Here Be Elephants

Tongguan to Babian, 18.6 miles – 10.25.2010

Short riding day to Babian. The hotel in Tongguan was definitely our worst yet. We always ask the hotel for somewhere safe to leave our bikes. This was the first time that the owner suggested we take our muddy wet bikes into our room with us. And this was a carpeted room, albeit carpeted sometime in the last century. It was horrible, and so was our meal in town.

So the next day, after a short pleasant ride along a river in the sunshine we were happy to pull into Babian and stop for the day just an hour after lunch. It might have been the weather and our mood, but Babian felt the antithesis of Tongguan. Our guesthouse was clean and new, the people were friendly and smiling, and there was school attended by children from all the surrounding areas, which gave the village a jolly feel utterly absent in Tongguan. The afternoon was spent pleasantly, relaxing, doing laundry and tinkering with the bikes. Seems Tuesday is market day in Babian, and the village’s two streets were completely lined with stalls selling all manner of goods as we pulled out of town the next morning in good spirits.

Babian to Ning’er, 32 miles – 10.26.2010

Although the next day started off well with a reasonably quiet ride along the 213, a sudden downpour caused us to stop for an extended lunch, and drizzle continued for the rest of the day. This turned out to be the least of our worries. The new expressway has not been completed from Mo’hei to Pu’er, and our small, winding road turned into a small winding road full of trucks and buses racing to be the first to the top of the mountain. So the steep ascent into Ning’er was for the most part utterly terrifying. The least said about this the better, but I really hope the expressway is finished beyond Pu’er.

It is interesting to note the difference that the new expressway has made for the places along the old highway. On this section of the road the restaurants and stopping points were much more frequent and better kept. Where the new expressway has been completed, traffic along the old 213 is almost non-existent, and consequently the roadside buildings and settlements are often abandoned or in poor condition. Many small villages use the 213 highway as their main or only road. I wonder whether the new expressway and consequent lack of trucks and buses constantly speeding through is a blessing or a curse for some of these places. For us, the bike trip would have been impossible and horrible without the new expressway to relieve us of our unpleasant fellow road users. For many of the villages we pass through, the traffic was probably the only reason for their existence, and lack of it may lead to their demise.

Ning’er to Pu’er, 31.2 miles – 10.27.2010

The city of Ning’er was previously known as Pu’er. Pu’er is a very famous brand of long leaf green tea (which technically must be sundried in the Lancang Valley to qualify as such). In 2007, the municipal government of the nearby larger city of Simao decided, for reasons of tourism, to change the name of Simao to Pu’er. And consequently, Pu’er was renamed Ning’er. This has caused us a lot of confusion, though we hope it has the desired effect for the area.

In order to avoid the hellish experience on the 213 into Ning’er, we decided to take a smaller road from Ning’er to Pu’er. Confusingly this later also claimed to be the 213. It seems any road going south is called the 213 in these parts. The road we took, though mostly empty of traffic, had been completely demolished by trucks building the new expressway. At several points our bicycles were completely bogged down in the mud and locals were warning us to turn back. The renaming of the cities also made asking directions more complicated than necessary as locals pointed us back the way we came to get to Pu’er. We eventually rejoined the rest of the traffic on the main 213 and made our way into Pu’er, which frankly needs more than a name change to turn it into a desirable tourist destination. Road signs seem to suggest that the new expressway has been completed beyond Pu’er. So our next leg should be more pleasant (fingers crossed).

Other pages updated: Pictures, Maps, Statistics, Food

Pictures from this post and the previous two can be found here

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42 Miles – 10.24.2010

As we’ve mentioned, the majority of our trip has been spent on the old 213 highway which is parelelling the newly built G85 expressway. This leg of our journey from Mojiang to Tongguan highlighted just how different two roads heading in the same direction can be. The G85 route is approximately 25 miles. Ours was 45 miles. The expressway took advantage of tunnels straight under mountains, while our road preferred to slowly climb over them. We’ll spend hours thousands of miles above the expressway, only to drop hundreds of feet below it just in time to have to climb back over a mountain. Our road is definitely more scenic, but those views must be earned.

The latter half of the day was spent climbing a mountain with mist and clouds clinging to the peaks. The vegetation is becoming more tropical, as is the weather as rain comes and goes quite often. At the top of the mountain, we met a rare person: a solo Chinese motorbike tourist. Foregoing the typical tour groups, this man of similar spirit was travelling cross country (and mountains) on his motorbike and was very excited to see us doing the same on our bicycles. He and Alison chatted for a moment about where we’ve been and where we’re headed until he parted our company with a friendly Chinese bon voyage of “All roads be safe.”

Speaking of meeting the locals, the responses we get vary from the annoying to the uplifting. This area is less accustomed to seeing foreigners so we’re stared at more often than in Shanghai. The two most common ways we’re greeted is either a friendly (and often excited) “hello” or, the less friendly option, the desire to state the obvious and declare “foreigner” in Chinese. One little boy on his bike called out “Hello, I am Kobe Bryant, what’s your name?” which was probably one of the best greetings we’ve received. The most annoying are the random car or truck honks in lieu of a hello as we’re climbing a hill.

As I’ve mentioned, the hill, mountain, and farmland scenery is often quite outstanding. But it’s becoming frustrating that amongst such breathtaking and epic backdrops, the towns are often rundown and unwelcoming… not to mention some horrific industrialization on the outskirts of cities. The landscape is something everyone should see, but it becomes difficult to recommend when places to stay in between are so bad (both the hotels and the settlements in which they are situated). Before reaching Tongguan, Alison stopped to ask someone if there was somewhere to stay nearby. The man said that Tongguan was close and it had hotels, but it’s “terrible and nasty.” So we aren’t the only ones frustrated by this.

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47 miles – 10.22 to 10.23.2010

Yuanjiang was an uninspiring place, but the market was busy and interesting. Most of the food we tried was pretty terrible, and it wasn’t a place in which I would have chosen to spend two nights. Waiting for laundry to be finished meant that we didn’t leave Yuanjiang until lunch time – even though we had reason to believe that the next leg would be the hardest and hilliest yet. Stretching ourselves too far on the ride to Yuanjiang meant that we had to spend too long there, so we decided to split the ride to Mojiang into two days.

Heading into the hills in the midday sun was brutal, as was the gradient, such that we found ourselves looking for a place to stay by four. This was the first part of our journey where fresh supplies of bottled water were hard to come by, so we got the chance to try out our water filter in a pretty mountain stream. Exhausted and over-heated, we had almost resigned ourselves to camping out by the side of the road when we came upon a small family-run guesthouse, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. The owner was pleased to see us – and was extremely proud of the fact that he could offer us a hot shower. A company selling solar powered water heaters seems to have done well in this part of China – with even the most run down looking concrete shack incongruously sporting a shiny new heater on its corrugated iron roof. The room was incredibly basic, but also extremely cheap, and the shower was indeed wonderful.

Early the next morning we continued on our route along the 213, up and up and up. Despite the harsh terrain, this area is reasonably populated; we passed through several small hamlets and farmsteads with their resident animals. We see a lot more animals than people, and every house has at least one dog – mostly very territorial and not at all pleased to see us. Amazing how an angry dog barking at your heels can spur your legs to find new energy on those ascents.

Mojiang was probably the nicest town we’ve seen, bustling and lively, and overlooked from the north by a big and quite pretty mosque. Many of the towns we passed through have clearly undergone very recent construction and development, but their population has not yet expanded to fill it, which gives them a soul-less, abandoned feel. Mojiang was different, which made it a lot more pleasant. Our hotel was the sort that was probably nice fifteen years ago, before the owner decided to stop trying, but as it was hosting an enormous wedding (tables spilled out of the the two dining rooms into the car park), even it had a nice atmosphere. We found a whole street full of proper restaurants (with full sized tables and chairs and a bit of atmosphere – though still no menus), and as we left in the morning we also glimsped a busy market place in full swing. Mojiang also provided us with the best breakfast, perhaps the best meal we’ve had since leaving Kunming – truly delicious tang bao (dumplings stuffed with pork and a soupy gravy). This city also provided something of a milestone for our trip, straddling as it does the Tropic of Cancer. They have a big park (the only one of it’s kind in the world, apparently) to celebrate this fact… but we didn’t visit it.

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53 miles – (10.20.2010)

Day four was our most ambitious yet. We set off with the goal of making it to Yuanjiang which we believed to be 45 to 50 miles away. The trip was significantly more difficult than expected; it involved 3000+ feet of elevation gain along with the sun making it’s first serious appearance since we arrived in Yunnan.

The ride was gorgeous. No more (well, very little) construction, beautiful vistas of mountains and rivers, and pretty farmland. Despite the views, the highlight was a woman near the top of our steepest ascent that provided us with very cold water. She was impressed by our planned destination (which should have been a warning) and, along with the water, provided hope of downhill roads shortly ahead.

It was a long and laborious journey but we did manage to crawl into Yuanjiang before sunset and stumble into the first hotel in sight. Pushing ourselves past our limits floored us for another day off the bikes, but the impressive 53 miles almost makes it worth it.

And moving on to something other than a play by play of our rides…

Eating in this part of China has proven to be more challenging than expected. No restaurant here has a menu and Alison only earns strange looks for asking for one. Instead, Alison (since I can’t speak Chinese) is led back to the kitchen and presented with their fridge. Inside is often a large amount of random green vegetables of varying states of freshness and a small selection of very disturbing meat products to choose from. It’s generally almost enough to turn me vegetarian, though we usually risk one of the less terrifying meat choices. Also, to define “restaraunt” – it’s usually only a single small room with three or four child-sized tables and stools. Even in Yuanjiang, a city of at least 100,000, we haven’t been able to find a single decent sized (and decent quality) restaraunt.

Hotels have been a grab bag in terms of quality, but they’re generally welcoming and sufficiently clean for our tastes. No night has been completely miserable, though only one has actually had hot running water (and it wasn’t the most expensive one). The one we’re in now offers a very nice room with warm water and a computer with an internet connection for only $12.

We went to get our laundry done this morning (I’m completely out of clean clothes) and they claim it won’t be done until 5 pm tomorrow. We’re going to try our luck and see if we can get it in the morning, otherwise we’re stuck in Yuanjiang another day. With about 170 miles behind us, it wouldn’t be that bad but we’re eager to continue on.

Pictures from this leg can be found here

Other pages updated: Pictures, Maps, Food

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42 miles – (10.17.2010)

Big day today.

Road out of Yuxi deteriorated quickly into a quagmire of thick, red clay mud and hidden rocks. Road workers assured us that, though virtually impassable, it was the only route for bicycles. Lots of big trucks (mostly carrying dirt and rocks for fixing the road) were churning up the mud in the muddy bits and tossing clouds of dirt in our faces in the dry bits. Oh the horror. Then, as we paused to ask for directions (the response is almost always just ‘straight on!’ its just hard to believe given the state of the road), Matt slipped and fell into the mud. Just a few easily dealt with cuts and bruises and a lot of mud, but a first for the trip. The grim road continued most of the way to Eshan, where we ate lunch at a little roadside cafe which was probably only established for the road workers.

We got lost leaving Eshan (Shuang Jiang), but finally a petrol pump assistant gave us decent directions to Huanian….on the 213! It’s not in fact mythical. This was the nicest stretch of road so far, which we needed after a very dispiriting morning. The road wound up through green, bamboo coated hills, white painted villages and terraced fields, and we had it essentially to ourselves. It was quiet, the air was fresh, the road was paved, and the scenery beautiful. After about two hours the road peaked, and then continued along a ridge, providing great views. Stopping for a quick snack at the top, and ignorant of our future, we felt very pleased with ourselves, especially realising that we had climbed 1500 ft that day, and didn’t feel too bad.

Huanian, a very small and not very beautiful town lay in a valley 3000 feet below us, and the road just plummeted to meet it, its surface deteriorating in quality with every foot. The sun was setting, and we were just optimistcally discussing a hot meal and a hotter shower…..when I noticed a funny noise and realised my front tire was completely flat. We pulled over to fix it and about half way through the job, the fat drops of rain started to fall and darkness truly set in. Took us over 45 min to fix it (and the brake problem we subsequently caused through our own foolishness) by the light of our headlamps. Setting off down the steep road in the pitch black and pouring rain was miserable. But we had hardly got 500m when we saw lights twinkling in the distance; we had stopped for repairs only about 750m away from town (we knew it was close, we just didn’t realise it was that close).

We must have looked a sorry state, as the proprietor of the town’s guesthouse quickly got us settled, helped us with our bags and didn’t even make us go to the police station to register – instead asking the policeman to come out in the rain to us. And our big room with three beds and a private bathroom (of sorts) was only 8 dollars a night. Although all the restaurants in town were closed (it was 7.30pm after all!), we got a tasty and much needed meal of kebabs, noodles, hot tea and beer at a street stall, with biscuits and milk to follow. So we dealt with a lot of crap today, but the important thing is that we dealt with it, and had all the tools and know-how we needed to do so. And we saw our first truly beautilful scenery too. But tomorrow, we’re going nowhere.

Other pages updated: Pictures, Maps, Statistics

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Sorry to flood you with updates, but we’re not sure when we’ll find internet again. If you check out the maps page, you’ll see that south of us right now doesn’t have as many cities. We’ve updated the stats, maps, and pictures. We’ve also added a food page where we will try to put pictures and descriptions of any noteworthy food.

Hope everyone is well.

Matthew and Alison

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45 miles (2010.10.16)

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It was cloudy, chilly and rainy both days we were here, so they must be refering to an English spring.

Our first day here we attempted to retrieve our bicycles. The train station that we thought they’d be delivered to denied all knowledge of their existence and the validity of the receipt, with their logo, that we had as proof. Then we misplaced both our passports long enough to assume they were stolen. So everything started strong.

Day two was more successful. Our bikes were hidden in an obscure freight train station on the edges of town. To get there, a Chinese man led us by foot across numerous tracks and past many decrepit buildings. It all seemed very fishy, but turned out better than expected; the bikes were in good condition, and we managed to navigate back to our hostel with minimal fuss. If you’re shipping within China, be wary of using http://www.shztwl.cn/. Though they did get the job done in the end.

The rest of the day was mercifully uneventful. The highlight being dinner at a Yunnanese restaurant recommended by Wikitravel. Yunan, by the way, is the name of the province in South Western China where Kunming is located. For the folks back in Shanghai, Southern Barbarian is pleasantly authentic. Mint and goat cheese were heavily featured on the menu. Yay.

We set off on the bikes tomorrow morning. Currently our hostel has free wifi, and we have time on our hands, but we expect that to be less common once we leave civilization. Don’t expect such frequent, detailed updates.

We’ve added two new pages to the right. “Notable Places” will keep track of specific places (hotels / restaurants) we’ve visited for other potential travelers. “Statistics” will record data about our travels we find interesting. For example, how many bowls of noodles we’ve eaten and how many flat tires we’ve suffered. Many of both to come.

And most importantly, happy birthday Lauren and Grandma Hill!

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In case this is news to anyone, we are beginning a four to six month bicycle tour through the major countries in South East Asia. Here’s a brief introduction to why we’re doing it and the general plan of action…

Despite living and working in Shanghai for seven years between us, we somehow haven’t managed to visit SE Asia. Thinking that our time in China was nearly up, it seemed a great idea to tour the whole of SE Asia in one big trip before we left. Bike touring seemed the perfect alternative to our usual fast-paced style of travelling. And we cycle to work in Shanghai everyday….so we’ll be fine…

We fly to Kunming, a city in the south west of China, tomorrow to start the trip. From there we plan to cycle south to the Laos border, then continue east and south into Vietnam, with Cambodia and Thailand to follow. There should be reasonable internet access for most of it, and the blog will be updated as frequently as possible.  Be sure to look at the map section, where there will be GPS tracking logs.  The bikes seem mostly to be weighed down by electronic equipment, but if we can get the route up there it will be worth it.

Its been a challenge getting prepared for the trip these last few months, and now we’re eager to finally get going. Don’t forget to subscribe by putting your email into the form on the right if you would like regular updates.

Matthew and Alison

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