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However you make a contribution: be it financial, social, emotional or immediately practical: you have my heartfelt thanks and I hope you enjoy being a part of the journey! xx
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13.04 ... Mornings like these. A 5.30am start is a great thing when you are greeted with happy, welcome at each market alongside the road, see people fishing from long, flat bottomed boats in the river or netting whilst waist deep in the lake, observe the sun as it rises and changes from violent, bloody red to a deep, molten gold. And then stop for tea and breakfast as the rest of the world is waking up! Crossing back over the river we saw a couple of cycle tourers heading for India 💛
#myanmar #cycleforever #cycletouring #bikewander #lovemybike #outsideisbest #localknowledge
12.04 ... Hurray for people being totally awesome! After lots of messages and emails sent out in all directions across Myanmar, I find a bike shop in Monywa which goes the extra several kms out of their way to get Tilly back on the road.
It's the day before Thingyan, Burmese New Year, and all the shops are looking forward to shutting for the following week ... which leaves me grounded and feeling sad.
The friendly bike shop owner makes a few calls and seeing my face fall when no 26" 32spoke rim is forthcoming, sets off across town with me, pillion, on his scooter. A fantastic trip around the town's back roads, 4 other shops and a second hand yard later ... Tilly is still forlorn.
The shop mechanic finishes putting a set of stabilisers on a tiny, bright green, plastic bike, wipes his hands and disappears on his scooter in a different direction. Moments later the call comes through to tell me that a donor has been found, a second hand Giant, and that I should come back in a couple of hours, after being taken for lunch by local cyclist, Kyaw Naing.
What started as an anxious day of 'certain' futility became an amazing day of support and lovely people sharing their passion for bikes. Tomorrow I'm going early biking with the local cycling group thanks to Tilly and a busted rim!
#myanmar #bestofhumanity #helpandhello #frankensteinbike #unity #bikewander #lovemybike #biketouring #worldonabike #sharedpassion #thankyou
09/04 ... And suddenly everything stops!
I'm lucky. No drama. No skid. No nothing ... One minute I'm digging clogged up road out of my mudguards, the next the back wheel just won't turn properly.
After a 'bit' of pushing and muttering and thinking of ways to rig the rim .... a truck turns up, going my way and Tilly and I spend the next 100km bumped and bruised in the back with 2 other families ... grateful to be getting to Monywa so quickly!
#thatwasquick #gratitudefreewheeling #unusuallyfortuitous #bikewander #bikelife #biketour #oneluckylife #nowlookingforanewbackwheel
07/04 ... From Mawlaik to Kaleswa to Myuma. Following the Chindwin River and the highways as the wind their way across the hilly landscape. They may not exhibit altitude but these hills have gradients to test my attitude, at times showing me as sorely lacking in humour as I haul and push up yet another incline. Concrete or dirt and gravel. Some places are under construction (making it even tougher riding) and I have needed little persuasion to stop in the heat of the day for a waterfall wash and swim!
The landscape may be dry and dusty but has a certain shimmery charm to it, akin to the 'cosmic' Thanaka (great description @twobiketo!) on the faces of the men and women, young and old!
#dryroads #dustydays #bikewander #whyitravel #oneluckylife #bikelife #lifeontour #gratitudefreewheeling
07/04 ... Suddenly, in a place I don't know, don't understand and have yet to become 'accustomed' to, where I place my feet is of concern and consideration.
I take care. I look around me. I am more conscious ... Because right now every stick, every shadow, every ripple and every rope is a snake!
Having been in India for almost a year all told I had become complacent ... less conscious of my stepping, my speaking, my self in that sphere.
Myanmar is reminding me of the different sides of consciousness in many different ways!
#consciousreminders #feelingit #snakesandropes #takingnotice #bikewander #bikelife #biketouring #lovemylife #gratitudefreewheeling
06/05 ... And then the 'fun' begins! I've realised that I get quite claustrophobia in jungle and am much more comfortable in endless stretches of 'nothingness'! After some back and forth over a winding river I find the jungle road. It's extremely steep, undulating up and down over the next dusty, exhausting 30km ... some of which is negated as I'm misdirected and then picked up by a haulage truck. There are many trucks in the area moving charcoal and wood. It was the consistently steepest day ever and I confess I was happy to 'pop' out of the other side the next day in Mawlaik and follow the river!
#myanmar #bikewander #biketouring #dustydays #keeppedalling #oneluckylife #gratitudefreewheeling
05/05 ... New places, new ways, new language, new food! Lots of new to absorb into and inform the old! A day of adjustment and working out new processes.
It might not be so far from India but the temperature is going up daily and the lack of shade is unrelenting. Raised platform shelters provide the perfect resting and cooking places. I'm not really hungry during the day because I'm drinking so much but am happy to cook food for later, removing an evening job so that I can cycle later when it's darker and cooler.
Stupas are evident from the first 100m into Myanmar and continue to be beautiful iconic structures whether new or old the shape is pleasing to my eyes!
Myanmar! You are delightful! Let's see what else you have in store!
#myanmar #cycleforever #outsideisbest #wherevertheroadtakesme #viewsfromthesaddle #lovemylife #attitudeofgratitude
05/05 ... And with that I'm across the border in a country I really hadn't expected to be crossing with Tilly ... I can see the asphalt from here!
Myanmar is a new and unexpected bonus, proving that timing is everything and being sick last year gave me multiple gifts, this being just one of them!
#intomyanmar #bikewander #cycletouring #cycleforever #wherevertheroadtakesme #viewsfromthesaddle #outsideisbest #oneluckylife #gratitudefreewheeling
04.04 ... Reminiscing - the universal language of The Horn, using all my senses to eat, the wildlife, daily life viewed from the sidelines, the various places I've called 'home' no matter how briefly, getting to relish cold water, bucket showers.
I'm sad to leave India and a part of me will remain.
#india #heart #biketouring
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