Decision time after a rough (but very friendly) introduction to Myanmar

Mae Sot

We spent a few rest days in Mae Sot before crossing the border to Myanmar, partly because we needed to make some minor repairs (new chains, sew up some holes in my shorts, find an electronics repair shop to fix my horn who’s cable had snapped, etc.). But also, we ended up meeting up with a really interesting guy who’s settled in Mae Sot for almost 20 years working with Burmese refuges and teaching.

Ton had some great recommendations for cycling in Myanmar, and while we were hanging out with him, we also ran into three other cycle tourists in town, all going the opposite direction, leaving Myanmar. So we had several meals together and traded stories and advice. One of the most fun random gatherings of cycle tourists we’ve had since Belgrade.

Here we all are at the excellent night market in Mae Sot.

Tea leaf salad, a famous Burmese dish, served at the co-op Ton works with, Borderline cafe, which also sells handicrafts made by Burmese refugees.

Wall art at Borderline cafe.

The road between Tak and Mae Sot was brutal in spots with the shoulder missing due to construction and 12% grades (over 1500 meters total climbing) so we walked a lot of it to keep out of the heavy truck traffic. We will find another way to go on the way back into Thailand.

He needs some work on his upper body, what do you think?

Myanmar Day 1

The cycle to the border and border crossing was really easy, just some paperwork to fill out. 10 minutes and done. On the way in, we met a Chinese cycle tourist who spoke almost no English, and we used Google Translate to say “let’s ride to Kawkareik together.”

We picked up some money at the ATM and bought some SIM cards. Our new Chinese friend had trouble translating what he wanted for a SIM card, so I helped him out and we got it working. As a thank you, he took us to breakfast at a Chinese restaurant, where he was able to order in Mandarin.

The chicken feet weren’t quite to our Western tastes, but we enjoyed the rice, cabbage soup, and stir fry (either liver or coagulated blood sauteed in veggies, not sure what it was but it was tasty).

These women saw us at the Chinese restaurant and asked us to go swimming with them. We had a long way to go so had to turn them down, so we did selfies instead. It’s like being in India again, where we get a lot of waves, thumbs up, hellos, and “mingalabar” (hello in Burmese). Being so new to foreigners and tourism, people are very genuinely interested in us, and it’s really refreshing and fun.

The “tourist police” checkpoints are a bit annoying. They stop us randomly and ask for our passports. I was suspicious at this one because his uniform looked cheaply made and when I asked for ID, he laughed and said “no ID”. Also, cars were driving by handing them 1000 kyat ($0.75US) notes, which seemed fishy. But it turns out it’s legit and we didn’t need to bribe them to get our passports back.

Our new Chinese friend wanted to continue further than Kawkareik, so we said good bye and friended each other on Facebook! We hope he has a great ride and some amazing experiences! Safe travels, 宇文之! Keep in touch.

In Kawkareik we met Su Su, an aspiring tour guide who speaks excellent English, and she was an absolute angel to us, helping us find a guesthouse, showing us a noodle factory, taking us cycling to a monk cremation ceremony where we were served free curry and rice, and even making us breakfast the next morning. We can’t thank her enough for easing our worries and making our introduction to Myanmar a more positive one.

The best hotels in town were full because of many Thais coming for the monk cremation festival, so Su Su found us this budget room.

It seems $10 doesn’t get you as much in Myanmar as in Thailand. We have been a bit spoiled I will admit, so this was a little challenging for us, but we were lucky to get one of the last rooms with its own bathroom, albeit with a squat toilet. The power was out so the fan didn’t work, and it was 100 degrees, so we decided to take a walk around town to be cooler.

Burmese text on a tablet near the town temple.

Entrance to the temple. Coca Cola really is world wide, isn’t it?

The cremation festival was really interesting and upbeat! The monk was in his 90s so it felt more like a celebration of life than a funeral. This structure houses the monk’s remains, which they will later burn that evening. People were buying small pieces of bamboo, walking up to the center, and making a pile there. Maybe it burns with the monk later. Around this structure was a huge market with many things for sale from mattresses to food. We were the only Westerners at the festival, so we got lots of greetings from other guests and vendors. We felt very welcomed. Su Su brought us to an area where free food is served to any who ask for it. The very low tables had us sitting nearly on the ground along with many others on the same bench joining in the feast. We had a lot of rice, some pork curry that was very greasy and fatty but flavorful, some fish broth that I didn’t care for, and some delicious sweets. The people were very generous to us, even finding a cloth napkin for us to wipe our hands. One man sat down next to us and had a conversation towards us, but none of us knew what he was saying; Su Su explained later he was speaking a local Kayin language that she doesn’t know.

We rode our bicycles to the festival, and Su Su asked her friends here if they would keep an eye on them while we walked around. They said sure, as long as they could have a photo with us. Our pleasure!!

Ride to Mawlamyine

The next day was one of the most challenging days of our trip so far and made us seriously reconsider our trip, not only in Myanmar, but overall.

The first 20+km were along a busy, narrow, poorly-paved road. With the aggressive and undisciplined drivers honking their way past us, forcing us off the road several times, and driving quite recklessly, we did not feel safe. The steering wheels are on the wrong side of the car for driving on the right hand side, so they overtake without being able to see if anyone is coming towards them. I was very thankful to have gotten my horn fixed in Mae Sot, as I used it dozens of times to warn oncoming traffic not to overtake. At times I had to hold out my hand to warn cars behind me not to pass me because they couldn’t see that it wasn’t safe! It was very stressful and dangerous, and I vowed not to continue in Myanmar if the roads continue like this.

Halfway into this mess, we ran into this brother/sister duo from Germany. They grew up cycle touring with their parents and are now out on their own. They originally were headed to Hpa-An, but when I told them about the possibility to get off this busy road and go instead to Mawlamyine, they quickly decided to join us. Ton and Su Su had given me instructions to take a ferry across the river in Kyonde and then cycle through rice paddies on the much less busy roads.

The ferry was more like a raft, and Su Su had written us a note in Burmese asking for directions, so I showed it to a gentleman on the raft and he smiled and pointed down confirming it was the right one!

It’s amazing what they take across on these things! Good thing for the life ring.

The road after the ferry was amazing for 5-10km, an elevated paved concrete road through the rice paddies and small villages. But it soon gave way to a long section of very rough dirt roads. It was better than being on the highway with traffic, but we were quickly all covered in a thick layer of red dust and dirt.

Once we made it to Kawt Bein, a small river side village, the road was again paved the rest of the way. We found a small restaurant that made us a delicious bowl of noodles. There’s a noodle soup I’ve fallen in love with here called oh nu khao swè, similar to Thailand’s khao soi soup. It’s a rich soup with chicken stock and coconut milk served on yellow noodles with lots of toppings. So good! These noodles were quite similar but more dry, less broth.

Some stunning and curious temples everywhere around.

Thank you Ton for warning us about the slats in this bridge where he crashed a few years ago. We safely walked across. If you zoom in here, you can see my bike and me are now covered in a thick layer of red dirt lol!

After such a tough day, we opted to hole up in a hotel that was well above our budget, but we needed to decompress and reconsider what to do next. If the roads continue to be this bad, we can’t continue; we don’t feel it’s safe. We are also feeling like our tolerance for adventure has decreased, after nearly a year on the road and a challenging time through India. Maybe it’s time to stop for a while to recharge our batteries and try to make sense of the huge jumble of experiences we’ve had and renew our thirst for adventure.

After speaking with some other cyclists who have been or are in Myanmar, we learned that the section between Kawkareik and Mawlamyine is one of the worst we will have to deal with, and we got a lot of encouragement to not give up. So, we decided to recharge a bit in Mawlamyine before continuing. We also decided to lessen our ambitions in Myanmar and skip Inle Lake and target Yangon by bike and then Bagan by train. After Myanmar, though, we are starting to consider taking a pause for a few months in Thailand to learn Thai and settle down for a bit.

So, we took a very lazy day at the hotel, only leaving once to meet up with some other cyclists whom we’ve been chatting with online. They are on their way from Vietnam to destinations unknown, about to continue a meditation course for another two weeks before heading back to Thailand and Malaysia. Talking to them reminded us that the best experiences happen when we don’t have a plan and we take everything day by day, and we hope to keep our options more open as we meander through Myanmar.

I’ve got a bit of Montezuma’s revenge going on (maybe that free pork curry is to blame??), so we are taking even a few more days in Mawlamyine and hiring a guide to show us around tomorrow when hopefully I can leave the toilet behind for a while. After that we will continue towards Yangon but we are doing our best to avoid having a strict schedule and instead just wander in that direction to see what we see.

Myanmar is slowly figuring out this tourism thing. It’s really interesting and fun to see their approach to tourists, which is often informed only loosely by how tourism works elsewhere. Servers hover awkwardly immediately after delivering a menu, rather than give you time to decide. Staff in hotels and tourist-friendly restaurants struggle to follow obtuse scripts designed for snooty British millionaires. But they relish any opportunity to practice their English and light up with smiles whenever we speak a word of Burmese.

It’s extremely refreshing to meet people who are so eager and genuine to welcome foreigners to their home, even when their ingenious and novel approaches to tourism sometimes feel a bit strange or naive. We can already see the big hearts of the Myanmar people shining through, proud of their country and eager to share it with those who are interested. We are really looking forward to seeing more and making friends and sharing our experiences here.