Cycling Holiday

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Hi there again people!

I assume most of you thought I had given up on this by now but no....just find it hard to have time to write up everything that has happened.....

Which leads me to an apology...there are people out there waiting for a blow by blow account of my latet adventure (namely my Dad)...but this is not going to be it....I thought I would at least get some of the photos up there for people to have a look at and then I might get around to writing later...I hope... :-)

So...a bit of background first maybe. On the 7th of Jan I took off for Burma with my bike all boxed up and ready. I was off on a cycling tour of Burma/Myanmar with a couple of friends from here, Emily and Grant, some of their friends from Aus, and as it turns out 2 Brit doctors, and a 68yr old Norwegian man. It was a really great group and we all got along really well, which is good considering we were cycling for 670kms together!

First of all to answer some potential FAQ:
1. No I stupidly didn't really train for this
2. Yes there was a bus but I only used it once after getting 10kms up at 23km hill on the way to Kalaw. I figured since I had never ridden up a 1km hill before this trip 10kms was justifiably a good achievement....and I was supposed to be on holiday!!!! I kept looking up the hill and seeing the truck that had passed me 10 minutes ago half way up what I thought was a different hill, but ended up being just a different part of the one I was on....Bad road, upward slopes, sand, big trucks and low fitness were an interesting combination..... :-)
3. I ended up doing about 660kms over the whole trip!
4. Burma is a beautiful country but with so many contradictions! People are absolutely amazing, generous and kind, and yet you know and can see the politics always there at the same time.

Sorry people for this rushed summary but I will get an "adventures of Nami" story up here for this trip eventually I promise!

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Photos

Lunch after about 50km
First full-on day, and I was buggered after 50km wondering how I was going to manage the remaining 50! Not a good sign! These kids and I held a numbers lesson me teaching them in English, they taught me in Burmese....very cute..:-)

Mandalay Streets - tea shop
Tea shops are fantastic and all over Burma! You sit there on tiny chairs at tiny tables drinking super sweet tea with condensed milk and eating fried things or CHAPATI!! Chapati quickly became a group favourite.....

The amazing Kjel
Kjel the legend! Kjel aka Mr. Norway led the pack for most of the trip...and the poor guy had to put up with us trying to set him up with Aussie/S. African Hong Kong residants on a Cultural Tour.... :-)

Longest teak footbridge in the world
We kept seeing things that were the biggest, longest in the world...reminded me of Aus a bit...big banana, big pineapple, big prawn......except these were a bit more spiritually based...big stupa..long bridge (to stupa), biggest stupa foundations....

Riding along from Mandalay
About Km 25 after leaving Mandalay...still so early on and fresh into the trip....only 75km to go for this day...

Jade necklace anyone?
At every stop we were kindly asked by hordes of lovely new friends to buy necklaces, bracelets, postcards...Kjell dealt with it well.... just said no :-) Now why can't I do that?

Mingun boat ride
Not such a hardcore way to start the trip, but we did a half day boat ride out to Mingun where the world's largest Stupa foundation is. It is an unfinished Stupa for a couple of reasons, an earthquake hit and split it down the middle, and the king who was building it died and so it is bad luck for anyone to continue building...
(right to left: me, Emily, Sarah, Liam, Grant, Mel)

...is that my balloon?
I had booked a hot air balloon ride but someone forgot to tell the balloon company...and I missed out....this is me looking forlornly at the balloons taking off and realising that not going on them was actually a much better deal afterall...the pretty much missed the sunrise!

View from Mt Poppa
We did it tough for accomodation........

Kalaw Street Scene
Kalaw is a bustling town in Shan State that the Brits used as a hill station. You have British villas, and gardens/hedges dotted along the hillsides. This is the scene looking down to where the market opens up. We had a great time just wandering around eating, drinking, buying on the rest day after the epic Kalaw hill (23km or constant UP UP UP on road that was powdery sand and rocky, being passed by large trucks and we started on the hill after already doing 100kms before lunch. I managed 10kms of the hill before deciding I was on holiday and since I had never ridden up a 1 km hill before, 10kms was enough for me!)

We did it..!
Altogether the cycling totalled 670kms...I did about 660kms..(that horrible hill and one other, where Sarah and I chose to walk up instead and ended up getting lost for about 2 hours....hmm)..... I never felt fitter and we celebrated that night with Mojitos and pizza...as you do.... :-)

Comments

[wombat]

ahhhh at last
great blog update. all the wombats loved the pictures and really felt for you riding up that long hill but lost the sympathy when they saw the accommodation. It would be good for grandpa wombat to see some of these so might try and print them out..great to hear from you after such long silences

[Heather]

congrats - well done
Nice work Nami - what a champion you are. 660kms - wow. I feel exhausted just thinking about it! Burma looks beautiful - your photos are fantastic. You should put together a big photo album of all the places you've been - you have been to so many places and taken such great photos.