Let's Start a Billion Dollar Used Car Business!

[old man emu]

Here we go again!

 

"Mandalay" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, written and published in 1890, and first collected in Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses in 1892. The poem is set in colonial Burma, then part of British India. The protagonist is a Cockney working-class soldier, back in grey, restrictive London, recalling the time he felt free and had a Burmese girlfriend, now unattainably far away.

 

Mandalay was written between March and April 1890, when the British poet was 24 years old. He had arrived in England in October the previous year, after seven years in India. He had taken an eastward route home, travelling by steamship from Calcutta to Japan, then to San Francisco, then across the United States. Rangoon had been the first port of call after Calcutta; then there was an unplanned stop at Moulmein. Kipling was struck by the beauty of the Burmese girls. Kipling claimed that when in Moulmein, he had paid no attention to the pagoda his poem later made famous, because he was so struck by a Burmese beauty on the steps. Many Westerners of the era remarked on the beauty of Burmese women.

 

The poem starts,

 

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! "

 

And he laments upon his return to London:

 

But that's all shove be'ind me - long ago an' fur away

An' there ain't no 'busses 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."

 

And he begs

 

Ship me somewheres 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, looking lazy at the sea;

[onetrack]

I've never seen a Flying fish playing on the road - and I was always told playing on the road is a very dangerous thing to do, and it'll get you killed!

[old man emu]

I don't think that flying fish could make it to Mandalay which is about 575 kms from what used to be called Rangoon on the Andaman Sea, and some 400 kms from the nearest coastline. The Irrawaddy River is the riverine route between Rangoon and Mandalay.

[pmccarthy]

I once read that the “road” meant the shipping route and that it all makes sense somehow. There is now a huge Chinese-built tollway between Rangoon and Mandalay but it is too expensive so no one uses it.

[old man emu]

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,

 

The British troops stationed in Burma travelled up and down the Irrawaddy River on paddle steamers run by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company (IFC). Rangoon to Mandalay was a 700 km (435 mi) trip, and during the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885, 9,000 British and Indian soldiers were transported by a fleet of paddle steamers ("the old flotilla" of the poem) and other boats to Mandalay from Rangoon.

[nomadpete]

And that, in my opinion, would really qualify as a British 'invasion'.

[facthunter]

GEEZ it's hard work putting anything on here.  Nev

[old man emu]

22 minutes ago, facthunter said:

GEEZ it's hard work putting anything on here.  Nev

But we respect the effort you put into getting the work done.

[ClintonB]

On 8/2/2024 at 1:00 PM, facthunter said:

Those vehicles are old now and increasingly . If they are commercial and do more miles  they would be beyond economical operation and reliability  demands. Get the sulphur out of diesel that's the Main thing. EGR reduces fuel efficiency but cuts NOx emissions. Which do you prioritize? Maybe DPF can be added?  You won't get a full sized van down to 6 L/100 kms. The best petrol engines are diesel equal as far as fuel economy goes..  Perhaps the exhaust heat could be better utilised? Nev

I have just acquired a new 7.4m 3.3mhigh long Iveco daily with 3 litre turbo diesel to highest euro standards has Adblue and uses les fuel than my 2020 triton to cross over the range and back loaded. Was around 8Lph mark.

I found that impressive for its size and not being a slouch either.