Thailand October 23

I have reached Thailand which marks the end of the adventure  part of this trip. This will also be the end of my blog.

Choy and Alan will leave for Australia. I will continue my trip to ride back to Australia.

Myanmar 15 - 23 October

October 15 Monywa
Our Myanmar tour group. 9 bikes and 10 people. One government guide, one Myanmar guide, one Burma Sense guide from Vietnam, and two drivers.

 Four bridges were destroyed in recent monsoon downpour. One was repaired. Two crossings were transported via motorboat.

One crossing was via loading onto a raft. Initially two bikes per raft but  it was too unstable.

                                                It was then changed to one bike per raft.

The last crossing was done in the dark, and involved riding through a creek crossing! So it was an unexpected adventurous day.

                                                We visited Monywa Town  the next day

October 16 Bagan

                                                      Dhammayangyi Temple

                                                     A few of the 2000 temples in Bagan

October 18 Mandalay

                                                          Buddha in  Mahamuni Temple

                                                        Temple in Mandalay Hill

October 20 Inle Lake

October 21 -22  Napyitaw  & Golden Rock

                               Golden rock, the third most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Myanmar

October 23 Mae Sot
 

                                                 Final night dinner at Mae Sot

India September 23 - October 14

September 23 Amritsar
Border crossing in Pakistan was relatively quick even though we went through 7 check points. It was much slower in India border. We had to wait more than a hour for the person who did paperwork for the carnet to arrive. After we checked into our hotel on Amritsar, Choy and I headed back to border to witness the Indian - Pakistan border closing ceremony.

                                         Indian guards at border closing ceremony.

                     Golden Temple in Amritsar, India is the holiest Sikh temple in the world

                                        It has the world's largest free kitchen
                                          providing up to 100,000 free meal everyday

                                          It has hundreds of volunteers everyday.

September 24- 25 New Delhi

A whole day was spent riding to New Delhi. The next day we went to Myanmar embassy to apply for our visa. Unfortunately, we didn't realized that it was a holiday on the 25th, and the embassy was closed. So our rush to get to New Delhi by Thursday was a complete waste of effort.  Alan was having trouble with the fuel pump of his bike. He could not ride above 4,000 rpm,  so he took his bike to local  bike shop for repair. The took out the fuel pump and cleaned it. his bike appeared to run well after a short test ride.


September 26 Jaipur
We decided to go for a ride to Jaipur for a day. Alan's bike problem  reappeared during the ride. By the time we arrived at our air conditioned hotel. none of us was keen to venture out in the heat to do some sightseeing. The next day, Alan waited in the hotel for a truck to come and take his bike back to New Delhi. Choy and I  rode to visit this step well called Chand Baori which was built in the 8th -  9th Century A.D.

September 27 - October 1 New Delhi
We arrived back in New Delhi, and applied for and got our Myanmar visa in two days. We waited a few days for Alan's bike to be repaired. It now has a modified fuel pump which is working well. We visited a couple  of famous tourist spots.

The Red Fort was constructed in 1648 by the fifth Mughal Emperor as the palace of his fortified capital

Jama Masjik is one of the largest mosque in India - completed in1656. There were  bomb explosions in 2006, and shootings in 2010 where people were injured.


October 2 - 3 Agra
We visited its most famous tourist attraction -Taj Mahal.The white marble mausoleum
was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife of three, Mumtaz Mahal.

                                         Agra Fort was built in the 11th Century AD.

October 4 - 7 Varanasi
 Varanasi is regarded as the spiritual capital of India, it draws pilgrims who bathe in the River Ganges’ sacred waters and perform funeral rites.

             The Ganges river is so polluted that only a few brave souls will actually bathe in it.

                      Ganges River Ceremony  performed nightly at Dashaswamedh Ghat,

 

October 8 - 14 Patna, Purnea, Jalpaiguri, Bongaigaon, Guwahati, Dimapur, Inphal, Moreh

We are now just making our way to the Myanmar border. The road are generally in poor condition, and we are passing through small town with lots of cows, dogs, goats, people,  bicycles, motorcycles, tuk tuk, cars and trucks. So we could only traveled 200 to  300 km each day.

On the first day, we got caught in heavy traffic jam in a town called Bergusarai with a small population of 250,000 people. There was some sort of religious gathering and an organized political rally supporting their Prime Minister, Modi. Massive crowd of people, bicycles, motorcycles, car and truck were converging from opposite side of the two land road trying to cross each other. We were caught in the middle of this traffic jam in the blazing sun for one hour. I was covered with sweat, and took my riding jacket off and strapped it onto the back seat . Unfortunately, someone stole my Spot GPS tracker from the pocket!

                                    Indian traffic jam where my Spot GPS tracker was stolen.

                                  Leaving India. Our Myanmar tour group. 9 bikes and 10 people

Pakistan September 3 - 22

September 3 Taftan

The start our our Iranian police escort to the border. An 8 hours affair to cover 90 km! Lots of waiting and multiple changeovers..

 

By the time we crossed the border to Pakistan. It was too late to start riding to the next town. It was unsafe to stay in local hotel, so we were offered a room in the Taftan Police compound. Taftan had the feel of the wild west of Pakistan. We were not allowed to take picture of the town or its people.

September 4 – 5 Dalbandin

We were escorted by Police to Dalbandin. Unfortunate for us, the road was closed the next day due to protest from a nearby town. We had to stay there extra night. We could not venture outside our hotel without police escort. So photos were taken from the balcony of the hotel room.

                                          Our Pakistan Police Escort to Dalbandin

                                         Armed police  is guarding our hotel 24 hours a day

September 6 – 7 Quetta
We  had to stay in Quetta for extra day to get NOC, a permit to leave the city. We were also running out of cash and in desperate need to withdraw money from an ATM. We have exhausted our US$ cash in Iran where we could not access any ATM. Quetta is the first city in Pakistan where we can get cash from ATM.  Here are photos of various Police Escorts.

                                We are getting ready to leave Quetta,  waiting for our Escort to arrive.

                                        One of the many police check points along the way.

September 8 Sukkur

We were so glad that we had police escort with us to battle the chaotic peak hour traffic in Sukkur. we went to several hotels and they were all full. We finally found this guest house with secured parking.

September 9 - 10 Multan

I was introduced to a local adventure rider from Multan for 3 years. Iqbal is a very generous man welcoming bikers from all over the world to his home. We were also very fortunate in timing as his niece was getting married, and the wedding ceremony for the groom was right next door that night. It was a fun night with music and food. We didn't get to bed till 2 pm. The next day was spent on hair cut, and changing oil on our bikes.

                         Mr Iqbal Ghangla's family home - belong to him and 3 other brothers

September 11 Lahore

Lahore is a big city with over 5 million inhabitants, and the traffic is chaotic and dangerous. We met with Iqbal's friend Malik who owned a second hand car dealership. He checked us into a very nice hotel nearby. I had trouble with my oil change, so we seek help from his bike mechanic.

                                         Oil change by Malik's bike mechanic. No charge!

 

September 12 – 13 Islamabad

                            Malik took us to a roof top restaurant  overlooking the famous Badshahi mosque.

Igbal arrived late afternoon, and we rod off to Islamabad at night. It was a real battle to ride in heavy traffic a night.

      We accompany Iqbal  to the Islamabad Auto Show,  where he was an honorable exhibitor.

 Faisal Mosque is the largest Mosque in Pakistan. It was the world's largest mosque until 1993.

                            Went out to a nice restaurant after the show with some of his friends there.

 September 14 – 15 Naran
We said goodbye to Iqbal and rode to Naran. We are entering the most beautiful  part of Pakistan.

                                                   On our way there, I fed the monkeys.

                                           Choy was feeling a bit sore after his crash

                                 We went on a 4 wheel drive tour to the Lake Saiful Maluk

September 16 Gilgit

                                      Curvy road and nice scenery of Karakorum Highway

Behind me is the meeting point of 3 mightiest mountain ranges of the world. On the right Himalayas, middle Karakorum, and Hindukush on left.

September 17  - 18 Karimabad
We spent a day ride on the Karakorum highway to the Khunjerab Pass (4,700 metre) right up to the Chinese border. This section has the best road and scenery of our entire trip!

                                          Taken from just outside our hotel

                                          Taken from just outside our hotel

                                         Taken from just outside our hotel

     The new tunnel was closed for a few hours so we took a boat trip to get pass that section

                                         We rode pass a glacier

                                          Chinese - Pakistan border

September 19 Besham

A tough day riding from Karimabad to Chilas. where we stop at Shagrila Hotel for lunch. We were considering to stay there overnight, but decided to ride on because they did not have internet access. That was a bad mistake as it was already 3 pm and we didn't realized that the next 200 km was consisting of very rough roads, and that a police escort was waiting for us at the hotel. We got to Besham city at around 9 pm, very tired and thirsty.

September 20 – 21 Islamabad

We managed to sneak out of our hotel without any police escort, but when we reached a police checkpoint, we were again  escorted for a around 50 km later. We rode the rest of the way to Islamabad by ourselves. We arrived at KP House around 6 pm.  Accommodation was arranged and paid for by Alan's relatives. We spent the next day with them sightseeing around Islamabad.  We had a nice time with them, and grateful for their incredible hospitality.

                                         Alan's son in law's family from Peshawar. 

                                          Faisal Mosque is the largest mosque in Pakistan.

September 22 Lahore
It was a long day ride in the rain. We were totally wet by the time we got to Lahore. Then we had to battle with chaotic traffic and heavy flooding for nearly an hour before we arrived at our hotel. Our boots were filled with dirty flood water. We spent the rest of our day with cleanup.