16/12/2019 – Kindness makes the world go round

The plan for today was a day off but somehow I ended up on a bicycle. Thankfully it was only half an hour down to road to a natural swimming pool and back where en route was my kind of cafe.

The rest of the day was spent playing cards, having a few drinks and catching up with the guys. It ended up being an early night as I was booked on a sunrise boat tour of Inle Lake.

It was freezing. Whilst it is above 30 degrees during the day it gets close to 0 sometimes at night and this morning was no exception. I’ve spent my fair time in boats before the sun rises but this was my first time having a blanket keeping the cold away.

The benefit was seeing an incredible sunrise and spending the day going around local villages whose houses are on stilts in the middle of the lake. Lots of it is commercialised which is a shame but I can’t really criticise when I’m part of the problem…

After another day relaxing and seeing more of the lake I started my journey south towards the border with Thailand. Sadly the route I wanted take through the Shan region was off limits to foreigners which meant I was forced to take the long way down to the Mae Sot border to then go back north to Chiang Mai. The crux of the issue is that at one point on this ride I would be 200k away from Chiang Mai as the crow flies but 1100k ahead of me to get there…

The first part with the lake on one side and the mountains on the other was bliss. All of a sudden the road disappeared just as the sun was starting to go down which meant that there were a few miserably slow hours ahead of me.

After rejoining the road and a stock up on food and drink, the smooth ride to Loikaw almost made up for it.

Dinner at the hostel was okay but for some reason I wasn’t that hungry but forced it down anyway.

That evening I found out why I wasn’t that hungry. The last few days I’d suffered a bit of a dodgy stomach but it wasn’t causing too much of an issue so I managed to carry on regardless. This time however, I awoke to throwing up all over myself in bed to the shock of the other people in the hostel dorm. Taking some time to clean myself up and then the bed I decided to spend the night in the bathroom.

Sadly I was unable to carry on for a few days so had rest up in the hostel fully aware that my visa was running out with every passing day.

Once fit again, I checked out and headed south along a stunning route with incredible scenery. I felt a bit weak but generous shop keeper who gave me free water and red bull certainly worked me up.

As the sun was setting I reached a police checkpoint. I’ve encountered dozens of these and a quick smile and wave and they let me through without me even having to stop. This time however was different. They waved me down to stop and instructed me that I was not allowed to carry on due to fighting that was going on with the military and ‘bad guys’.

Disheartened, I turned around and set about going back uphill to the hostel. With some wishful thinking, I waved down a truck that was going the same way as me. Thankfully he was more than happy for me to jump in the back and have a very sketchy journey back to the hostel and the only payment I could give him was a couple of photos.

Whilst the last few days of illness had taken a toll on me, the kindness of strangers really turned my day around. The smallest acts of kindness can do wonders.