We stopped at a tea stall in the evening, as a last halt before Bagan. 5 bikes swooping down the dusty road onto a village tea-stall can be quite a dramatic moment. Not for this sweet old lady. She saw us coming and going and just kept smiling.

We had left the Capital at 10am. We rode through the wide-open streets towards the Parliament and saw it from a distance. We were led by the Tourism police. The city looked impressive. Riding good roads, we went forward very comfortably. Today we were doing under 300km.

Another puncture on the Suzuki, bought out the Africa Twin toolkit in the hands of David. Now everyone knew what to do and assumed stage positions. The guide sent the tyre to the repair shop. Luckily, we were next to a tea stall, so we relaxed there and enjoyed the village hospitality. There was no hurry, everything was preplanned and so different from what I had been doing in the earlier part of my trip. But I was enjoying getting fussed over. So we took pictures and chatted.

The tyre arrived, with spare tubes and the mid morning discussion ended. The sun was hot, so we splashed more water on ourselves. At a fuel station, they offered a half litre bottle of water as a promotion and after filling fuel, when they offered a bottle to me, I calmly poured the water into my jacket, still sitting on a bike. The attendants were shocked. Those who knew what I had done looked at me with amazement, those who didn’t wondered where the pool of water under my bike came from. I hope there was no water shortage, else it would look rude. Ofcourse, I quickly left.

Lunch was at a lazy restaurant. House and restaurant combined, it woke up when guests came. We had some delicious spinach and salad with rice. I was eating really healthy food now. This diet does not make me sleepy on the bike. Somehow, versus the earlier Asian countries, I was getting better vegetarian food on the road. Everyone followed suit and enjoyed the veg dishes.

The road refused to deteriorate and this helped us to stay at a good clip. Dipping behind a Buddhist temple in the mountain, the sun lit up a sunset path to our hotel. These moments were a gift of God.

The Famous Hotel, was on the highway. We stopped and checked in. This was a resort styled large property, with a swimming pool and a huge lawn. We were welcomed with a cool fruit juice and perfumed towels.
What a life!

Goodnight!