A Constant Cycle of Stories
By Jessilyn Yoo and Neil Calderwood
After taking the 1 PM train from Yangon (which was miraculously on time), we arrived in Letpadan a little after 5 in the evening.
The first thing we noticed was that we were definitely off the beaten track here. There was many a stare as we lumbered out of the tiny train station after assembling our bike back together.
Over the last few days, we've both come down with a second run (excuse the pun) of the skitters in as many weeks. We were half-dead of the norovirus as we left Berlin, and now, inevitably, we're sick again. Neil in particular has had a bad go of it, combined as it was with a cold, so to give him one more day to recover, we decided to take the train to Letpadan.
With the amount of gold leaf that covers the surface of Burma, you'd think it was the richest country in the world.
We've remarked here before about the contradictions inherent in the state of the towns. The ever-growing piles of plastic waste, the dust-covered shacks where people make their homes, the ravaged state of men's mouths from chewing betel juice...
...and the impeccable condition of the pagodas.
When we woke up the next morning in Yangon, we found ourselves surrounded by the usual big-city sounds of traffic, large crowds of people, and life happening. We could have been in Bangkok for all we knew. Then we looked outside the window and saw this across the street:
In retrospect, we should have known that this was not going to be an easy day.
Since it was going to be another dawn to dusk job, we woke up insanely early to get started. After a free breakfast of fried egg and rice at the hotel, we packed up and kicked off. The now-customary evening tinkering session had allowed us to sort out our slow puncture and out-of-step pedals, and we were fit and ready for anything.
If you happen to be in this part of the world, there is a fantastic rollercoaster that not too many people know about. It involves sitting in an open backed truck crammed to bursting with people, no safety equipment, and the threat of imminent death constantly at your doorstep. Oh, and you feel as if you're blind.
Wheee!
We're flying now. Up with the lark this morning so we would have time to get up the Eastern Yoma Mountains and see Kyaiktiyo, also known as the Golden Rock. This is Day 5 of our ride (excluding rest days), and we're getting stronger and fitter by the minute.
After a string of stays in the likes of Hpa-An and Mawlamyine, it was back to the start with the town of Thaton. Slightly bigger and exponentially more well-off than Kawkareik, Thaton used to be an important port town until the sea went away, leaving it high and dry and rather sleepy.
Normally, we're up incredibly early and eager to get going so that we can take advantage of the cooler morning hours. But because we were still waiting for our laundry to be finished, we decided to spend some much needed time to fix the issues on our tandem that had been dogging us relentlessly for the last couple days.
When we rolled into Mawlamyine, the sun was shining brightly in the sky and the city was well into its lunchtime rush.
As we went north up Strand Road along the Thanlyin River, the ever increasing sound of trucks and motorbikes honking filled our ears. A once quiet coastal town that turned into a bustling teak port during the British colonial period, Mawlamyine is now a sleepier, more dilapidated reminder of the grandeur it once had.
After enjoying another delicious spicy noodle salad at yesterday's food market, we set off the following morning refreshed and ready to tackle another day in the saddle. We had finally learned our lesson - a breakfast a day keeps the 12 PM hangry monster away.
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.
