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...