2007 Biking Burma

En route Pindaya…

We cycled south and east for 100-odd km to Myo Gyi where there was no accommodation to be had. So we hitched a ride in the back of a truck transporting oranges 50 km uphill to Ywangan where we had to get permission from the police (a man with alcohol on his breath and a rifle almost as tall as he on his shoulder) to sleep at the local unlicensed hotel.

On the following day our cycle route took us through stunning scenery and a rural untouristed Burma where villagers yelled “hello” or “bye bye” indiscriminately and a boy bestrode his water buffalo in the late afternoon light and young novice monks challenged us on their old sit-up-and-beg bicycles and the appalling road hobbled between stately banyans. We had to complete the last 16 km in the dark, both Charl and I coming off our bikes on the potholed invisible ribbon of road before Pindaya.