BillyV
Cycling Through Burma
2004

Shwedagon, one of Buddhism's holiest shrines in Rangoon

Shwedagon

Shwedagon

Bike group preparing to fly to Chinese border

Bike tour truck for baggage and bikes

Govt. checkpoint...many in the North

Roadside food stop....like our daily lunch stop

Roasted grubs..tasted like cereal

Tha-na-KA skin markings, made from tree and used for sunscreen, moisturizer and beauty marking

Betal nut stand. Locals chew for energy (like cocaine.) Not as bad as the leaf they sell it with. Tastes like evergreen. You spit red for hours.

Crossing WW II bridge on Burma Road

Burma Road

One of two Tour Bus/ Local transport

Young monks out after begging breakfast

Temple made mostly from mirrored glass and jewels

Ready to Roll

Gotiek River Gorge-7 mile descent and 5 STEEP mile climb

Roadside view

Old British hill retreat( hotel we stayed in one night)

Lakeview in Pyin Oo Lwin

Bikes and Bamboo

Bike Shop in Pyin Oo Lwin

View from our hotel room in Mandalay

Sweat shop..sewing factory

Mandalay Hill

Tricar Taxi ( $2 for all day!)

Mandalay Palace and moat(1.2 km square)

Unfinished pagoda(stupa) would have been the largest in world

Pen paid for bike crossing

Mt Popa monastery and temple...built on volcanic plug and home to the "Nats" impish gods

Fruit vendor

Grinding peanuts to oil

Our hotel in Bagan. Bagan has thousands of ancient temples and stupas, many restored

Bagan temples

Atop a Bagan temple

Bagan scene

Horse carts are used to tour the temple area

Bagan at sunset

Cigar maker

More Tha-na-KA

Outdoor dining on riverfront at our hotel. Note tree lanterns

Band for festival parade

Tour bus...we had two buses and one truck. Two translator guides, three truckers, and 4 helpers

Selling fried chicken at a lunch stop

Note road....typical condition...dirt/sand/rocks

Inle lake...40 miles long and home to 100,000 lake dwellers

Inle lake fisherman

Lake houses

Weaving factory on lake

Inle lake temple

Can't escape vendors even on Lake

Paper balloon festival. Our tour group sponsored one. Many thousands of spectators come for two nights a year on a full moon for balloons, fireworks and partying. Mob scene

Porters carrying pilgrims up to Golden Rock... a temple built on a giant balancing boulder. $ 8 for a 2.5 mile ride up a steep mountain

Golden Rock temple( we got there late and had to climb in the dark) Again it was full moon and thousands of pilgrims were spending the night up there

Pilgramage to the rock

Watermelon girl..her brother was reading Gone with the Wind in Burmese

British WW II cemetery(22,000 buried there)

Our group riding into Rangoon(Bikes and motorbikes are not allowed in the city)

Finish Line at gates to Shwedagon

Duck dinner

Our hotel in Rangoon

Duck restaurant

Background music at hotel

Check the size of the prawns

Kids making tortilla like bread at market

Shrine built into tree. Almost every old tree had similar shrine

Kids with Tha-na-KA