Where the dawn comes up like thunder

Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay:
Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay ?
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!

From the poem Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in the Scots Observer on 21st June 1890. The theme is of a British soldier, now discharged and back in London, looking back with heart-aching nostalgia at his life in Burma with sunshine and a charming girl.

For a suitably nostalgic rendition, complete with photographs of old Burma, take a few minutes to listen to Australian bass-baritone Peter Dawson.

I know that you can't really see China across the bay from Newburgh on Ythan, but there again Kipling couldn't see it from Mandalay either, so that's all right then!