Here we go then, off on another cycling tour, this time flying out east to Myanmar for the Road to Mandalay Cycle Challenge which is operated by Global Adventure Challenges.

I have previously taken part in two other cycle challenges with Global. Riding the DEATH VALLEY CYCLE CHALLENGE in 2016 and the ARIZONA TO LAS VEGAS CYCLE CHALLENGE a year later.

I was due to be riding the Myanmar challenge with my friend Phil who I met during the Death Valley ride and we have had the pleasure of sharing a couple of sportive ad lesiure rides since 2016.

Sadly Phil’s mother passed away this week so he is staying at home, which is so gutting as I wont get to share the experience with him and have the chance to catch up, but as I lost my mother 2 years ago, I totally understand what he must be feeling now and know all to well, that there is so much “stuff” that needs sorting and arranging. I feel so sad and sorry for him but hope we can get the chance to share some more rides in 2020.

So day 1 of the trip actually started on Friday evening, this blog post isn’t going to be the most exciting of the trip…. well I certainly hope I have more interesting things to write about over the coming week than a train journey and a few flights.

My jounrey out to Yangon began on a chilly, damp and dark night at my local train station.

The first leg of the trip was to catch a local train to Stoke on Trent and then take a train from there to London, taking the tube across London to Hatton Cross where I will stay the night before travelling into Heathrow early Saturday morning.

I had a great start to the trip, on the way from Stoke to London, the train lost power, stopped and went into darkness. We had a 20 minute wait whilst they did a reset. Thankfully that sorted things and we got moving again.

I spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn, Heathrow which is right by Hatton Cross tube station and one stop from Heathrow.

Phil very kindly offered give me a lift from the hotel to the airport as he lives 10 mins away. This was a really nice surprise and great to have a little chat over a coffee before heading through security. Just a shame he wasn’t coming with us..

Once through security I met up with the group for breakfast before boarding our 12hr flight to Singapore.

First impressions are, we seem to have a good group. Quite a few of them know each other from previous challenges which is nice, their familiarity is good for getting the group conversations going.

The flight out was a bit of a drag, I am never great with these really long haul flights. I can never get any sleep and often get bored after watching 3 or 4 movies. Same for most people I guess.

It was a relief to finally reach Singapore. We have a couple of hours here before the final leg of the journey. Just a 2hr flight to Yangon. As it is now 6:30am Sunday here in Singapore I that is it for day 1 (Friday Night / Saturday).

Like I said earlier, let’s hope there are more interesting things to write about over the coming days.