Hastings, Domesday..., Burma 2010

Dakhondaing
A Burmese Rice Mill
and its Village.
Released
26th March 2013

If you are new to our travels in Burma, you should maybe read our other recent trip reports which set the scene for much that follows. Collectively, they are a reminder that we are extremely lucky to have a choice of where we live and what kind of life style we follow:

Temples of Steam 2010

Rob and Yuehong in Burma, 2005 - 10

If you know what comes next after "Hastings, Domesday...", then you went to the same kind of school and had the same kind of English history teacher that I once had. For the more fortunate of you who don't, I recall it was "First Crusade", an expensive, disastrous, bad habit that our rulers still haven't kicked many hundreds of years later. As they say, "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." but as so often in these accounts, I digress.

Our personal 'crusades' in Burma have been more benign and now, just as for Java earlier this year, this time "The Party's Over" and there's no reason to contemplate another intensive bash. Of course, we'll be back at some stage but there's a calm feeling that for the time being, at least, enough is enough and it's time to move on.

These are interesting times in Burma, maybe even momentous, history will tell us which later. I am as cynical as anyone on the planet, but the sight of everyone's favourite lady being flaunted on a pendant (even one made in China like this) came as a big and positive surprise. News of her release reached even the smallest villages in Burma almost immediately through the mobile phone grapevine and you can see how the local newspapers treated the story in one of the links below.

The agenda for this trip was quite simple, we just had to complete our filming of the village of Dakhondaing, south of Moulmein in Mon State. On our first visit in 2005, Yuehong took one look at the rice mill and everything around it and said, "This is THE place." and we have been back on every one of our visits to the country since. If you are a hard core stationary steam fanatic then follow the "Temples of Steam 2010" link above and if you want to see it for yourself then, be warned, your time to do it is limited. These accounts cover all our journeys in Irrawaddy Division as well.

Yangon Station

Anyone for a ticket?

Star Struck

Dieselitis

The Moulmein 'Express'

Managing Decline

The times, they
are a'changing

Messing about
up the River

Temple Side Trip

Harvest Moon

Harvest Sun

The Best of Times,
the Worst of Times

Bangkok Retreat

Cracking that BUM
Part 2

Freezing on the
Death Railway

It could be a while, if ever, before we are back in Dakhondaing, each year we pose for a photograph with the grand old lady, I fear this may turn out to be the last of them:

As the tour organiser, it is my responsibility to 'stuff a quart into a pint pot' in many different ways and sometimes the strain shows and it's no wonder I have little hair left. For the other two, it's just a question of stuffing themselves. My thanks to both of them for putting up with my 'passion for steam'.

Read more about our travels, follow the links in Rob and Yuehong in Burma, 2005 - 10.