Day One update- The Road To Mandalay is a long one!

Heathrow. 6.30am and our merry band were all present and correct, full of anticipation and excitement. Jim Reynolds, our tour guide for the week, joined us and ran the first of many roll-calls. We negotiated the self service baggage tagging machines to check in and begin the adventure.

In total there are 18 of us who have trained, fundraised and thought of little else for the past few weeks. All now at the point of no going back. So Emma, Sam, Pam, Adam, Lydia, Ben, Virginia, Julia, Dan, Ed, James ,Seb, Peter, Bithja, Cally, Nick and yours truly zipped through security and off to while away two hours; some in the London Pride. Even the hardiest of the team passed up on the opportunity of the Fulham brew at this hour, but opted for full English and eggs Benedict.
They said once 'go to work on an egg'. As you shall discover we went to Yangon on many, many eggs.

An onitime departure as the Singapore Airlines 777 pushed back on time, team HopeAsia shoe-horned into rows 58 to 61. A few z'ds, a lovely chance to meet our fellow cyclists, a few movies, boxes of crisps and veggie wraps and I wish I could say the 11 hours flew by. But it didn't, with the last 5 hours seemingly taking an age despite a strong tailwind.

A couple of hours in the carpeted halls of the enormous Changi Airport. The Far Eastern smell reminding the senses that we were a long way from home. Just the gap of the door of the transit train hinting at the true heat outside the air con.

Some grabbed a coffee, others a burger. Peter Brown was by far the most organised of us all grabbing a shower in the lounge facilities, and with it the opportunity to enjoy his third breakfast (eggs!!) - Heathrow, flight, lounge and the prospect of another on the flight.

We boarded the Airbus A330 and dozed for 2.5 hours: the plane looped the airport at Yangon. I assume from the pressure of the descent this was not due to airspace congestion - rather the heavy storm that seemed to have just hit the airfield. An unexpected welcome to Myanmar.

Immigration formalities have clearly failed to keep up the the influx of tourism: we waited over an hour and a half to get through, but were quickly united with all our luggage, and met our Exo local guide for the day: Toe.

Myanmar is bedeviled by traffic, but the bus trip gave us sleepy travellers a first glimpse of this city. A quick 20 mins check into the Hotel Reno was followed by a bus trip to lunch in a traditional villa on the outskirts of two with lovely curries washed down with the first beer of the trip.

First stop the enormous reclining Buddha at the Chaukhtatgyi Buddha Temple; the biggest devotional statue I have ever seen, and then the wonderful Shwedogan Pagoda.

We were all there in body, if not mind. The objective for us all was just not to fall asleep on our feet. Nodding heads, slurred speech all par for the course at this point in the afternoon. A bus tour round the old colonial buildings let us to the Monsoon restaurant- appropriate for the very wet conditions thanks to a storm well set into the Bay of Bengal.

News of 4.15 rendezvous was greeted by tired resignation and weary steps up to the bedrooms at 8pm.

If Heineken did tour itineraries, they'd struggle to pack in as much as we have done today: two flights, sightseeing, at least 4 egg flans, two locals meals and lots and lots of stray dogs.

Sleep well!!