One of many colourful trucks
After what feels like months of ‘hanging out’ in south east Asia, waiting for the right time to pass into India for the next leg of our trip we have finally made it!
We found it a bit hard to break away from the comfortable routine we found ourselves in in Chiang Mai and get back on the road but we are once again well and truely back into it!
Due to the expense of the guide we had to have to cross Myanmar we did it in the shortest time possible, 3 nights and 4 very long days. It was such a shame to rush it as it is a beautiful place to visit but luckily we have been there before.
We were accompanied across Myanmar by a guide, a government official and a driver. Like all the people in Myanmar they were super friendly and bent over backwards to help us. They met us at our hotel lobby every morning and told us our destination and we would arrange where to meet for lunch and then we were off!
Our guides
Lots of wooden bridges
The travel company prearranged the hotels for us and despite us insisting on the cheapest hotel in town to try to minimise the cost we found ourselves pulling up at the flashiest most expensive place in town every night. It felt wrong and almost dirty being in such a flashy place in such poor towns!
The guys also took us out to dinner every night so we could try the local food, which was delicious! Very different from Thai and more similar to Indian food. Lots of curries and spices. One night we were taken to a restaurant where the staff brought out about 20 little plates of different food and we were free to try as much or as little as we liked with a $5 cost per person. The food was amazing but unfortunately Dean and I both had ‘issues’ during the night which led us to not getting much sleep and feeling pretty crap the following day. Dean pulled up a bit better than me thankfully as I was unable to get on the bike without feeling like I was going to be sick in my helmet! I slept in the guides van for the first part of the journey and when I felt that the travel sickness was overriding the food poisoning I got on the back of the bike! It was a long very hard day but we made it… And I have to say that it was nice to arrive at a nice hotel with clean sheets on this occasion!
Cows with wooden carts… a moment back in time!
Having heard so many negative things about India from all overlanders we have met, we have both been a little apprehensive about India. Still we are keen to see it for ourselves and like to think that we have travelled to enough places to be prepared for what it throws at us!
Upon crossing the border today to Moreh (one of the easiest, quickest, friendliest ever) and riding 100 kms through the mountains to arrive at the town we stopped in tonight, we have been pleasently surprised!
a sign in the myanmar immigration office
I know we are still in a little corner of India that feels more like a big mountain town than India but the people are friendly, smiley and welcoming. That being said, the town we are staying in tonight is a busy ugly dust bowl. It is frezing cold and we are fighting with the (expensive) hotel to get the hot shower that was promised to us…and nobody sells beer 🙂