March 10th 2017, Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand
Myanmar
Jakob & Ernest:
From the cold and mountainous Himalayas it went directly into the hot and mostly flat Myanmar. After Ernest's bike and baggage arrived one day later and he heroically mastered a little diarrhea attack, we were able to leave for the south three days after arriving in Mandalay.
Right at the beginning we noticed that you don’t get very far in Myanmar with English, and that we had to further develop our sign language. There are different signs in every country and culture. A couple of times we got meals we had not ordered, and various wrong-ways later, we were able to expand our sign language range and add various important gestures. If we successfully received the desired food in a restaurant and when after two full pasta dishes there was a light saturation feeling, then we ask for the bill, which amounts to usually 5 euros for two people.
At first we had trouble calling the waiter until the locals showed us how to do it: with a kiss sound! Normally you call dogs by such. This is the best way to attract attention :-)
People in Myanmar were incredibly friendly, helpful and above all honest. Usually, we ask how much things costs before we order food or take a taxi. In Myanmar, we never did that, because we realized that people have never tricked us and we always paid the right price.
No matter where we walked, or who we met, people always had a smile on their face; we were tweaked or cheered on. When we paused, we could really pause, without being besieged by human beings, as was the case in India.
The big difference to Nepal was the incredibly good, developed roads. Only one or two times it went for a few kilometers over dust and gravel tracks. The second major difference was a strict law that prohibits camping as well as accommodation with locals. We heard from other cyclists, who had come several times into police checks and had to prove where they had slept last nights. We were, of course, lucky again and could always drive fast and with a broad grin past the policemen.
In late afternoon, one week after leaving Mandalay, we were somewhere in a small village where we wanted to fill our water tanks. We were offered a chair in the shade and one came into an excited, entertaining sign language talk. This day we had already over 70 km in the legs, and the heat was almost unbearable, as always.
In short, we decided to stay somewhere in the village, which of course was forbidden. But what is not forbidden is to accommodate in one of the many Buddhist monasteries along the roads.
After a short while we were surrounded by many small monks and a young monk, who fortunately could speak some English and invited us to his monastery.
We got fruits, an energy drink and relaxed in bamboo huts, while the 15 lads were buzzing around us and watching every step.
After having reported to the village chief, who had asked neither name nor passport number, we could wash ourselves. A large concrete-poured bucket stood in the middle of the courtyard of the convent, which contained lukewarm water. We can understand that the little guys were very interested and were thrilled to watch two white men as they washed ... When we came to a precarious change of underwear and tried to protect our red, crunchy butt with our towels, the boys bunched actually, to take a look at our butt! Well, let’s forget about that, guys ;)
In Myanmar, the population has to look after the nearly 30,000 monks, which of course is an additional burden for poor families, but the culture is like this. So it was this evening. Two families, we estimate, gave us a delicious meal. Shortly before we went to sleep, the young monk came and explained to us, as best he could, the practice and the meaning of meditation. Around us, the first little monks were already asleep when we closed our eyes, sitting cross-legged in our first meditation. After a few minutes, however, the first mosquito buzzed in the ear, and the perspiration slowly ran down from the forehead, over the cheekbones, and waited to be wiped.
In short, the concentration was over after 5 minutes! When the monk told that the masters of meditation can endure it up to 10 hours, our jaw dropped. After a very warm but good night in the great hall and in the face of the great Buddha we got a big breakfast in the morning, and then had to say farewell to the nice and helpful monks.
The 1,000 km in Myanmar were almost flat, and the more we came to the south, the greener the country became. Endless rice fields to the right and left of the road allowed for beautiful sunsets. The small, wooden huts, which are often built on stilts, together with the palm trees and banana trees give an idyllic picture.
For us, the two outstanding tourist places in Myanmar were Bagan and Hpa-An. It was incredible to explore the ancient temples and caves that make the two places so special.
With a last strenuous pass, we went to the Thai border. The challenge this time, compared to Nepal, lay in the high temperatures (35 to 40 degrees). The pass was an old road, which is almost never used, and fortunately we found halfway a small water source from which we could filter fresh water.
On the middle of a bridge, which crosses the border, there was the change of driving on the right to driving on the left, and a few minutes later our Thailand visas stuck in the passports :-)
{Translation from German: Webmaster}
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