The start, Myawaddy

Jules — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 01:13:55 +0000

Myawaddy, our shortest cycling distance of this this trip. 7 kilometres from the border town of Maesot in Thailand and into Myanmar (Burma). The plan was to get up early and ride 73 km to the next town with a guest house that will allow foreigners.
We woke before the sun and pedalled 5 kilometres to friendship bridge. The border was not open so we enjoyed watching the increasing crowd as we ate a breakfast of rice noodles at a local eatery. We were not hurrying, content to watch as the first people strolled leisurely from the Myanmar side.
Today I was slightly nervous as I always am when switching passports. Being a dual national I am fortunate enough to hold both a British and Australian passport. I entered Thailand on my British passport…..I get an additional 15 days in the country with this. My visa for Myanmar is in my Aussie passport….maybe I should have thought about it earlier and used my British as I am quickly running out of pages. Visiting central Asian countries is much more economical using my Aussie passport but the official looking visas and stamps really gobble up the pages. We have met some folks having real difficulties getting new passports on the road when the pages are depleted while the document has not expired. So to save money…..and pages….I will continue to fluctuate my identity.
Anyway….we planned to cycle…..no problems with passport control…..for me. Li was taking a while and eventually met me where I was waiting with the somewhat famous bamboo bikes. “They may not let me back into Thailand”
Oh…oh…..we will worry about that somewhere between tomorrow and 28days. Li has had several slight delays when border control authorities become confused by her british nationality, Danish surname and having been born in Hong Kong.
We are in Myawaddy and planned to cycle west….but today the traffic goes east. There is only one road, one narrow road and to ensure it flows, the direction of traffic is changed daily. So after 7km in total we book into a guest house, the River View.
From here we view Friendship Bridge and a trickle of pedestrians, motorcycles and the occasional truck crossing the border. From here we also view a small long boat, 100 meters up river from the bridge. More people appear to be crossing from Burma into Thailand, Thailand into Burma via this boat that has no authorities, no fence, just a dusty track winding up from the bank on both sides. There are men with machine guns in sandbag bunkers under the bridge but no one seems bothered by what appears unchecked passage. Later we watch children swim and it is evident anyone could easily walk across the sandy and gently flowing short expanse.
And…just a stones throw from Thailand….already….Myanmar is a place so very, very different.

Will we survive the cold?

Jules — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 04:53:05 +0000

Will we survive the cold in Central Asia? Will we enjoy it? Is it possible……passable?
On the ferry to Kazakhstan. “You are the last for the season”……well not quite as we know Ross and Laura other Brit and Aussie cyclists are not far behind…..hoping to catch up if visa dates are not so restrictive.
They were sensible enough to refuse joining us to ride the Pamir Highway…..more research and we have to give it a miss…..mountain passes will be closed, risk of avalanche…..freezing to death. We look at other options. We are still in Beynue…..making the most of the Internet to study our options…..there are not many. We planned to go to China…..very few border crossings, all at altitude or desert at -30 with no towns or shelter.
Who has done it at this time of year…..on bicycles……more research……not many. One blogger had to hitch thousands of kilometres.
There is not much daylight any more and there will be less. Currently the sun rises at 8am and we start looking for a camp by 4.30 as it is pitch black by 7pm. Stealth camping can mean no torches once it is dark so we huddle in sleeping bags till just before dawn. Less hours so we are not traveling as great a distance which is problematic with such short visas in Asia.
And the problem of where to get a Visa for China……all the capital cities within reach only issue visas to the residents of that country with the exception of possibly being issued a visa in Astana…..possibly……a 20 plus hour train ride to an embassy that may or may not issue a visa. We have been tossing up storing our bikes and flying to Hong Kong where the issue of a visa is more likely….where do we store our bikes?
Ok….look at our options again…..a second night in Beynue…..a third…..Li’s eyes tired looking at computer screen.
From Almaty only one air line is recognised as safe by EU standards…… Where can we fly to and maybe cycle back? Hanoi? Bangkok? More procrastinating…..disappointment….confusion. We look at options of having more cold weather gear posted to us…..almost as pricy as an air fair and less reliable.
Hong Kong is marginally the cheapest air fair……why not fly the bikes and cycle back?…..away from our final destination……it all feels bonkers…..but doable. First we shall ride to Almaty our second entry into Kazakstan.

Bamboo Odyssey » visas | Bamboo Odyssey

The start, Myawaddy

Will we survive the cold?