British inheritance in Pyin Oo Lwin

According to Wikipedia, Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin – a previous a British hill station and military post established in 1896 – formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo, is a scenic hill town in Mandalay Division, Myanmar. Located in the Shan Highland, some 67 kilometers (42 mi) east of Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin sits at an altitude of 1,070 meters and hence became the summer capital of British Burma due to its cool climate. Many of the bungalows and villas that the British built during their rule are now occupied by rich locals.

A Taiwanese travel guidebook about Myanmar goes further to state that George Orwell in Burmese Days, described the journey from Mandalay to Pyin Oo Lwin as a trip from a typical Oriental town  enveloped in the smell of garlic and fermented fish, lined with palm trees basking in the sun and full of dark-skinned individuals to a world with green pastures and an air of British highlands, bringing the need for thin wooden sweaters as one meets with pink-faced women selling baskets of locally-grown strawberries.

With this picture in mind, the town centre of Pyin Oo Lwin somewhat fell short of my expectations, with the lonesome British structure of Purcell (Clock) Tower standing tall in the middle, surrounded by several horse carts waiting for tourists in search of the British element on the dusty streets of the said former hill station.

Things somewhat improved for me as I reached my hotel – Orchid Nan Myaning (Craddock Court), a former colonial rest house during British occupation of Burma. As seen from the web, there were three white colonial buildings set on massive grounds (15 acres) of green pastures with hammocks strung between a row of trees beside the reception building. During my bike ride around the hotel, I finally found what I was looking for – numerous old colonial houses now turned into hotels, including Candacraig Hotel which was immortalised in Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar.

But what really convinced me of the Britishness of Pyin Oo Lwin was none other than the National Kandawgyi Botanical Gardens where I went the next day. There always seems to be a Botanic Gardens in every former British colony, and it almost seems as if there is a need to have swans as a highlight as well.

First established in 1915, the Kandawgyi Botanical Gardens was modelled after the Kew Gardens of England, a UNESCO world heritage site like the Botanic Gardens in Singapore. Standing in the middle of the gardens in Pyin Oo Lwin, I seem to see a reflection of all the Botanic Gardens I have been to in the past – Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya (near Kandy) in Sri Lanka, Kew Gardens in England and last but not least, the one back home in Singapore. I was surprised to learn that the Botanic Gardens in Singapore is much bigger and older than the one in Pyin Oo Lwin – 74 hectares, 156 years old compared to the latter’s 437 acres and 101 years of age. For once that we have something to shout about in Singapore.

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to explore the Kandawgyi Gardens, which even houses a  mini zoo on the grounds. Yet I absolutely loved the way the flowers were arranged in letters to form the words Pyin Oo Lwin in the middle of the pond. And the Flower Globe at the entrance. What I liked even more was the fact that there were more locals than tourists admiring flowers in the gardens that day, which happened to be a Saturday.

As the saying goes, there are two sides to a coin. Putting aside all the negative aspects of colonialisation, there are at least two good things inherited from the British in Pyin Oo Lwin – the old colonial houses and the Kandawgyi Botanic Gardens.