2007 Biking Burma

South then…

Via Toungoo (73 km @ 13 kph – after three punctures and a shredded tyre which was mended by a man using canvas and a needle and thread, we had to hitch the last 50 km into Toungoo before dark) and Nyaunglebin (120.4 km @ 18 kph) to the Payagyi Junction (66.6 km @ 14 kph), there to hitch a ride east to Kyaikto.

Two young men on a scooter who insisted on riding beside me for the last 20 km into Nyaunglebin in the fading light of day, paid me the best compliment. After a stilted conversation in which we had ascertained that both our modes of transport were made in China, that I was 50, and that I had cycled 120 km on this day… the driver said “I 37. I no cycle Toungoo to Nyaunglebin”.

In Nyaunglebin there were no hotels licensed to accommodate foreigners. At our third attempt we were finally allowed to spend the night, our host overcharging us but willing to complete the required forms from the police. Our mattresses were lumpier than the potholed roads of Burma and we had to take a cold bucket bath from a shared trough and the walls were plywood. But the place was clean and it wasn’t far to the Rose Garden, which did not live up to its name as far as aesthetics go, but did serve vast quantities of delicious and much-needed Chinese food. Its very large and grubby menu promised… pork colon salad; pork intestine salad (yum); hoppot (hotpot); fried chicken wing and tail; pork colon sweet curry; one duck three curry; palmistry strew (stew); crispy palmistry; palmistry two colour (sounds divine); and eel three kind curry!