It was only a 15 minute walk to the restaurant and after another great lunch, a further 10 minutes to the train station. We showed our tickets and were taken to our upper class sleeping berths. The seats were comfortable and we were convinced we had the carriage to ourselves. However, at the last minute another couple arrived. The waiters from the restaurant car asked us what we would like to order. They said they would deliver the food to us when the train stopped because bizarrely you couldn't get through from the sleeper berths to the restaurant carriage. We had already filled our bags with goodies so had to decline their offer.
We left on time and the train set off at a reasonable pace. It rocked a lot, made a lot of noise but was nowhere near as bad as we expected. In fact many people said they would never do it again but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We passed some beautiful rural villages, loads of pagodas and every time the train went near the more remote villages children waved. They also chased the train and the locals gave them little treats of oranges, biscuits and money.
Sunset and sunrise were both fantastic and as the track ran N to S, we got to see both from either side. Sleeping wasn't that hard with earplugs and both of us wedged into one bed which slowed the rocking motion of the train a little.
A great ride through the countryside and we even saw Mount Popa, a famous cliff top temple from the train. We arrived early at Bagan station and then started our walk to the hotel. A taxi driver kept saying he would take us for 10000 Kyat but this was a lot for a 6km taxi ride. We kept walking but he came back and said he had 2 more passengers and halved the price. We accepted and told him again the area we were staying in. He assured us it was 12 km but we thought it was only 6km on our map. We arrived in New Bagan which was exactly where we had told the taxi to take us but it turns out our hotel is nowhere near New Bagan! Oops, we are now even further away and the taxi driver was right all along. He agreed to drop us at the airport junction as that was on his route back and then we could walk the remaining 3km to our hotel.
A 3km walk along the main road was 3km less than we would have had to walk along the main road. Eventually we arrived at the hotel, dropped our bags off and went to find food. A small restaurant filled us up with rice and vegetables plus a dish of fried cauliflower and egg! It tasted better than it sounds.
Next we checked out the nearest Pagoda and views of the river before debating tomorrow's transport. Do we take an ebike or pedal bike?
