Back Then: On the road to Mandalay

Just like famous song, Denis and Jill Wilson will do 5,500 mile trek and be Burma-bound... in a vintage Volvo

It also had a little bit of help from a poem by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) all about a British soldier longing for his true love back in 19th century Burma, where he had served.

The song goes something like this:

By the old Moulmein Pagoda/
Looking eastward to the sea/
There's a Burma broad a settin'/
And I know she thinks for me.

Now businessman-adventurer Denis Wilson (65) and his wife Jill are leaving on a 5,500-mile trek down the real road to Mandalay in their midnight blue Volvo PV 544 with a wartime look, which Denis bought from a museum in Sweden.

The car, which dates back to the Fifties and has just 18,000 miles on the clock, has been serviced and is awaiting the arrival of the Wilsons in Singapore from where they start their trip along with 70 other drivers from the famous Raffles Hotel.

"I picked this sturdy vehicle deliberately when I heard the museum was selling it off," Denis, of Glenavy, explained.

"It's perfect for this long journey and won't let us down. It's an offbeat car which never went on the market here."

Denis and Jill, married 38 years with two sons, are motoring through Malaysia and Thailand on their way into Burma (also Myanmar), down that legendary road to Mandalay, which was once the capital of the country. There have been several films about this road and Mandalay.

"The drive will take us four weeks, starting at the Raffles Hotel and staying in hostels along the way, winding up in Rangoon. We will spend another two weeks exploring Burma," Denis added.

"We did a previous international vintage rally, covering 11,000 miles from Beijing to Paris in an 80-year old Rolls Royce. The trip involved crossing the width of China, the Gobi Desert, the Ural Mountains, and then the full length of Siberia. This all happened in 2007, re-enacting a journey undertaken by an Italian, Prince Borghesi exactly 100 years before."

Denis and Jill now give talks to groups all over the province in aid of a children's recovery unit in the Philippines called Helping Hands, Healing Hearts.

"We expect that this trip will launch a new spate of requests for our talk," added Denis

MANDALAY - by Rudyard Kipling

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the Temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"
            Come you back to Mandalay,
            Where the old Flotilla lay:
            Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?       
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!
 
'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,
An' 'er name was Supi-yaw-lat --- jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,
An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
An' a-wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:
            Bloomin' idol made o' mud ---
            Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd ---
            Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud!
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!
 
When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,
She'd git 'er little banjo and she'd sing "Kulla-lo-lo!"
With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek agin my cheek
We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.
            Elephants a-pilin' teak
            In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
            Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!
 
But that's all above be'ind me --- long ago an' fur away,
An' there ain't no buses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay;
An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells:
"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."
            No! You won't 'eed nothin' else
            But them spicy garlic smells,
            An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly Temple-bells;
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!
 
I am sick o' wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones,
An' the blasted English drizzle wakes the fever in my bones;
Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand,
An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but what do they understand?
            Beefy face an' grubby 'and ---
            Law! Wot do they understand?
            I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land!
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!
 
Ship me somewhere's east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the Temple-bells are callin', an' it's there that I would be ---
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea;
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the old Flotilla lay,
            With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin' fishes play,
            An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China
            'crost the Bay!

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