Crossing the Gokteik Viaduct by train

After breakfast we say goodbye to Lisette and Tim and head to the train station.  Its packed and there are loads of tourists doing the same journey as us.  The train arrives on time at 9.40am and we settle into our upper class seats, which are in fact nice and soft and comfortable.  The price wasn't much different to the normal wooden bench seats.  The train, however, is pretty rickety and we bump along, seated right at the front of the train as it trundles slowly through picturesque countryside and small villages.  Its a single track line with only one area to pass the train coming the other way from Mandalay.  As we pass, we buy freshly cooked corn on the cob from a vendor out of the window and some popadom type things with chilli sauce from a lady on the train ... lunch is served.

Then we arrive at the amazing Gokteik Viaduct.  Its pretty scary but actually looks worse before you are on it than when you are actually going over it but what an experience!  

The rest of the journey passes uneventfully and we arrive in Pyin Oo Lwin at 4.30pm.  We walk into town and check out a few hotels before settling on one.  The town itself looks quite sweet - there are little enclosed horse drawn carriages everywhere which is unique to Pyin Oo Lwin in Myanmar as most places have the open ones.  We try to find an Indian for dinner as apparently there are some but fail and its getting late.  Most things close around 9.30pm here so we have a mediocre but filling fish stew type thing and head to bed.  

There was a cockroach in our room earlier which we couldn't catch ... no sign of it as we go to sleep so lets hope it stays that way.