October 31, 2019
The Road from Mandalay
Tada-U to Myingyan
The Road from Mandalay
October 30, 2019 Mandalay to Tada-U 16 miles
There are, of course, many roads leading away from Mandalay. We chose the road to the small town of Tada-U and part of it passed next to so many old temples (called pagodas in Myanmar) that I was convinced it must have been an old pilgrimage route or the route to the ancient capital of Ava also called Inn Wa. Riding only 16 miles to Tada-U meant we would be able to shorten the next day’s ride. A major concern when planning a route in Myanmar is finding out ahead of time if there is a hotel licensed to accept foreigners in that particular town. Often there are no hotels for foreigners and the towns that have one are often too far apart for us to ride in a day. Add heat, humidity, poor road surface and things get dicey real fast.
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Tada-U sits just south of Inn Wa close enough that once we got situated in our hotel room we decided to take a leisurely late afternoon ride to see the ancient site. As it turned out there wasn’t a lot to see at Inn Wa besides an enormous building in quite good condition called the Me Nu Brick Monastery, not far from the banks of the Irrawaddy River.
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The best part of our ride was listening to the bird song, dodging cows and goats, looking at flowers everywhere and marveling at all the huge trees some covered in flowers as well. There were horse carts carrying dusty tourists and where there are lots of tourists there are always vendors.
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One vendor wanted to sell me an 1888 American silver dollar. She said it had been found in the river and I wondered why an American silver dollar would be in the Irrawaddy. A British coin from that era was way more likely. She wanted $10 for it but we walked away to see the monastery building. Upon return the woman had come down to $7 and quickly to $5 and then $4 and as we walked out the gate she yelled $3. I guess it wasn’t real. But it was a great fake.
On the way back to our hotel room we stopped to watch a group of kids playing with tops. They would get them spinning in the dust and then they would loop the string around the base and fling the top into the air and catch it in the palm of their hand still spinning. From all the failures it seemed to be a very difficult feat. Each kid was vying for our attention as well as competing for the best palm spinning. Strangely it was much more fun and refreshing than tromping up to an ancient solid brick building with no entrance with a bunch of grim- faced dusty tourists. Even my fake interest in a fake coin was more of an interaction with the local people than those tourists were having. It was as if the tourists in horse carts were going through the motions of being tourists in horse carts as if they had an obligation to play the part. I, on the other hand, was going through the motions of bargaining for a fake coin because that was what was expected of me however she and I both knew it was a game. The kids with tops, on the other hand, were real.
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Once again we were happy to have the bikes because bikes trump horse carts and get us to the real. The road back to our hotel was bathed in warm pre-sunset light and the enormous trees that lined the road were like giant comforting hands. We felt in good hands that first night on the road.
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October 31, 2019 Tada-U to Myingyan 50 Miles
Fifty miles is not that much but we knew the day was going to be hot so we slipped out of our hotel room right at 6AM and without breakfast we hit the humid road. The humidity was so high, (and coming from an air conditioned room), my mirror fogged over. I stopped to take a photo of a pagoda bathed in warm light and realized my camera lens was taking its own bath of sorts. The lens was completely fogged. It was actually so humid and warm already that I thought at first it was worse to start out early.
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That thought fizzled because within a couple of hours the temperature had already reached 90F (32C). The humidity was 87%. We couldn’t believe how hot it was so early. At first there were some shade trees and the road wasn’t in horrible condition. But then little hills kept popping up, the road surface deteriorated, shade trees disappeared and we were sweating profusely. Fortunately there were little stores that had water. We drank and drank and then we thought that plain water wasn’t going to keep us from heat stroke so we dumped electrolytes into our water bottles and the road kept doing its rising and falling, not a lot but irritating just the same. Our panniers reflected the beginning of a trip - a lot of extra weight in the form of Cliff Bars, razors, dental floss, vitamins and deodorant. These are the things you think about when you are sweating more than you can ever remember in your life, as if jettisoning some Q-tips would make any difference. The landscape as well is not so interesting when you are thinking you might keel over. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I found myself wishing for rain.
At one of our stops for water we shared a bottle and gave the empty back to the old man. He did a double take when he saw that it was already empty - a look I’ll never forget.
We stopped at a tea shop and had a hard time getting going again.
We stopped at a roadside hut with shade and a two guys on a motorbike stopped. One of them was a monk and he came over to us asking for 2000 Kyat. He motioned that his friend’s gas tank was nearly empty. I walked over to peer into the blackness and I gave the monk the 2000 Kyat. Again, an expression I will never forget. As I gave him what he wanted I watched as his face changed from concern to one of relief but it was also a recognition that he had communicated with the foreigner and was proud of his accomplishment. That look was well worth $1.30.
We were making horrible time.
I made an abrupt stop to photograph a tree and when I was finished I saw on the ground right next to me a dead bat. I asked Andrea if it was some sort of bad sign. She said, “No, bats are good. It’s Halloween, that’s your sign.” Wow, what a specific sign!
We stopped for a late lunch and were so weary we ate whatever they had, something we never do in Myanmar especially so late in the day. We asked for fried rice but we got plain rice and an array of little dishes that had been already prepared who knows when. They were delicious.
Then we rode on but the road had become a blast furnace. In the sun Andrea told me it was 110F (43 C). Combined with that 87% humidity it felt like at least 118F (47C). An oven. The road conditions had not changed and maybe gotten a little worse. It was becoming dangerous. I was losing energy and finally around 2PM I had to stop in the little shade we could find; under a group of thorn bushes. All I wanted to do was lie down but there were thorn branches everywhere as well as other stickery things. We couldn’t continue on so we crouched there for almost two hours. I was feeling really awful and worried that I’d have my fifth bout with heat stroke. I was really worried because I figure I can’t survive another. Andrea gave me Tylenol and because I never take any drugs of any kind I started to feel a lot better quickly.
At 4PM we decided to go for it. We still had 20 miles to go but the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees and the road was more downhill. It was a hellish day but we made it to Myingyan just before sunset.
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The hotel staff was definitely not accustomed to tourists so there was a lot of confusion but as we have seen over and over in Myanmar, the hospitality of the people is simply amazing. From not letting us carry one thing to our room including our bicycles to then gently knocking on our door to deliver two plates of cut fruit and two ice cold bottles of water, the Burmese are the best. I just wish the government cared about their own people such as building them better roads.
lovebruce
Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 91 miles (146 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 15 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 16 |
Surprised, a bit disappointed that you didn’t pick up that coin for your fake dollar collection. You do have one of those too, surely?
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This sounded way too much like Undaunted Porridge day 3, which was quite awful.
Sorry you had such a long and brutally hot day so early in the tour.
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