BACK TO PATHEIN

The ride back to Pathein was just as eventful, we seriously came close to death or major injury a few times, an inexperienced rider may not have been so lucky.  

After doing a lap of town scoping out other accommodation options, we were left with the best option being the Pammawaddy Hotel again. 

We did find one great place, Nay Chi Linn Motel, newish building, nice rooms and a super bargain at just $14 a night, or $7 for a single, including breakfast!   As with nearly everywhere in Myanmar, no wifi in the room but they do have it in a common area.  That would have suited us fine except all the doubles were full, though we nearly just got 2 single rooms for those prices!

  The Golden Myanmar Hotel, only 60 or so meters up the road were charging $35 and probably scratching their head as to why they had no customers!  When I checked their rooms they appeared to have all their room keys still available behind the counter.  Up to them, but if you’re ever visiting Pathein, I can recommend the Nay Chi Linn as the best value in town.

Having the bike still, we went and explored every street and dirt back road we could find in a 20 km radius and wow did we hit slums.  To be honest I would have felt uneasy stopping the bike anywhere, for nearly an hour, as we rode further and further from ‘civilization’, not something I have ever felt before. 

It was pretty grim out there, I have seen extreme poverty and living conditions plenty of times, but usually the people were all smiles and curious to chat if they could, here I just didn’t feel it.

Not to say they were bad people, but the stares didn’t really seem to be friendly ones, and with such poverty who knows where a foreigner would stand in such places, I was fairly glad when we got back to real roads and closer to town. 

The dirt tracks we were on resembled something you would see if they ever held a motor-cross event on the moon, not sure I had been on such shitty tracks, where people actually lived, anywhere like this before.  Even the remote villages or slums of Cambodia had better tracks than this.

After a well needed shower we were back at Top Star for those cheap beers and great food, a fairly quiet night except for the massive scooter crash just meters from where we sat at Top Star.  Luckily no-one involved was seriously hurt.  With a 4am wake call and 5am bus to Pyay on the agenda the next morning, it was also an early night.