If you do not see this message, use this link

Kipling only spent a day in Moulmein where he disembarked for a day’s tour on his way to Japan in 1889. Of course, the poem makes geographical nonsense, as Moulmein is nowhere near the Irrawaddy and the paddles chunking to Mandalay, which he never visited. Moulmein sits on the estuaries of three rivers: the Salween, the Gyaing and the Ataran that spread out like a great map when viewed from the Kyaik-tun hilltop pagoda.

Kipling later wrote that that day he fell in love with a Burmese maiden whilst visiting the town’s main pagoda. “Only the fact of the steamer departing at noon prevented me from staying at Moulmein forever… ”. We have to thank this nameless belle who was an inspiration for one of the greatest poems in the English language. Ironically, the words ‘Kipling’ and ‘Burma’ became synonymous yet he knew the country little, jumping off the steamer for a quick sightseeing in Rangoon and Moulmein. Despite the brevity of his visit, no European ever captured the magical essence of Burma better than Kipling, whether in the 1890s or today... read more