The city of Yangon is about 4 million persons and tons of traffic but we have managed to bicycle through it anyway. They are building a new highway and most of the overpass work being done by hand. Bags of broken concrete being hauled away by hand.
Men mostly wearing sarongs and constantly retying them.
Soe Soe and Jeff, our hosts at the B & B, are great and we went out with them for dinner last night -- their daughters birthday. People here from Holland and both couples also biking. We have gotten good ideas of where to go and what to do.
They celebrated New Years with an amazing display of fireworks over the lake just across the highway from us . Many people and families had brought picnics and it was a great celebration. The next day is not a holiday .
A few things we have learned about the life here:
--Here the young boys are sent to the tea houses to work when the families in the country side can no longer afford to feed them. They are boys age 9 and up The family would like to have them in school but can no longer afford to feed them and the new babies born after them and the grandparents and others that all live together So they need to work to support the family. At the tea house they get meals and money is sent home for the family. I thank my Grandparents often for bringing our family to America!!We are so blessed.
We went for a ride today and out of the city this is a really poor country. The kids however seem happy playing with simple toys. They go to government school until about 10 years old after that they class size goes down because most of the kids have to work either on the farm or to the city.
We met some tech school students in their 20's today and they wanted to practice their English so we had quite a conversation. Tomorrow we will meet one of them at his town so he can give us a tour.It is independence day and there will be many celebrations all over the country
The people wear a light yellow powder on their face. Both males and females of all ages. It is put on as a paste and dries and slowly flakes off. It is a sunscreen as well as keeps the skin soft and beautiful if you ever see it with out the yellow. They also believe it is a way to look more beautiful.
The market we rode thru today was very busy. When I took a picture they wanted to see it and then others wanted their pictures taken as well. One very old lady whispered in my ear that bike ridding was very dangerous. It reminded me that the older generation were schooled by the English
Cell phones have taken over the younger generation. They are on them as often as our kids are. It seems funny to see an old man on a rickshaw talking on his cell.
The younger generation are wearing modern dress. All the little kids are in shorts instead of the sarongs.The bill board which are everywhere are very stylish
We are in Pyay which is pronounced P It is a small city and has little stores lining the main streets. There is one of the largest Pagodas here that people make a pilgrimage here to climb the 196 steps to see.the pagoda on top. The river is very busy with cargo ships and is almost a mile across here. This was an agent trading route and now is a trading route for goods from China to Thailand.
The sides of the roads are filled with litter and most of it plastic. Pride in the country needs to be taught, I have not seen a public trash can any where.
We found the beer to be good and on draft!
There won't be one of these every day, I just have email now and do not know how much of e mail I will find as we move north.
This morning it was 45 degrees ans went to about 90 this afternoon. It was overcast.
Keep warm in the snow in WNY.
Pyay Pagoda info
The Shwesandaw Pagoda, or Shwesandaw Paya, is a Buddhist pagoda in the center of Pyay. It is one of the more important pilgrimage locations in Myanmar. It is said to contain a couple of theBuddha's hairs, as its name means Golden Hair Relic.
Myanmar January 10th 2013
A little about Bagan
This city and the surrounding area is filled with temples, Most of the building was done in the 12 century when the king converted to Buddhism. They say a new building was started every 20 days and workers came from India and brought their style and from East Thailand, fleeing the Ankor regime expansion. There are distinct style differences.
In the city now a restaurant may be in front of a monument, or using part of the old city wall as their backyard dinning area.
Most people travel on rented bikes from one area to the next, most have not been on a bike for years. It is fun to watch the horse drawn carriages which are taxi’s and the 3 wheel bikes hauling goods and tourists, ox carts full of produce, and large Chinese tour buses and tractors all sharing the road.
The land is sandy and it gets into everything.
The kids are playing near the street day and night with no problems. 5 yea-olds walk to school with their lunch pail alone and teens are talking on the cell phone.
Mornings are 50 degrees and it gets to 85 during the day.
While ridding we past homes and whole towns with out electric power..they often had solar panels to run the tv. These houses are the same way they lived in the 1200’s in homes made of woven bamboo with leaves making the roof.
Unfortunately a huge number of both men and women chew beetle nut and have ruined red teeth. There is a spittoon in every room and red marks on the sidewalk where they have spit everywhere. Throat and gum cancer is a result.
As I have been unable to get access to a computer here is what has happened thus far in our trip...
The trip started off rough and continued that way until the last couple of days. We had to ride the train for the first 200 miles up country because there was nowhere for us to stay or shall I say allowed to stay for the first 200 miles. We took the train which is very old and rocks both side to side and forward and back at the same time. The windows are so dirty you have to open them to see outside, Along the tracks there is an amazing amount of trash ….mostly plastic bags that do not disintegrate in the sun and only pile up covered with blown dirt and additional garbage, There are poor homes along the tracks that are made of weaved bamboo and leaves for the roof. This is what they do not want us to bike thru.
We arrived after dark in Pyay. The hotel had sent someone to meet us and give us directions thru the small night market to the Hotel. It was surprisingly nice with well maintained gardens and a pool. The next morning we explored the morning market and was pleased to find most people wanted their picture taken and would laugh when I showed then what they looked like on the camera. Everyone seemed happy and very social with each other and pointed a lot at us. We had become the entertainment.
An afternoon ride around the area showed a string of small towns with many schools and lots of commerce.
7:10 the next morning we were loaded and ready to ride after the typical breakfast of 2 fried eggs and 3 slices of the mushy toasted bread and a package of 3 in one. (that is coffee, creamer and sugar in one package.)
The ride went well and we enjoyed the stark country side. There were few towns in the 75km ride. We arrived at 3 in the next large town we had been told we could stay. The hotel we found had no sign and a Chineese man running it. He told us we could stay after a few phone calls. The room was stark 2 beds and the typical tiled bath with sink, shower and toilet in one room. The bed room painted a dirty pink and only bottom sheets with blankets folded at the foot of the bed. We used our personal sheet bags that we carry. The owner asked us to not go on the street and to eat next door and not let the police see us. I do not believe he had a license for foreigners.
Lunch was nice in the yard and we played cards and about 7 pm we started to get ill. What a difficult night. We left at 7 again and after about 2 hours I was sure I would not have a good day. I found a man with a pickup and asked him to take us to the next town. He took us for a 3 hour ride as fast as he could drive. He kept saying “no worries.” Before we could go to a hotel he took us by his family to show us off. I was a good day for a ride as the temperature was about 100.
Where he dropped us was a nicer place than we would have stopped at. We were just glad to be stopped and I could crawl into bed. I woke with hives and had to see a doctor the next morning. I was having some kind of reaction. A quiet evening and a good bakery got us ready for the next day.
Once again ready at sunrise we had planned a 45 km ride if we felt bad or 96 if all went well. We are traveling up country through the hills and high dry plains. The road was bumpy and rough but we had a great ride. Arrived at the first town early and decided to go for the longer distance.
The maps were wrong we got to the 96 km area and were in the middle of farm land with no town. Finally 10 k later we arrived at a town. The pastries from the bakery and the bananas and oranges we carried had kept us going all day.The terrain had gotten much steeper but we had done well and at 110 km we entered a town large enough to have hotels. When lead to one she said no foreigners and had her husband take us to the police. The sign said warmly greet and take care of tourists but the captain who greeted us told us we could not stay in that town .We discussed the situation as I told him we were to old and tired to go on and it was getting dark. We agreed he would find a three wheeled motor cart to take us to the next town about 10 miles up the road. It took over 1.5 hours before they got us to a motel in Popa. A warm shower and good dinner soon soothed our ruffled edges.
We spent the next rest day climbing 777 stairs to a mountain top temple with monkeys all around. We walked 6 miles and rode to a fancy resort trying to get internet. The evening ended with cards and Rum.
The local rum is very good with a squeeze of fresh lime in the 7 up. Found good beer and the food in this mountain town of Popa was the best we have had.
Our day to Bagan was one of the best ridding days you can have, Not to hot.. a smaller back road, some down hill and expansive views of the country side. We had reservations and so no stress.
Now in Bagon the temples are amazing. They are every where you look. Ballon rides are a big thing at $300 per person. There were 6 ballons up today at 7 am when we went out to find temple
