136BAGAN & CENTRAL MYANMAR
YA N G O N–M A N DA L AY HI G HWAY
Taungoo
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A busy highway town, Taungoo (also spelled
Toungoo) is a popular overnight stop for
both tourists and truckers. Sporting several
interesting temples, a lively central market
and a pretty lake, it has more to keep your
interest for a couple of hours than any other
town on the Yangon–Mandalay Expressway.
A great guesthouse on the town’s outskirts
makes it easy to stay an extra day, and can
also be used as a base for visiting elephant
camps in the hills to the west.
King Mingyinyo founded his capital here
in 1510, and his dynasty ruled the coun-
try for the next 150 years. However, WWII
bombing wrecked most of Mingyinyo’s Ka-
tumadi Palace (only sections of the old walls
and moat can still be seen). In celebration
of the town’s 500th anniversary in 2010 a
couple of impressive new gates were built,
as well as a massive statue of the king, un-
missable on the old Yangon-Mandalay road,
east of the palace walls.
The Karen hills to the east are famed for
their vegetables and coff ee. The area is also
known for its bounteous areca (betel) palms.
In Myanmar, when someone receives unex-pected good fortune, they are likened to a
betel-lover receiving a paid trip to Taungoo.
Kayin State is less than 22 miles east
and Kayah State another 40 miles further
east. Karen and Kayah insurgents have
been known to operate within these areas.
A dry-weather road continues east all the
way to Loikaw, but any travel beyond the
Sittoung (Sittang) River a couple of miles
east of Taungoo requires special permission.
Permission is typically arranged through a
travel agent; see p 69. 1 Sights & Activities
Apart from visiting the sights listed below,
it’s fun to hire a bike and spend half a day
pedalling around the town’s sights and into
the countryside. Bikes can be rented from
Beauty Guest House for K2000 a day.Shwesandaw Paya BUDDHIST TEMPLE
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Situated in the centre of town, around
500m west of the main road, this is Taun-
goo’s grandest pilgrimage spot. The central
stupa, a standard-issue bell shape, is gilded
and dates back to 1597; local legend says an
earlier stupa on the site was built centu-
ries before and contains sacred-hair relics.
Entering from the north, to your right is a
display of Taungoo kings (and a rather bustyTHE NEW ROAD TO MANDALAYWhen Rudyard Kipling romanticised the road to Mandalay in his famous song, it’s un-
likely he had in mind the kind of highway – over half a century in the making – that now
links Myanmar’s capital of Naw Pyi Taw with the country’s two major cities. Compared to
the old bumpy and tarred 432-mile route between Yangon and Mandalay, this relatively
smooth, concrete four-lane expressway, illuminated by solar-powered lights, is a revela-
tion, slashing the drive time between the two from around 12 hours to eight. However,
travel along it, and you’ll rarely see another vehicle.
The Yangon–Mandalay Expressway’s emptiness is down to combination of factors, in-
cluding high tolls, which put off the majority of drivers. The road passes through unpopu-
lated areas and has a dearth of facilities along its route, making it potentially treacherous
should your vehicle breakdown. Heavy, road-punishing lorries and trucks are barred, but
not long-distance buses, which usually traverse the road at night when its surface is
cooler and thus less likely to overtax old engines and threadbare tyres.
At the 115-mile mark, just over halfway between Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw, there’s a rest
camp (services station) with several good 24-hour restaurants, including Feel Express, a
branch of the Yangon dining favourite Feel Myanmar. A hotel is also under construction.
The expressway’s origins date back to 1959 when the US provided $37 million in aid to
General Ne Win’s fi rst military government, part of which was used for the expressway’s
initial survey by US Army engineers. It takes a long time to build a road when using forced
and manual labour, the main impetus for fi nishing its construction being the junta’s
desire for faster access to Nay Pyi Taw. However, like many new things in Myanmar, the
expressway is far from fl awless. Apparently parts of it fl ood during the rainy season be-
cause of a lack of surface drains.