Yangon Station 2010

This is the first part of our 2010 Burma Crusade. Click here for the index.

I have to confess to passing through the station in Yangon many times, it appears to be an Anglo-Burmese treasure from the later days of the Raj or just post-independence but I don't know when it was built. Until this year, I just never got round to recording it, from a distance it still looks magnificent.

Close up, well, let's just say that it's badly in need of a make over. Most long distance trains leave or arrive in the early morning or evening, so the main concourse is very quiet during the middle of the day. Burma is not the kind of country where it helps, or pays, to complain too much, so it's not surprising this gentleman is doing no business ...

In the main booking hall, the once magnificent lamp holder doubles as a sparrow's nest.

The pre-travel shop has an almost Indian type dimension, even down to a delicious ready-to-take away Biryani, the owner is a Muslim, the number '786' is a giveaway:

Buying a ticket for the well used local trains seemed to be largely optional, most people just walked past like us, perhaps the hope was that the balustrade decoration would scare people into complying:

The station footbridges also seemed to be an 'optional extra' and it was good to see traditional goods carrying methods prevailing, whether ECS, cakes or flowers:

It's one of those places you could spend hours and hours people watching and never get bored.