Too short, too quick

After cycling to Moniya and Mandalay my cycling trip is cut short: I will fly back home tonight to attend to some family affairs. Nothing too serious, but I choose to be with my family.

So the Myanmar experience is basically cut short as it was just starting: Bagan and the North are beautiful and less hot than the south around Yangoon... also the roads and transports seem a lot better in the North so all that looked promising. I spend only time in Mandalay, but its surroundings are nice: Saigan with all the temples and towers and the famous U Bein bridge... Some good memories to keep and a good starting point for future visits to Myanmar.

Happy New Year.

A good nights sleep

After seeing most of the impressive and the most impressive temples and ruins in Bagan, I felt ready to leave this very special place.

My plan was to get the ferry a bit along the river and than start riding from there. Instead I decided to ride to the next ferry crossing 20 or so km north since the last ferry had already left. On my way out I went to see the monks where I had been before to say thanks and goodbye...

We ended up talking about meditation and soon they figured it would betoo dark to ride the bicycle so they invited me to stay over in their little ruin monastery... a unique chance that I took of course. Luckily I had some fruits and cookies with me as the monks don't eat
after lunch.

Sleeping the 800 year old ruin in a bed provided by the monks was a delight comparable with staying at a luxury hotel: it was cool, dark and out the door was a moon-lit pagoda... only the 5 o'clock wake up service was a bit early, but then again it got me off on an early day in the cool morning and in time to make it to the ferry north of Bagan to the city of Pokakku.

I am now riding north along the Irriwaddy river, west of Mandalay. After a good lunch I will continue towards mandalay. I will arrive there early tomorrow. From there I will make new plans.

Temple-seeing Bagan

Yesterdays morning excursion with the bike across Yangon had me almost missing the plane to Bagan. On the map it looked straight forward, but reality was a mix of roads, early morning markets and a near lack of street lightning. It was only with a quick rush in a taxi
that I made the last minute of check-in time.

With arriving in Bagan things are on a different speed: SLOW. The area is cramped with temples that are between 900 and 700 years old... lots of them. I had a wonderful day sight-seeing across the sandy roads by bike. I met some other cyclists both from Holland and Germany. The 2 germans had just done the exact same route in China that I did this summer and were now heading for India.

The best moments of the day were spent in an old monastery and meditation cave: cool and murky, but nice to chat to the monks who actually live in some of the old ruins, share some fruit and spend some time meditating there.

Today I am spending another day in and between the temples... and tomorrow I will continue north towards Mandalay.

Getting out of Yangon

I am in Yangon for another day as todays flights are all fully booked.
So better luck tomorrow. The good thing is that I will have some time
to buy a new camera and visit the big pagoda again. I lost my camera
on the bad road yesterday, it must have fallen out of its framebag
without me noticing.

Normally spending an extra day here and getting a new camera would not
be a problem, but Myanmar is different: it is not possible to take out
money or pay by credit card. So all shopping for souvenirs and things
to get has to wait until just before leaving to make sure the money I
brought doesn't run out before boarding the plane back to bangkok. Of
course I did bring quite some cash, both in dollars and thai baht, but
getting a camera and paying for the flight north will eat into my
emergency money...

Then again, not having a camera is kind of an emergency in a country
that mixes old style colonial buildings with marvelous pagodas and
monasteries, and is full of smiling and friendly people. The streets
are filled with a mixture of Indian buses, old cars that serve as
taxis, big Chinese 4-wheel drives and lots of trishas: bicycle taxis
where the passenger seat is set next to the driver.

I am staying the old colonial area: the city centre with many Indian
and Chinese people living in converted buildings and the streets are
lined with food stalls. Apples is apparently a big thing here as they
are carefully packed and sold piece by piece at the same price as a
full meal!

As for my bike: all the tires are now checked, checked, sealed and
checked... the rest of the bike is ok after tightening all the srews 3
times... yesterday I said the road was bad... I should have said that
the road was under contruction and basically they had just come to the
first stage of laying big rocks... worse than anything that I have
ridden so far... and I don't even have a picture to share of it.

Off on a rough start

After a day with sightseeing around Yangon with the impressive Swedagon Pagoda as the golden highlight, I started of towards the western coast and beaches. However, the start was more rough than expected in many ways: the heat, the road, the traffic... progress on the first day was slow.

I got caught by the dark in a tiny village just 7 km from the town where I planned to stay. Despite an effort to convince the local polisforce (all equipped with walkie/talkies) to let me stay, they were firm that I traveled on for my safety... when I pointed out the risks of riding a very bad road in the dark, the police commander organised a private van and 2 policeman to come with me to the guesthouse of his choice in the town. After making sure that I was checked in the police left me and one of the boys in the guesthouse showed me around town and to a good place to eat...

This morning I tried to make for an early start but with the road being even worse, I had another flat and needed to fix my tire along the road. Quite entertaining for the local children, adults and monks... Again the progress was slow and after crossing the irriwaddy river I got to small village where I had lunch and calculated that I would make it to the beach and back just in time to catch my flight back to bangkok...

Since I want to see more of Burma than just rotten road... I got on a passing buss back to Yangon and I decided to fly to north tomorrow...

From Bangkok to Yangoon, and onwards

It is time to leave bangkok and get to the airport for my flight to Yangoon. All is packed and ready and i have bought some extra salt tablets after seeing that the average temaperature will be around 30 degrees. Certainly a lot hotter than the tour around Tibet.

My rough route takes me west from Yangoon to the beaches south of Ngapali. From there i will go north, northeast to Bagan and then on to Mandalay. From there things are flexible and unplanned. I hope i will have a few days to spare around Mandalay and Inle Lake, and then take a train or flight back to Yangoon.

Roughly 15 cycling days in 20 days, covering between 1400 and 2000 k.

Internet and mobile connection are very limited in Myanmar, so pictures and updates will probably come first in January.

Best wishes and a happy new year,

bjorn

Preparations in Bangkok

Bangkok is as beautiful and hot as always. The smell of incense mixed with the noise of the traffic... I like it here, but i can never stay too long.

I have taken some time to relax and get over the sleepless flight... and i have fixed the essentials for my trip to Myanmar:

1. Visum (a lot easier than anticipated, and apparently easier than most since i got the visa without having fixed my hotel or my flight)
2. Flight to Yangoon since there is no way one can ride a bicycle up to the border and enter the country (except for coming from china with a special visum from Kunming). Getting the flight was not so easy as apperently all the expats in Bangkok are celebrating x-mas in Burma...
3. Hotel in Yangoon to secure coming into the country upon arrival
4. Map of Myanmar after a realised that the maps in the lonely planet are just a bit too small to be sure that there is a road going where i want to go...

With the essential preparations in place, i now take it easy another 2 days in Bangkok... Shopping, meditation, eating good food.

//

On my way again...

less than 48 hours untill i will fly to Thailand for a few weeks of cycling in the sun... I have seen large parts of Thailand on previous trips and my real goal this time is Burma... or Myanmar.

Again a beautiful, but uncertain destination. I hope to arrange visa and flights in Bangkok since the burmese government doesn't like people showing up at the border with their bicycles. If the visa procedures take too long I might divert to Chang Mai region or ride towards Cambodia.

Cycling gives freedom of choice and direction.