The first challenge is buying a ticket. The ticket office is not well signposted with the sign needing a little polishing. 
The building however looks servicable enough.
There is an impressive number of counters for one person - me!
And a lot of not very useful signage. 
However even with this number of counters I was in the wrong place and was sent to another counter. 
The ticket was issued and was hand written. There are no computer tickets. 9300 Kyat or US$6.82
Next day I arrived for my train and it was great to know that tourist are most welcome even if the tourist information office was tightly padlocked.
The train was long and was filled with people.
As this was an overnight journey I was travelling upperclass. No airconditioning BUT overhead fans!
As well my own seat. Though it needed to be two skinny Burmese to fit on these bench seats. The train was full so it was not conducive to any sleep as my neighbour was a reasonably large Burmese man.
Dinner was perfect. Sweet and sour chicken with too much rice. A beer afterwards unfortunately a Chang which is not my favourite beer. Outside rice paddy after rice paddy.
The night passed slowly with an electrical problem needing fixing and a few stops at unknown places.
Morning arrived with a nice sunrise and breakfast at 6am. Omelet, toast and coffee.
Scenery was more interesting and there was more population.
A few more station stops involved walking across the railway tracks.
Until finally Mandalay arrived!
Fifteen hours of my life well spent?
