Behind the Scenes

Liddy........Tasha, my little sister, wanted some detail about the practicalities of our travels so I thought I'd write a more mundane blog entry about life on the road, which many may wish to skip!

First question was how Mike and I are finding travelling together. Luckily this is going well and we seem to have settled upon a mutually agreeable attitude towards what we do. We tend towards the more basic end of the travelling spectrum (have now abandoned the Lonely Planet's midrange accommodation section and are firmly in the budget hotels). This means we are spending 15-20 dollars a night and Sam and Meg are getting accustomed to sharing a bed. We started them off top to tail but they didn't enjoy that so they are now up at the same end and the nightly fighting over whose legs go where is getting shorter. Sam has taken to waking up in the middle of the night and shouting random words (last night it was green beans, then he keeled over and went back to sleep) whilst Meg is perfecting the art of falling out of bed and remaining fast asleep on the floor.

We are sharing the chores, the main one of which is washing the children's clothes, which is a mightily boring task, let me tell you. I have to confess that they are not absolutely spic and span all the time. Neither are dry at night (though Sam is finally heading in the right direction) and although the local method is just to let them wet the bed, we don't really feel able to do this so both of them are in a washable nappy. These are enormous great things and whilst we are feeling very proud of our minimal environmental impact, they do take up half a pannier between them and most days see me cycling along with a bright pink thing flapping around on the back of my bike in an effort to get it dry!

Rows have so far been at a minimum though the Pleasants family travel on their stomach, so we all go a bit quiet / grumpy in the hour or so before we manage to find food.

Luckily we both seem to agree on what is a good amount of cycling to do each day. Our philosophy is definitely that it is meant to be fun and not a route march. Our ideal daily cycling distance is perhaps 30-40km which may not sound a lot but is enough for us once you factor in the kids, the panniers and the heat. We have tried to work out how much we are both carrying but this always descends into banter about who is carrying more and is therefore fitter / working harder (not that we are a competitive bunch). In truth I suspect that Mike has the heavier load but I figure that this is compensated by the fact that Sam 'helps' to a certain extent whilst fatty puffs Meggles just sits there and chats away singing 'wind the bobbin up'.

Next question was about the food. This is good but Burmese fare is not up there with the other Asian greats. We are eating a LOT of fried rice and fried noodles which are tasty but not wildly exciting. The Burmese have much the same attitude towards garlic as the French and so we all permanently stink but it seems to help keep us healthy. Generally though, it is a cross between Thai, Chinese and Indian, without being quite as good as any of those. The Chinese influence, particularly up here in the north of Myanmar, is pronounced with Chinese music, TV and restaurants everywhere.

Someone else asked me about the toilets. These are Western style in hotels and squat everywhere else. Mike has discovered that he can't squat so very conveniently, is unable to hold Meggles over the loo. Both Sam and Meg seem to be coping with this set-up fine although the other day Sam wanted to show me how he could 'flush' a squat with the bowl of water next to the loo, and ended up splashing number twos all over himself and then falling over in the loo in his consternation. Charming.

Last question was about whether we have met many other travellers. This answer to this is an emphatic no. In Bangkok there were a few other people with kids but we weren't really in the mood. In Myanmar, in the majority of places that we have been to, we haven't seen any other foreigners. Obviously in Bagan and Mandalay there are other people around but really not many at all, especially when compared to other countries in the region. I read somewhere that from January to September this year, there were only 4800 British visitors to Myanmar (plus about 5500 French and 6000 Germans); given that this must include business people, it is perhaps not surprising that we haven't met a whole load of travellers. Also, I guess that we are not a very enticing proposition to most backpackers so perhaps people don't come our way.

That's it for now. Mike is writing a post but after this we will probably be offline for another couple of weeks.

The Road to Mandalay

From Bagan we headed north again. First stop was a small village called Pakkoku which is on the banks of the Irawaddy. It was a great road with a smooth surface and a beautiful ride through rural scenery. Pakkoku was on the other side of the river so we had to cross on a ferry. This was a source of great excitement to the kids as we were able to sit up on the captain's bridge during the crossing. Sam loved watching what was happening, Meg loved being away from the hundreds of people who continually want to pinch her chubby (though decreasingly so) arms and touch her hair. She can't bear the attention and is having endless tantrums over being constantly badgered.

Pakkoku is a small dusty town and after riding rather aimlessly around it for a while, looking for a place to stay, we eventually found a small 'inn', run by a delightful English speaking matriarch and her daughter. It was very basic but there was a litter of new puppies and kittens and the kids spent a happy afternoon playing with them away from the attention.

The following day we decided we had had enough riding and would take a bus north. Our bikes were loaded up top and we clambered inside on top of sacks of rice and plonked ourselves down on broken seats for the six hour journey north to Sagaing, the spiritual capital of Myanmar.

The bus ride was great – the speakers blared out Burmese versions of Western songs (Santana, Celine Dion etc etc), the scenery was pleasant, and it was nice not to be riding. On the outskirts of Sagaing there was a tremendous crunching sound and it turned out that some crucial part of the rear wheel brakes had fallen off (Mike knows the technical name but he's babysitting so you'll have to just imagine).  Basically it was a large wheel sized disc that looked pretty important to me. The driver's assistant got out the most laughably small spanner and we all piled out of the bus whilst smoke billowed all around us. After about ten minutes of everyone peering under the bus, the spanner remaining unused, it was decided that we should just carry on, so we climbed back in and off we went, at a greatly reduced pace.

Sagaing was lovely and we spent a great day exploring temples and pagodas and climbing to the top of a hill for a fabulous view back over the town and the Irrawaddy. The only snag was that half way up the hill (quite some ascent with more than 400 steps) both Mike and Sam were struck with simultaneous stomach cramps and seriously impacted on their karma by finding a nearby bush each. Mike then had to carry Princess Meg up the steps so regained some karma in this way.

We are now in Mandalay. Great name conjuring up wonderful images, but the reality (thus far at least) is of a sprawling noisy city. More when we have further explored............

Bagging Temples in Bagan

Next stop was a place called Bagan, premier destination in Burma and one of the most magical places I have ever been to. It easily ranks alongside the great historic sites elsewhere in Asia. Google some pictures of it and you will see what I mean. Essentially it is a huge plain that is covered with well over 2000 temples, dating back 800 years. The setting is beautiful - all green fields of corn and rice, dotted with red brick temples and golden domed pagodas.

We spent five days here, cycling along small tracks to see the temples, watching sunset from the temple terraces, relaxing by the hotel pool (figured that we needed a bit of luxury after the previous couple of days) and filling the kids up on spaghetti bolognese and cheese sandwiches. (Food continues to be a challenge as Meg will not eat even a  grain of rice and neither of them will touch a noodle. Scurvy is only narrowly being avoided by the purchase of the odd apple.)

We also had our first puncture in Bagan. Mike had decided to be adventurous and follow a small goat track through the ruins. Great idea, but unfortunately the track was covered in thorns and within about three metres, he had punctured his wheels ten times. We missed our first sunset repairing those....

Heading North

After a couple of days we decided to bite the bullet and head north. We had had enough of cities so rather than bus/train it straight to Mandalay, up in the north of the country, we decided to break the journey half way in a small town called Meiktila. The snag was that the journey was 9-12 hours and the buses all left mid to late afternoon.....do the maths and you will see that the proposed arrival time was not ideal.

So, after a night dozing on the bus, we arrived at around half past three in the morning and unloaded our bikes. There was NOTHING going on in Meiktila and, unsurprisingly, everything was closed. So, we decided to get the bikes together, which took a couple of hours, and then head off.

We were on the road by dawn and it was wonderfully exciting to finally be on our way, heading through the countryside with fields of rice, dried river beds, groves of trees, small thatched houses and the occasional temple with gilded roofs glinting in the sun. Initially the road was fairly busy, but it turns out that all traffic in Myanmar is between dusk and dawn, so within half an hour, it had pretty much died down and we had the road to ourselves apart from the odd bike.

By midday we had been cycling close on six hours and had managed to cover somewhere in the region of about 35km (there had been a few stops along the way). Meg had had enough, as had the rest of us. Truth be told, this was actually the first time we had ridden the bikes with loaded panniers and with the kids, and we all felt we had done pretty well, though the distance covered may not indicate this!

We stopped under a tree and decided to hitch the rest of the way. The third vehicle to pass by was a forestry lorry loaded, for some reason, with clay braziers, and they stopped for us. We passed the bikes up onto the back of the lorry and climbed in behind them and carried on our way.  A little while later we passed through a cross roads with a 'truck stop' Myanmar style and were offloaded as the truck was going off in a different direction. As mentioned, everyone travels at dawn, dusk or during the night and the drivers spend the hottest part of the day relaxing in a cafe. So we joined them and found a palm thatch 'bed' to clamber on and all promptly fell asleep.

The owner was a friendly guy and we were proving great novelty value (the kids, not Mike and I) so they asked us to spend the night, and vacated the family house so that we could do so. This was a little naughty as you are only meant to sleep in registered places, but we were exhausted and the family were nice, so we stayed. All great, apart from the fact that Sam was attacked by bed  bugs or mosquitos and came away sporting 34 bites on his back and legs whilst the rest of us were fine.

Arriving in Myanmar

Well, here we are, two weeks into our stay in Myanmar and it is just wonderful. Arriving into Yangon from Bangkok was a huge relief – we had had our fill of the backpacker district, and Yangon is pure Asia. I hadn't anticipated that Myanmar would be a cross between India and South East Asia, though I guess its location between the two should have been a clue, but it emphatically is.

On the first night we headed into town and ate our fill of cauliflower pakora and sweet Indian tea, sitting on tiny chairs on the edge of a busy road. Sam and Meg were agog at the noise, the hustle and the bustle.  We spent two days in Yangon, during which we reassembled the bikes and took them for a couple of test rides around town.  At first it was VERY hot, VERY sweaty and pretty busy but after a while we found ourselves in some small side streets and meandered along with the roads to ourselves, people waving and double-taking as we passed. As we cycle along the reaction is always the same – people spot Mike and Sam and all get very excited, stepping out into the road to keep watching. I then career along behind trying to avoid the crowds, before people realise that I have Meg on the back, and then all start giggling madly and calling at us as well and trying to touch Meg.

Internet Access in Myanmar

We can't access the blog from Myanmar so Mum is posting the following for us from the UK.

Blog, Map & Zoo Update ....

Mike

In an effort to put a little more info down on what we are doing, day to day. We have altered the map to show 'Pins' that outline our daily log. It is not always going to be up to date, but we will attempt to keep it moving.

You will need to click the larger map [ Underneath _ ] so that you can read the comments properly. Otherwise they are somewhat blocked out.

However.

The Pleasants go to the Zoo : Keep your eye on Liddy but wait for the last few frames & Meggles reaction

And you certainly cant fault the Dusit Zoo for not getting you up close and personal with the animals...

Off to Burma............

Liddy

Thank you for the comments everyone, we are really enjoying them.

Well this is just a quick post as bed is calling. We got back to Bangkok today and picked up our Burmese visas, which was a great relief (various forum postings had been stating that visas were being refused because of the elections that took place yesterday). We fly tomorrow.

Rumour has it that there has been a massive cyber attack on Burma (to do with the elections) with the result that much of the internet is down so we may go off signal for a few weeks. We are due back in Bangkok on around the 8th December but hopefully will be posting in the interim!

Dinner in a Brothel anyone??

Liddy

We are four days in and getting into the swing of things. Mike and I are adjusting to each other's way of doing things; I have an unfortunate tendency dating back to my travelling youth of being a total skinflint ('30p for a taxi, you have to be kidding me, I'll not pay a penny over 25 p'.......followed by hot trek across town on foot due to stubborn reluctance to pay what is probably frankly due) whilst Mike has more profligate tendecies ('Liddy, I'm on holiday, WHY can't I spend 80 pounds on a new pair of flip flops, stop being so tight'). So we are meeting in the middle and in an attempt to find a mutually satisfactory dinner venue last night, we stopped at a promising looking small restaurant; small so probably not wildly expensive, but still not a pavement shack. So, we sat down, ordered dinner and sat back to enjoy the ambience.

It soon became clear that the ambience was a little strange.

First, the restaurant was pretty much all single men apart from us. Unusual but not necessarily that unusual.
Second, the women enticing us into the restaurant were, on reflection, dressed rather more scantily than is normal.
Third, having attracted the Pleasants crew (probably rather unwillingly) the scantily dressed women disappeared back to the front and we were served by a very stoned, very manky looking woman who clearly was not used to taking dinner orders and got everything wrong.
Fourth, when the wrong dishes duly started to arrive, one of the women from out front came over and in a voice that was pure Ray Winstone, asked 'What's the Matter'.

Top Tip; when you are a woman standing about 5ft 11 high and you meet a Thai woman the same height, she is not a Thai woman.

So, the local lady boy investigates what is wrong. We soon work out that the establishment is not, strictly speaking, a restaurant and as soon as the kids finish their spaghetti bolognese (they are loving this Asian food thing) we scarper.

Back to our hotel where we all try to sleep. Meg and Sam succeed. Mike and I do not. Thumping dance beats from the bar right under our room keep us up till three. I decided to sit in the corridor for an hour from one till two; I listened to our neighbours have a screaming match in Dutch for twenty minutes, which was bearable, but when they started on the make up nookie I retreated back to our room to listen to 'We are the Champions' being belted out by the bar next door to the dance club. Fun Fun Fun. Clearly there is all manner of fun to be had in Bangkok!!

Still, apart from this, having a lovely time. We've been to Bangkok Zoo (brilliant, lots of animals that the kids loved apart from the poor little mouse that had clearly been fed into the snake cage and was running around trying to find shelter......didn't fancy his chances much......), taken lots of tuk-tuks, buzzed around in the slick Sky Train to state of the art shopping centres, hopped on local ferries to small wats (wat = temple.....cue lots of 'what wat' jokes......oh the laughs we have......!), tried to get the kids to eat rice and noodles, given up and taken them for pasta, wandered along small residential streets, taken more tuk-tuks etc etc.

We are departing for Ayuthaya, ancient Thai capital, tomorrow, still without our bikes for a couple of days. Then hopefully pick up our Myanmar (Burmese) visas on Monday and fly into Rangoon on Tuesday to start cycling.
We are all champing at the bit to get on the bikes (Sam, earlier on this evening; 'Mummy, if we are on a cycling holiday, why haven't we gone cycling yet?') but it is such a palava packing everything away into boxes, that we decided it wasn't worth it before the flight to Burma. Still, we can't wait. Not long to go now.

Sawadeeeeeeee (Hello)

Liddy
So, we've arrived. The journey wasn't absolute hell but we were all pretty frazzled by the time we arrived. Nice hotel but TINY room for the four giants that comprise the Pleasants family. We all squashed in and went for a meal before bed. We are in the heart of the backpacker district and every five metres is a loud bar with a long haired Thai man playing guitar and singing Bob Dylan, lots of bronzed blonde girls giggling and drinking whisky & coke from a bucket, and older men with wispy pony-tails and faded T shirts oggling the aforementioned girls.

We selected one of the quieter places but as soon as we ordered, the singer / guitarist had returned and started belting out the hits. Meg was next to the loud speaker, which turned out to be a god-send as she started having a tantrum and didn't finish until we'd finished the meal. Forty minutes of screaming is a long time, even for a toddler. Her egg 'wasn't comfy', she didn't want me to feed her, she did want me to feed her, she didn't want ketchup, she did want the ketchup.....normal toddler drill magnified 1000 fold because of exhaustion.

Today was much more sucessful.....we wandered through the local area, ate pad thai and cinnamon buns, swam at the hotel pool and generally had a lovely time not doing a great deal. Meg and Sam are a hit....Meg is already sustaining bruises from all the friendly pinches she is getting and Sam is quickly learning how to say hello in Thai and shake hands with complete strangers. They are both very excited by the pink taxis and the ubiquitous tuk tuks. Tomorrow we have promised a tuk tuk ride. Thus far the bikes are in storage.....will cross that bridge when we have a bit more energy!