9/29/2012, Sapa Vietnam

Still in Sapa for the moment.  Tomorrow I am going to be taking the bus to Dien Bien Phu with the bicycle.  I am not quite sure the arrangement yet, but I think I have purchased 3 seats for the bus, one for me and two for the bike.  The hotel owner was asking me if I could fold it in half, to which I wasnt really sure how to respond.  I told him I could break it down a bit, but it doesnt exactly fold.  So three seats it is.
Two days ago I met up with a group of Dutch travelers.  We started talking while I was cleaning my bike and it turns out that they saw me struggling up the mountain from their bus on the way to Sapa.  They were a good group and after lunch and waiting out the rain we rented motorbikes and spent half the day cruising small roads aroud Sapa.  Later that night I went with them to check out the local bar.  An interesting mix of people.  We had a few drinks, played some amazingly bad pool which I thought was going to get us kicked off the table and it was generally a good night.
Yesterday I arranged to join a group (or couple) for a one day trekking.  I joined up with an Irish couple for a half day.  I wouldnt really call it trekking, more like a guided walk through the area to a couple of villages.  I wanted to try and do the one day hike up mount Fansipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam, but apparently it is not a very popular hike and there were no other groups doing it.  2 days and 3 days but no one was interested in a one day sprint, maybe for good reason.  So instead I had a nice easy hike with the Irish.
Today, I am still nursing a cold that just wont die, so I decided maybe som e exercise would do the trick.  So I went running.  First time running in more than a week, and I am supposed to be running a half marathon in 6 weeks (it seems that my two running partners have both missed the deadline for the race signup and will be doing the 10k fun run instead while I do the 21k not so fun run myself).  But like the bike here, it seems that you can only go uphill, it was a slow start.  But I wanted to force myself up at the start so at least I could go downhill for the finish.  I ended up doing about 55 minutes running with two 5-min walking stretches.  My chest hurt.  This cold has got to go.
Later I hiked up to a small mountain area that affords some really nice views of the town.  I saw somewhere that you can head up to the radio tower and get a great view of the city and the surrounds.  But there was a gate right before the tower...a quick climb later and I was rewarded with a fantastic 270 degree view of the city and the valley to the west.  Not wanting to linger I jumped back over and headed into the rest of the park.
A little later I was following a Chinese couple and listening to the history their guide was telling them.  Most were speaking Vietnamese, so I thought I would eavesdrop for a while.  After a bit the woman made a fat joke and the guide got confused about the route and my laughter gave me away.  They were more surprised than anything and I spent the next hour or two with them talking about China and Vietnam and enjoying the info the guide had to offer.  After a while we split ways, but not before exchanging qq and email.
Tonight is supposed to be a yearly moon/autumn festival and also the "love market".  I have been told that singles will come out to find their mates.  Should be a decent spectable (I hope because I decided to spend an extra night for it).  Tomorrow will be an evening bus to Dien Bien Phu and I have to decide if I want to spend a day or two there or push straight to Laos.  Supposed to try and meet some friends, but I havent heard from them in a while... Hope they are trekking and not lost in the Lao jungle.  Time for dinner, Im thinking Indian.

Fun with Dialects

    One thing that has become interesting as I move farther south are the changes in accent or dialects that people are speaking.  It seems to be pretty hit or miss on whether or not I will be able to understand what they are saying.  Although my general rule of the older they are the harder to understand seems to be holding true. 

      In JianShui an older man came by to talk to me while I was cleaning and tuning my bike and I couldnt understand him for anything.  Now looking back I realize part of the problem was that he was only saying two words, sai che (赛车) which means like "race".  I looked at him and asked in Chinese "are you speaking chinese?" To which he replied he was a Chinese person.  But it was not until a younger guy, maybe 35-40, came by and repeated the statement before I could grasp what he was saying.  By this time the older man had lost interest and walked on his way.  I guess pointing at a bike and saying "race" is enough for some places, but it was far too late by the time i realized what he was trying to say. 

      For the most part now I can get 0-50% of what is being said.  It varies.  But its good practice because in a couple days no one is going to be speaking any form of Chinese, Ill be in Vietnam.  Then communication will be limited to charades, phone dictionaries and luck.

9/25/2012

Distance covered today: 68 km

Total mileage to date: 526 km             

Time in saddle: 4h11m

Max Speed: 50.4 k/h

Average Speed: 16.4 k/h

Time from departure: 5.5+ hours

Finally rolled in to Hekou, the last city on the Chinese side before Vientam.  The road was remarkably good, until the last 5k before town.  There it turned into several inches of mud.  It might have been ok, but the damn motorbike in front of me stopped short, forcing me to stop.  Restarting in that much mud was not possible.  After walking a bit to a harder patch, I was able to ride out.  But everything got caked thoroughly.

      Today, though has made me start to rethink how far I really want to go on the bike.  The stopping points in this part of the world are few and far between.  And what there is is pretty awful.  These are not places one wants to see, stops are made only because riding any farther is too exhausting.  I am starting to realize that I could end up spending weeks of my trip mainly in shit villages to exhausted to do anything but nap.  I have been to tired to really study Chinese the way I wanted.  I would like to take another online class in November, but cant see how I will have the energy to put into that while cycling.  On top of that I am already "falling behind" on my travel schedule.  Cant even relax on vacation.

      I thought about paking it in from today, but there doesnt seem to be a way to ship the bike on and I am loath to just dump it.   I really want to find a way to get it to Australia as I really liked biking for short daily trips.  The Chinese post office "jibuliao" which translates to "we dont do that and we are not going to try in anyway to help you" and a local delivery shop could only send me toward the post office.  So I am going to try something a little different.

       Sapa is only 33k from the border cross, although it appears to be all uphill.  Tomorrow I plan to push to the hotel in Sapa, via cycle.  Not all that different.  Then the hope is that I can put the bike on a bus to take with me to Dien Bien Phu.  From there it is a pretty easy ride to cross the Lao border.  Then I can continue with the plan to put the bike on a boat to Luang Prabang.  basically try for a while to travel with a bike rather than on it. 

      If that can work out, then great.  If not, I may be stripping what I can off the bike and then making a village kid really happy.

     Oh and a word on saddle sores.  They are really painful.  And can appear really fast.  I always thought that saddle sore was a like a general reference to sore muscules from riding too long.  Not a specific raw spot (or sore, I get it now) that plagues you while you ride.  Another reason to be off the bike.

9/24/2012

    Finally able to leave Mengzi, cold has been overcome, or at least batted down enough that I can keep going.

  Distance covered today: 95 km

Total mileage to date: 454 km

Time in saddle: 5h18m

Max Speed: 53.5 k/h

Average Speed: 22.3k k/h

Time from departure: 7.5 hours

So I thought since I was recovering from illness it should be an easy day, nothing to stress the system.  Instead I pulled my second longest ride so far. 

    The night before I went by the local bike shop for some quick adjustments on my rear axle and pedal axle.  Mengzi does not have many bicycles and I was only able to find one shop in the whole town.  However, there are some dedicated riders and as the evening wore on they started to gather at the bike shop.  My quick repairs ended up taking about 1.5hrs so I had some time to talk with the local riders.  They never really had a reason why there are so few bikes, the two ideas floated are money and laziness.  Money seems to be the one I would bet on.  Never have I seen children so young driving scooters around town.  Maybe once or twice, but in Mengzi I saw at least four kids (10-12) driving bikes with 1-4 similar children passengers.  The bike with 5, 12 year-old kids was very impressive.

     Anyway, after talking for a while, and telling them my plan to head out in the morning, it was decided that they would join me for part of the ride.  So a plan was set to meet the next morning, I wasnt sure what to expect.

       At 8:30am I was at the bike shop ready to go and was joined by 4 other riders.  This was the second time that I have been able to join up with Chinese riders and both times it has been really nice.  The local knowledge is very helpful, especially when entering and leaving a city as the roads can be confusing.

         They only stayed with me for about 20k, they had a different destination in mind and were also going back to Mengzi the same day.  All the same it was nice to have an escort out of town.  After going the 60k to the fork in the road, left the wrong way to hotels, right the correct way to village oblivion, I had a choice to make.  I decided I dont like to back track.

      I was rewarded with 30k of downhill mountain track.  It was awesome, no pedaling, amazing speed (30-50k the whole way), such a pleasant change.  After about an hour I stopped at a small shop to grab a bottle of water and check my progress.  To my amazement I was at the highway junction I thought I might have to push to before finding hotels.  10 more minutes and was in a small town with hotels and hot water.  70k to Vietnam.                        

          

9/23/2012

After being sick the last couple of days I am going to be getting back on the road tomorrow.  I arrived in Mengzi a couple of days ago with a fever and some other ailments.  I hope I have rested enough to kick whatever has been bothering me.  Still not 100%, but I am bored to hell in this little town and my Chinese tourist visa is getting ready to expire.              

      Mengzi is actually a pretty nice town, except that it is located in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it.  For a small Chinese town this means there is little to do.  The other strange thing about it is there are no bicycles.  Everything is motorized.  I have only been able to find one bicycle store in town, despite being dozens of motorcycle and motorbike shops.  An abberation for China.

        From here to the border should be two days about 120-150k of lots of up and down.  I am ready to move on, I just hope my body is as well.

Sept, 19 2012 (Happy Birthday)

Distance covered today: 63.5k

Total mileage to date: 321k

Time in saddle: 4h02m

Time from departure: 6.5+ hours   

Max Speed: 48.1k/h, Average: 13.7k/h      

       Today was a rough day.  Woke up this morning with what feels like a cold and after taking a day off to get better was not looking forward to a day on the bike.  After lying in bed debating whether to stay another day or stop bitching and move on, I decided at least to get some breakfast.  It rained the night before and looked like it may still.  I have been lucky so far with the weather, but that was not to last.

     After breakfast I was feeling better and decided to stick with the plan and move on.  Hoping the rain had past through the night and the sun would break the clouds I set off for the day.  Soon after it started raining.  Really soft and slow at first, but gaining intensity until settling into a fine dreary rain.  Luckily with my layers and the general warmth, I wasnt cold, just wet from the waist down.

      The other fun part of the day was national road 323.  Despite being a major road and on the map as such, it is not entirely paved.  In fact it varies quite dramatically in surface.  Most of it is decent enough, some of the downhills are like riding a horse, lean back and be ready for the road to buck you forward.  But thats more fun than anything else.  

Today however, I came across the unpaved sections of the road.  Which would have been fine, except that it also had to be raining.  By the time I arrived at my stopping point from shoe to shin was one color.  The mud had so thoroughly caked on that the reflectors on my shoes, socks, skin and leggings were uniform along with most of the bike. 

      With a bit of luck though I was able to miss the downpour that signalled the end of the rain.  Coming across a local tourist attraction (the swallow nest caves) were several places that had food (i can not call them restaurants).  After a refreshing bowl of rice, eggs, oil and salt the rain finally stopped and I was able to push on and slowly dry out. 

     Now I am staying in a remarkably muslim area.  Even saw a ninja, (may not be the accepted term, but what else do you call a person dressed in all black with only eyeslits?) but most of the women are head scarfed.  This is the second muslim enclave that I have passed through so far.  Dont know why, but I didnt expect ninja's until Thailand. 

     Also just realized that its my birthday... But I dont think this shanty town is going to have much of a night life.  Going to have to wait till Sa Pa I think to party this one out.  Just happy the hotel has hot water and electricity, now to dream of wi-fi and a 马桶.

Day 4, 9/18/2012

 After pushing through yesterday I passed out early.  Tonghai was much more pleasant than I was expecting and while I stayed in the cheapest place I think I could find (25RMB for the night) it was still adequate.  The town was nice and ride to get there was pretty easy. 

    After waking up early, I planned to push on to JianShui.  Numbers for the day:

Distance covered today: 85k

Total mileage to date: 254

Time in saddle: 5h01m

Time from departure: 7+ hours

   The ride out of town was excellent.  About 20k of downhill mountain road.  I think I am moving off the Himalayan plateau and it makes for a great ride.  From looking at the map there is a general elevation change from 1600/1900 meters down to 700-900 meters.  It was a welcome change.  But its hotter and I got sunburned a bit on my forearms.  Time for suncreen.  I am realizing that I am going to have some funky tan lines when I finally make it to the beach in Thailand or Malaysia.

      But the downhill was not to last.  After about 30k the road started to go into rolling hills.  Slow ups and downs that lasted the rest of the way into Jianshui.  I have to say, if you are going to do a ride like this, GPS mapping is crucial and google maps are amazing.   As a friend once said, I am happy to accept google as my internet overlord.  Trust in google and you may have no privacy, but you will know where you are.

     After 7 hours on the bike and feeling exhausted, I pulled into JianShui.  The towns I have been using as waypoints have been far larger than I was expecting.  After searching for a hotel I found a place that had both western toilets and 24hr hot water. A palace compared to my last place.  And for the rest day I was willing to splurge at 73RMB a night.  A massage and I was in bed watching CCTV news by 8:30.  My energy was wiped from the days ride.

      Today I rose early and started to check out the town.  A nice, big bell tower in the town center is being repainted and closed, but looks nice.  All around a traditional style shopping area.   I asked the hotel about a coffee shop that might have wifi... he didnt know anywhere that would have wifi.  Then to be fair, he didnt think there were any coffee shops in town either.  So far my searching has born that out... But there is a computer in my room, just cant access the internet using my tablet.  Oh well.

   I have also run into my first bike repair.  The last couple of days there has been a disconcerting sound coming from my front sproket or pedals, not sure as it doesnt make any noise without a load on the bike, so i cant look while I am off the bike.  The first shop I went to wanted to replace the  pedal axle.  I dont know anything about this, and for only 80RMB it seemed like a good idea.  Thankfully they didnt have the part.  Because as it turns out I didnt need that at all.  I found a second bike shop and after a quick exam the bike tech pulled my pedals off, wiped out the socket, greased them down and everything seemed fine.  A quick adjustment to my front shifter cable and its much better.  Still a little click, but way better than before and all for free.

      I was going to try and run on my non-biking days, but that is just not going to happen.  Rest for the day and then try to push another 80k plus to Honghe.  I have a feeling that towns like this are not going to exist between Honghe and the border.  Have to enjoy hot water and a commode while I can.

                                                              

Day 2, 9/16/2012

Distance covered today: 57.9k (49 on the road and several around town)

Total mileage to date: 164k

Time in saddle: 3h37min

Time from departure: about 6+ hours  

     The ride from yesterday took a lot out of me.  I covered a lot more distance than i was planning and have not done more than 100k in a day since my first foray into long distance cycling 5 years ago.  Thankfully because I stretched so far yesterday, I only had to go 50+ to make it to my next stop.

     TongHai.  Much nicer than I expected and also than it comes off at first glance.  Coming in to town it seems very industrial, several factories and bunch of vegetable shipping depos gathering the crops for movement out of the area.  But once past that it is a nice smaller town.  Town center seems to be based around a small walking mall with a Chinese temple in the middle and a large mosque in the north western corner.  Streets are small and the place has a traditional, authentic feel.  Which I can attest to as so far the only foreigner and people seem genuinely shocked to see a white face.  Not a lot of foreign tourists coming through. 

     I was able to find a "hotel" for 25 yuan a night.  Warm water to shower was a welcome surprise although I would pay handsomely for a 马桶 (look it up). 

     The road today was easy to follow.  Skirted around Fuxian lake and then another smaller lake to the south.  After rejoining the local highway (s214) it was a 6+k climb before starting the downhill which took me most of the way into TongHai. 

     At the top of the hill was a tollboth and I had a foreboding sense that I might be turned away, truck access only or something.  As I approached I saw a small motorbike lane and hit it hard and fast to be able to go around anyone who might try to stop me... All for nothing.  The one guard who saw me looked about 15 and was more confused looking than anything else.

     A nice downhill and into town for a cup of coffee and a massage.  Tomorrow I will push about 70-80k to JianShui where I think I will stay for my first rest day. 

Day 1, 9/15/2012

Distance: 106.9 km

Time in saddle: 5h12m

Time from departure: 8h30m

Max speed: 62.1

(assuming my bike computer is on point, and I know its close)

The first day of the trip.  Started out with a solid plan.  Spent the day before researching some websites, asking for some local advice and using my maps to plan a route with what I thought were good distances to cover in the beginning.  Not to far, 60k and look for a hotel depending on where I was.      

     Did not follow that plan at all.  About 15k south of Kunming I cam across 4 guys cycling and after speaking for a minute learned we were both heading to the same place.  But they were going to be taking a different route.  So for some reason I still cant fathom, I decided to stick to my plan and go my way. 

     Immediately I was second guessing my choice.  They were local, they spoke Chinese, they were people to talk to and be around.  But choice made, I continued on.

     The roads were great, and the GPS worked like a charm.  Somehow I got off route, but was able to keep going, when in doubt go south.  Its my motto until Sa Pa.  Then its, when in doubt head westsouthwest.  Doesnt have the same ring. 

          Then by chance or luck, serendipity, fate ( you can choose your word) I can came across the same guys taking a short break.  On the wrong road (from my plan) and there they were.  I joined up with them immediately.  Turns out one of them has done this ride before.  Has a hotel in mind, which turned out to be 40RMB with hot water.  And overall were good people.  Never missing the chance to join in with other riders again.  They did however push a little farther than I was planning.  In typical Chinese fashion the leader said its only a little farther several times.  That turned out to be about 25-30k.  But, hotel is good, view is great and in two days I think I can cover what I had planned for 3 and take a day to rest.

    Day one, success.  Tired.  Legs are sore.  Ass hurts in places I never really felt before and that I believe will only get worse before it gets better.  Some new challenges not thought of before in mind (like, squatters all the time I knew before, but I forgot the village squatter stank.  What do you do with your bags when you need to answer nature?  most of the new problems seem to revolve around the bathroom).

    I really hope everything I read about it taking two weeks to really get into the flow of things.  Otherwise I need to start going a lot slower.

Kunming 3

Final preparations are pretty much complete.  I have a few things on my shopping list to pickup on my last day before heading out, but for the most part I have all the materials that I believe that I will need.  But I am having a lot of thoughts about the upcoming trip. 

Do I have enough time to make the marathon and meet my friends?

Do I have enough money and time budgeted?

Clothes, tools, etc?

And bigger questions, how is this going to work?  Do I have the stamina and am I physically ready?  Is this even a good idea or am I fucking idiot?

    Questions like this have been increasing as the start date gets near.  One more day and its time to get on the road...

Kunming 2, 9/11/2012

Today in some ways my bike trip starts.  My bike arrived by EMS from Wuhan.  The box looked a little worse for wear but it made it.  I started to get things together and after a minute I realized that my rear tire was not running smooth.  It looks like the rear brake is pressing on the tire keeping the tire from spinning freely.  So now its time to make my first trip to a bike shop for my first repair.  Hopefully this is minor problem and quick repair, this would be a stupid thing to stop me before I start.

     Tomorrow I should pick up my visa from the Vietnamese embassy and hopefully get my bike up in running for my first test run before setting off south.

    I think this is a minor problem, find out tomorrow.  First hurdle on the road and I yet to actually travel a single kilometer.

Kunming 1

After heading out of Xiamen we flew to Kunming.  A drastic difference in cities.  Kunming has entailed a lot of walking, about 10 plus kilometers a day.  We have been to several temples, but the highlight so far has been the food.

     The first night we were able to find our way to a local eatery and the food was fantastic.  Pineapple and spare ribs, wood ear mushrooms, crispy beef, and soy beans with mustard greens.  All in all, it was excellent.

     Today we went on a long walk to pretty much nowhere.  The map and guidebooks touted this park on the north end of dianchi (a large lake south of Kunming) but a wrong turn and we were on the wrong side of the canal from the park.  Fortunately there was a small park that offered a (some what disappointing) view of the north end of the lake.  But to salvage the day I was able to locate a bicycle store and find a dowel that I have been looking for to make my luggage rack a little more secure and keep my baggage from falling off.  So that was good.

Xiamen, 9/5/2012

         Took an overnight bus from Wuhan to Xiamen.  Technically it was a sleeper bus, but I had forgotten what that actually means.  The "bed" was tiny, even by average chinese standards I would think it was small.  And there was no where to put my bag, so i spent the night hugging my backpack.  it was pretty awful, but only 15 hours later, i was in xiamen waiting for my dad and step-mom in the airport. 

     We met up and made our way to Gulangyu, the scenic island off Xiamen.  Our hotel was at 8 Lujiao Lu.  After easily locating lujiao lu we proceeded to find 5, 7, then 9, but no 8.  A brief search and I went in to ask some bar staff where no. 8 might be.  They had no idea. She said, "well, 5 is that way, were 7 and 9 is over there, but 8, its somewhere else. I have no idea." Turns out neither did anyone else in the area.  So I called the hotel, told them where we were and asked them to send someone to find us.  A few minutes later we were walked to the hotel, about 200 meters from where we got off the ferry, and no where close to 5-13 Lu Jiao lu was.  Apparently odd and evens have no bearing on where they might be to each other.

     After that little diversion we set about exploring the island and having a pleasant dinner.  Travelling in China is always interesting.  Tomorrow will be a car to Fujian tulous.

Sapa, Vietnam

I arrived in Sapa two days ago and have been enjoying my time.  The weather is pretty wet most of the time, despite my hope that I would come in after the raining season.  Or it is after the rainy season and it is just always wet here.

After arriving at the Chinese border, I was starting to have second thoughts about how much of this trip I really wanted to spend on a bike.  Quickly realizing that in order to bike from one place to another met spending a lot of time in far off places that I really have no interest in being in.  And I also am starting to fear that I am going to spend the whole time on the bike, without the energy to do anything that might be really enjoyable.  The ride to Sapa, only convinced me futher that the bike was a bad idea.
aa
Starting out in the morning the weahter was decent.  Looked like rain, but then so had everyday since I started and usually it was nice as it kept the temperature jlkjdown.  Crossing the border was very easy.  most of the guards were more interested that someone would actually be biking than anything else so I didnt have to remove my bags for the inspection, just p
assed right through.  Finally, out of China and into Vietnam.  Then the ride to Sapa began in earnest.  It was truly hellish.

From Lao Cai to Sapa is only about 35km.  It started raining soon after I crossed the border and would not stop until about an hour before my arrival in Sapa.  But because of heavy rains the night before, the frist obstabcle I encountered was a washout in the road. Only about knee deep, it was fairly easily crossed.  Then the road started to go up.  And up, and up.  It would not stop going up until the end.  30km of hill climb.  It was the first time in my life I have seen a sign warning of 10% grade on the road.  That sign became common, to the point where when I saw a sign that said 6% grade, I thought, "Oh, what relief, I can rest a little on this section."  It was absolutely brutal.  After a while at some points I simply no longer had the strength and had to get off and push.  I realized I was going about the same speed.

After 2 hours, the traffic started to backup.  All stop.  Landslides had cut the road.  Slowly I peddaled to the front of the line to see what my chances of crossing were.  The road was out.  Would be for at least a couple of hours.  However, if you could carry it over, you could cross.  I unpacked my bike, and carried my bags over the rocks.  The bicycle though was going to be bit more tricky and awkward, the rocks did not align themselves for this type of crossing.  But on the edge was mud you could go through to make it around.  This was my route.  Took of the bike shoes, shouldered the bike and into the mud.  Two steps and my right foot sank to my knee, when I pulled up, the mud sucked my shoe off.  Next step the left shoe was sucked off.  Bike on shoulder, shoes in hand, I went forward.  The back hoe that was clearing the road decided it was time to move and I was right behind it.  I had to wait, barefoot, shin deep in mud until the driver had to get out to check his position before I could scoot behind the tractor to my bags and the other side.  It was a brief moment of elation and accomplishment in an otherwise defeating day.

Once on the other side, I washed off.  Got the bike back up and started up, all up.  The only nice thing about the slide was the road was empty.  After another hour or two vans started to go by.  But for the most part I had the road to myself.

Total distance: 42.3k
Average Speed: 9 k/h
Max speed: 34.9 k/h
Time in saddle: 4h35m
Travel time: 6.5+hrs
Total distance traveled: 569k