The original plan for today was to awake at 05:00am and watch the sun rise over the mystical place. the only problem was that it was a bit too mystical (in the cloud sense) and visibility was still very poor. Needles to say we took the opportunity to sleep-in instead.

Oh well, it was a magical place to visit either way. The morning was then all about the impending ride in the back of truck back down the mountain!

The first run for the trucks was at 09:30am so we made sure we were there on time as we were advised you can get held back with people queuing waiting for trucks. We managed to get on board for on of the first runs down and it was exciting to say the least, Very steep roads with sharp hairpins, blind corners and one extremely committed driver/pilot!

By the time we made it back to the base camp we all knew we were alive and there was a distinctive smell of over heated brakes wafting up from the poor truck.

Soon we were back to our bikes and climbing back into our riding gear for the 225km stint to Kawkareik which is the last destination before we hit the Thailand border tomorrow.

We finished the evening off with a wonderful dinner with our new friends (Ye & Bargyi) who had made excellent guides showing us their magical country.

Our ride today will took us to Kin Pun Sakan which is the town located near “Golden Rock”, Myanmar’s 3rd most important religious site. The distance was 320km.

The ride went straight forward, we were finding the roads much better the further south we travelled as they were less damaged by the wet season and flooding. It did start to rain as we approach our destination, fortunately only lightly.

Today inloved travelling from Old Bagan to Taungoo, a distance of approx. 360km. The ride took us along the Yangon – Mandalay Expressway which is a multi-laned top class toll way heading North/South. Our guides advised that we were the first motorcycles they were aware of that had been given permission to use the road, as bikes are typically banned from this high speed road as the typical 100cc motorcycle would be a danger due to their lack of speed.

All aspects of our tour were subject to  being granted permission by the government which involved copious amounts of paperwork prior to our arrival by the tour company that did such a great job of looking after us.

The day was hot (mid 30’s) but fortunately the roads were easy going. We stopped for a break at one stage and was shown some the traditional farming techniques which involved milking a local coconut sized plant for its sweet juice that is then dried and used as a sweetener. We were also shown how the local “home brew” spirit was distilled.

As we made it to our hotel for the end of the day, a group of around 12 Ducati Multistrada motorbikes road by in the opposite direction on what appeared to be some sort of group organised tour. It was an exciting moment seeing other bikers riding by in such a country, unfortunately they did not stop so and we have been unable to work out any details which was a pity.

Today was our first full day in Myanmar, with both Steve and I intrigued as to how our tour of this little known tourist destination would be. Our journey was to take us from Kale to Monywa, a distance of 335km’s.

We headed out for the ride with our tour guides in a vehicle in front that we were to follow. The surrounding area was clearly heavily impacted by the recent floods with muddy roads, many damaged and destroyed homes along the way. We also came across several “camps” set up to house many hundreds, if not thousands of family’s who were displaced due to flooding. Typically they were simply tent cities with very limited services.

We were soon allowed to ride ahead for the tour guides and asked to stop in one hours time at the local village. The ride was pleasant with the surrounding mountains gaving a great back drop. We soon made it to where we were to stop and with no moment on us (none of the atm’s we tried had worked so far) we settled in at a road side cafe and waited after ordering a bite to eat and drink expecting our guides to be along very soon.

No word and after about an hour, Ye (tour guide) turned up on the back of a small motorbike to inform us that the car had broken down and that we would have to wait another hour. No problem as this gave time to chat with the locals and wonder the village at a relaxed pace.

After  another hour and more phone calls we made the decision to get Ye on the back of David’s bike and to carry on the journey, the others could catch up in due course. Ye settled the bill, put his chin strap on his sun hat and we were off.

The ride was a long one that day due to the delay and carying an additional passenger slowed progress on the rough and twisty hilly roads. Ye did a great job of not complaining and hanging on in some clearly difficult road conditions. It even started to rain at one point and with no wet gear it was a case of tucking up behind David to avoid the rain.

We made it tour destination after dark and all three of us pleased everything ended up ok for us. The other guys would later turn up at mid night after getting buses as the car required parts that were not available that day.

Over a beer at dinner Ye then informed us that he does not drive or ride and has only been on the back of a couple of small (100cc ish) scooters in the past. Today he was passenger on a 1,200cc bike hauling along at over 100km/h on what could only best be described as “average roads” without a word of complaint. He did admit to having the daylight a scared out of him however, which made us all laugh. A day for him to remember! Ha