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............