Myanmar
Currently, Myanmar can only be entered with a personal vehicle as a part of an organised tour. We teamed up with a few of the crew from our China crossing, along with a few new faces from France, Finland and Australia. As one of the first groups of bikes granted permission to cross the country, we expected the border crossing to take time, and it didn't disappoint. After 7 hours we'd exited India, entered Myanmar and obtained our temporary bike permissions. By this stage it was 3pm and we had 130kms to do. This would have been no problem on most roads, but the heavy monsoon which had thankfully passed just days before had flooded rivers to the point of washing four of the bridges on our route down the river. This made for a pretty terrifying and fun-filled afternoon. Our first river crossing involved getting the bikes (9 in total) through 1ft deep mud down the riverbank onto a leaky wooden canoe, two at a time. The strength of the tiny locals was unbelievable. They lifted the bikes into the boat in knee deep mud without a hitch, including Frenchman Florian's BMW K100 - a bike an extremely long way from its natural environment. Seeing that thing come through the mud onto the rickety boat was one of the most ridiculous things I'd seen. But things got even more interesting...
The next crossing was just a few k's down the road, and getting to the rivers edge was the first challenge. We had to get the bikes down an extremely steep and muddy slope, where the locals holding the bike were only thing stopping us as the tyres had no grip in the mud. We then rolled the bikes one at a time onto a raft made from four truck tyre tubes and some bamboo sticks. The team of locals then floated the raft across the river, which was flowing at a pretty scary pace.
The final crossing used another wooden canoe, but only took us as far as a gravel island in the middle of the river. The next half of the river was too shallow for boats so we were forced to ride across it. I was lucky enough to tackle it just before it got dark, but the last 5 bikes that crossed in our group weren't so lucky. Somehow we managed to get all nine bikes across without drowning any engines.
The next crossing was just a few k's down the road, and getting to the rivers edge was the first challenge. We had to get the bikes down an extremely steep and muddy slope, where the locals holding the bike were only thing stopping us as the tyres had no grip in the mud. We then rolled the bikes one at a time onto a raft made from four truck tyre tubes and some bamboo sticks. The team of locals then floated the raft across the river, which was flowing at a pretty scary pace.
The final crossing used another wooden canoe, but only took us as far as a gravel island in the middle of the river. The next half of the river was too shallow for boats so we were forced to ride across it. I was lucky enough to tackle it just before it got dark, but the last 5 bikes that crossed in our group weren't so lucky. Somehow we managed to get all nine bikes across without drowning any engines.
After the river crossings, things got much easier and we spent the next 8 days cruising through Myanmar on well built roads. With the expense of having to join a guided group, we limited our crossing to 9 days and this made for some pretty large days on the bike. We spent 10 hours on the road on day two, with only a couple of short stops. The reward at the end was a luxurious resort with an in-pool bar, which we made the most of.
The transition from India to Myanmar was both significant and welcome. The chaos of India had worn us down, and the instant change to roads with courteous drivers and space to breathe was a huge relief. Away from the few tourist sites that it has to offer, Myanmar is still very raw. The people are extremely welcoming and friendly, and they have no interest in milking tourists for cash (or at least they haven't learnt how to do this from their neighbors yet).
Our crossing took us through Kalaymyo, Monywa, Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake, Naypyidaw and Kyaiktiyo. The highlights were watching the sun set over the temples of Bagan, and visiting local communities on Inle Lake by boat.
The transition from India to Myanmar was both significant and welcome. The chaos of India had worn us down, and the instant change to roads with courteous drivers and space to breathe was a huge relief. Away from the few tourist sites that it has to offer, Myanmar is still very raw. The people are extremely welcoming and friendly, and they have no interest in milking tourists for cash (or at least they haven't learnt how to do this from their neighbors yet).
Our crossing took us through Kalaymyo, Monywa, Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake, Naypyidaw and Kyaiktiyo. The highlights were watching the sun set over the temples of Bagan, and visiting local communities on Inle Lake by boat.
