The road from Tamu, the Burma township just across the Indian border, to Kalemyo via Kalewa, could have been any Indian road in terms of construction quality and feel. This is hardly surprising, for this 160 km stretch of two-lane asphalt was built by India's BRO (Border Road Organisation), and inaugurated in 2001. Its maintenance is also under the charge of the BRO, and occasionally, as we cut through virtually uninhabited peripheries of the Sagaing Division of the country, BRO vehicles, road construction machinery and earth movers became a familiar sight.
We bypassed Kalewa and arrived at Kalemyo, the larger and busier of the two adjacent towns for a night's halt. It felt as though the entire town was waiting for us. Burma's enthusiasm and hunger for change was evident in every one of the thousands of faces along the road, waving as the rally cars cruised into town. Everybody was eager to please us, almost to the point of embarrassment. From the petrol pump handlers where we queued up to refill, to the sparse staff in the few modest hotels where we were booked, everybody was apologetic that their service may not match our expectations. They were, they said, still adapting to what they see as Burma's brave new world, hurried in after more than half a century of almost complete isolation, imposed by a tough but insecure military junta.