A Constant Cycle of Stories
By Jessilyn Yoo and Neil Calderwood
After a couple of days of minimal traffic, Hpa-An felt like a metropolis as we made our way into town. It was getting near dusk, and the town was bustling with people wrapping up the day's business.
The other noticeable thing was the huge increase in the number of tourists milling about. There were dozens of them. Dozens!
"Darling, we really should go to this cave. It's called Saddar or Saddan or maybe Seder? Whatever. It's a temple so you have to walk barefoot. Through 15 minutes of bat poo. It's amazing."
Nothing like the combination of monks chanting and roosters crowing at 6 AM to thrust you out of a short doze.
Given that we were subjected to a thumping night of techno that would make the most religious of all Berliners weep, we were quite good at waking up with the sun.
It would seem that pretty much nobody apart from cycle tourists ends up in Kawkareik.
We stayed at the Smile Guest House (no address other than to keep going on the main road into town and make a left at the junction - there is a sign for it on the right and it is opposite the Hindu temple).
Today was the day.
We woke up with the lark and got ourselves dressed and ready. Packed the tandem. Said our goodbyes to Thailand and rode towards the Mae Sot/Myawaddy border.
This timing chain has been a huge thorn in our backside.
It actually ended up not being the root of the problem at all, but rather, a bent chain ring that was the source of our woes. Because of its slight deviations, the chain would turn for a couple revolutions before hitting the contorted teeth and slipping right off.
This has been a very long week.
We were all set to leave Berlin on Wednesday, 20 January and arrive in Bangkok the next morning. That left two full days beforehand to prepare and cross-check everything thoroughly before departure.
Until we were both struck down with a bout of norovirus on Monday night.
Please take "Planned" with a grain of salt.
There is more than one way to skin this cat.
When coming up with a potential route for our trip, there have been many iteration upon iteration of our itinerary.
When we told people that we'd be cycling to Burma on a tandem for three weeks with only a sandwich bag and four panniers, they looked at us like we were mad.
Honestly, you learn to live on very little whilst on the road. When we did our Easter tour last year, we took our individual tourers with us (Neil on his Fuji Touring, Jess on her Dawes Galaxy) and had one pannier each. And even then, we overpacked.
The pieces are falling into place now. We picked up what has become known as the BattleTandem™ on Saturday, after two long months waiting for it to be built.
What a beast it is.
After our successful Easter extravaganza around five countries, we're back with another adventure. Shortly after the new year, we will be taking another trip for 3.5 weeks in January and February.
Through Burma.
On a tandem.
The last day.
At this point, we had gotten so used to the routine of early to bed, early to rise, pack up, pack on, bike on road, and eat eat eat. We were fitter than ever. We felt as if we could ride on for a million miles.
But all good things must come to an end.
What's a ride without a visit to the local factory? A breathtaking industrial view?
Ride to Mannheim, kids. You'll see all that along the way and more, before arriving in a city where the center is laid out in the most beautiful grid (Jess gets the horn at any mention of right angles). It's so systematic that the town slogan is "Leben. Im Quadrat."
OUR REST DAY! Should have been a quick 50km ride from Strasbourg to the lovely spa town of Baden-Baden across the border. Done by lunchtime, a long and filling lunch, and an afternoon partaking in one of Germany's greatest traditions since Oktoberfest - the Sauna.
The day started off as usual - bright and early morning, pack up the bags, get up and go. We were on our way into France. Started trundling along, settling into a nice rhythm and cadence that would take us the 80km into Strasbourg.
WHIZZZZZZZZZ went the cyclist beside us.
Accomplished something big on this day. Managed to be in three countries at once, thanks to the Dreiländerbrücke, which connects Germany, Switzerland, and France. Neil has a fantastic video of Jess trying to figure out which country is where. Yes, it IS possible for France to be here, there, and everywhere.
At this point, we've pretty much acknowledged that Switzerland is the following:
Another heads down day that culminated in us cycling through Switzerland into Germany and back again 6 times in the course of 10 minutes due to random, miscellaneous enclaves. Stopped for lunch in Lake Konstanz, where it actually snowed for 20 minutes during lunch.
No photos taken because we were heads down. It rained all day. Jess got attacked by a dog and fell twice. Neil's brakes refused to stop rubbing, and he eventually had to ride without front ones. Hypothermia was imminent.
We left Berlin in the middle of the night on Thursday, 2 April and took an overnight bus to Munich to kickoff our journey. We were supposed to get on a train all the way to Lindau before cycling into Austria, but public transport schedule changes and random cut-off points saw us reaching Bregenz directly.
