Archive for the ‘Cycling’ Category

Day 257. 67km. Na Hin – Lak Sao

Posted: November 14, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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When the distance required is low, the breaks become longer, and side-trips are included. Cycling through the undulating landscape, surrounded by rocky peaks, we detoured for a swim in a cool, deep pool. In the end, we only just made it before sunset to the distinctly ‘border-town’ Lak Sao.

Entering the water

Entering the water

The road was lovely and peaceful, but climbing in the roasting sun was a very sweaty affair. This made the promise of a cool break at the cool spring irresistible. It turned out to be irresistible for the hoard of western motorbike riders too, so we had some company.

Road to springs

Road to springs

Kids

Kids

The beautiful plains

The beautiful plains

Day 185. 118km. Wulan Hate – High Plains

Posted: November 13, 2015 in China, Cycling
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It’s a different China. This morning I left my holiday yurt, climbed into the heavens, and dropped down onto wide, open plains, with snow-capped mountains in the distance, and void of people. With the wind at my back, I rolled along these endless plains, feeling free and happy in this beautiful place.

The high plains

The high plains

You can see for miles – in fact more than 20 kilometres. This is a photo looking back at the previous photo.

The High Plains

The High Plains

The plains roll on in all directions for-ever. Leaving the road you could walk until you are a dot, invisible from the road. Slowly, I climbed on the plains, and they turned into a high yurt valley – but this time real yurts – not the holiday yurts below. The plains are flat, and a fence lines the road, making a secret camp challenging. My tent is in view of the road, in a tiny dip, next to a small river.

Frosty camping spot

Frosty camping spot

View from the high pass

View from the high pass

Summit monument

Summit monument

Day 256. 92km. Pakkading – Na Hin

Posted: November 13, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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We left the main road along the Mekong, and left the busy boredom, exchanging it for rocky, pointy mountains, karsts, and a spectacular view over a wide flat plane surrounded by cliff faces.

An amazing view - the photo doesn't do it justice

An amazing view – the photo doesn’t do it justice

The stress lifted as we turned the corner, and made our way through a rolling landscape. The speeding white Toyota Landcruisers were no more, and the road was returned to local traffic. We undulated our way through dense forest, with the calls of the cicadas and chainsaws reigning supreme. Not as krass as in China, but, we passes some ugly quarries and tree harvesting. Mostly it was a cycle through nature and the heat.

Karst landscape

Karst landscape

Rocky hills

Rocky hills

Banana and pineapple stop

Banana and pineapple stop

Day 184. Areletuobie – Wulan Hate

Posted: November 12, 2015 in China, Cycling
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I squat, pants removed, over the hole in the cement. As the first shit spatters out with a burst, my neighbour leans forward and looks at me around the chest-high dividing partition.
‘Where are you from?’
My next brown package explodes out.
‘Germany. By bike.’
I get the thumbs-up (with pants down).

River

River

And so the conversation goes. I am quite proficient at it now in Chinese. From Germany. Yes. 15000km. 10 months. Via Turkey, Iran and Kazakhstan. Australia. 2 years. Worked at Philips. About $10000 (amount I have spent up to now). Today my story brought me an invitation to a picnic on the river with bread and honey from the local stall. A lovely couple from Urumqi with 2 small children invited me to join them.

Picnic friends

Picnic friends

This morning, before I was allowed to leave the hotel, my passport had to be shown to the police again. It’s stressful – you aren’t allowed to camp, and usually, you can’t stay in a hotel either. Other cyclists that had tried my planned route had been turned back by the police, and so I was nervous approaching the police checkpoint at the turnoff. My fluorescent vest removed, all filming equipment hidden, I was luckily part of a massive crowd of people that were being waved through. Still, no hotels for me on this stretch of road, lest I be taken to the police and turned back.

Cycling up the river my mood changed. It was not flat, hot, busy and boring, but rather, I was following a lovely forested valley with a beautiful raging river. The river abounded with lots of beautiful flat places to pitch a tent away from view of the road, and so my hopes were high. I planned to camp just before the road left the river to wind its way over the pass. Unfortunately, holiday yurt developers had the same idea. The last 10km before was wall-to-wall yurt – a bit like the Spanish Mediterranean coast but Chinese style. Then it started to rain. I would risk it. I asked some yurt owners if I could stay in the yurt. They were only boys, and probably don’t know about reporting tourists to the police. Yes. I could pitch my tent behind a yurt for free, or stay in one for 150 yuan. With the rain getting heavier, a yurt it was.

Day 255. 100km. Thabok – Pakkading

Posted: November 12, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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The music on, the flat road continues. Music brings out the emotion, and today I felt joy as I saw the kilometres posts flying by, indicating Australia getting closer by the kilometre. I felt I really am going home, in the most awesome way – by bike. Happy, proud, laughing, I cycled along the Mekong River in Laos.

The boring road

The boring road

The late afternoon sun cast an orange light on the fields and villages. The kids were very excited, calling out Sabaidee, waving frantically and running to the bike from their bamboo huts. And I was waving frantically back. Music from my youth was blasting in my ears. Meeting with cool students in Vientiane a few days ago made me realise the world will be in their hands, and it gives me hope. The youth have impressed me on my whole trip. The politics in Australia and Canada is changing, and maybe even in the USA. Today I felt hope for this amazing planet of ours, and I smiled.

Dried fish sellers

Dried fish sellers

Today we met an English cyclist that told us of a beautiful side-road into the hills. We are considering taking it, meaning an end to these bellybutton contemplation days with the bike on automatic pilot. I’m ready for some less boring road and some beautiful mountain landscapes. Oh, with some dreadful roads – I kind of miss them..

Day 183. 135km. Gongliu – Areletuobie

Posted: November 11, 2015 in China, Cycling
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The people here are wonderful – I’ve been showered with happy faces and gifts. On the other hand, like Iran, this is a state ruled by the iron fist. Again my hotel looked a bit shaky after a police station visit. I am only passing through. The people that live here have to endure this indefinitely.

Unity of the people

Unity of the people

Every kilometre or so I pass by a bright red sign with yellow script. I had a bash at translating one – it was all about unity and solidarity of the people. The signs were about as frequent as the two heads in Iran, and the president in Tajikistan. They were everywhere.

Just in front of a red sign, I was stopped by a good-looking young man I had smiled at a kilometre back down the road. He had hopped on his motor scooter and gave me a bottle of water. I was handed another bottle of water out of the window of a passing car. I was given some watermelon by two kids who were at the same melon stall as me. I was given a new cap, towel and two cobs of cooked corn at my lunch stop. And I was given all sorts of different fruits when getting some fruit for dinner. Lovely lovely people.

Melon stall

Melon stall

Gift showerers

Gift showerers

Fruit gifts

Fruit gifts

I found a hotel, put my bike in the room, and went with the hotel manager to the police station. (He wanted to take my passport there himself. I said I would come with him.) I could sense it coming (I understood a lot of what they were saying at the police station.) I wasn’t allowed to stay in that hotel, or indeed any hotel in the village. I needed to go 25km to a different village where there was a foreigner hotel. Then the, now standard, phone call with the English speaker confirmed my suspicions. I played the same card as yesterday – ‘I’m tired, it’s late, and I can’t cycle further. I just want to sleep.’
Mm. Some police websites were opened, some protocol documents checked, and then, amazingly, I could go. I was allowed to sleep at my non-foreigner hotel. All this is getting tiring, though. I think tomorrow I’ll be sleeping hidden in my tent.

Day 254. 97km. Vientiane – Thabok

Posted: November 11, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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Cycling along the flat, straight road in the heat, the mind wanders. In Vientiane I talked with world cyclists Martin and Susanne, and with Mark about the big question – ‘what will you do when you finish the trip?’ A boring cycling stretch can sometimes bring surprising mental clarity – and so it was today.

Boring road

Boring road

Key words float in and out of my mind as the cars and trucks roar past. Environment, helping disadvantaged people, Australian aboriginals, Australian healthcare policy (I have worked in healthcare research and healthcare communications), Aboriginal health (life expectancy 15 years less that non-Aboriginal Australians). Then the massive illegal destruction of the Indonesian rainforests. Issues in areas I will be cycling through. Issues that are important. What will I do when I get to Australia? I don’t know – yet.

A rest-day in Vientiane with interesting people can break the cycling mindset. I had a day of sightseeing, guided by a local, lots of smoothies, and bought some of the cool sticky rice and coconut tubes (sold in bamboo tubes).

Sticky rice in bamboo

Sticky rice in bamboo

Meeting with Twisting Spokes

Meeting with Twisting Spokes

Day 182. 105km. Yining – Gongliu

Posted: November 10, 2015 in China, Cycling
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‘You should change hotels.’
It was 20:30, and I was going up to my room for the night.
‘Why?’ I asked in Chinese. ‘Are foreigners not allowed to stay in this hotel?’ (also in Chinese).
No, that was not the problem. When the explanation came in Chinese, I stared blankly. ‘Wo ting bu dong.’ (I don’t understand.)
An English speaker was phoned to help me understand.
‘Maybe the hotel is too old, and I want a better one,’ she suggested.
‘I just want to sleep,’ I replied. ‘I’m tired.’
‘Ahhh,’ came the reply. ‘You want to sleep?? Hand the phone back to the woman at the front desk.’
I was allowed to stay.
Chinese logic at it’s most incomprehensible.

Free gift

Free gift

The hotel is an hour hotel (or o’clock hotel as they call it). The one last night was too. An hour in the hotel is only a few yuan less that the whole night. I must say, I am impressed with the Chinese approach to these hour hotels. In the one last night, they had lots of posters with doctors and nurses wearing the AIDS red ribbon, and posters promoting the use of condoms. They seemed to be part of a safe sex health campaign. In the hotel tonight, they had two free condoms in the bathroom.

Still, I wonder why I was asked to change hotels. Maybe the people at the reception thought that I might be woken by orgasmic cries in the night. Or maybe my conservative and puritan self might be shocked by my fellow hotel guests. I guess I will never know.

Cycling – oh, yes. This is a cycle blog. The road was straight with moderate traffic through farming country. I ate lots of grapes, and passed 15000km from Eindhoven.

Grapes

Grapes

15000km

15000km

Day 253. 72km. Phon Hong – Vientiane

Posted: November 10, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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We slept like logs through the blaring wedding music before cycling along the flat, boring road into Vientiane. In Vientiane I finally caught up with Susanne and Martin from Twisting Spokes.

Meeting up again with Twisting Spokes

Meeting up again with Twisting Spokes

In February last year we met before all of us had started on our cycling adventure. A year and a half and half a world later we met again in Laos. There were lots of stories to share!

Day 181. 115km. Huocheng – Yining

Posted: November 9, 2015 in China, Cycling
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Surrounded by bright lights with neon signs and Chinese characters screaming from all directions, I walk down the main street in Yining. Many a man (both young and old) parade past me with their shirt rolled up to around their nipples. Guts can hang out, and underpants can be exposed. Everything goes here in China!

Letting the breeze in

Letting the breeze in

I am in the far flung backblocks of China, and it feels like I have almost not left a metropolis. The smallest dots on the map are cities bigger than anything I have seen in the last few months – huge boulevards with high-rise buildings and neon signs screaming out consumerism. When I’m not in a city, I’m on a massive freeway or the very large parallel ‘alternate’ road. With the honks of horns and the whizzing past of cars, peace can only be reached when you stop. Talking to the owner of shops, and playing with the kids. All a lot of fun. It’s not worth trying to leave the main road to take a road through the villages. I did that, and the road fizzled out, as did all the side roads. Twenty kilometres later, I returned to where I started.

Lunch stop

Lunch stop

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