If you’ve ever gazed long enough at a map of Myanmar, you would’ve noticed that the majority of the country is in the North, bordering China, India and northern Thailand. While the south contains just a narrow strip of land, between the Andaman Sea and southern Thailand. Well, about half way down this isolated coastline, at about the same latitude as Bangkok, lies the town of Dawei and one way to get there, is to take the ‘slowest train in the world’.
We hadn’t planned on coming to Myanmar on this trip, I had just completed my teaching contract in Thailand and my good friend Jordan had wanted to come to travel Thailand for his first time. But soon after he arrived, I realized that the stamp in my passport was due to expire in the next week or so, which meant I had to leave the country. After checking out a few places in Thailand and spending some time in Pai in the north, I started to look around for an interesting way to leave and return to Thailand,
I learned that the border crossing between Kanchanburi, in Thailand and Htee Khee, in Myanmar had just opened for foreigners to use. I’d already crossed to Myanmar on a previous trip via the main border at Mae Sod/Myawaddy, so I figured we could cross there and exit further
south at the new border crossing at Kanchanaburi, passing through the town of Dawei.
I looked at some options for traveling to Dawei. Those being plane, which wasn’t a bad price and obviously fast and comfortable. The bus, which was cheap, about 9 hours and I assume the comfort level was okay, then of course there was the train, only costing a few dollars but nearly twice as long as the bus and from what I had read, extremely rough. So naturally, we chose to take the train.
We made our way south, crossed the border at Mae Sod and found a taxi/shared car to take us the 100 odd kms to Mawlamyine, at the mouth of the Thanlyin River, where our train would be passing through en route from Yangon to Ye. So, after an exhilarating 4 or so hours (made longer due to the driver stopping to clean his car) and at about 8pm, we arrived at the Old Moulmein Hostel. A really nice budget hostel with very friendly staff and a restaurant right next door. Its also handily situated right next to the bus station and only a 5min walk to the railway station. The owner was very helpful in letting us know about the train and telling us to get there early so we didn’t miss out on a ticket. We had to be at the railway station at 3am, so after a meal and a shower we quickly hit the sack.
The next morning after arriving at the railway station, we were greeted to the sight of 100s of locals sleeping on the floor and not a staff member in sight. I noticed one local, awake staring at me so I mentioned “Dawei” to him and he gestured towards one of the ticket offices, we wandered over and proceeded to wait over 1 hour for the office to open, turns out we hadn’t needed to have arrived so early after all. Finally, the staff arrived and with our limited Burmese language, that being “Dawei”, we were handed a hand printed ticket, which I will treasure forever. We did opt for 2nd class (there is no 1st class) after reading about how rough the journey was, plus it was only a dollar extra. Meanwhile our train had arrived so now it was a mad rush to get to the train and on the correct carriage, luckily the staff were very helpful and made sure we were in our seats and comfortable as the train was leaving.
It was still very dark when we left so it felt like a trip into the unknown, but slowly the sun started to peer over the mountains and we could make out the local villages and the small brick works that frequent this area. As we continued our journey south, people were getting ready for their day, cooking breakfast outside and children starting to walk and cycle to school. Their seemed to be a distinct lack of electricity as we noticed many families cooking over an open fire. All this as we rumbled past on our train.
This part of the journey, while bumpy, was relatively smooth compared to what awaited us down the line. After about 6 hours we arrived in the small own of Ye, here we were to change trains and continue our journey south. The train was already waiting for us, so we literally stepped of one carriage and directly on to the other one. The difference was stark, this carriage was a lot more basic, with no power, but as far as I could tell we still had at least 4 employees (or were they just helpful passengers?) to make sure we arrived safely.
.Now this was when the journey got really interesting, if we thought the previous part was rough, then this was borderline insane. The jungle closed in around the train and the branches started to reach through the glassless windows and poke us in our eyes and whatever else they could reach. At times it felt like we weren’t on any tracks, just rumbling through the jungle at about 5kph. Words cannot describe how rough this journey is, like traveling on a slow-moving roller coaster. After a while, I genuinely started to wonder how the train could possibly stay on its tracks.
It was in one of these moments of not so quiet contemplation (possibly remembering how my life used to be before I boarded this train) that I was bought back to reality by the train suddenly stopping in the middle of the jungle. I mean a sudden stop from 5kph is not really a major event, so we waited to for us to get rolling again but soon we started to hear some yelling and commotion near the rear of the train. I decided to step off and see what was going on.
Sure enough, the last cargo carriage had derailed with the rear 4 wheels completely off the tracks. I read the tare weight of the carriage at about 15 ton so I estimated that, along with the cargo it was holding, the carriage would’ve weighed at least 25 ton, so in my mind I could see no possible way for us to get the carriage on the track again, also I could understand that leaving the carriage here was not really an option due to the train having to return the next day. I imagine in more developed countries they would have sent a crane down the track to retrieve the carriage but I was pretty sure that no such thing existed within at least 500km.
So, what to do?
Well, I’m guessing that this must’ve been a semi-regular occurrence, as soon some old railway sleepers came out and were positioned under the wheels. It’s quite hard to explain the procedure that they used but after an hour or more of, shouting, thinking, debating, repositioning and moving the train back and forth, it eventually just popped back onto the tracks. Sounds to crazy to be true, but believe me or not, this happened.
So, we were on our way. It was basically dark by then and as I mentioned before, this carriage had no power so after another hour we were crawling through the jungle, in pitch black darkness, hoping the train would stay on its tracks for the remainder of the journey.
Finally, at about 10pm we trundled into the Dawei station. Exhausted and filthy, we took the first motorcycle taxis that approached us and went straight to our hostel. Hotel Best House (Dawei) is a very nice place, very clean and modern, great value and the staff are super friendly and helpful. They also have a fantastic complimentary breakfast.
The town of Dawei itself, is very lovely. Tourism is slowly building here, now that it is completely open to foreigners and the new border crossing to Kanchanburi will only fuel that growth. The surrounding islands and peninsula are untouched and are a snorkeling and divers wonderland.
In short, would I take the train again? Not a chance. Would I recommend others to do it? Yes, without a doubt. It is the most interesting way to travel to the south of Myanmar and a great way to learn about Burmese culture first hand.
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