October 30, 2019
The Keeping House
Mandalay to Tada-u
The Keeping House
Mandalay to Tada-u
Dear little friends,
We lingered over our last spectacular breakfast at the Diamond Rise Hotel. Every one has been slightly different and is substantial enough to last us until Chapati Corner time but today we were finally packing up and at ‘em to finally do us some bike touring. It’s a good feeling. We were rested, de-jet-lagged, and ready to see something new and exciting. We’ve been planning and preparing for this trip for months and it has been all needed, we are not as young, fit, or healthy as we used to be. We have to be strategic because nobody is having fun if bike touring becomes a suffer-fest.
Down in the drippy hotel basement where motorbikes are stored, we loaded up and shoved the bikes up the ramp to the sidewalk. ‘Sidewalk’ is kind of a polite term for the motley levels of concrete that passes for pedestrian accommodation in many cities in Asia and Mandalay is no different. Eyes on the ground, Francis, or you’re going to trip, fall into an open sewer hole, or get nailed by an errant piece of rebar.
The security guard was impressed by our prowess at getting the bikes to street level and gave us an admiring sendoff, or at least we like to think it was admiring. The mantra for me is, “you exist here to give amusement” and I like to think I fulfill that directive every day.
Since Mandalay is on a grid it’s not hard to just pick a direction and follow it, wending our way to join the highway at some point but first going through the marble carving section. I’d like to say I took a lot of beautiful photos there but I have compromised lungs and every second lingering in the marble carving section is one I’m going to lose at the end of my days so I let Bruce do that while I covered my nose and mouth and got to be appalled all over again at the lethal working conditions for so many poor people in the world. The Buddhas are nice though.
Since we knew exactly where we were going in Tada-u, we just cruised back down the highway we took from the airport. The people at the tea shop we had stopped at a few days earlier saw us and waved and so did some of the bowl-wavers. The beautiful road was busy not horribly so, the trees met overhead, it was simply lovely.
Our room at the Mya Kay Thi guesthouse was set back from the main area which is one of the many Myanmar Beer stations you see everywhere. “Silence!” the man assured us, and we pretty much believed him that it would be quiet back there and not that he wanted us to pipe down. A bashful dog lit out at our approach but was eventually persuaded to return to her resting spot. Dogs here are mostly neglected and mostly mellow, if not cowed. I find it hard to talk about the dogs and cats here. They make me sad.
This joint is one of those places you stay at out of necessity so we can overlook a lot, which is good because it was pretty much a dump. No matter. We went out front and split a beer. The wonderful zippy music station was changed to some sort of Christian movie channel which really put a damper on the atmosphere a beer station should have. They did this for us, by the way. A grim Jesus told a defiant Paul some stern and dramatic things in sonorous tones, so now nobody was happy. But the beer tasted great.
While we were enjoying the beer I was texting the friend who checked this place out for us because I was still not convinced it was legal for foreigners to stay here. She said that after talking with the owners on our behalf it seemed pretty clear that it was a “keeping house”, as she put it. We have stayed in plenty of love hotels before so that was a new euphemism for us but in her tactful way she clarified that it means just what you think it might mean.
The air conditioning worked great, and once we put the mothball-smelling towels outside on the porch we settled in for a cooling nap. Then it was time to get up and explore Innwa, an historical temple site and ancient imperial capital situated on the Irrawaddy River, about four miles away. It was a gorgeous ride and the temples were fun and we just love rural Myanmar. Life is right out there, and although these folks see a lot of tourists come and go they were still cheerful and helpful. We stood along the riverbank and watched some guys swimming in the Irrawaddy with long, long bamboo poles that they were floating from place to place.
There was going to be a long day ahead of us and we tucked in early. The guy was right, the room was pretty silent. If there were shenanigans going on at the beer station or nearby “keeping” rooms we heard none of it, just a couple of very close trains and some early chickens. Silence is golden, or “shwe”, as they say here in Burma.
Today's ride: 16 miles (26 km)
Total: 41 miles (66 km)
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4 years ago
Here's to a safe and well-hydrated journey to Bagan!
4 years ago