Cycling the Burma Road

It's not very often you can be among the first tourists to a region in today's well travelled world. Northern Burma has long been off limits to foreign visitors but now with special permits, SpiceRoads will be the first to bring cyclists on this historical route.

We'll ride on old trade routes, military supply lines and through small villages where palaces still stand. Much of this ride will be on part of Burma Road, which was built when Burma was a colony of Britain, completed in 1938. Our riding starts in the former British hill station town of Maymyo, now called Pyin Oo Lwin, and will take us to the countryside and past ancient pagodas. We continue north to the Shan State, riding through small Shan villages, past ancient chedis and alongside terraced paddies. Then the adventure truly starts as we ride on the Ledo road through to the river town of Bhamo, where we'll board a riverboat to take us downstream to Mandalay. We'll stay in a variety of accommodation along the way, including, a hill station resort, guest houses, business hotels and a night on the top deck of a river boat. But this only adds to the adventure!