Today Alex changed the itinerary and instead of a 4 hour
midday ride along a hot open tarmac road we cycled from the hotel in Monyua
along a dirt track road running along the top of a levee. Well done Alex, good
call, it was a brilliant ride.
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| Interesting head wear |
If you’re used to cycling in Europe the best thing about
Myanmar (and last year in India) is cycling through intensely farmed
countryside where there are lots of people. There is just so much to see
and to be honest, seeing people busy in the fields and shifting stuff up and
down the roads (in this case a track) is much more interesting culturally that
visiting another Buddha (standing or reclining). The welcome from the
locals is special, provides a real buzz, and it’s hard to imagine that it will
be still be there in 30 years time when the they’ve all gone to work in
the city and when tourists have lost their novelty value.
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| Nigel and the melon pickers |
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| Not a good posture |
The friendliness was best illustrated when Alex got us off
our bikes and took us into a field to meet a group of young women (women as
always, seem to do all the work) who were finishing off one crop (melons) and
making way the next (beans - already growing in the shade of the melons).
They were absolutely charming and happily stopped what they were doing to
pose for pictures (they took some of us as well) and explain what the crops
were. The only let-down was my slightly weird pose; the picture of Nigel is
much better!
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| The road bridge over the River Chindwin |
The last 12kms of the 50km ride were spent on the road we
would have followed if Alex hadn’t made the change. Crossing the huge
bridge over the River Chindwin was quite an experience, but apart from that it
was a much less interesting route.
After a wonderful lunch at Pakkoku we joined a boat for a 2
hour journey along the River Irrawaddy to Bagan. Escaping the noise of
the old and completely exposed diesel engine meant sitting in the sun on the
bow of the boat, but with the views it wasn’t a difficult choice. In
Myanmar there is always plenty to see on the water and watching the fishermen,
the tugs working the river or our own skipper who steered the boat sitting on
the canopy under an umbrella, meant the journey seemed a quick one.
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Our skipper
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| Fishing on the River Irrawaddy |
We arrived at Bagan late afternoon and stayed there for three nights before
return to Rangoon.
nice post
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