From Where I Sat

I injured my knee after riding 107 kms on the first day. I felt sharp pain on the outside of my left knee that I could barely bend it. It got so bad that I had to take a bus on day 2 to Pyay and stay there for a couple of days to recuperate. Luckily enough, I wasn't alone as LA decided to accompany me. It was a pretty tremendous blow as all sorts of negative things crept into my head.

Is this it?
Is this the end of my bike life?
What will happen if I can't ride anymore? 
Will I become sedentary for the rest of my days?

My confidence was shattered and I felt absolutely useless. The pain was excruciating, but there was nothing else I could do, but rest and hope for the best. Those 4 days helped immensely. I was taking ibuprofen, bandaging my knee, and using a beer bottle as a foam roller to massage all the tight muscles. I was raring to ride but worried how much mileage my knee could take. We finally left Pyay on January 1.

The new year meant new life for my knee. I was actually able to ride. Gently at first, that LA and I were too far behind Pen and Levi. Then slowly, I became stronger and more confident in the succeeding days. The rest days must have done wonders for my mental health too, as I appreciated the solitude during these long and slow days biking along the barren landscape.

Most days, before Pen and Levi get too far ahead, I whip out my camera and snap mindlessly. Other days though, we are all at a leisurely pace and I can take photos without huffing or mashing my pedals. This never lasts long. We exchange a few sentences, barely enough to be called a conversation, then the wind picks up or we shift gears, and then they're gone.

The light from Kalaw to Inle Lake was the best that we had. Everything else was harsh, bright, and dusty.

Myanmar: Scenes from Nowhere

We saw animals. Lots of them. We didn't see much of anything else. We were almost frightened at the lack of rest stops along the way and that we would run out of water.

On one lucky day, a truck honked at us and we thought he wanted us to get out of the way. He flagged Levi down and handed him a 1.5L bottle of water.

We drank soda. Lots of it. We don't drink it in Manila, but Royal and Sprite became very good friends.

And the sun was so so bright. We didn't sweat much, but the intense glare made us imagine things. Pen regularly heard the Cornetto jingle.

The road signs drove us crazy. The route markers were in Burmese characters so we had no idea about the distance to our next destination. LA had his GPS and we always had a rough idea at the end where we should be at the end of the day. But seeing route markers and not knowing, well, it wasn't much fun.

After a while though, we gave up and accepted our fate. We'll always end up somewhere.

     

Burma by Bicycle

How does one take decent group selfies on a Go Pro while biking?

December 25, 2014 - January 12, 2015. Pen, Levi, LA and I traveled to Myanmar on our bikes and completed a 17-day bike tour around the country. This trip takes place in two phases. Phase One of the trip started from Yangon then made our way to Bagan. Phase Two was more spontaneous, where we took the bus from Bagan to Kalaw, and rode our bikes from there to Inle Lake/Nyaung Shwe town.

Let’s get a few things out of the way.