Had a nice rest in Bangkok thanks to Danny and Sooki who despite their very busy schedules still made me so welcome.

Danny, Sooki and Molly.

Due to my new route change and a ton of emails and added research part of which is explained below. Whereas this Asian plan B has always been there, fine tuning it is a time-consuming affair. Many thanks yet again to Portland, Oregon man Greg Havely for easing my work load.

Unfortunately this has put paid to my other plan, I didn’t managed to catch up on the blog as hoped, sorry. LATER>>> Just churned out 2 very long rough at the edges unedited blogs based on the texts I sent to the blog over the last month. Please check the comments regularly for updates on the run.

The plan going forward is complicated, very complicated, so the decision I have made is to leave Nirvana here in Bangkok. You see it appears the borders are closed between Myanmar/Bangladesh.  I did consider running Bangladesh for a while but as it’s a longer route and the  closed borders but paid to that idea.

Also the Myanmar/India border is reportedly  closed. Closed borders means I have to run as far as I can, touch the border post then backtrack to a city and fly over the border, returning on a bus, touch the border from the other side and start running again. It has not happened yet on the run.

Not much I can do about any no mans land. I will still be running every possible metre put in front of me. I guess I have to treat it like I did when the road ran out in Central  America at the Darien Gap jungle.

This segment has been so tough and complicated to plan. So here is that plan from Bangkok to New Delhi, 4,500 kilometres.

I figure that as my Myanmar visa is only valid for 28 days and my route there is a hefty 1,350km an what with the closed border meaning the need to back track to Mandalay, some 500 km for my afternoon flight, this effectively is only 26 days, a tall order. Also I am unsure what the roads are like there, if there will be any delays.

I just want to run across Myanmar, I have no political interest.

Lets just say there is no template for running this area. I will just have to run the hand that has been dealt to me as best as I can!

And you know what….  I am not even one little bit disappointed or missing not running China!

And they can keep  all that snow and Siberian temperatures! Danny told me it was already -20C in the Chengdu area! He said that the people here if they don’t have work just sit around for there is fruit everywhere, they just pick some fruit to eat and laze around… But in China, if you don’t work, you die.

I plan on arriving at the Thai/Myanmar border 500km away from Bangkok to cross on the 5th November. I will also have to make up the lost day to return to Bangkok for my Indian visa.

Tomorrow,Sat the 26th begins the fourth and thankfully the last year of the run! For its three years today since this great fun all began!

I restart from where I finished last Sunday at Saint Peter Thonburi School way out in a Bangkok suburb at around 9am.

Many thanks to Narumol despite being in Japan for an extended break has helped and encouraged me a lot, He has also been contacting other people to run or assist me.. Tomorrow he will have a driver pick me up at 8am to return me to the route.

From the school it is almost 500km to the Mai Sot Myanmar border crossing. I wanted to cross at Mai Sai which is a  more northern border crossing and a lesser distance across the country formerly known as Burma. However some of my research found that just past that border there are restrictions and no go areas near a place called Keng Tung.

The problem is things can change for the better or worse at any time and its very hard to get any real reliable and up to date information.

I thought it best to book my flight out of Myanmar in advance, just in case of any problems with time or access to internet, After all I am unlikely to get ahead of my tough schedule here. It will also work as a carrot. If I fall short I will just take the flight and return on another flight for a fresh 28 days VOA, visa on arrival. The only flight I could find over the border to India took about 24 hours including a 5 hour lay over in China! Not having the time to research Chinese transit visas or if I even needed one I declined, sorry lads, you had your chance Besides it was 260 euro and I only want to get over the border and remember it could even be open when I get there!

I was also worried about pushing Nirvana my cart with my gear what with a ticking clock to get out before my visa runs out before I run out. And then have to transport her on a bus back, no idea how difficult that would be, and wrap her up for the flight. As mentioned before, now that China is gone she is a bit of a burden to me. I have posted home all my serious winter gear and excess baggage. When I run with a pack my only luxury is a couple of sd cards for playing my music in my phone, gone is the ipod, no extras. There was a time when a phone was a luxury, now it is a vital tool for this run.

So I booked my flight out of Myanmar for the 3rd December back here to Bangkok, 54 euro. Danny says he will mind her for me. She is packed and taped up in a tarp. I arrive back here at 3pm and noticed there is a flight to Calcutta that same night at 11pm, so definitely doable. The trouble is Calcutta is 1,500km away from where I will finish up. That flight costs about 140 euro including Nirvana’s excess charge with Air Asia. The nearest Indian city to where I finish up at the Myanmar/Indian border is called Imphal which is marked ‘ E ‘  on my proposed route from Bangkok to New Delhi.

However the good news is that Air India have a connection from New Delhi to Imphal for about 70 euro, perfect and now I am thinking of dropping her in New Delhi and running all the way there from Bangkok with just my pack. I ran this idea by with Greg and we both reckon this will be just like my run through the Andes last winter when I ran with amy two kilo pack, no tent and only a summer sleeping bag. Now I have just a sheet bag, I regret giving that summer bag away in Timor-Leste, I should have sent it here. Over the Andes there were only a couple of scary times in Peru when I had difficulty finding places to stay, but I did and will again. Not as tough as China, that’s for sure!!

So all I need is a contact in New Delhi to mind Nirvana for a couple of months, Perhaps the Irish embassy will.  I plan to send them a mail.

If I can swing this it will be a good idea I should enter India in New Delhi. Air India have a flight from Bangkok to there for roughly the same cost as the Calcutta flight.

As mentioned in the comments I got approval for a triple entry Indian visa here in Bangkok. The only problem is it will take 6/8 working days to process, so I will have to return for that before crossing to Myanmar, a day lost there. With the triple entry I have the option of running in Nepal, what a blast, running in the Himalayas

Press HERE to view my next proposed route . Point A is my restart location at Saint Peter Thonburi School near Bangkok,

Point B is the Thai/Myanmar border crossing at Mai Sot. This border is open. Point C is Mandalay City where I have to exit Myanmar from at the end of my run across the country. If the Myanmar/Indian border at point D is open I will gladly run across and forfeit the flight! From Imphal, at point E as you can see is just a short 100km bus ride back  to the Indian border so as I can start running across the subcontinent! Yeee- Ha!

At point F in Kathmandu, Nepal, the Himalayas  I think I will surely be in Heaven! I understand Nepal is a free VOA country. They are actively encouraging tourism and scrapped their visa but I need to confirm this. I will then re-enter India and run to their great capital,New Delhi. If my ambitious plan works out I will be there by the end of January/beginning February.

Please read 2 new postings below.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 25th, 2013 at 5:52 pm and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.