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.

Long Hours on the Road

The landscape is so barred that sometimes we feel like we’re in the Mojave desert, the Australian Outback, Nebraska, the Mexican border or even Dubai!

A policeman on a motorbike tailed us for 3 days. They try to be inconspicuous but after a while you can sense them. I mean, you're going so slow on a bike and wondering why this guy on a motor isn't overtaking you. They don't give us any problems, it's just quite funny to have an escort around.

After Pyay, the roads were constantly rolling uphill and downhill-- a fine change from the usual flat roads that we were so tired of doing, but not such good news for my knees. Both were in constant pain and my pace was considerably slower than Pen's and Levi's. Normally this would frustrate me so much-- not being able to keep up with my friends. But since this was my fate for the next few days, I had no choice but to accept it. Strangely enough this acceptance of my slowness made me feel better mentally and emotionally. I was in a much better state of mind than I was on day 1 when I was physically stronger.

We started off our mornings in little tea houses. Good coffee is hard to find so we drank lots of tea instead. 

Food

Spice. Lots of it. Vegetable side dishes. Meals are an oily and spicy affair, where viands (whether beef, chicken orpork) are drenched in this orange sauce that assaults your taste buds. Fish was the safest choice. The spice is tamed down by lots of vegetable side dishes, but after 8 days, even we had enough of the oil and spice.

Meals at wet markets on railroad tracks where your noodles are literally manhandled by the servers.

Bagan

Bagan is exactly like the rest of Myanmar. It literally comes out of nothing. For such a popular tourist destination, you would expect signs showing you that Bagan is nearby. But no. We had a short siesta by the side of the road, resumed biking, then out of nowhere, pagodas sprout left and right. The sign saying "Welcome to Bagan" arrived much later, just to confirm that yes, we are truly here.

We made our way to old Bagan where the cheaper accommodations were. We spent 3 days here, resting and eating lots of good food. We're staying in a decent place finally (after sleeping on a restaurant floor, anything is definitely an upgrade!), we had candlelit dinner at decent restaurant and we don't need to wake up at 6AM!

Bagan is huge. It's almost impossible to see all the temples. You'd probably only have to choose a few then stick to those cause if you try to go around, you'll end up wasting so much time. Some temples are walkable but because the area is so vast, you'd need a motorbike or bicycle to get around. Most are available for rent though.

Bagan is strangely backpacker and touristy, we're starting to miss the small town charm. Towards the end of the 3 days, we decided to make a push for Kalaw State and bike from there to Inle Lake.

Bagan - Inle Lake (Nyaung Shwe town)

We took a bus from Bagan to Kalaw State. It’s an overnight bus, where drivers have absolutely no regard for human life. We were greeted with single degree temperatures when we stepped off the bus at 2am. We slept for a couple of hours at a guesthouse that was open at 2am then woke up at 7 to ride to Nyaung Shwe/Inle Lake.

On our ride from Kalaw in the Shan State to Inle Lake, we were greeted with biting cold weather. This brought us back to our rides in the northern Philippines. We would start off our ride in layers, then slowly peeled them off as we climbed the mountains.

We were in higher spirits this time around. Cold weather will do that to you.

Arriving in Inle Lake requires foreigners to pay the 20USD entrance fee. We've finally arrived at our last destination before we head back to Yangon. We're in Inle Lake, in the Shan province, this mountainous area reminds us very much of the Cordilleras (Banaue, Sagada, etc). The air is very cool, the roads pass through the mountains and people are more laidback.

Inle Lake is exactly what you would expect from a tourist spot. Similar to Bagan, there are enough accommodations for your budget needs. The lake itself is worth a visit. There are many stops along the way which show Burmese culture and traditional craftsmanship, such as lotus-weaving, boat-making, silver and gold. Each stop had a little souvenir shop with its own credit card machine. And if you haven’t done enough shopping, there is also a floating market to buy more souvenirs!

Yangon

This place feels like we're stuck in time. Vintage bicycles are the norm. Old colonial buildings from British rule are ever present in Yangon. I half expect the character in Jumanji to jump at us from every corner. People chew betel nut and the streets are stained red with them. Men wear longyi and thakara, a huge middle finger to masculinity everywhere.

It's a shock to our system as we bike through dingy buildings then we see high-end boutique shops come out of nowhere.

There are no Western fast food restaurants-- no McDonald's, KFC or Burger King. Only J Donuts, remarkably similar to Dunkin Donuts (even with the same font)!

And that's it. The tenets of travel are more or less the same. Be prepared to be street savvy: know how to haggle, how to read a map, attempt to speak the local language and just be prepared when things don't go as planned. Learn how to use roadside dingy toilets, be prepared to eat cheap, oily and not completely hygienic street food. Have an adventurous palate! Learn how to wash your clothes (at least your undies), bring emergency food (we brought jif and nutella), bring photocopies of all important documents (passports, IDs, plane tickets, etc).

It might be a while until our next trip. We don't know where we'll end up next. All we know is that this world is amazing and we'll keep exploring it on two wheels.

See you on the road.