The Old Burma Road

The Old Burma Road: A Journey on Foot and Muleback is a travel memoir by Neville Bradley, first published in 1945. The book recounts an expedition along the historic overland route connecting southwest China with northern Burma, a path long used by traders and explorers. Bradley draws on his personal experiences, diary entries, and notes to describe the journey in detail.

The narrative blends observation and reflection, capturing the varied terrain, local communities, and the practical challenges of travelling on foot and by mule through rugged landscapes. Bradley’s account emphasizes both the physical demands of the journey and the cultural encounters along the way. Illustrated with photographs and plates, the book preserves a snapshot of early twentieth-century travel in Southeast Asia, before the road gained wider strategic importance during the Second World War. It remains a vivid record of the Burma-China connection and of travel in a period when such overland journeys were rare and demanding.