Epilogue

Mandalay revisited
(very free version of Ruyard Kipling's "On the Road to Mandalay")

By the old Mulmein Pagoda (fee: 3 dollars - maybe more)
there's a Burmese girl a-sitting. And I wonder, what's that for.
Well, the wind is in the palm trees and the temple bells they say:
"50 kyatts to use your camera". Yes, you are in Mandalay!
Yes, you are in Mandalay
and it is your holiday
you will spend a lot of money just to visit Mandalay.

On the road to Mandalay
you will be the bedbugs' prey
your Mosquito bites are aching and increasing day by day.

Her longjy was bright purple. She was smoking a cheroot
(I can tell it was a big one, as I watched from where we stood).
Pretty blouse that she was wearing! And a towel around her head.
In her face she had white make up, but her teeth were rather bad.
Betelnut they're spitting out
and they like to do it loud
you can't escape the sound of spitting and it slowly drives you mad.

On the road to Mandalay...

We had seen her first a-asking 20 dollars for a room,
but the bathroom was quite filthy and the floor could use a broom.
We were disgusted and offended but she didn't seem to care,
'cause the Burmese don't like working, they would rather sit and stare.
And the food was not too nice -
just fried noodles and fried rice -
and the plates, the spoons and glasses, they were dirty everywhere.

On the road to Mandalay...

But that's all shove behind me, long ago and far away
and there ain't no buses running from Am Brill to Mandalay.
So I am learning here in Bremen what my boss so rarely tells:
"If you look for long vacations, WE should look for someone else!"
I could tell them with a laugh,
just three weeks is not enough
for the sunshine and the palm trees and the sound of temple bells.

On the road to Mandalay...

I am sick of wasting paper on this copying machine
so I'm thinking here 'bout Asia and the things that we have seen.
Though I talk to many colleagues and I show them with my hand
on a map where we 've been travellin' - little do they understand!
Monthly payments, job secure...
Really - can you ask for more ?
I want to go back with my backpack where the tall green palm trees stand.

On the road to Mandalay...

Send me back where it all started, Angkor Wat or Halong Bay,
Badaling, Hoi An or Hongkong, Luan'Prabang or Mandalay.
Where the temple bells are calling, this is where I want to be
with my girlfriend on my pillow in a beach hut by the sea.
On the road to Mandalay
we have been on holiday
and had seen at least four countries when we came to Mandalay.

On the road to Mandalay
you will be the bedbugs' prey.
Your mosquito bites are aching and increasing day by day.