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.