"The Unforgettable Night I Spent
Lounging With My Two Friends"
(In Memory of Wu Bao Jin and Lan Yu Hua)
by Henry Lim
In 1956, my parents put the responsibility of educating me squarely on the shoulders of the teachers at Catholic Anglo-Chinese School. The school had, besides me, two other boarders from my hometown Thaton. They were my good friends Lan Yu Hua (藍禹華) and Wu Bao Jin (伍保進). I was 8, YH was 10, and BJ was 11 years old. Both YH and BJ were the only sons in their respective families. Toward the end of each school year in February, our parents would come to Rangoon and take us home. But in my third year at CACS in 1958, about a week before the school closed for a 2-month summer holiday, BJ came to us and said that he wanted to discuss something with YH and me. We followed him to a secluded area near the play shed. In the meeting, BJ proposed that we return home to Thaton by ourselves when the school closes. He also promised that he would take care of us on the trip. YH and I liked BJ's proposal and believed that BJ would make good on his promise, so we agreed to go along with him. BJ then gathered necessary information and put together a travel plan for us. The daily train to Thaton was scheduled to leave Rangoon Central Railway Station at 5 o’clock in the morning. This schedule posed a problem for us because we could not leave the dormitory before 7 o’clock in the morning. To catch the early train, we needed to stay overnight outside the station.
So, on the evening of the last day of school, with BJ as our leader, the three of us took a bus to Chinatown. There we ordered take-out fried noodles at a restaurant and walked down Dalhousie Street (Mahabandoola Road) to the popular Indian-owned Shar-mee Cake House for ice cream. The saleswoman stuffed our ice cream in hard plastic bottles and capped them with nice lids. We then walked down about a block towards Sule Pagoda, made a left turn on Sule Pagoda Road, walked past Palladium and Globe cinemas, crossed the railway overpass at Bogyoke Road, made a right turn and walked into the area in front of Rangoon Central Railway Station. The station had a couple of offices to the right, the entrance in the middle, and an entryway to the left. We looked around for a place where we could sit down and rest for the night. We saw two 12 inch-high concrete planter boxes outside the offices. These planter boxes, which were about 250 feet away from the entrance of the station, had a variety of plants in the soil.
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The station's wall-mounted lights dimly lit the area. The semi-darkness of this place suited us because we did not want people, especially police, to see us lounging here and mistake us for run-away kids. We decided to make the best out of this place for the night. It was past our bedtime (Boarders went to bed at 8:00 o’clock daily). We were hungry and tired due to the long walk. We sat down on the 8 inch-thick perimeters of the planter boxes and ate our noodles and ice cream. After finishing off the food, we chatted with each other, yawned and occasionally looked at the moon and shiny stars in the sky. We watched over our surroundings to make sure dogs, rats, or mentally unstable people did not come close to us. Dogs howled in the distance, causing a fear among us. Mosquitoes made attempts to bite us in the cheeks and legs. We counterattacked by clapping our hands with mosquitoes in between. We tried to resist the urge to sleep by chatting until daybreak, but failed. We fell asleep on and off in upright positions. When we awoke, we walked up and down and did stretching exercises to loosen our neck muscles. We checked the time again and again. Time seemed to go so slow. Out of a sudden, we heard noises of people congregating and talking near the entrance of the station. Obviously, it was an indication that the station would be opened in a short time. So, we rushed to the entrance to join a small crowd of travelers who got there ahead of us. Pretty soon an officer came by and opened the doors. We got in the station, bought our tickets, ran to the boarding area, and waited for the train to pull in. The train rolled into the station. The three of us wasted no time getting on the train and occupying window seats.
The train rolled out of the station, gradually increased its speed and travelled at its highest possible speed in the direction of Pegu (Bago). While other travelers were resting, we looked out the windows at paddy fields, rural villages, pagodas, monasteries, lakes, and hills. Boys and girls from villages waved at the travelers on our passing train. When it arrived at Pegu, the train stopped there for 45 minutes for travelers to buy food. We bought some biscuits and peanuts for breakfast. As the train pulled away from the station, we started to doze off. When we awoke, the train was slowly approaching Sittang River (Sittaung River). The train stopped alongside the river. We got off and walked down to the river bank to get on a ferry. The ferry took the travelers over the muddy river to the other side of the river. We got off the ferry and walked up to the Sittang Station to board a waiting train. The train left Sittang Station for Hnin Pale. At Hnin Pale Station, the train stopped for 40 minutes for travelers to buy lunch. Food stalls at this station offered gorgeous curries. Like many other travelers. YH, BJ, and I bought chicken curries over rice and ate them on the moving train. The train chugged along and stopped at Kyaikhto, which is the home of Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda. We watched pilgrims get on or get off our train and heard someone nearby quip, "If you make 3 consecutive pilgrimages to Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda in one year, you will be blessed with wealth." The locomotive was now on the next leg of its journey. Finally at around 4 o’ clock in the afternoon, our train rolled into Thaton Station. We got off the train, got on 3 separate sidecars outside the station, and took an easy but bumpy 20-minute ride to the center of our town. We were home at last!
(Epilogue: Wu Bao Jin passed away in the U.S. in 2006. Lan Yu Hua passed away in Thaton, Myanmar in 2010.)
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