An early rise to depart by 5 am. As I said in my last entry, you negotiate taxi fares. We found a driver and his price was a 1000K more ($1... $4 in total) than a previous trip. He said it was because we had four big bags. In we squeezed and then so did 2 drivers. That's right two drivers. One was the driver, the other was learning to drive. No one blinked an eyelid. We prayed a lot and managed to arrive safely at the station with a few gasps on the way when turning was difficulty for our two drivers. The train was old but that didn't matter and we were glad we had upgraded to "first" class. Solid wood slatted seats in economy. What was to unfold over the next six hours cannot be revealed in this blog.... you have got to do it, experience it, feel it and see it..... but never regret it. I just hope the Aussies behind us who had another 9 hours to Mandalay to travel after we got off, weren't too drunk by the end of their trip.