10th Jan - Hpa An to Kawkareik - 91km
I go and see how they process rubber. First, collect the sap in locally made clay pots
Putting it through rollers to remove water
Then hanging it out to dry
I arrived at the Happy Guesthouse in Kawkareik and was not at all happy to find out that I'd left my passport with the front desk 91 km away back in Hpa An. The cost of the taxi to go fetch it was three times the cost of the night at the guesthouse. Ah well!
Kawkareik was all about Suu Suu and the noodle factory........sounds a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Let me explain........
During dinner with the cycle touring mafia the previous night Rachel and Patrick had said I must meet Suu Suu as she was such an amazing person. Rachel even sent her a message telling her I was arriving in Kawkareik that night. Suu Suu was the first ever Warmshowers host registered in Burma but because it is still illegal for foreigners to stay overnight in homes she can only host in terms of showing around the town.
Sure enough, about an hour from Kawkareik I got a message asking when was I expecting to arrive and where was I staying.
Too cut a long story short, after I'd despatched a taxi to fetch my passport, I agreed to meet her at 16:30 at her office which wasn't far from my guesthouse.
Her office turned out to be the place where they marked driving tests and issued licenses. I waited in the office while she went for a shower which was quite awkward as no-one spoke a word of English. The boss didn't want me to photograph the place, apparently because they were about to move to new premises and he was embarrassed at the state of the place. It was amazing a dusty old teak building piled high with ancient brown files rolled up scroll-fashion.
On a bicycle tour of Kawkareik. Suu Suu's hair was so long that there was a fair chance it could tangle up in her rear wheel.
Suu Suu eventually returned from her shower and asked what I wanted to do. The truth was that after cycling 90km that day the first thing I wanted to do was sink a beer or two, the last thing I wanted to do was cycle anywhere. Her suggestion was that we go see a noodle factory. Why not? That'll be a first for me.
It's a very complicated procedure but the machinery and conditions were how I imagined a Victorian workhouse to have been. A dirt floor, wood fires, children running around next to unguarded belt driven machines........
First the rice is ground into a soup
After the water is squeezed out the balls of dough are cooked........ then broken up and more water added to make a paste
The paste is then manually squeezed through nozzles into a tub of boiling water and voila! Noodles!
Health and Safety inspectors would have a heart attack!
It's getting dark when we leave, Suu Suu clutching a bag of freshly made noodles. She stops at a roadside stall on the way back to her place and buys half a dozen bags of I-don't-know-what for the evening meal. During the meal she tells me a bit about her family and how she plans to start environmental classes (the fight back against plastics and packaging) for kids at her house and how she is hoping to involve passing foreign cyclists because "the kids are impressed by foreigners". An unexpected and interesting evening. When I left it was raining and I couldn't find anywhere that sold beer!
The electrics outside my room at the Happy Guesthouse. The town electricity was on from 6pm to 9pm daily. Not much point in having an air conditioner!
12th Jan- Kawkareik and over the border to Mae Sot - 68km
As a result of Burma opening up to the outside world there is now a brand new (so new it's not on my OpenSource map) super smooth highway connecting Kawkareik to Thailand. So, of course, I take the narrow, hilly, old road which is now totally unused and falling into disrepair. If it wasn't for a few small rural villages and monasteries it would be abandoned altogether.
It's a bit showery and a continuous 22 km climb up into cloud and mist, topping out at 760m
The benefits are you get to see some unspoilt jungle.
So far so good ........don't let me down here!
Suu Suu, who knows about these things, had told me I should meet a Spanish cyclist coming the other way........and I do! He suddenly appears out of the mist and, as is the custom, we stop and exchange information. We comment on the spookily deserted villages we have seen, now that the traffic has dried up.
I ask how much further it is until I reach the top. About an hour, he says. Oh bugger, that's disappointing. I didn't bring any food as I wasn't expecting the road to be so empty (or steep!) and I'm getting hungry. I try to convince myself that
ketosis will see me through but after a while I stop and look for some packets of electrolyte which I know contain glucose. No luck, but I do find some sachets of Ovaltine drink powder which turn out to be surprisingly satisfying.
It was a fantastic descent down the other side until I rejoined the highway and the dust just before the border crossing at Myawaddy.
It was wonderful to be back in Thailand again........so civilised! I celebrate by taking a day off in Mae Sot and ordering a rib-eye steak for dinner.
Early morning departure from Taungoo
Still lots of oxen and water buffalo at work in the fields
The school bicycle shed needs to be pretty big here. 
I take a back road on the map and end up on 20km of red dirt. 
I stop at a restaurant and randomly bump into the first cycle tourists I've seen since Inle Lake. Guigui and JB are French backpackers who switched onto bicycles at the border. They bought me beer and told me about all the things to see in Hpa An. Very nice couple. 
Another early morning departure from Nyaunglebin
From the iron bridge I get my first view of Mount Zegwabin which I plan to climb. 
On the run in to Hpa An
