy town! It's such a laid back town with no hustle or bustle or crazy wild traffic like Yangon or Mandalay! Our hostel was within walking distance, and upon arrival we were amazed; it was one of the best places we had stayed in Myanmar! Lily's Place is just simply gorgeous! It is clean, and near to downtown and Lily (the owner) by far is the most hospitable and helpful innkeeper we have met in Hsipaw! She made us feel so in home and helped us almost very sincerely (well, it felt that way) and we really liked this place.
As we arrived, we checked in, dumped our bags and headed towards the sunset hill which is like 1 km away from downtown. Having panted with exhaustion hiking up the hill, I was rewarded by a splended view from the temple above the hill. We could see the sun setting beyond the horizon with our little jewel town, Hsipaw, under our feet. We were joined by a local monk and 2 visitors, as we chit-chatted and waited for the sun to sink into the mountains. However, from afar we could see the thickening haze from the forest fires afar. Pollution indeed has crept its way to everywhere we go it seemed.
When nightfall has already encloaked the town, we were already on our way back to our hotel, looking for a place to ease our hunger. We stopped at a local restaurant, run by a local "Mr Food", but the services were inferior to its reputation. After dinner, I had a glass of strawberry lassi at "Mr Shake's" place and it was just splendid.
And when we finally arrived in the hotel, we met the elderly Singaporean couple whom turned out to be a nightmare for me, the second day!
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