Austin of England, Moulmein 2009

This is part of our second 2009 Burmese Odyssey. To read more about it which includes many non-steam items, please see Rob and Yuehong in the Golden Land 2009, Part 2.

We are back in Burma again in late September 2009 to try to complete filming for a DVD about the village of Dakhondaing and its steam powered rice mill. It's about 20 miles south of Moulmein which we have no choice but to use as our base. During my many visits here since 1996, I have always stayed at the Breeze Guest House on the Strand and in all my various single and married incantations, I have been offered one of the ground floor rooms which all suffer to a certain degree of claustrophobia. Not this time! Our usual slightly superior room was spoken for and instead we were offered this fabulous neo-colonial first floor room which is essentially part of the family accommodation. I was so glad that as our one item of luxury I had brought a small pair of speakers (the lap top the music comes from is a work animal)...

Of course, when one can get off one's arse and enjoy the sunset in its full glory then it's even better:

The centre of Moulmein is extraordinarily resistant to 'progress', this was the morning scene in the main road south from the market.

It's a real multicultural city, of course if you want a pagoda they have a few more than is strictly necessary to do the job. I always take a greater interest in the minority population, so here's the Chinese temple to the Goddess of Mercy:

On our way to catch the early bus one morning, I spotted this next to the local petrol station, it's a four door 'Austin of England', I'll have to do a search when I get home - but I fancy it's a little older than the Bedford Utilabrake we saw in Mandalay earlier in the year.

It seems to have a few gizmos added, but the upper bodywork looks sound.

I have a sneaking feeling that these are local reproductions, there seems to be some sort of backing to the 'AoE' emblem:

I tried a photograph or two through the windows but the reflections were a problem. I gently tried the door handle and it was unlocked - no electronic car alarms here! The inside looks fairly original to my untrained eye albeit with added switchboard: 

Dredging my memory, the speedo etc looks 50s to me but unlike many of my generation I never had a car fetish.

It's a runner, a couple of days later it was facing the opposite way. Any further information would, as always, be much appreciated.

Using a quick search now I am home, I believe this is an Austin A30 (built 1952-4) - based on the small back window - probably AS4 as opposed to AS3 based on the filler cap and speedo. The very similar Austin A35 (built 1954-6) has a larger back window, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_A30

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_A35

See also http://www.austina30.co.uk/ (link broken 1st November 2018) and http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/austina30.htm.