8th Dec 2016 - Myawaddy to Kyaikto (Golden Rock)

8th Dec 2016 - Myawaddy to Kyaikto (Golden Rock)

Three ministers of the Myanmar Govt flagged us off from the Hotel Grade One where we were staying.

View from our room in Hotel Grade One

Part of the Musicians group

Musicians and the ancers

Mahalakshmi having Thanaka applied on her face.

So, what is Thanaka?

The wood of several trees may be used to produce thanaka cream; these trees grow abundantly in central Myanmar. They include principally Murraya spp. (thanaka) ^[2] but also Limonia acidissima (theethee or wood apple).^[6] The two most popular are Shwebo thanaka from Sagaing Region and Shinmadaung thanaka from Magway Region. A more recent contender sold as a paste is Taunggyi Maukme thanaka from southern Shan State. Thanaka trees are perennials, and a tree must be at least 35 years old before it is considered mature enough to yield good-quality cuttings. Thanaka in its natural state is sold as small logs individually or in bundles, but nowadays also available as a paste or in powder form.

To know more about Thanaka go to - wikipedia

Scene from Myanmar Highway

A toll booth in Myanmar

The Chassis seems to be extended and an engine fitted in front of the vehicle.

Bridge across Thanlyin river

Orchids in the Hotel Eternity

The drive was long and we drove along the same landscape continuously, Hour after hour. In between we stopped at a restaurant on the roadside for some tea and it so much resembled those in Sri Lanka. We had sugarcane juice here.

Typical Myanmarese home, made of wood and on stilts. Even our Hotel room though of only one floor was raised and built on stilts - Brick and mortar building.

Typical Myanmarese road.

A Myanmarese cart powered by a motorcycle engine, where the rider sits on one side and not in the centre.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the roadside where the vegetarian food was quite alright. The tables were made of teak and so were all furniture in fact.

Both sides of the road one can find rubber tree plantations and in my understanding not as well maintained as one could see in Kerala. Yes we did walk through one for a short while.

6th Dec 2016 - Bangkok - Ayuthaya - Sukothai

6th Dec 2016.

We were packed and ready by 7 AM and excited to start our drive.

Ashwin and I at the car, Ashwin was the designated driver for this car and will drive the car from Bangkok uptil Ayuthaya.

Shaymala Ejji and Mahalakshmi at the porch just before departure.

Mahalakshmi and I at the car just before we commenced our journey.

The convoy left Hotel Rembrandt at 7:30 AM and headed towards Ayuthaya, we needed to cover a distance of about 80 Km to reach Ayuthaya and after looking around Ayuthaya we sop over for lunch and then dive onto Sukothai.

Here is something from Wikitravel about Ayuthaya -

Founded around 1350, Ayutthaya became the second capital of Siam after Sukhothai. Throughout the centuries, the ideal location between China, India and the Malay Archipelago made Ayutthaya the trading capital of Asia and even the world. By 1700 Ayutthaya had become the largest city in the world with a total of 1 million inhabitants. Many international merchants set sail for Ayutthaya, from diverse regions as the Arab world, China, India, Japan, Portugal, the Netherlands and France. Merchants from Europe proclaimed Ayutthaya as the finest city they had ever seen. Dutch and French maps of the city show grandeur with gold-laden palaces, large ceremonies and a huge float of trading vessels from all over the world. All this came to a quick end when the Burmese invaded Ayutthaya in 1767 and almost completely burnt the city down to the ground.

Today, only a few remains might give a glimpse of the impressive city they must have seen. Its remains are characterized by the prang (reliquary towers) and big monasteries. Most of the remains are temples and palaces, as those were the only buildings made of stone at that time. The great cultural value of Ayutthaya's ruins were officially recognized in 1991, when the Historic City became an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its proximity to Bangkok make it a popular day-trip destination for travelers from Bangkok.

Ayutthaya is an island at the confluence of three rivers: the Chao Phraya River, the Lopburi River and the Pa Sak River. As the train station is at the east side off the island, most visitors will need to cross the river by ferry boat. Navigating your way around the island is not particularly hard: U Thong Rd is a ring road that circumvents the island completely. Most temple ruins can be found at the northwest of the island, while accommodation and night life is clustered around the northeast. As non-Siamese peoples were not allowed to live inside the city walls, things foreign are found off the island.

On a personal note I must say that the little excursion into Ayuthaya ruins was exciting, imagine going back in time over 750 years and think of the people who lived there, at the rear end there is a large scale model of the palace and the temples as they looked many many years ago. One needs to spend a little time here to soak in the

7th Dec 2016 - Sukothai to Mayyawaddy in Myanmar

7th Dec 2016 - Sukothai to Mayyawaddy in Myanmar



Our stay was at Paylin Hotel, Sukothai for the night. Not much in turns of facilities but quite neat. The food as would be in any rural Asian Country.

We were packed and ready by 7 AM and ready to go to the Sukothai (Kingdom Historic Park), this was the Capital of the Sukothai Nation and the ruins here go back to the 13th and 14th Centuries. 

One gets to go around in trams which have now been refurbished and have electric motors installed. We were provided with a guide and also received black sticky rice a new type of organic rice called RiceBerry as souvenirs / gifts. 

Here is something about Riceberry, click on this link ---Riceberry - to know more click here

Here is something from wikitravel about Sukothai

The city is a popular tourist destination because it is located near the ruins of the ancient city of Sukhothai, which was the Thai capital during the 13th Century C.E. The historical Sukhothai was the first capital of Siam founded by King Ramkhamhaeng. The province's temples and monuments have been restored and Sukhothai Historical Park is an area with numerous sites of historical interest which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other interesting places include Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, Ramkhamhaeng National Park, Sri Satchanalai National Park, and The Royal Palace and Wat Mahathat.

History

Sukhothai was capital of the first kingdom of Siam established some 800 years ago. The exact year is unknown but according to the Fine Arts Office it was between 1238 and 1257.

Established in around 1238 to 1257, Sukhothai literally means “Dawn of Happiness.” Phokhun Si Intharathit was the founder of the Phra Ruang Dynasty, Sukhothai’s first dynasty. For 120 years as the capital of Siam, Sukhothai was ruled by many kings. In this connection, the most dynamic monarch being King Ramkhamhaeng the Great, who created the Thai alphabet, laid the foundation for politics, monarchy, and religion, as well as, expanded its boundary of influence. Though the golden era of Sukhothai no longer exists, tourists should bear in mind that respect and admiration for the renowned ruined twin cities of Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai is highly valued.

With little time available to us we completed the ruins and the museum in less than three hours and were on our way to the Myanmar border by about 11AM.

In about 3 hours we reached MaeSot which is on the border with Myanmar. Myanmar is across the river Moei from Thailand (MaeSot). 

At the ruins of the Sukothai Historic Park

Map of the historic park

Face of Buddha at the museum.

Seed pods in a rural Thai market. Large eh???

Dried mushrooms? With the language barrier I could not find out what these where.

Entering Myanmar on the Thai side.

Entering Myanmar, on the Myanmar side of the border. Note the cars are now on the right side of the road.

Temporary registration of the car I was driving in Myanmar

Going to the duty free shop housed in a  Casino cum Hotel

Waiter at Grade One Hotel - Myawaddy.

We crossed into Myanmar and everything went without a hitch, we were expected and were given temporary numbers for our cars. On top of the bridge when you cross into Myanmar one has to switch to the right side of the road as traffic moves on the right side of the road in Myanmar and against the left side in Thailand. So we now have to contend with driving right hand drive cars on the right hand side of the road in Myanmar. The traffic was rather chaotic, not many care here for traffic rules or for their lives. We went to a Hotel cum Casino cum duty free shop where we all bought a few essentials and in about 90 minutes we were driving towards our Hotel - Grade One Hotel in Myawaddy. Again one of those Hotels in a small town in Myanmar, reasonably clean with not so smart decor and taste. 

In Bangkok - 3rd dec to 5th Dec 2016

We took a flight from Chennai to Bangkok on the morning of 3rd and arrived at 6:40 AM the same morning. we checked into our Hotel and almost the entire day was used to catch up with some rest and sleep.

Landing at Suvarnabhoomi airport - Bangkok

Toll fee receipts from Suvarnabhoomi airport - Bangkok to our Hotel.

The next day we took around a friend of ours shopping and on most probably his first tuk tuk ride in Bangkok.

Tuk Tuk driver in the (obviously) Tuk Tuk

We were earlier in the day looking for an Indian provision store to stock up on some spices, condiments and daily supplies that would last us the trip. In Sukhumvit Soi 18 we stumbled upon the "Daily Needs Store" run by Kuldip Singh who was most helpful and gave us his card to get in touch with him in case we needed any type of help whatsoever in Bangkok.

I am on the left and Kuldip Singh on the right just outside his store.

The days in Bangkok were spent in relaxing, walking around the area close to the Hotel, a little bit of shopping and foot massage.

5th December 2016

We have completed some of the paperwork required for our drive in the morning just after breakfast and now need to hand over other documents to Ramesh Mahapatra, of Kalinga Motor Sports Club, Orissa, organisers of this drive and once that is done I believe all paperwork is done and we are set.

Just after noon  went to Ramesh Mahapatra's room and handed over our passports and other papers that were required and collected a set of T shirts and back packs and a jacket each for the drive. A while later we were allotted the cars and I was given a TATA Safari - Storme. Black in Colour, this was to be our car the next few days while driving from Bangkok to Guwahati through Burma.

Our car the TATA Storme, No 12.

In the evening we were invited for a dinner by the organisers for a briefing of what we can expect on the drive and what is expected of us. The dinner was at Hotel Rembrandt ad was from 7;30 PM till about 10PM.

The  briefing was done by Ejji and others added on some information here and there and that was it. We were ready to get going.

It was an early evening as we were expected to pack and be off by 7:30 AM the next morning.

29th Nov 2015 - Baroda to Mumbai

The objective of starting a little early into Mumbai was to reach before the traffic snarls delayed us getting into the Hotel and moreover we had planned on visiting someone at the edge of the city.

A early start was good though not as early as we would have liked, the breakfast took a little time and we were on our way shortly. We hit the highway soon after and made good time. The drive to Mumbai was good, the roads were good and though at parts maintenance was going and this was expected. The tolls were fast and yes real fast, the toll booth operators do not waste time and they are efficient, moving vehicles swiftly and without delay, so the long queues really did not punish us.

Once in Mumbai the traffic was as expected, heavy. We managed to get into our first visit just about 30 minutes late not bad considering that we took a wrong turn somewhere and we had to go about 10 Kms to find a U turn to get back to the road which we should have taken. One must realise that GPS is not accurate to the foot and is most often accurate to about 25 feet and in a city like Bombay where in parts of the city there are more than one road leading away from the main road, one needs to be careful, check the signages for the correct road and not entirely rely upon the GPS.

A few hours here and we were on our way again towards Fort. Where we were staying.

The drive was not too bad and we managed to get to our Hotel much before peak traffic. The hotel thankfully had skilled drivers who had to park the car many times during the day over the next few days as I would notice depending on the time of the day and traffic flow. The car would be shifted form one location to another.

2nd Dec 2015 - Mumbai to Kolhapur

Our rice cooker was out early in the morning, the rice was made mixed with curds, packed and we ready to go. In a few minutes we were down having our breakfast, Made sure that all we had to pack was packed and nothing left behind in the room.

By about 9 AM we were in the car with the luggage loaded and were off, the first stop was to tank up on diesel and check the air and once this was done at a nearby fuel station we were off, heading towards the Eastern expressway, which would take us to Thane and then onto the Mumbai Pune expressway.

The roads as expected were good and fortunately there were no unruly drivers on the road, pleasant driving with good scenery to the left and right and wide roads where one can do good speeds. But watch out, there are some curves that are unexpected and if one is not an experienced driver going very fast on the Mumbai Pune expressway one must be slow and careful. There were signages pointing out that tyre bursts cause fatal accidents, this was because, many years ago soon after the road was thrown open youngsters wanting to experience the thrill of speed would drive at very high speeds on the highway and experience tyre bursts. Many drivers do not read enough about the machines they drive and about safety, many do not even check the tyre pressure regularly, not understanding that it is only the tyre that is in contact with the road. Cars cannot be driven at high speeds when fitted with tyres which are not rated for high speed, More on this at the end of this post.

The experience of a hot cup of tea at a road side eatery can be matched only by a stop at a roadside tea shop for a cup of hot tea. A few hours on the road and we came across a small bye, where we stopped, bought some peanuts, fresh coconut water, tea and we were off, though the idea was to have some misal pav this was not be found here.

Thanks to smart phones, internet and search engines one is never too far from the information that is desired. What we were looking for now is Joshi;s Wadapav which came well recommended and we were told that it was only a few Kms away, yes and we did find the outlet. However, the misalpav was not exactly great but the wadapav was good. What took my time was a small shop selling some products that were unique, a gas stove top grill, milk guard - a porcelain plate with grooves cut which we were ensured would stop milk for boiling over if placed at the bottom of the vessel in which the milk was being boiled, a small plastic gadget which can be used to crush and cut chillies, garlic, ginger etc. Purchases made we were back again on the road.

Further down the road we stopped for our packed lunch of curd rice and pickles and just a little forward was a pump in which we filled up our tank. The pump on the highway was clean and well attended and I was surprised that they were accepting credit cards and the transaction was put through with a handheld card reader (transaction acquiring device).

It was raining in patches never heavy but a drizzle here and a few Kms away another drizzle and then a short duration light rain. We reached Kolhapur with little excitement.

We rested for a short while in the Hotel and were ready to go after a cup of tea. the destination? The Mahalakshmi temple which the city was famous for. Kolhapur was a surprise, well developed and large. Hotels with restaurants that one would expect to see in a large city. Just shows that we do not know enough of the country we live in.

The temple was another surprise waiting for us, one has to enter the temple through gates such as one would enter a fort, then walk through paved surface one comes to the entrance, leave the footwear in counters designated for this and you are in.

No jostling, no one pushing you to buy from them, no large crowds that evening, we were surprised, first was the lack of a crowd and second the very well behaved vendors. We walked through had our darshan said our prayers and were out in a short while.

The statue of the goddess Mahalakshmi is made of gemstone and is considered to be between 5000 and 6000 years old. Weighing about 40 Kgs the precious stones on the deity point out its age.

This temple is worth a visit and if possible during sunlight, the architecture is unique and captivating.

A blog providing information on the temple - 

http://indianmandirs.blogspot.in/2013/10/kolhapur-mahalakshmi-eyes-of-sati-devi.html

Outside the temple are stores selling, what else, Kolhapure chappals and who would go away without buying one, most of these shops here are run by Malayalees.

Here is a table from Wikipedia and I would strongly urge everyone who drives a car to read through more on tyre safety and tyre markings

Speed rating

The speed symbol is made up of a single letter or an A with one number. It indicates the maximum speed at which the tire can carry a load corresponding to its Load Index.

Speed rating^[12]

Code	mph	km/h		Code	mph	km/h
A1	3	5		L	75	120
A2	6	10		M	81	130
A3	9	15		N	87	140
A4	12	20		P	94	150
A5	16	25		Q	100	160
A6	19	30		R	106	170
A7	22	35		S	112	180
A8	25	40		T	118	190
B	31	50		U	124	200
C	37	60		H	130	210
D	40	65		V	149	240
E	43	70		Z	over 149	over 240
F	50	80		W	168	270
G	56	90		(W)	over 168	over 270
J	62	100		Y	186	300
K	68	110		(Y)	over 186	over 300

Read the complete article here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_code

28th November 2015 - Udaipur to Baroda

Great roads

Best road between Udaipur and Ahmedabad, gentle curves a delight

Ahmedabad bye ass not so smart too many speed breakers, dirty and too much unruly traffic

Ahmedabad to Baroda expressway great road but no stops for relaxing you start and then do not stop till you reach Baroda no amenities like on the yamuna expressway

Baroda

dinner at Mantap - Hotel express

26th Noveber 2015 - Jaipur to Udaipur

Yesterday we left Agra and started our drive to Delhi we had decided that on our way to Delhi we will drive through Mathura and ten to Brindavan before we hit the Yamuna Expressway.

At Mathura we made it to the Krishna Janma Bhoomi (the prison where Krishna was born) cars are not allowed near the entrance to this shrine so Aanand stayed back in the car trying to find a place to park. Mahalakshmi and I went on and were accosted by a few touts who promised to take us through the VIP gate and give us VIP darshan etc. We brushed them aside and went on, a while later we found that we knew very little about the shrine or how to get inside there were no signs and no information anywhere to guide us. We fell into the hands a of a tout who took us on saying that he will take us in no time through the VIP entrance and when we went there we found that everyone was a VIP and there was a very very long queue waiting to get in. Seeing this he said that he would take us through another entrance at which time we said enough is enough and walked away. On the way out Mahalakshmi asked a policeman the best way to get in and he said all we had to do was wait in the queue and go in and there is no problem at all, in fact the inside is easy to navigate. Not convinced we walked away and while we were walking to the car we noticed that the main gate had opened and people were going in. We rushed and packed our cameras mobiles into my handkerchief handed this over at the safe keeping counter and charged in. In a few minutes we were as there was not much of a crowd at this gate, as it had just opened. We walked over to a shop which accepted to take care of our footwear and once this was done we rushed to see the jail whee Krishna was born. The building was new and was constructed to give one the feeling that he was going into a dungeon and there it was a shrine in the room where krishna was supposed to have been born, whether this is true or not is a big question but what can one do against faith? We saw, we wondered ad were out, back to the shop to pickup our shoes and off we went to the car. The shop which had taken care of our shoes did not take any money for this little service, in fact they flatly refused.

By this time we realised that we were late and would not be able to make it to Brindavan, so we decided to drop the idea of Brindavan and started for Delh, we did stop over at one of the exits for some food.

It took us over 1.5 hours to get away from mathura, the very narrow roads, crowd and the not so helpful GPS conspired and worked against our desire for a fast and easy exit from this town.

Once we hit the Yamuna Express Way we were happy. The very broad roads, no traffic coming from the opposite side enabled us to move on at high speeds, 120 and no need to slow down. We reached Delhi in record time and reached our Hotel The Manor, the hotel is run by the same people who run The Habitat and The Manor boasts of one of India's top class restaurants "Indian Accent" a must for anyone interested in gourmet food.

We left early in the morning and drove down to Jaipur. At Gurgaon we had to stop on the highway for a short while to meet Rtn. Dr Nischol Pandey who was driving there to meet to shake hands with us. We did just that said our goodbyes and went our way. We had booked ourselves into The Jaipur Club, we had stayed there earlier when the rooms had just been renovated and when we checked in yesterday I was shocked, the room was something like one of the Lodge rooms that you see in tamil cinemas close to a railway station? All the soft furnishings were dirty and stained and we would have fallen il had we stayed there. Luckily we found ourselves room at the SMS Taj which was closeby. On the way to our newly found Hotel we stopped over at a Reliance Fresh to buy some snacks, milk, rice and curds - ha ha we make rice for the journey and have curd rice for lunch everyday we travel. When we came out o the store we found that the police had wheel locked the car, again luckily we found their number on the windshield and they came in soon as we called. The Rs 200 that I paid was well worth the trouble that otherwise we would have to go to before we went to our hotel. The hotel was great and the Rajasthani thali we had for dinner was good. We did decide to stay on for another day here as Mahalakshmi was not keeping too well, her cold was bugging her. But, no rooms available. 

We started our journey this morning at about 10AM with a packed breakfast with us. With a packed breakfast and lunch we were set to drive with little time wasted on lunch and breakfast. The breakfast we had in the car to save time and kept going,the light falls early here in the North and I do not want to drive after dusk. 

A few hours after we started and on NH79A I stopped at a roadside Dhaba which caters to lorry drivers for a cup of tea. The dhabba was furnished with Charpoys on which men were sitting and having their breakfast (lunch?) I shall publish the pictures that I took here on my blog http:/mindonedge.blogspot.com

The road was patchy at points and this slowed us down but we did manage to keep a respectable 60Km average through our our trip today.

We stopped for lunch at a Banyan tree on the side of the road and adjacent to which were a few shrines to some hindu gods which I was not able to identify, thanks for some shade and privacy we had a quick lunch and were off in a short while.

A few hours later we were driving through a small town or a village when Mahalakshmi noticed swords being sold on the roadside shops, we pulled over so I could buy one. On inquiry we were told tat peoplebuy these swords for use in religious ceremonies and weddings and the like, the Rajputs are a warrior clan right? We negotiated a price purchased a sharp sword, threw it into the dicky and were off.

Reached Udaipur at 5 PM, checked into the Hotel and then took a Uber to look around. This evening we had dinner at Natraj Dining Hall which serves a phenomenal Rajasthani Thali and in my opinion much better than the ones we get at Rajdhani in Chennai. we had gone looking for some handloom block print shirting material which we did not find but the thali was worth the trouble of having got out of the Hotel this evening.

Tomorrow we look around Udaipur and then we are off to Baroda.

We have covered over 4000 Km on our trip so far and have yet another 1600 or so more to go before we reach our destination - Bangalore.

With so much driving to do there is not much of photography being done. Yes I do use my phone to take the pictures and my trusted very small handy Kodak also comes into use. The only time I used my Nikon DSLR was in Varanasi.

Sometimes I just want to experience all there is around me and not be bothered with photographing it

25th November 2015 - Delhi to Jaipur

Made our rice mixed the curd rice and we were ready for the next leg, into Rajasthan. The hotel was kind enough to have our car cleaned inside and out. When the luggage was loaded into the car the cleanliness was motivating, the insides we ensured was always clean but the outsides we had no control over.

We checked out of our hotel soon after breakfast and we were soon on the highway to Gurgaon, we had agreed to meet a friend on the highway at Gurgaon to shake hands and if we had the time then for a cup of tea, by the time we reached Gurgaon we decided that we had no time for tea, so all we could manage was a hand shake a pat on each others back a photograph to record our meeting and we were off toward Jaipur.

The information we gathered was mixed and we were cautious, where the roads towards Jaipur good or bad? where there a lot of diversions because of a lot of road work going on? We would find out soon. We did, the roads were good, much of the construction work on the highway was complete and we were able to do the stretch in good time.

24th Nov 2015 - Agra - Mathura - Delhi

Agra is a better maintained city than Kanpur, better roads, lesser pollution better discipline on the roads.. maybe we were exposed to the better part of Agra? aybe so because it has more tourist inflow?

Speaking to a few businessmen here the general feeling I get is that the Taj Mahal is more a bane than a fortune, the ban of polluting industries many Kms radius of Taj to protect the monument has not gained favour with them. When they are questioned about the Taj bringing in the tourist, the  answer is that thanks to Agra's proximity to Delhi Agra is only a day tour and not a tourist destination, most tourists come from Delhi to Agra stay here for a few hours and then go back, so it is Delhi which rakes it in ad not Agra. Why I asked did the UP Govt not project Agra as a tourist destination, why have the other tourist interest monuments and events not improved or built, the Yamuna river can be developed for water sports? The Govt could have a dialogue with the military to vacate Agra fort and the army could be given alternate accommodation?

The signages on the roads are in Hindi and they are not strategically placed so a driver without a GPS may find it difficult to move around. We got onto the road to Mathura (NH2) as we wanted to go to see Krishnas Janma Bhoomi and then to Brindavan to the Banke Bhari temple.

We managed to get into Mathura and to the Janma Bhoomi, we were accosted by the many touts there promising moksha if we used their services to visit the temple, we in desperatation as there were not enough signages to show us the way or to give instructions on how to get into the temple(?) asked one of the touts to help, he said that the main gate was closed but would take us to the other gate and take us in, the other gate was very crowded and he said he would take us to yet another gate not feeling good we inquired with a policeman who told us that entry was not difficult and we do not need a tout. We walked from there towards the car thinking that we were not going to be able to make it inside. On the way out we noticed that the Main gate had opened and they were allowing visitors inside, we packed our mobile phones, car keys etc in my handkerchief and handed it over at the safe keep counter and charged in. In about 20 minutes we had seen the prison in whcih Krishna was supposed to have been born and were out. No tout.

However, we were late for Brindavan and therefore decided that lunch at a referred