We drove from Heho to Kalaw. Kalaw is a hill town founded by the British to escape the heat of the plains. It was cooler in Kalaw but still warm. The area was quiet and peaceful and the hills are covered with pine tree groves and bamboo groves. The town itself still has some Tudor-style houses left over from the British years. The town has lots of big trees and tree-lined streets. Kalaw is also now somewhat of a tourist town with many trekking companies and reasonably priced guesthouses.

The British were great railroad builders and they brought the railroad to Kalaw. We visited the Kalaw train station. I was not going to take any photos of the train station and would not have made a blog posting for the train station, except that while we were here, a train just happened to pull into the station. It’s a small station and before the train rolled in, the station was empty of people. It was just some bench type seating and a small loading area. But when the train pulled in, people suddenly appeared and went right to work. Most of the people who showed up were vendors. I didn’t actually see anyone get on or off the train, but goods were purchased and cargo was loaded and unloaded. It was a rather amazing event to watch.

1. This photo was just as I came out of the train station and within a minute of the train arriving. Before the train arrived, there were no people there.

2. This is towards the front of the train which is where the passengers ride. There was a whirl of vending activity and almost all of it was for food items.

3. This will give you a close-up of the action.

4. Most of the goods being sold were fruits and melons, but the woman on the right had carrots for sale.

5. In the back of the train, cargo got loaded and unloaded. In our modern high-tech world, this was still all done by hand.