The romantic East: Burma, Assam, & Kashmir - Khamkoo

80 THE ROMANTIC EAST
Thondaung, 2700 feet above the sea, and Maymyo,
3481 feet above the sea, the highest point on the
railway.
Double "Fairlie"-type engines are used to
haul the trains, but we made very poor time to
Maymyo,
as the brake -blocks on some of the
passenger carriages worked badly
and forced the
train to pull up more than once. From Maymyo
(myo is
Burmese for town)
to Gokteik viaduct is
forty miles, and the stations on the way with their
elevations above the sea are Wetwun, 2775 feet;
Hsum Hsai, 2437 feet ;
and Nawnghkio, 2723 feet.
Before you arrive at Gokteik you go through a
rock cutting, and on coming out of the cutting
there is a good view of the viaduct and of the line
on the other side of the gorge going up the face of
the cliff and through two tunnels to the table-land
above.
But perhaps the best view of the viaduct
is from the railway dak bungalow on the hill straight
above it.
To get a view of the gorge itself you
can walk out on the viaduct, or take the train farther
up the line and see it from the north cliffs.
The Gokteik gorge
is in the North Shan States
on a tributary of the Myit-nge, called the Nam Hpa