Not Hungover...
|
Bawga (temple town) to (Monywa) 150kms
Words by Johnny Bang |
|
I won’t say I woke up hangover, just with a dry mouth, headache, disorientation and a splitting headache. I think someone must have spiked one of the many brandless fake burbon drinks I vaguely remember drinking from the back shelf of a dodgy alley bar late last night. What bastards.
I shower and walk around the room finding and sniffing my 3 t-shirts to find the cleanest dirty one. I threw my meager belongings into my soft panier and ready, went to find the team. Knocking on Dan and Shaun’s doors they look at least as bad as I feel. I do my best impersonation of a sober person, ignore the jackhammers in my head and pretend I’m not hungover at all – going as far as to suggest they must be wusses if they are hungover.
Luckily we are only up for a short ride today. Probably our shortest day so far at 150kms. It was cool to see some ancient temples around Bagwa old town as we rode out. Bargwa was the first time since Thailand we have seen other tourists. I feel like these is a deep and interesting history we are probably riding past but if we stopped at every temple, lookout and tourist trap I doubt we would ever get anywhere, so we ride on.
Today we were pulled over multiple times by aggressively friendly groups in small towns collecting money. I didn’t give any, partly because I didn’t know what it was for, partly because my money is hidden in my pannier bag, and partly because I’m tight. It was fun riding through a town and being stopped by a bunch of teenage boys yelling and waving and dancing. It was less fun as the frequency increased. I found out tonight from our guide that they were collecting for the local church. I wonder if that explains why one of the groups sprayed me with a hose. Was it a blessing? Or a punishment for not paying? Or a treat as it was 40degrees in the sun?
We were riding fertile grassed farmland today, and must have rode over more bridges than I could keep count of, the longest going about as far as we could see across the Ayeyarwady River.
We arrived at our new hotel at around 1pm. After standing on my phone while changing the cam chain on my bike a few days ago I had purchased a new one for $100US. It is a good phone with a good camera and I like it, however the Chinese version of Andriod it runs blocks google play and facebook which I have been using to communicate back home. The internet tells me I need to ‘jailbreak’ the phone before it will run these applications.
Shaun and I go for a ride into town and find an electronics store run by two enterprising 14 year olds. We play various games of charades and show them some websites but ultimately it turns into a nice, albeit unproductive walk. I got to play with a cool little kid next to the shop who must have been about the same age as my 2 year old at home. It makes me happy and sad at the same time as I am reminded of the times I am missing out on with my son.
The remaining hours in the afternoon allow me to raid the free soap shampoo and conditioner in the hotel to make ‘wash paste’ in the bathroom and dry my clothes on the balcony. Some general maintenance on the bike is punctuated by a dust storm followed by an electrical storm followed by a rain storm followed by a blackout.
I shower and walk around the room finding and sniffing my 3 t-shirts to find the cleanest dirty one. I threw my meager belongings into my soft panier and ready, went to find the team. Knocking on Dan and Shaun’s doors they look at least as bad as I feel. I do my best impersonation of a sober person, ignore the jackhammers in my head and pretend I’m not hungover at all – going as far as to suggest they must be wusses if they are hungover.
Luckily we are only up for a short ride today. Probably our shortest day so far at 150kms. It was cool to see some ancient temples around Bagwa old town as we rode out. Bargwa was the first time since Thailand we have seen other tourists. I feel like these is a deep and interesting history we are probably riding past but if we stopped at every temple, lookout and tourist trap I doubt we would ever get anywhere, so we ride on.
Today we were pulled over multiple times by aggressively friendly groups in small towns collecting money. I didn’t give any, partly because I didn’t know what it was for, partly because my money is hidden in my pannier bag, and partly because I’m tight. It was fun riding through a town and being stopped by a bunch of teenage boys yelling and waving and dancing. It was less fun as the frequency increased. I found out tonight from our guide that they were collecting for the local church. I wonder if that explains why one of the groups sprayed me with a hose. Was it a blessing? Or a punishment for not paying? Or a treat as it was 40degrees in the sun?
We were riding fertile grassed farmland today, and must have rode over more bridges than I could keep count of, the longest going about as far as we could see across the Ayeyarwady River.
We arrived at our new hotel at around 1pm. After standing on my phone while changing the cam chain on my bike a few days ago I had purchased a new one for $100US. It is a good phone with a good camera and I like it, however the Chinese version of Andriod it runs blocks google play and facebook which I have been using to communicate back home. The internet tells me I need to ‘jailbreak’ the phone before it will run these applications.
Shaun and I go for a ride into town and find an electronics store run by two enterprising 14 year olds. We play various games of charades and show them some websites but ultimately it turns into a nice, albeit unproductive walk. I got to play with a cool little kid next to the shop who must have been about the same age as my 2 year old at home. It makes me happy and sad at the same time as I am reminded of the times I am missing out on with my son.
The remaining hours in the afternoon allow me to raid the free soap shampoo and conditioner in the hotel to make ‘wash paste’ in the bathroom and dry my clothes on the balcony. Some general maintenance on the bike is punctuated by a dust storm followed by an electrical storm followed by a rain storm followed by a blackout.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|