Bike ride

Last weekend we went on a bike ride across the river. It was very hot and sweaty (as illustrated by the photo of me where I look a not so beautiful prawn colour). Cycling along a fairly busy dusty road was not super fun, but we had an adventure, and met some interesting people… and in the case of Ant got to hold some ducklings which made him so happy.

The first photo is the first river we crossed, Yangon’s version of the London eye in the background. This crossing was easy as we cycled over the river on the bridge. At the next (much bigger) river crossing there was a lot of hand waving and gestures from the police/ bridge monitors (?? they looked official). Initially we thought perhaps foreigners were not allowed to cross the river, but then someone with slightly more English than the others appeared and explained that although bikes were not allowed on the bridge we could go across. A bus came along and so we clambered on with the bikes and along we went. Once on the bus we realised why we could not cycle on the bridge. It was very narrow, and about 1km long, so would have meant all traffic crawling along behind us…

   

We stopped for a cup of tea, and a man approached us to introduce his three daughters for a photo. They were clearly dressed up for something special! The hat of the biggest girl seems to say “sexy” on it. Suppose it is one of those lost in translation things.

Next up was the family of three boys, 2 of which seemed to have pet ducklings. Ant was so happy about this, and luckily they were happy for him to hold them. In the end he had to give them back to the toddler…

  

We conclude toddlers and ducklings are not the best of combinations. Their way of holding ducklings by the head/ legs/ wing/ beak etc. probably doesn't make the happiest of ducklings. Once we finished our tea it was time to pootle onwards…