Day 13: Pakokku to Chaung U, 95 km

Route

http://app.strava.com/activities/25453310

As we have tried taking the boat twice before and both attempts failed, we thought we would give it one last chance. Usually three is lucky.
It was a big dilemma though. Doing a boat trip on Ayeyarwaddy certainly sounded like an experience we didn’t wana miss and this would have been our last chance as after Mandalay we wouldn’t follow the river anymore.
On the other hand, cycling into Mandalay aslo sounded quite adventurous as both the region and the cities we would cycle through were supposed to be epic. So we didn’t know what to do.
Finally, we came up with a compromise. We would take the boat in the morning to Pakokku, only 2.5 hrs, but we would have the boat experience with the sunrise and then we could cycle and explore the region.
Well, it turned out we probably made a bad decision. The boatride was very nice, Hannah even got a massage onboard. The we offboarded in Pakokku and stared cycling. Everything went fine in the morning. We had a pretty decent pace despite the heat and stopped for lunch at 1 thinking we had only 30 more km to do, easy. Was already thinking about getting to Chaung U at 3 and having afternoon beers.
Then all the shot started. For some unexplainable reason we had 5 flat tyres in row and Hannah’s back brake also broke. We literally had to stop every 30 mins. By the time the last one happened we ran out of the spares. We stopped a tractor who gave Hannah s ride to the next mechanic. By the time we fixed and changed the tube, the sun had already set. We arrived in Chaung U in darkness, which had never happened before.
As if it wasn’t enough, we found out after the arrival that there was no hotel nor guesthouse in town, despite the confiation in Bagan that there would be. So we had to wait for the authorities. Unlike in the other cases when they appeared five mins after we arrived in town, now we had to wait half an hour. And unlike in the other cases when we were lucky, this time the police officer-immigration guy combo were not kind, let alone helpful. In fact, they were rude and arrogant. Whereas in Taungwingy they were flexible and  fuguredt out a solution, the brothel, this time there was no way out. The town wasn’t for tourist, we had to go. Even if it was 7.30 pm, dark, and we were tired and dirty. No sympathy nor understanding. We had to move on to Monywa, 30 km from there.
They basically flagged a pickup truck and told the driver to take us there. The bikes, bags and the drivers wife went to them back in between motorbikes and sack, we sat in the front w the driver.
He took us to a crapy hotel there nut we had no energy to search for another on. We were devastated and torn. This was probably the worst experience on the trip, because even though we had issues in Aunglan as well, st least the people were kind and in the end the hotel was good. Not in this case.
The biggest problem was that they had taken us even further from Mandalay and there was no town in between w possible accomodation. It had become impossible to bike to Mandalay in s day. Scrow this, we wanted to get out as soon as possible, so we decided to take a bus in the morning.
Conclusion: we should have taken the two days boat trip toandslay. And if you ever wana do a cycling trip here, don’t even go close to Chaung U. Go to Mandalay through Myingyan, even if it sounds less scenic and adventurous.
Sunrise on Ayeyrawaddy

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