April 6, 2013

Distance: 51.7 miles            Climbing: 2782.2 ft

As we set out, Chan tried to adjust his seatpost and snapped the cobbled seat clamp that had been installed back in Vietnam. That will teach him to not mess with his bike. When we pulled up to the shop, Chandler explained the situation to a young girl with a series of gestures. Together, they found a quick-release thing on another bike that would fix the problem. She then tried to get everything to fit back together, not realizing that a shim was needed, brushing Chan off as he tried to put it in. This has happened to us a number of times. Someone “helps” us, but clearly has no idea what they are doing. Eventually, Chandler was able to wrestle the part away from her and get things sorted out.

We had one more delicious Mexican meal before hitting the road. We were delighted to find a bike lane heading out of town. However, a bunch of people had decided to park their cars in the middle of it, so we ended up just riding in the road anyways. We had a pleasant time riding side by side, chatting as we passed through another construction ghost town. We had a change in routine today as we went down a big hill before starting uphill.

More Sim City

Bike path

As we hit the edge of town and we found ourselves fighting for room on the road with the Saturday traffic. The road had a very small shoulder with raised lane reflectors positioned exactly where we wanted to cycle. Chandler decided to use this moment to do a little video interview. As he scanned the road with cars honking and passing too closely, I must have used every foul word I knew and I have quite the vocabulary. People drive very recklessly in China. The new wide, smooth roads encourage speed, the inexperienced drivers buzz around with a crazed selfish impatience, wildly taking over other vehicles on blind curves going uphill, passing three abreast, etc. We’ve seen some wild driving in the rest of southeast Asia, but usually congestion and crappy roads tend to moderate the insanity. It seems like there is an army of testosterone fueled 17 year old drivers set loose on the brand new expressways of China.

Sugarcane truck

Preparing to go through a tunnel

When we started climbing the hill, our focus shifted from frustration to concentration. We passed through a short tunnel which was lit, making it less scary. At the top of the hill, we were welcomed with a huge carved mural depicting what we assumed was the construction of the Burma road. I was especially happy to see the Chinese honoring the land surveyors!

Mural

Surveyor

After stopping for a few pictures, we were flying down the other side into a large city. The city appeared to be brand new like most that we have biked through, but this one sported an old bridge. We didn’t have any info on this town so we biked around blindly looking for a hotel. While going up a road that took us to a residential area, I noticed a man on a motorbike take an interest in us. After turning around near some apartment buildings and searching down another road, the same man appeared again. We were becoming a little weary of him and certain he was following us, when the third time we saw him, he made an eating motion. We shook our heads no and returned with a sleeping motion. He then pointed us in the direction of a hotel and rode away, never to be seen again. Well, not by us anyways.

Maybe something was lost in translation

The hotel turned out to be affordable and nice. We had an enclosed shower, which is a rarity in Asia. Usually the whole bathroom is the shower, so it was nice to not have to make sure the TP was high and dry. There was also a basket of “Sensual senior underpants” for sale next to the TV. We decided to leave those alone and finish the night with ramen noodles and a Kung Fu movie. Hai-yah!

April 4 – 5, 2013

Distance: 50.5 miles     Climbing: 4553.8 ft

I feel like a broken record lately, because the highlight of the day was climbing a huge hill, like every other day we’ve been riding in China. Yunnan is a tangle of intersecting ridge lines, so all the roads climb and dive, or just blast through the mountains with long scary tunnels.

Mountain of tea

The pavement was really good as usual and there wasn’t much traffic, so we had no complaints as we worked away at yet another long continuous climb. After a while we got to an area where the road was being totally realigned, so our GPS was way off. This was mildly frustrating because we didn’t know how much further we had to go. We had read someone else’s travel journal of this route and were expecting a teahouse at the top for a snack, but the road made a massive detour more than ten miles in the opposite direction of the old road. We were getting a little worried that we somehow ended up on the wrong road and headed who knows where. The road stopped climbing for a while as we went up and down little bumps while traversing below the ridge instead. We were quite hungry and annoyed that the road kept flirting with the summit of the pass to only have us descend again. The wind was picking up and we felt drops of rain hit us. We took out of raincoats and resolved to just power through the last section to get to the summit.

Two minutes later we rounded a bend into a deep road cut, the skies cleared and we saw a sign indicating that drivers should go slowly down the pass. We immediately pulled over for an Oreo victory snack. We kept our jackets on for the chilly descent and bombed down the hill. We were pleasantly surprised to find the new route was linking us back up with the old road and cut out several miles between us and the next city, Lincang.

Finally at the top

We managed to get on the old highway for a while which was nice, cruising on a two lane road along a gentle stream tamed by a series of small dams with crops grown on the banks. Soon enough we were dumped back onto the major highway and descended the rest of the way to the city in the midst of the usual traffic chaos.

Beautiful views on the way into town

Lincang was like most of the major cities we have encountered in China. Not unpleasant, but not exciting either. There were lots of shops selling industrial things like pumps and tractor engines, hardware stores and the usual slew of western fashion stores. We ended up in the first hotel we stopped at, which had a nice lobby but very cold communist feeling room, narrow with white walls, spare furniture, huge ceilings and tall wrought metal window frames.

Chan went out for his daily noodle soup dinner and reported the town was creepy at night. Lots of people out, but no street lights in our neighborhood, a lit street in a busy city is one of those things that we take for granted. Milling around with lots of strangers in the dark is unsettling. He found a street stall lit by bare CFLs and had a ten minute pseudo conversation with a middle aged man that primarily consisted of different organizations of the words “nice”, “America”, “noodle soup” and “good”. The guy was friendly though and insisted on paying for Chan’s dinner.

Mexican Food!!!!!!!!!

For the past couple of days, we had been fantasizing about the food we would be eating in India and Europe. Chandler has been living on noodle soup and I have been eating mostly oatmeal and plain ramen. Mostly, our talk has been about Mexican food, especially the stuff we ate in the American southwest on our road-trip last fall. Chandler did a shot in the dark web search found a restaurant in town that actually served just that. Salvador’s is apparently a popular spot in Kunming which has a large ex-pat population, and for some reason they decided to open a branch in this town which seemed sort of odd as it doesn’t seem to be on the map for westerns (the whole city isn’t even mentioned in the Lonely Planet). The food was incredible though. Huge burritos with lots of cheese! We saw the first Caucasian person in the past week or so here, a girl from Chicago who is an English teacher in a rural village visiting Lincang while she had a few days off for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday.

April 3, 2013

Distance: 70.3 miles Climbing: 4491.5 ft

There is something so wonderful about waking up in our tent. Regardless of what happened the day before or what looms ahead of us, we wake up in great moods. We had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee before breaking down camp. There was little traffic on the road this early, so we were eager to get started.

Getting into a groove was a little more difficult and at the same point, Chandler and I mentioned MP3 players. We rarely use music while biking, but something about a 17km hill made us need a little extra help. Chandler then decided to take to opportunity to transfer come podcasts from the laptop to his MP3, so out comes our new stools and we are officially taking a break right away. Good start to the morning.

A little computer work on the side of the road

Eventually, we packed up everything again and remounted our bikes. Chan suggested that I lead and away we went. I must have had my Wheaties, because I was soon far ahead of Chandler. I stopped for a water break and actually had to wait for him to catch up to me. This NEVER happens. Naturally, I was ecstatic and jazzed which helped fuel me even more. I only gloated a tiny bit. Before I knew it I was at the top of the hill, buying water to have available when Chandler finally got to the top.

Tea bushes vs. road construction

Contours

At the top of the hill was an unavoidable tunnel. We pulled over to turn on our front and rear lights and to don headlamps to make sure everybody could see us. When there was a lull in the traffic, we headed in. The tunnel was no big deal at first, but then the light faded to complete darkness and I couldn’t see anything. I was going slower and slower because I was afraid of running into the curb on the side and falling. At that moment, a few motorbikes came up behind us and lit the tunnel up as a semi approached from the other direction. Once they passed us, we could see light from the other end of the tunnel and peddled as fast as possible. Long, unlighted tunnels are scary and must be avoided at all costs.

Scary, but short, tunnel

Once safely on the other side, we had a small snack before enjoying a massive 22km downhill. It was a perfect downhill too- very little traffic, nice grade and pavement and above all, no headwind to slow us down.  At the bottom of the hill was a town, so we stopped for a snack. I had pineapple, Chandler had a spicy papaya salad. He really wanted soup, but instead of the normal noodle soup, this one had big spoonfuls of clear gelatinous substance added to it instead of broth, which looked really revolting. The papaya salad was over the top spicy and not that filling anyways. We figured he would find something else along the way to finding a campsite.

Mahjong

We were so wrong. Instead we ended up in a river valley which channeled the wind directly into our faces. As we labored to maintain speed and positive attitudes, Chan was becoming more and more hungry. We were looking at the GPS and the map seemed to show that we were following a river down to the next town, instead it turned out that we followed the river until it met another river coming straight back along the same path. The two rivers butted into each other at 180 degrees and the confluence discharged through a notch in the mountains into what looked like a tributary on the map.

River valley of PAIN

So we started climbing in addition to battling the headwind.  Now Chan was starting to get really snappy and I suggested we stop to have a snack. We were running low on food, so we just ate some fruit. I wanted to get out the stove and make ramen. Chandler did not want to spend the time making food, with only a couple of hours of daylight left and a ways to go before we got to the next town that would definitely have food. Soon, we were in the middle of a pretty big fight which ended with us on our bikes not talking to each other.

The silent treatment lasted a few more miles before one of us complained about how much the wind sucked and the other agreed. We had both been keeping an eye out for suitable campsites, but there was the river one side and a cliff on the other. As each mile rolled by, it became obvious we were going to have to just keep going until we got to the next town. We reached the end of the narrow river valley and abruptly turned north, and suddenly the heavy headwind turned into a huge tailwind. We were racing along at 17 mph without much effort, it felt amazing.

Rice paddies have a calming effect

We made it to town just as the sun was setting.  After the usual post bike routine, I watched English news and made ramen while Chan went out in search of food. He found a noodle stand near the hotel and had two gigantic bowls of noodle soup, a beer, a bottle of water and a sprite as his recovery meal. He also came back with a present, a bottle of wine because we ended up cycling 70.3 miles today, crushing our old record.

I am not interested in a repeat anytime some.

April 2, 2013

Distance: 32 miles            Climbing: 3592.5 ft

Now that April has arrived, we are starting to feel this portion of our trip coming to an end. Soon we will be boxing up the bicycles and boarding a plane for India. We are excited for the food, especially since the Chinese doesn’t understand the word vegetarian, and having new experiences. However, we don’t have much further to go before we reach Dali City and see no reason to rush. The heat is no longer a problem and our legs are pretty strong so once we get into a rhythm even big climbs are just a normal part of our day now.

We spent the first part of the day riding on the old highway on the other side of the river from the main highway. Eventually the two highways merged and we were forced to ride on the shoulder of the busy road, which is never much fun. After a while of grinding away, we noticed that a lot of the villages were way down below us in the valley and we could see the thread of the old highway connecting them. We took the first turn we could find and plunged down into the valley finding ourselves in a very dirty, but eerily quiet village. As we’ve seen quite a bit on the old highways, the roadhouses and truck stop guesthouses all lay abandoned, their usefulness gutted by the relocation of the highway. We hung a left in the center of town and headed back uphill on the old highway, which was still well paved, but littered with piles of bricks and logs that we had to meander through.

Grinding

Things went fine for a few kilometers as we quickly regained our elevation quietly and without seeing another single vehicle. We kept getting closer and closer to the new road, and eventually construction debris from the highway project littered our road, nearly making it impossible to ride. We held out for a while, willing to trade less smooth tarmac for more peaceful riding, but eventually the fill from the new highway obliterated the old and we were forced back into traffic.

Rough Riding

The geology in this region included lots of steep stone outcroppings, and we saw some really weird depressions that were planted with buckwheat and tea. Our guess was that they were old sinkholes or entrances to karst formations in the limestone of the area.

Strange landscape

There was lots more grinding away but eventually we crested the pass and saw a family out picking tea in their fields. Chan stopped and talked with them a little bit while they worked. They were quite amused that we took an interest in what they were doing, and that we wanted to take their picture. As we were getting back on our bikes to head down the pass, a teenage girl who was working in the field crossed the road and we noticed that she was wearing 4 inch high-heels. In China, heels are apparently appropriate for any occasion.

Tea picking time

We buzzed down through the valley and saw tons of really stunning rice terraces, some vibrant green. The sun was at the perfect angle to be in your eyes but not be blazing hot. That’s when I saw it. The sign. Something in Chinese and 17km. I knew that this meant the hill we were about to climb would be 17 km of torture. We climbed about a kilometer before I caught up to Chandler’s bike, parked next to a bridge but he was nowhere in sight. A dirt road leading down a hill and presumably under the bridge veered off the road and I assumed this is where Chandler had disappeared to.

Lets hope they calculated that right…

Handbuilt terraces

Tiers of green

A few minutes later, Chandler appeared at the bottom of the hill and I knew he had found us a campsite. We checked out the other side of the bridge to see if there was a better option, but we didn’t see any. When there was a break in traffic, we pushed our bikes down the path to a small clearing near a stream and some rice paddles. We reasoned that we were on a segment of the old highway where it switched back to cross the stream with a short span, but the bridge was gone and there were huge boulders blocking the road from cars and trucks. We picked out our campsite on the flattest area where we could only be seen from the midpoint of the span of the new bridge.

Sweet campsite

Our new stools made relaxing and cooking dinner much more comfortable. The sun was just starting to set and we were hearing fewer and fewer cars. We had a meal of ramen and mashed potatoes before setting up the tent, which we did last in case someone came by. We had no such problems and found ourselves snuggled in our sleeping bags and asleep before we knew it.

March 31 – April 1, 2013

Distance: 29.1 miles        Climbing: 2506.6 ft

We had a pretty tough day battling the headwind, the heat and the traffic. The first part of the ride was in a dry dusty canyon like area which the road followed for a while before starting a big climb. The landscape was wide open with some pretty huge rice terraces, but everything was brown brown brown. We were having trouble getting into a rhythm to grind up the hill so I ended up playing Rhianna’s greatest hits out loud on the speakers on our tablet. It helped me get me up the hill and I’m sure Chandler enjoyed it too. The best part was the looks we got from the farmers selling vegetables by the side of the road. We had a nice long super fast descent on nice pavement which just about made us forget about the climb.

Brown terraces

Creative rock slope stabilization

As we were getting close to Lancang we started up yet another hill and the battery on the tablet was dead, so when we passed a gazebo, we stopped for a break. This structure was one of the more interesting aspects of the ride. It turned out to be part of a tiny rest area which was dominated by a nicely kept garden with paths running through it. We took time for a snack and a snooze in the shade of the gazebo before hitting the road again.

Perfect spot for a nap

We rode into Lancang and stopped at the first hotel we saw. It was another typical Chinese low-end business hotel (business being a broad term), but it was pretty cheap, had clean sheets and wifi.

After dumping our panniers, we peddled off to find a supermarket. This actually turned out to be quite easy. We went through a crowded market and up a short hill and there was a supermarket. This store was similar to almost every other one we have seen in China. There were aisles of unidentifiable packaged goods, a bulk section and a hot lunch bar, which mostly offered chicken feet salad, quail eggs and soups. This supermarket did contain one of the more impressive jello-like substance displays I’ve ever seen. Having never been a fan of the stuff I can’t understand the draw, but there must have been at least 40 different flavors.

Just a fraction of the jello display

When we woke up early enough for the start of the ballgame, it was raining hard and that was enough for us to decide not to ride. We had a nice time lounging around, listening to the Red Sox over the internet. I spent time writing up a few blog posts to email to Tayler to post online for us.

After the rain let up, we went to the supermarket for a little grocery shopping. Chandler found a military surplus store the night before, so we decided to swing back around to look at some chairs. We parked our bikes and a woman in a tight mini dress and pink, sparkly high heels came out to help us. Not what you would expect at a military surplus store. We ended up purchasing two lightweight camp stools, a hat and a police t-shirt.

The day was wonderfully uneventful. While I don’t mind taking a day to do absolutely nothing, it is all we could really do in Lancang. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in the city but there isn’t any clear tourist infrastructure (foreign or domestic), museums or even a cinema that we saw. There really wasn’t much to do. We looked around the internet, but there wasn’t any info there in English. Maybe there was more than just clothing shops and random goods stores, but nothing we could find. Either way, it was really strange.

Making dinner in the room