(30 Aug 2013) Myanmar is a country in transition, as it moves towards a more democratic regime.
Now thousands of tourists from around the world are flocking to this former dictatorship for a chance to see the beautiful country that had until recently been barred.
Tourist attractions and hotels are filled with foreign travellers - transforming the local economy and landscape.
But outside these tourist hotspots, little has changed in rural Myanmar.
One of the best ways to realise this unspoiled country and to encounter the real Burmese people, is a ticket to ride on the Yangon Circular Railway.
Not far from downtown Yangon, the old Circular train still rumbles by loaded with thousands of people who commute everyday from townships, slums and outlying paddy fields.
On this train you are guaranteed nobody will try to sell you postcards or change your money.
Instead most tourists will be received with smiles and offers of food.
This 46km (29-mile) railway operated by Myanmar Railways takes a circular route through Yangon metropolitan area.
It's tugged along by old diesel locomotives - most of which are more than 50 years old.
The full loop takes three hours with 39-stations, all of them still frozen in the colonial age.
Here at Danyingon station the busy vegetable market sets up stall amidst the hustle and bustle of commuters, some sellers even end up sharing the rail tracks with the trains.
The station is full of vendors with all sorts of wares to hawk.
Walking the muddy rail tracks is 12 year old Wayan Tun - he calls out in Burmese: "Water, water!"
Tun and his 14-year-old friend Yan Naing Htwe spend all morning carrying a portable fridge to offer a cups of cold water to the thirsty passengers.
Selling icy water is a good business in these sunny climes, but it's also tiring.
Both make around 2,000 Kyat per day, ($2 USD), for their labours.
In the middle of the busy vegetable market established in the station, there is Ye Win.
He has already bought all the vegetables he will try to sell at his small shop in downtown Yangon.
Ye Win explains that the train is the cheapest and fastest way to transport his goods:
"It's convenient to carry the loads or the goods we sell. there is more space on the train as well. Also the service is good and cheap compared to the buses. So that's why we prefer taking the train," he says.
The train runs from 3:45 am to 10:15 pm every day.
The cost of a ticket for a distance of 15 miles is ten kyats (nine US cents), and that for over 15 miles is twenty kyats (18 US cents).
Foreigners must pay one US dollar (Kyat not accepted).
49-year-old U Tun Tun Oo has been driving and sounding the horn of these diesel old trains for 29 years.
With him always travels a mechanic on the locomotive because technical problems are a common occurrence on these rickety old trains.
"I've been working here for 19 years but 7 years driving this train. So this is the train brake and this is the loco brake. " he explains, showing how all the train's controls are totally manual.
34-year-old U Tin Maung jumps in and out of the train at every station. In most Western countries he wouldn't have a job but in Myanmar the conductor of the train waves his flag giving signals at every station
"This train is used by the workers and the civil servants, so we have to make sure to get them on time. Some people don't want to take the bus or the car and they want to take the train because of the cheap price and how convenient is." says U Tin Maung, whose been on the lines for 19 years.
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