The Beautiful Ride to Oke Shit Pin

November 9, 2019

I didn’t really want to leave Pyay because we had had such a nice time there. We spent a lot of time at the hilltop Shwe San Daw Pagoda. There is an enormous Buddha statue at the base of the hill but it’s so enormous that the Buddha’s gaze is at eye level with the temple above making for an interesting sight and feeling when walking around the pagoda.

There was a ratcheting up of intensity of the festival everyday and it felt like things were going to get a bit crazy, but exciting. Lots of traveling salespeople had brought their wares to town and set up large booths along the main street near the stairs to the temple. Each one tried to outdo the other in loudspeaker volume and at one million decibels, ear plugs were a necessity. There were lots of traditional Burmese musical acts complete with stages even up at the temple. And there was a whole lot of frying of special festival pastries going on. But we had been in Pyay long enough. We were ready to do some riding.

Reporting for morning riding duty at our odd looking but quite nice guest house in Pyay.

Our wonderful guest house owner. She was excited to have foreigners at her guest house and I believe she has seen few before us.

Good bye interesting Pyay. Good bye enormous Buddha.

Right before the bridge was Happy Land at which point I became very happy!

The Japanese built this bridge about 20 years ago.

First thing in the morning we were confronted with the big bridge over the Irrawaddy (and of course heat and humidity). There was also an ominous looking black cloud heading right towards us and I had not put my day pack in its protective rain garment. We were already on the bridge when I saw the rain coming so instead of stopping on the bridge I outran the rain, somehow. Although quite dark and threatening for the first hour of our trip we never did encounter rain.

One quick photo of the Irrawaddy River looking north, upstream, before the black rain cloud caught us from the south.

The ride was to be short and lovely, just 23 miles. On the west side of the river we climbed a bit but never too steeply. We were in thick forests and lush little rice terraced valleys. Teak trees had been planted on either side of the road maybe twenty years ago and were starting to provide shade. It was a welcome change to be riding through a lush green place than the more stark, sandy, dry area we had last ridden our bikes through between Mandalay and Bagan. It was still beastly hot with high humidity but we were trying to ignore that because we felt in a way our adventure had finally begun. We were in new territory for us and it was exciting to not know what the day would bring.

When you see signs like this you know you are somewhere. The odd thing is that we felt at home with the distances in miles. I believe Myanmar might be the only other country in the world besides the U.S. that still uses miles.

Such an outstanding ant hill that I had to stop to admire it. It's a fortress with an entrance only lacking a drawbridge and a moat, (and boiling oil of course). Pretty dangerous spot right next to the road but these ants were not afraid of anything.

I've never seen an ant hill with an entrance. Were they lazy or brilliant? - Something I pondered as we bounced on the terribly constructed road humans made.

Residual happiness I guess from seeing Happy Land earlier.

After the hills the land opened up with larger rice paddies a couple of weeks away from being harvested, meaning it was starting to turn golden, or, ‘Shwe’ in other words. The road swung down very near to the Irrawaddy but we never got a good view of it. The surface of the road was pretty bad as was the traffic. In fact we were amazed at how much traffic there was on what appeared to be a very rural road. We thought we were traveling to a remote area not populated at all. It was obvious that everyone was heading to Pyay, or somewhere, for the Tazaungdaing Festival. Loads of buses passed us and dozens of little trucks with their flatbeds packed with people sitting. Everyone waved or shouted hello to us. Everyone was in a good mood.

Since most of our previous cycling has been done in areas like this we felt more at home.

Just to the left of center if you zoom in you will see a huge spider. I didn't want to get a closer photo.

Three guys walked out of the jungle while we were stopped to have a drink of water. They were very curious and knew a few words of English. They looked rough and tumble but in Myanmar it seems like just about everyone is super friendly and kind. We had a wonderful interaction with them. They were curious about every detail of how our bikes worked.

However he had no idea why I wanted to take this photo. Pattern, texture and color is what always catches my eye and I couldn't explain other than to point at the stars and stripes on his screwdriver and tell him I am from the U.S.A.

I really wanted to go up this old stairway but I thought of snakes too much.

This was a much more used entrance on the opposite side of the hill.

The town of Oke Shit Pin (pronounced, Ohshipin) has a wild west feel. It’s the kind of town that probably had a few buildings clustered around a crossroad five years ago. Now it is one long, mile plus, stretch of straight road where new buildings and businesses have sprung up. It’s a town on the move and we could feel the excitement. There are banks and new restaurants as well as a few nice hotels.

Remember, 'Ohshipin'. This is the small old part of town that has lovely trees. The sprawl of the new town has kind of a scraped earth look and therefore I took no photos of it. Plus, we were too busy trying to find accommodation.

We chose the newest and nicest hotel to check out. As we approached a few men in the reception area got visibly nervous. - not a good sign. There was unease and no English but they were getting across to us that they could not take us. The oldest man looked especially nervous like he didn’t even want us to be seen there for any amount of time. He didn’t even want us to be there asking questions about where we could in fact stay! This is all because of the government’s paranoia and ineptitude about tourism. This hotel simply didn’t have the permit to take foreigners. Too bad because we were prepared to pay them two or three times what the locals must pay. The government wants to control every aspect of its citizens’ lives.

We saw on Google maps another hotel at the edge of town. When we got there the same sort of unease was apparent from the owner. Other people got involved in trying to help us but no one spoke any English. It was rough but then someone said that right next door was a tourist information place. Why hadn’t they remembered that earlier? But the man there didn’t speak English either but had one more hotel in mind for us. It was harder than you think to get across to him that I wanted him to write down the name of the hotel in Burmese on the same piece of paper on which he had just drawn us a map. Finally he wrote it down and we were off in search of the one elusive hotel in tiny Oke Shit Pin that would possibly take foreigners.

The owners of a nice little guest house telling us we cannot stay there. They felt bad that they couldn't take us and were very nice people.

We showed the name to someone and he pointed and finally we were at a nice looking restaurant. The owner excitedly came out and was ushering me to a table to eat lunch when I asked him about a room instead. He did speak a bit of English and was a super nice guy. He was thrilled to have us and yes, he was licensed to take foreign tourists. His hotel was next door to his restaurant. He didn’t know how thrilled we were because his hotel was our last hope. If we hadn’t been able to stay there we would have had to either find the police station and camp in front of it or find some transport to the next town that did have a licensed-for-foreigners hotel.

The hotel/restaurant owner showed me the price list for rooms. They were 25,000 Kyat ($21.66) a bit high for a wild west town but we were super happy to have a room. Then he said he was going to charge us $6.66 more. I asked why and he explained, “Tourist price. There is hot water, air con, soap, toilet paper, two “free” bottles of drinking water , refrigerator, TV.” He was listing all the things we always get with rooms in Myanmar but I wasn’t going to argue with him. I liked him. But he hadn’t mentioned breakfast included. I asked and he stuttered around quite a bit about that. He was basically saying ‘no’ but I persisted since we were going to have to pay more. I reminded him that all hotels in Myanmar have breakfast included and he finally said, “I will come up with something.” He seemed like a really energetic and nice person and I believed him. I gladly forked over the money. The high price was his way of saying that he had to pay for that damn license so he could have tourists stay in his hotel, without actually saying that.

We got settled in our rather basic room and then walked across the street to a tea house for some Burmese tea - one of my favorite things to do in Myanmar. The tea houses we go to have rarely, if ever, had a foreigner sit down at one of their low tables. There is always fear, laughter and a shuffling of girls or boys in the rear of the place as they try to choose who will be the one to go deal with the foreigners. Sometimes there is one brave one but sometimes no one is brave and we have to walk back to them and say, “Tea.” “Two tea.” Nine times out of ten they have no idea what we are talking about even though the main thing they sell is tea. Of course if we try to say it in their language it is invariably the wrong intonation and they are even more perplexed. It’s the simplest of things but it also tells us that we are still on the right track - we are out there where no tourists have trod before.

lovebruce

Not much to look at but our savior in Oke Shit Pin. Good restaurant on the left and hotel on the right.

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 127 miles (204 km)

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Jen RahnGlad you found a place!

To get approval to accept tourists, does a hotel/ guest house owner have to pay a fee to the government or are there other steps involved?

Loved your description of the nervous guys in the first place.
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5 years ago

Marsha HanchrowI thought you were bringing some minimal camping gear. Did I make that up, or is camping the final, desperate measure, to be avoided if at all possible?
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5 years ago

Andrea BrownTo Marsha HanchrowYes.
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5 years ago

Andrea BrownTo Jen RahnYes, the license fee for having foreigners in your hotel is prohibitive, especially out in the sticks.
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5 years ago

Bruce LellmanTo Marsha HanchrowMarsha,
We did bring camping gear but camping in Myanmar is strictly prohibited. We have known people to stealth camp but they were way way out away from populations. There are people everywhere in Myanmar and they don't care if you camp but if we are caught by the police camping the nearest neighbors will be the ones who will get in big trouble, not us. We will be forced to ride to the next town that has accommodation for foreigners, escorted by the police in the middle of the night and the next town we might be able to stay in could be 100 miles away. We have known people who have had this happen to them. Also staying with people in their homes is strictly forbidden as well as staying in temples or monasteries. The Myanmar government has it wrapped up. They don't really want tourists like us only the very wealthy on package tours with accommodation in the government officials very expensive personally owned resorts so they can reap the most money.
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5 years ago

Bruce LellmanTo Jen RahnJen,
There is a fee for the license from the government so that their hotel can accept foreign tourists. I have no idea how much that fee is but if you own a hotel in a small town in the middle of nowhere a $5 fee per year would be enough to make any hotel owner say forget it because they may not see one tourist in that year. Where we have been that's the impression we have gotten. We have seen almost no tourists outside the biggest tourist draws: Mandalay, Yangon, Inle Lake, Bagan and maybe Kalaw. Outside of those five areas you have a very good chance of seeing no other tourists.
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5 years ago

Jen RahnTo Bruce LellmanThanks for the explanation .. so interesting .

We (your fellow citizens of the World) are so lucky that you and Andrea are traveling these unmettled roads. The genuine and kind interactions you have with the people there and the time you take to share your experiences with your readers .. are making the world a better place!
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5 years ago