to Hpa-an: cyclists galore

January 9, 2017

"Good morning" says the man driving the motorcycle with the side car that has a bench. A little later a motorcycle with a little girl on the back passes Patrick and gives him a thumbs up. Even further down the road another man on a motorcycle gives us a thumbs up.

All along the road are what looks like dish towels hanging over wooden poles. It is rubber drying. The elevation doesn't vary much and we make good time, stopping only once for snacks, arriving in Hpa-an around 10:30. We first check out the Golden Sky Hotel that had a very good review on a blog we read.The room though is very basic and tired looking for $25. Patrick looks on down the street and finds the blue and purple Guesthouse; Than Iwin Pyar for 18000 kyat ($15).

While waiting outside, Rachel spots a cyclist on an unloaded touring bike and talks with him. Ron, a Dutchman, is staying at the Golden Sky Hotel, not the one we checked out but across the street from that one but with the same name. Ron is cycling around SE Asia and had planned to ride all the way to Goa in India, but his back is bothering him to the point he has to re-evaluate his plans. He says there are two other cyclists at his hotel. In the lobby of the Than Iwin Pyar there are three other bikes as well.

Through "Smile Angel" a warmshowers host who lives in Kawkareik, we connected with Olga. She was born in Ukraine, studied and lived in Poland and has embarked on an open ended tour, check out her blog on CGOAB https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=18946. Later we meet Mike, a Brit living in Portugal. Olga knows two of the cyclists in our hotel, a French couple who Olga met with Smile. The one lone bike in our lobby, we never met the cyclist. We all went out for dinner.

Our visa for Myanmar runs out tomorrow so we will make a run for the border. The hotel arranged a taxi for us tomorrow morning.

Addendum: Check blogs on Myanmar, by Bill Weir https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=16868

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=487866