On my third day in Mandaly we went to Pyin Oo Lwin, a former hill station nearby. It's is one of the places where the British set up base because they found it unbearably warm in the lowlands. And while this is something that I can sympathize with, I find it hard to believe that they found the way up to Pyin Oo Lwin better then staying in Mandalay.

Let's just say it is steep. Very steep. So steep that we had to stop with our pick up at a number of places and cool the cars radiator down with a water hose. Pyin Oo Lwin itself is rather boring. It's pretty but nothing that will stay in my mind until my death. The only thing I found noteworthy are the horse carts that are driving around town. They look like a "bonsai"-version of the horsecarts that you see in cowboy movies. Really bizarre. So after having driven up to Pyin Oo Lwin for three hours and walking around for another (yes, that was enough to see the whole city) and having drunk coffee for yet another hour we already had to g back to the pickup-stop because the last pickup to Mandalay was supposed to leave at 4 pm.

We were quite surprised to hear that the pickup to Mandalay actually only costs 700 kyats, while the trip from Mandalay had cost 1,000 kyats. Apparently the reason is quite simply that they need much more fuel going up then going down, which is certainly true since you can basically let the truck roll all the way to Mandalay. You just have to trust that the brakes will survive yet another day. Unfortunately, having a driver who prays before starting his car and who firmly believes in reincarnation was not something that eased my worries. Though I have to say that my attitude to such mundane things as road security has pretty much changed to a point where I'm simply thinking: "they have survived so far, they know what they are doing even though it doesn't look that way."

Well, obviously we did survive. Though again, we stopped frequently on the way down; this time not to cool down the radiator but to cool down the brakes. The water boiled and big clouds of steam erupted every time the brakes were hosed down. Very interesting.