Archive for the ‘Cycling’ Category

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

Day 252. 89km. Vang Vieng – Phon Hong

Posted: November 9, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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‘We’re all booked!’
What?
‘They might have a room in the other hotel – but they are having a party.’
They’re having a wedding reception, and the only available room is 10 metres from the wall of loudspeakers. The walls shuddered all night.

Ready for the wedding reception

Ready for the wedding reception

We made our way along the non-flat road with several stops in fruit-seller’s shelters waiting for the torrential downpours to pass. Our goal was actually a bit past the wedding reception town, but the darkness caught up with us, and so – wedding reception it is..

Rain

Rain

Drying fish

Drying fish

Keeping the fish fly free

Keeping the fish fly free

View from a small pass

View from a small pass

Day 180. Zharkent – Huocheng

Posted: November 8, 2015 in Cycling, Kazakhstan
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The transition could not be more abrupt. In Kazakhstan small farming villages dotted with small ‘magazins’ – what I have been used to in the ‘stans’. Over the border, a little city has grown out of the desert like a mushroom. Big shopping complexes in the making, wide streets, and a buzz of things happening that wasn’t over the border in Kazakhstan. This is the new China that is being built as we speak.

Shopping street

Shopping street

I waited in the ‘queue’ (mass of people) behind the green line to leave Kazakhstan. I had my cumbersome, fully loaded bike, and people were squeezing past me, ignoring my protests. A clash of cultures perhaps. I jammed my bike perpendicular to the queue and actively blocked any more queue-jumpers. Still, a woman breathed in and slipped past my bike, wedged against the wall. Probably with a low sugar level after cycling there without eating lunch, I was determined to remove her. I stared at her. And stared. And stared. She nervously looked away and I continued staring. For minutes. She glanced back at me and then away – looking anywhere but at me. I continued staring, not moving my gaze for a second. She talked to her neighbour, glancing briefly at my piercing stare from time to time. After 10 minutes she looked at me, and asked if she could return to behind my bike. I let her through to her rightful place in the queue.

After a 7km ride around a big loop road to return to 100m from where I started, I easily passed through Chinese customs, and am proudly now in the Middle Kingdom. I laughed with joy. A rush of pride washed over me. I have cycled here from Holland! There were Chinese characters everywhere, I heard Chinese spoken, and it all looked so different. Wide streets, lots of bustling stalls, high-rise buildings, many new ones still being built, and what looked like a massive shopping complex. How different to a kilometre the other side of the border river.

Time to use my Chinese language skills learned in my 6 weeks in Taiwan in January and February. I ordered lunch and chatted for about an hour with the kids at the restaurant. After fighting through with my inadequate Russian for several months, it feels good to be able to speak the language again.

Talking with the kids

Talking with the kids

And then, leaving the city, I ran into a German cyclist cycling the other way into Kazakhstan. After another meal with him (I just ate ice-cream), I decided to call it a day, and stop in the border town. Tomorrow I’ll cycling into China proper.

Day 251. 61km. Kasi – Vang Vieng

Posted: November 8, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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And the road went down – gently down into the valley. Karst rock chunks adorning the side, and the brown river slipping slowly towards the distant ocean. The sun was out, and it was hot. Perfect for a slow, smoothie stop-filled ride to the ex-party town of Vang Vieng.

Sunset at Vang Vieng

Sunset at Vang Vieng

Mark cycling down the valley

Mark cycling down the valley

Karst landscape

Karst landscape

Kids on the way to school

Kids on the way to school

Day 179. 115km. Sharyn River – Zharkent

Posted: November 7, 2015 in Cycling, Kazakhstan
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Back on the road with cycling companions – David from Germany and Isabella from Poland. And it was a straight road – a hot straight road. Lying on my bed in the border town – I think of my next country – China. It’s size is daunting, and the first part is hot, flat and endless. I shudder.

David and Isabella on the endless straight road

David and Isabella on the endless straight road

‘Eta adin?’ people ask – ‘Are you alone?’
Yes. How do I feel about that? My hand pauses over the keyboard. For quite some time. I don’t know. I like cycling with people, sharing the experiences, and planning the route ahead. The challenges ahead seem surmountable with others. Night falling and a campsite still not being found is less of a problem with others. A companion means conversation that is more than where are you from, where are you going – and are you alone? This conversation is often followed by a shake of the head – an expression of either admiration – or of pity.

I have heard so much about China – so many differing views. It is a country that is intricate and complex, and standing on it’s edge as a foreigner, approaching people not knowing how things work, the gulf of understanding can result in a ‘mai you’ (no). I have been in Iran where people live under the shadow of the state. How will China be, I ask myself. I hope the understanding gulf will be reduced with the Mandarin I have learnt. Now there is just one way to see how it will be – go there.

China, here I come!

My companions for the day

My companions for the day

Day 250. 71km. Pong Dong – Kasi

Posted: November 7, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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Steep! Very steep! Cloudy skies, cool temperatures, and a little tailwind made it a bit easier. From 750m to 2050m and down to 650m with lots of uphill intermissions. Coming down was straight and fast – an adrenalin rush. All with the beautiful green, kaarst landscape as a backdrop.

Looking down into the high valley between 2 passes.

Looking down into the high valley between 2 passes.

I lie at the top, on the concrete, facing up into the heavens. I laugh. And laugh. I’ve cycled to Laos. I’ve cycled up this steep, steep road. The view is spectacular. My body feels strong (even if I am knackered). I have made it. I am here. Now. And I am happy.

Meat and veg

Meat and veg

The banana kids

The banana kids

Steep steep

Steep steep

In the morning we were blessed by the monk. His blessing got us over the pass.

In the morning we were blessed by the monk. His blessing got us over the pass.

Day 178. 117km. Kegen – Sharyn River

Posted: November 6, 2015 in Cycling, Kazakhstan
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What a contrast. The rain closes in your horizons. Not only the eyes can’t see, but the mind turns inward to escape the rain. Today the sun shone on the wide, wide open expanses. This country feels huge, and I – the little ant – roll down from the mountains into the endlessness. Cycling through, I feel a tiny part of this huge planet – this little blue dot in the universe – the little blue dot I call home.

The wild west

The wild west

Today was a day for a side trip – to Sharyn Canyon. Recommended by everyone, it involved leaving the main road and going cross-country on a little corrugated sandy path. This was a highlight. No traffic. Just a little sandy line continuing onto the horizon, traversing the vast open plains of low-lying grass.

The long, straight road

The long, straight road

The sandy road

The sandy road

The lonely road

The lonely road

The canyon is an amazing valley, carved out of the flat surrounding landscape. Views from above abound. Getting down to the water with the bike was impossible (as the road was too steep to push the bike back up).

Sharyn canyon

Sharyn canyon

Sharyn Canyon

Sharyn Canyon

Sharyn Canyon

Sharyn Canyon

I met my camping companions David and Isabella at the canyon. They are also cycling around, and, together, we found a wild camping spot neat the Sharyn River.

For the record, in case people are looking for the information I was unable to find on the internet: it is not possible to cycle along the length of the Sharyn Canyon. The photos that are to be found with cars on roads at the bottom of the canyon, are all within 5km of the Sharyn Canyon Park entrance. The park entrance is 10km along a dusty corrugated road from the main road. It is a further 22km along a dusty, corrugated road to reach the main road near Shonzy (there are lots of different spellings for this name).

Day 249. 66km. Luang Prabang – Pong Dong

Posted: November 6, 2015 in Cycling, Laos
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The orange-clad monk beamed with his 3-teeth grin and his wispy 3-haired beard. Opening the door to his living quarters, he pointed to the television blaring in the corner. ‘Waw’ – bull, he chuckled. The crowd on the television, and the monk cheered as the two bulls locked horns. A thumbs-up from the monk. Evening entertainment at the temple.

Mark and the monk

Mark and the monk

Today was a cycle to the bottom of the high pass, and see what the universe provides for accommodation. Mark had sent his tent back home from Luang Prabang, and I had sent home my cooking equipment. We were much lighter, and could speed over the hills, but we couldn’t camp tonight. We knew there was no guesthouse on the way.
No, we couldn’t stay in the little restaurant, or in someone’s shed. The monks were lovely, and set up a sleeping place for us on their verandah. My first time sleeping at a Buddhist temple. ☺

Mark charmed the kids repeatedly in the little villages and at the temple.

The kids

The kids

Today was hilly, and steep in parts. Tomorrow is the big climb that everyone warns us about. Steep, steep, steep, apparently.

Riding to our temple home

Riding to our temple home

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