Weekend mountain biking

This last weekend the 3 of us got up at 5.30am, and went out cycling with a local mountain biking group. Bikes were loaded up into one truck, people into another, and then we drove out of Yangon for about an hour. We parked up in a village and some people ate breakfast (rice, noodles etc.) from a small cafe/shack. Then we headed off into the countryside. I don’t think the photos really show just how wet and muddy it all was. Even without the on-off rain we were soaked with sweat (nice) from the humidity and effort of staying on the bike going up and down the slippery and rutted tracks. There were endless HUGE puddles/ semi lakes to ford. Mel did particularly well cycling through one deep bit of water (up to the knees) wearing flip-flops! I guess we cycled about 20miles in total. The group was a mixture of expats and seriously hard core lycra clad locals. They were all really friendly and made sure you were never at the back (handy or we would have been totally lost), and shouted gear changes during particularly steep bits (also handy). At the end we trooped out to the back of the cafe where there was an open well. We then proceeded to pour water over ourselves with some ladles which were to hand. It was quite hard to resist the temptation just to jump in the well – as we really were filthy and hot. Anyway, somehow we did resist, and were finally able to have a sit down and eat bananas and drink some very iceice cold beer!

It was so so so nice to be out of the city and in beautiful countryside. I think we all had a great time, but spent the rest of the day zonked out. I don’t think we will do it every week, but will definitely go from time to time, especially when our mountain bikes and cycling shoes arrive!

Hopefully the photos below give an idea about the countryside. There was a beautiful stone/ gold stupa (on the top of the hill in the photo with Ant in it). We climbed up there and had a great view of the reservoir below and lush green countryside.

  

Part of the route went through a rubber plantation. It was interesting to see people processing the sap, mixing some sort of acid with their bare hands, and then letting the rubber set in the tin trays before pushing it through a mangle to make the sheets of rubber drying behind Mel.