The Rest of Myanmar: Bagan and Inle Lake

The Rest of Myanmar

The first few days felt like no time passed between our previous Southeast Asia trip and this one. The roads are still flat, hot and dusty. The days are still long and the language barrier can be frustrating. Also, the lack of English characters ANYWHERE drove us nuts. We don't know where we are or how far we have to go, just relying on GPS and paper maps.

We passed by temples where ladies stand on either side of the road clanging metal buckets. Apparently it's their way of asking for donations. Cars speed by and people just throw money out the window, which the ladies pick up on the road. 

Locals are incredibly gentle and hospitable. At our hotel in Okekan, the staff was literally attending to our every move. They volunteered to bring all our bags, including helmets and water bottles to our room. They carried our bikes for us and even volunteered to wash our clothes. No matter how much we protested that we could do everything on our own, they wouldn't have any of it. Also, we were having lunch at a mini carinderia at the side of the road and one of the locals ended up paying for our entire meal!

The language barrier can be quite frustrating but because the locals are too eager to help, they end up crossing these barriers for us. After I injured my knee on day 1, I decided to take the bus to Pyay to rest for a couple of days. Thankfully, LA agreed to join me. While trying to flag a bus, we didn't really need to do much. We sat by the side of the road as the locals took charge. They stopped every bus headed to Pyay and made sure we found a bus that had enough cargo space for our bikes.

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. 

All Saints: Cabanatuan to Baler

Nov. 1, 2014. 730am. An ominous start: Jollibee had no eggs, gravy or coffee. Then they completely shut off their breakfast menu. Flat roads then we saw the mountains in the distance.

Baler is over these mountains.

End The Year Ride

Right, I mean.

December 27-30, 2013. It was an uncomfortable 9-hour bus trip from Manila to Bangued, Abra. We were having breakfast in Chowking when we checked Google Maps for the day's mileage. There it was: 110kms. We did a double take and I refreshed the page every so often but nope, the distance didn't change. 110 Cordillera freaking kilometers.

This was all part of the adventure of course. We said yes to Sir Paul (SPV) when he invited us to ride the northern part of the Philippines for the Christmas to New Year break. The plan was to start in Bangued, Abra, make our way to Balbalasang, Lubuagan and Tinglayan (all in the Kalinga province), then to Bontoc (in Mountain Province). From there, I would take the bus back to Manila so I can make it to New Year's Eve with the family. Pen, SPV and LA would meet up with G3 and Levi in Bontoc and celebrate New Year in Sagada. SPV only e-mailed us the towns we were staying in but we had no idea how far apart they were. Looks like we were about to find out.

Test Ride: Banaue - Sagada

It was drizzling when we arrived in Banaue. The streets were quiet as we set up our bikes for the ride to Sagada. The mileage was fairly reasonable: a total of 60kms. But this was the Cordilleras. There are no reasonable kilometers in the Cordi.

Trumpets and Rain

Happier times earlier that day

I fully expected a hero's welcome in Siem Reap after biking 150kms that day: trumpets sounding, people cheering upon our entry into the city. What we got instead was a downpour. Our first downpour of the trip.

I looked up at the sky and said, "Seriously?" 

Eight Hundred Kilometers Later: Siem Reap to Surin

National Highway 68: The Road to Uncertainty

November 9, 2013. There is this newly paved stretch of road from NH6, about 52kms after Siem Reap. It's so unknown that if you search for it in Google Maps, the road stops and leads to nowhere. This was the road to the Osmauch/O'Smach border of Cambodia, which would lead us to Surin, Thailand.

A few kilometers on NH68, I felt something snap from my bike. The shock made me lose control and I ended up crashing into Pen. We both fell on the side of the road. Luckily, neither of us were injured. LA, who was pedaling behind us, saw the whole thing. My pedal detached itself from the crank! He tried to remedy it as best as he could but the bearings were frozen stiff. I was afraid that if I clipped myself on again, another crash would be imminent, so I removed the cleats from my left shoe.

The aftermath of our crash. LA is trying to fix my pedal, while Pen looks on.

Eight Hundred Kilometers Later: Lists

How difficult is it to write about a two week bike trip across Southeast Asia? Every day there seems to be a highlight of the trip and trying to compress it in one entry seems extremely challenging. Yet creating separate posts for each day pose their own challenges as well. 

How long can I keep this up? Editing pictures, creating infographics and writing half-baked entries that may or may not be posted? It's worth a shot to write something memorable. Or maybe just to sit down and write.

Practical Stuff on the Road
1. Your gadget should have a wordless travel app. Or better yet, pictures of things you will really, really need on the road, like: eggs, water, ice, toilet, guesthouse.
2. Never cross a border on your own or else be scammed like Pen. She was charged 50,000 dong upon entering the Cambodian border of Bavet for God knows what reason.

Caught on camera: scammed at the border!

3. Tell your bank you're traveling abroad so you can withdraw from your ATM. Otherwise, be prepared for a frustrating process of unsuccessfully trying to withdraw from your ATM or searching for a money changer or a bank that's open on a late afternoon on a weekend. Yeah. Exactly.
4. I don't care what anyone says on how gadget dependent we were. Wifi rocks. Gadgets rock.
5. Do not look at your Garmin/whatever gadget you are using to measure your mileage/kilometer signs. You will go crazy. Especially if your expected mileage for the day is 90kms and you're only on KM 30.

Do not look at your Garmin! You'll go crazy!

6. Instead of taking the Poipet border to enter Thailand from Cambodia, take the Osmauch border instead if you have time. What a hassle-free/people-less experience it was!
7. Get a Brooks saddle. Instead of suffering through saddle sores, and weird blisters from cycling shorts and uncomfortable "performance/racing" saddles.
8. There are always little roadside stores where you can stop for a meal or a cold drink, but always bring comfort food. For this trip, we brought a whole jar of Nutella.

Beer and Nutella were lifesavers

9. Extra clothing is overrated. Doing our laundry became a regular occurrence and big cities always gave us an excuse to shop for clothes.

We spent a lot of time doing laundry. We were so used to seeing each other's undies hanging all over our room.

10. Just put your bike in an effin box. We were confident that airport check-in counters would allow us to roll our bikes in (without any packaging whatsoever) simply because we've done it before. Airports have strange rules sometimes. So to avoid the hassle of nearly missing your flight (or just to avoid the hassle), just get a decent bike box and pack your bike in.

We got away with unboxing our bikes in both Manila and Bangkok but not without endless pleading. Next time, we'll just put our bikes in boxes.

11. Do not take a late night flight out of Manila to HCM. Otherwise, be prepared to sleep outside the airport.

We got kicked out off the airport and spent the night on benches outside waiting for sunlight.

Cambodian Guesthouses Rock.
1. Wifi all the time (except in the tiny town of Samreoung, 60kms away from the Cambodia-Thailand border).
2. Rooms that can comfortably fit 2 queen size beds, huge wooden chairs and tables and still have space for your luggage.
3. Bathrooms that can fit a queen size bed.
4. Speaking of bathrooms, bidets in EVERY bathroom.
5. Toothbrushes in every guesthouse. (Quality wasn't so great though. Every time I used one, my gums and tongue would be scraped raw.)
6. Extra towels and blankets
7. Hardwood bed frames.

Our Gadget List
2 iPad minis
1 iPhone
1 Sony Xperia
1 Samsung Galaxy Note 1
1 Kobo Reader
1 (non-functional) Nokia
1 GoPro Hero 3
1 Lumix LX7
1 Garmin Forerunner 305
1 extension cord
A lot of cables/chargers

How to Keep Yourself Entertained on the Road
1. Tell yourself over and over you can do it
2. Think of new business ventures to topple existing ones
3. Sing songs from the Sound of Music and Disney movies
4. Put your earphones on and listen to your iPod (er, not recommended)
5. Take out the GoPro and ask your companions stupid questions.
6. Daydream..
7. Pray/meditate.

Eight Hundred Kilometers Later

How difficult is it to write about a two week bike trip across Southeast Asia? Every day there seems to be a highlight of the trip and trying to compress it in one entry seems extremely challenging. Yet creating separate posts for each day pose their own challenges as well. 

How long can I keep this up? Editing pictures, creating infographics and writing half-baked entries that may or may not be posted? It's worth a shot to write something memorable. Or maybe just to sit down and write. 

What I remember the most was the nonstop pedaling. The road was so flat most of the time (except for a rise in elevation upon approaching the Cambodia-Thailand border), there was barely any opportunity to coast/freewheel.

I remember the intense heat as crisp morning air slowly gave way to the burning midday sun. I remember how refreshing it was to gulp a can or a 1.5 liter of Coke. Something I would never do back home but seemed like a necessity on the road.

I remember the children frantically waving and shouting "Hellooooooo!!!" at us as we biked along the highway. At some point, we even had an escort of schoolgirls on their bikes as they accompanied us for a few kilometers along the Cambodian highway. I remember wanting to return every greeting but there were some days when we were so tired that the simple act of waving or shouting a greeting back took so much effort on my part.

Schoolkids on bikes were a common sight as they biked and laughed with us along the highway.

Where in the world did we get the discipline to wake up everyday at 5:30am, have breakfast before 7 and be on the road before 8? We would pedal until the midday sun would scorch us, then we would stop for a snack or a meal, and then pedal again until the afternoon. Our rides the first few days would take us to a town by early afternoon. The last few days of our ride however meant long afternoons and sunsets on our saddles