Back On Our Feet

November 15, 2014

Pedals, not so much

Dear little friends,

Another emblem of the new Myanmar, a shiny new bakery in Monywa.

It took a few days to recover our mojo in Monywa, but once the food poisoning had subsided we did an unloaded day trip to A Myint, an un-touristed collection of old pagodas in a very sleepy village. It was a gorgeous ride on an extremely stony road. I've described road-building techniques in Myanmar before, with the broken stones barely covered with tar, it's like the worst cobblestone surface ever. We held onto our teeth but just barely.

With such a crummy road the folks along the road to A Myint do not see much of the likes of us so Myanmar Face came into play once again, although eye contact is limited when you must concentrate on every single pedal turn or you will fall under an oxcart.

There is another very worthy day trip from Monywa, and that is to hop a boat across the Chindwin and visit the Hpo Win Daung caves, man-made caves that have been carved out of the stone with sitting Buddhas and beautiful murals inside. Six years ago we were the only ones there and felt like Indiana Jones. These days there are tour buses going there so we skipped them, but they are very much worth seeing and certainly should be on the UNESCO World Heritage site list, and probably will be soon.

We were racing the sun once again on the way back from A Myint, held up by friendly people who wanted to discuss Obama. Obama was scheduled to speak at the ASEAN conference in Myanmar, his second visit to this country, and the only contemporary sitting president to do so. He's a big deal here. We discussed Obama, pointed at the sun, and rattled back to town in near darkness, including the last stretch along the main highway, which was enough to convince us for sure that we weren't taking that thing to Mandalay.

The bikes would like you all to know that they have been really enjoying their vacation in Myanmar! They got a cushy ride in the back of our open-window bus and we got to sit in the front and enjoy the scenery at a very fast and exciting pace.

Bruce's bike still had serious issues so through a really nice bike touring company representative, we got pointed to a bike shop in Mandalay. We had our hotel reception staff call them, and he sent them a photo of us on our rides, which was helpful as there was no sign out front, the shop owner stepped out and waved us down. Within three seconds they had cables pulled, oiling and clipping and rewiring, they were fast and extremely competent. We were sweating like oxcart oxen in the dusty Mandalay heat but very relieved and Bruce's bike has never shifted so smoothly, he attests. When you see the rolling stock of Burma you will understand our concern about finding mechanics that know how to work on modern bikes, but as it happened, the store manager also worked for a distributor that sells Bike Fridays in Bangkok, so it was a really fortuitous day. There was also a rack of brand spankin' new Bianchis, in that famous Bianchi green which oddly enough is the same as what we call "Burmese Green", a seafoam green paint color that must have been one of two color choices in Burma for decades. It's on everything.

While we were in the shop a man wearing an Obama t-shirt stopped in to talk about Obama.

We noticed his t-shirt and he stopped and said, "Obama landed in Naypyidaw at 7:45 last night!" Thumbs-up and handshakes all around when he found out we from the States.

Two days of Mandalay was about enough for us, it can be a really interesting place but again, the traffic is four times what it was previously. There are wonderful little neighborhoods and markets and lanes there. There are artisan areas where you can watch marble and wood carving and lacquer making and who knows what-all, but it is also very hot and very dusty and we had an appointment in Pyin Oo Lwin.

A trip to the market cures all jadedness, however. This shop sells only handmade kitchenware, much of it from recycled materials.

This one sells only thanaka products, both raw and ready-to-wear.

And this one sold, um, Barbie watermelons?

Nine years ago I was speaking to an English class in Mandalay when a girl asked me a question about keeping kindergarten classes busy. Hay Mar Soe has been in our lives ever since, she has American friends who helped her get an education in Thailand and now she is back in her beloved Myanmar, married, and expecting her first baby in May. So of course we had to bring her baby some hats knitted by my mother. My mom can knit a baby hat in 20 minutes, I swear.

Pyin Oo Lwin is a hill station 3000 feet above the Mandalay plain, and if you think we are going to ride up 3000 feet you are crazy, so this time the bikes got a fun ride on top of a truck taxi while we bounced along inside the board seats in the bed of the truck. Pyin Oo Lwin is paradise, there are clear skies, twinkling stars, and it's cool enough to need a sweater in the evening. 12-foot poinsettias are in bloom up here, and they grow avocados and strawberries and maybe we should never leave.

We stopped to pick up more egg cartons and spotted this woman fanning the coals for her iron.

We had some good times with Hay Mar Soe and her husband and saw her shop and the land she bought and heard about her 1001 enterprises and plans and dreams. She looks great, and I've never seen her happier. We could not be more proud of how far she has come and how she lives her ideals every moment. Funny thing about the two baby hats we gave her, though. After she admired them she gave her husband a look, and then they started laughing. Apparently twins run in her family and her first ultrasound is showing more baby than usual, possibly twins. I told her if there were triplets to be sure and let me know and my mom would crank out another hat in 20 minutes.

More faces of the new Myanmar, smart, ambitious, hard-working, idealistic young people.

Those of you who are wondering what happened to the biking part of this trip can keep on wondering because we do the same. Let's just say that we assess the situation and are not comfortable with most of the road and traffic conditions. Much of our bike touring will wait until Thailand and Laos. It's not just the rough surfaces, it is the fact that there are 100 times more private cars and motorbikes on the road than there were six years ago, and not one of those drivers has taken a driving course. Imagine a country of teenaged drivers with their extremely distorted risk perception, that's what we're talking about. Only a few weeks into the trip and we have already seen two motorbike accidents happen right in front of us. We simply are not willing to sacrifice our lives to prove anything to anybody. If we can find suitable, not rocky, dirt back roads with occasional traffic we'll be on them, but we haven't thus far, at least roads that take us where we need to go.

But the bikes take us around the convoluted lanes of Pyin Oo Lwin like jinglefire, and we love wheeling them out the guesthouse door off and away. We spend quality time with them and they with us, and they attract attention and start conversations better than having along a baby, better even than twins.

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0