Myanmar
Not something you do everyday: driving a bicycle trishaw yourself
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Johan Kruseman
Updated on 2 August 2024
Updated on 2 August 2024
Our first day in Mandalay we found out that it’s a BIG city, mainly tricked by the enourmous size of the palace area. After a (too) hasty glimpse at the map we thought we could easily walk from our hotel to Mandalay Hill, being just at the other side of the palace. Still we decided to take a bicycle trishaw and only didn’t bargain about the 5000 since it was a nice man. Finally arriving we were glad we hadn’t bargained on this one since it took the man a small hour to get there. So for the next stop we decided to sit on the back of a motor bike and they happily convinced us we should hire them for the entire day.
The next day we had a bright moment and thought we could drive them ourselves. Still not completely sure if it’s legal to hire one, it was unexpectedly easy to do so. For almost half the price of having a motor taxi for the day, we could steer ourselves, be faster and independent. Going the same direction as the day before, we decided to take a different route next to the Ayeyarwady river, which turned out to be a perfect choice having less traffic, being better asphalted and, important, without any side roads being a real bless for me only having a few days Vietnam motorbike experience 10 years ago.
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Traveled route: Yangon, Inle Lake, Lashio, Mandalay, Monywa, Bagan
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