Kawkareik to Kinpun

Jules — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:56:03 +0000

We were bemused and lost as we rolled into Kawkareik. Foreigners are not allowed to camp in Myanmar and instead must stay at foreigner licensed hotels or guest houses. As a cycle tourist this means ensuring there actually is legal accommodation within a day’s cycling distance. Unlike our previous months on the road, if we become tired or sore we can not choose to stop, relax and…..drink beer. Beer is plentiful in Myanmar, and well deserved at the end of each hot day, but we have to make our next guesthouse. We are aware of cyclists forced to take transport by the police when accommodation is not within reach. We also had to alter our route, due to restricted areas, lack of permits and red tape. We became resigned to the fact we would need to hop on buses to ensure we visit as much as possible in a country where the distances between sights can be very large.
So back to Kawkareik….It does not take us long to be rescued by a man on a motorbike who we are invited to follow to our destination, the “Honey Guest House”. A cold bucket shower (heaven) and no electricity for the entire town until 6pm….then our new friend Ko Htwe collects us, this time, in a car to give us a tour of the town, invites us into his house to meet his family followed by a meal at his favourite restaurant. In the morning we return for breakfast and advice on the road ahead before a fond farewell with even more food gifted for the journey. It is also Chinese New Year so we weave out of town amidst the small colourful procession of dragons, lions and drummers…..and exhausted nearing our destination, more drummers, beats spurring us on the final few kilometres. We fell lucky and filled with prosperity.
119km to Mawlamyine. No choice of shorter routes or to quietly amble. We have done days this long in Europe on good roads, but generally prefer sub 100km days to really enjoy the experience. The next licensed accommodation is here….or take the slightly, ever so slightly shorter road, at 70km a Y junction to Hpa-an. The road was fine….we wondered what all the fuss was about, having been warned of the poor condition of Myanmar roads…..until the final 40 kilometres, 42 degrees, sweaty bum….sore bum, the road again deteriorated and we bumped along painfully and exhausted. This was by far the worst “bitumen” stretch of road in 11 months of cycling…. in reference to comfort. Yet not many large vehicles were stupid enough to transverse this road and we felt quite safe avoiding collisions. We rode in the centre of the road as it was marginally smoother. We arrived in the dark, having crossed several long bridges where the boards were laid parallel to our direction of travel and just a wide enough gap to snag a tyre and come acropper. Li was extremely unimpressed but the sunset views over the Thalween river made up for it. We check into the first hotel we come across, hoping to move into cheaper digs in the daylight.
I am thankful for the offer of a motorcycle ride the next day when I go back to collect Li during a change of guest houses. The “Breeze Guest house” was far more basic and sparse than “Than Lwin Hotel” but we made the move due to cost and sincere hospitality including a wealth of freely given information.
Another day, another road side stall and I am enthralled by the simplicity of a handcrafted bottle opener made from a rusty bolt and scrap of timber. I ask to swap it for my fancy metal one. I am given the bottle opener as a gift while mine is only accepted after much pleading from myself.
The days begin to bleed into each other. One day feels like a week, there is so much to see, experience….and this just from the bicycle, small villages, farms and many days riding between the major tourist destinations.
We meet Ellen and Yann, 2 Belgian cycle tourists, find we have more in common than beer….lots of beer….ok…after beer….yes we all like the local whisky too….and of course cycling in common. Staying at the same guesthouse in Thaton, Greg another Belgian turned up.
Despite hangovers and a desire to stay in this vibrant town we agreed to cycle together the next morning. It was an enjoyable change to have company. So we loaded our 5 bikes, had breakfast together, watch the monks, the women road workers, the children…..too young to work, a child of 5 moving the bamboo road block barrier, to allow entry for a motorcycle. We watch, we contemplate our lives, the world at large, then pedal off into the unfamiliar…..and the roads remain remarkably good considering the laborious task undertaken by a predominately female work force. Stones are crushed by hand and carted on trays on top of their heads. Even the bitumen is mixed manually and potholes filled and smoothed, without the used of tools or machines.
From Thaton we ride 82km to Kinpun basecamp to visit the Golden Rock Pagoda. The 5 of us are shocked…..after relative solitude….we have hit one of Myanmar’s tourist hotspots..

Myawaddy to Kawkareik

Jules — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 08:00:55 +0000

Myanmar….Burma?……we coast our bikes into Myawaddy, the poverty was immediately evident, and the notorious human and drug trafficking border town has a seedy, dangerous feel as the sun goes down and the majority of tourists….on a visa run….cross friendship bridge back into Thailand. Until August 2013 tourists were unable to travel further into the country from any land border and Myawaddy was a place to enter for 1 day only, before re entering Thailand to be granted another x amount of days Thai visa. During our visit the majority of people entering Burma were still doing “the visa run”. Yes it feels dangerous in that people are living on the edge, sandbag bunkers and soldiers, machine guns, crowds of people and very little street lighting as the rubbish piled up upon market streets and people prepared their meagre stalls for sleeping.
But the soldiers smiled, the men were curious, children stared, laughed and women beamed, all the more alluring decorated in their beautiful tanaka. (Paste that dries white to golden which is ground from branches of a tree and applied to the skin for both sun protection and make up.)
The Thai people rarely stare but entering Myanmar where people are less reserved, we are back to being the travelling circus. But it is a comfortable curiosity, friendly…and very quickly we feel safe and welcome. 11 kilometres out of town we come to our first police check point, a chaotic place full of trucks and food stalls. We are guided to the guard who needs to check our passports. We discover quickly that the people are more than willing to help and even in the smallest villages there is always someone that can speak at the least a few words of English. There are many knowledgable people, knowledgable about the world at large despite years of oppression and subjugation. People also instruct on how to avoid the fees at tourist traps, fees that will go to the Government and unlikely to go to the people.
The next police check we are given cans of red bull as we wait for the police to complete the necessary paperwork. As the road begins its upward journey, people at a road side stall beckon us over, give us coffee and refuse payment…..steeper….I am stopped by a truck and given another can of energy drink and cool water. The generosity of not just spirit, but peoples hard earned produce is challenging to one so fortunate.
Around 20 kilometres from Myawaddy the road begins to deteriorate and we understand why vehicles are only allowed to travel in one direction, the direction alternating each day. We see a truck overturned…..later a bus…. moments before having overtaken us….. on its side….and the walking wounded.
But the road is not too bad…. We have done worse in Georgia and Kazakhstan and I enjoy the ride…or at times the pushing over rocks and deep channels of sand.. We push past a traffic jam, cars, buses, trucks, vehicles for which I can not name….2 kilometres before we pass the broken down truck that is blocking the way….then a road all to ourselves for over an hour before the truck is repaired and the traffic slowly catches up. Pushing 3 kilometres upwards, then down because of the poor loose surface. The inclines are generally gentle and not too challenging as the temperature rises to a much more challenging 36 degrees. At around 40 kilometers we coast down slowly, avoiding creeping to close to the edge, avoiding the ruts and holes, stones, before the road flattens out. 66 kilometers to Kawkareik and we were almost as fast as the cars…taking broken down and overturned vehicles into consideration. We recognise vehicles passing us that we left behind at the beginning of the climb.
We pass 3 police check points between Myawaddy and Kawkareik. We are told to take it “slow and steady”. For me this ride proved to be my favourite cycle route within Myanmar, a relatively challenging ride with time to rest and enjoy what was incredibly picturesque, accompanied by beautiful hospitality and an area still relatively untouched by tourists.

Bamboo Odyssey » Kawkareik | Bamboo Odyssey

Kawkareik to Kinpun

Myawaddy to Kawkareik