Off to Lhasa tomorrow early AM, so may not get too much of a chance to do much blog posting when we're cycling in the Himalayas. Apparently it's a bit high and there's not much Wifi !?!
Could be difficult, imagine if Tibetan Macdonalds along the way to Nepal don't have internet connections!! What will we do? We might have to make conversation rather than browse the net while we're eating our Mcflurry burgers. ;-)
Friday 27 August 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Kunming
Rich is a genius and looked up bike shops in Kunming on the web, we had heard that there was one really good one in town. I was not feeling 100%, a cold/sore throat was on the way which justifies the journey yesterday (in my eyes!) Anyhow we headed out with guidebook and Rich with an idea of where the place is, me feeling under the weather and not looking for a long walk. We had to head up to green lake, which a beautiful lake in the middle of Kunming complete with water lilies, pedalo's and tourists galore. We this is where Rich falls from his genius status.... we have to walk about a quarter of the way round and then head into the back streets, so when we arrived back at the place where we first started walking round the lake I was not impressed and took over the map reading.... 15 mins later we were at the shop. They said that they can mend disc brakes and to bring the bike in. We had not taken the bike as the traffic is a total nightmare.
Once the beast was present the fun began. Little English is spoken in China, which is understandable and our mandarin now stretches to hello, thank you and egg fried rice, not that helpful in 'can you fix our disc brake please, this is what we want doing' finally as we had got it all sorted with a good dose of google translator giving out 'Chinglish' (sentences that don't really make sense) we were heading out of the shop to return at 5 the next day when the mechanic came running..... he did not know how to get a part of the brake off. So to cut a very long and boring story short, 4 hours in a bike shop long, a chap who is English and works there weekends came by, translated for us and we eventually left with the bike not fixed, to ring Thorn (the makers of the Tandem) to arrange parts to be shipped out ASAP to China. Oh and another spoke was broken!
Thorn was going to get back to us the following day with prices for the parts so we could arrange a customs declaration form, China are really anal about how much stuff you can have sent to you so it had to be right so it did not get stuck in customs. Finally two days later on the 19/08 we got an email stating the price...... and a golden nugget of information.....all the hope disc brake parts are reusable!!! there should be no need for a delivery!
quick phone call to a Thorn mechanic later and we are the proud owners of fantastic information. Back to the bike shop the following day and hey presto one happy stoker i.e. me, Denyze as I have the disc brake, yippee I have some control!! Spoke mended, chain cleaned, bike boxed for packing and all for the extortionate price of £19, yes that is right approx 10 hours of faffing around on our bike cost the measly sum of £19. We love China!!
The rest of our time in Kunming has been spent trying not to spend too much money, which is always difficult when you discover Carrefour supermarket with imported cheeses and the markets have lots of lovely nic-nacs. So what do you do with too much time on your hands... you up load photos, we have upgraded the flickr account and now we can upload as many as we want. So go and have a look, if you click on the photos in the top right it should take you straight there. The photostream is totally out of sync so go to the sets down the right hand side of the flickr page and have a giggle! We hope to keep up to date from now on.
Today (24.08.10) we had some good news, our Tibetan Travel Permits arrived!! We can now officially enter Tibet on the 28th. Since 2008 every foreigner has had to have a travel permit applied for by a travel agent in Lhasa and you have to be on a tour, no holds barred, no permit no travel. We were nervous about ours turning up,as we were having it sent to our hotel and we did not know what Chinese post was like, but after a confusing phone call for both parties and trip to reception to confuse the receptionist as she knew nothing about a telephone call, a knock sounded at the door. Yippee, travel permit time, it was all a little like Fawlty towers. Now we are spending time sorting out bike transportation! it just never seems to stop, but we love it.
Once the beast was present the fun began. Little English is spoken in China, which is understandable and our mandarin now stretches to hello, thank you and egg fried rice, not that helpful in 'can you fix our disc brake please, this is what we want doing' finally as we had got it all sorted with a good dose of google translator giving out 'Chinglish' (sentences that don't really make sense) we were heading out of the shop to return at 5 the next day when the mechanic came running..... he did not know how to get a part of the brake off. So to cut a very long and boring story short, 4 hours in a bike shop long, a chap who is English and works there weekends came by, translated for us and we eventually left with the bike not fixed, to ring Thorn (the makers of the Tandem) to arrange parts to be shipped out ASAP to China. Oh and another spoke was broken!
Thorn was going to get back to us the following day with prices for the parts so we could arrange a customs declaration form, China are really anal about how much stuff you can have sent to you so it had to be right so it did not get stuck in customs. Finally two days later on the 19/08 we got an email stating the price...... and a golden nugget of information.....all the hope disc brake parts are reusable!!! there should be no need for a delivery!
quick phone call to a Thorn mechanic later and we are the proud owners of fantastic information. Back to the bike shop the following day and hey presto one happy stoker i.e. me, Denyze as I have the disc brake, yippee I have some control!! Spoke mended, chain cleaned, bike boxed for packing and all for the extortionate price of £19, yes that is right approx 10 hours of faffing around on our bike cost the measly sum of £19. We love China!!
The rest of our time in Kunming has been spent trying not to spend too much money, which is always difficult when you discover Carrefour supermarket with imported cheeses and the markets have lots of lovely nic-nacs. So what do you do with too much time on your hands... you up load photos, we have upgraded the flickr account and now we can upload as many as we want. So go and have a look, if you click on the photos in the top right it should take you straight there. The photostream is totally out of sync so go to the sets down the right hand side of the flickr page and have a giggle! We hope to keep up to date from now on.
Today (24.08.10) we had some good news, our Tibetan Travel Permits arrived!! We can now officially enter Tibet on the 28th. Since 2008 every foreigner has had to have a travel permit applied for by a travel agent in Lhasa and you have to be on a tour, no holds barred, no permit no travel. We were nervous about ours turning up,as we were having it sent to our hotel and we did not know what Chinese post was like, but after a confusing phone call for both parties and trip to reception to confuse the receptionist as she knew nothing about a telephone call, a knock sounded at the door. Yippee, travel permit time, it was all a little like Fawlty towers. Now we are spending time sorting out bike transportation! it just never seems to stop, but we love it.
Thursday 19 August 2010
The Day Denyze would rather forget Simao (Pu'er) to Pu'er (Ninger)
15.08.10
This started out like any other day, there was cloud in the sky, but not raining, it was a perfect temperature for cycling and the traffic was fairly light for a large town at 7am. This is the good part of the day, as we started going up hill the day rapidly went down hill.
Once we found the correct way out of town which is easy enough as you just look for the Mosi rd signs (thankfully in English), we started our first climb of the day, nothing drastic there, this was the start of the 213 which has been our haven for the last few days and we knew it well. Only it was slightly different, in that once we had passed through the toll gate (alarm bells) we assumed that the traffic (coaches, trucks and lots of cars) would turn off for the express way soon. Wrong... they continued on the same road as us. This road was wide enough for two vehicles to pass comfortably and accommodate us JUST. Only it was not wide enough for the kamikaze drivers who just had to overtake, on blind bends, brows of hills or my favourite.... following a bigger bus/truck when overtaking praying nothing is coming in the other direction as they can't see!!! How crazy.
Well all this was bad enough but add to the mix a, I say 6ft, Rich says 4ft so we'll split the difference and call it 5ft drop into a stone laid culvert at the side of the road with no rails in between and there is one very, very scared stoker on the back of the tandem, who is not having a good day. THEN add rain and low cloud (or it may have been high cloud and we were just high too) so visibility was rubbish. They don't drive with lights in bad weather where as we looked like a Christmas tree in comparison, and I get more scared. rounding one corner I saw that I was justified in being scared as on a short down hill section of the road was a truck lounging at a 45 degree angle in the culvert, no other vehicle involved, everyone appeared to be OK sat at the front waiting to be recovered. But not good for my peace of mind.
This continued on for about 30 miles of up and down big hills, we had done our research and the hills looked hard but I really did not notice them as we did battle with the traffic and weather whilst trying hard not to completely freak out at the stone culvert drop, or fall in it. Rich was a saint and coaxed me along but even he found it tough going and where he usually relishes pitting himself against the odds, be it the weather or the hills, due to the unrelenting traffic and the completely stupid way they drive he was not enjoying it and admitted it was just plain dangerous. Which was reinforced by the further three accidents we saw on the road. 1 rear end shunt, 2 trucks off either side of the road, where it looks like they had a little kiss in the middle of the road decided they did not like and headed for the stone culverts on either side of the road and jumped in head first!!! oh, and a moto went flying on the third one.
Half way along the route we saw why the road was so busy, the express way, which is complete on all the maps, is still being built, so they have this express way which links Kunming with Laos and Burma send all this trade traffic down it and after 6 years of building, the middle section is only just being built. Excuse me for being a little dim but is it not a better idea to build it continuously starting at one end and finishing at the other? not leaving a massive gap halfway along over really big hills so its really dangerous for everyone!!
Finally the hills gave way to a valley and the town of Pu'er/Ninger appeared. In true style we arrived bedraggled and worn down but surprisingly the day off had renewed me and if not for the weather and drivers I would have carried on, how frustrating, I had another 40 miles in the tank!! So as Rich takes inspiration from Andy McNab we did not make any hasty decisions nor on an empty stomach so checked into a hotel (there must have been a 'conference' on as a lot of hotels seemed to be full), but finally after an hour of trawling round we found one, checked in and went out for something to eat.
Decision time.... after a google maps search it appeared that the express way started again 8 miles or so down the road, over the next set of hills. I had had enough, there was nothing to prove by getting killed on a Chinese road so we could say 'we cycled all the way' I have a keen sense of self preservation which was screaming at me to find a different way to get over those hills. We took the view that the traffic would only get worse the closer we got to Kunming and if we were going to find alternative transport then we might as well go the whole way to Kunming. You read lots of stories on the web about how people hopped on a bus with bikes in China. That was the China of old. Nowadays they have modern new coaches that do not have roof racks which is where bikes went on coaches of old. So the bus was a no go. so we trawled through the phrasebook and cobbled together a sentence saying we wanted to hire a minivan/mini taxi. Well this got results and after a bit of haggling we had sorted our ride to Kunming.
16.08.10
Pu'er/Ninger to Kunming by minivan
Mrs Cheng, the driver arrived 30 mins early at 8.30am, a good start we thought. After loading the van, it was a tight squeeze and Rich was squished in the back we set off....in the wrong direction, we stopped at her house where various people came out to have a look and it transpired that she wanted to take someone with us, but there was no room, 'could we put the bike on the roof?' errrr... No. So after much ummming and ahrrring we set off.... only to stop 1 mile on for oil.....then another mile for petrol, finally at 10am we set off.
Correct decision made......the 213 to the express way was horrendous, traffic was worse than yesterday it seemed and the driving was just as bad, we were glad that we had a female driver as she appeared to travel slower and did not take such crazy risks. That’s not to say she was a good driver, as I stick to my view that all Chinese drivers should be banned from the roads!! We drove on the wrong side of the road to avoid pot holes, excessive use of horn, a few crazy overtaking manoeuvres that would have been aired on 'police, camera, action' if performed in the UK and it was a scary drive over those hills, I was so glad we were travelling by minivan rather than the bike, JUST!
The Express way was uneventful except for the requisite accident which seems to blight Chinese roads, there is far far less traffic than in western countries but it seems just as many accidents. This one closed the express way for 1 1/2 hours, in fact there were two accidents, the second being where some some big car had not stopped in time and gone into a truck and tanker. With some tricky manoeuvring we followed every other car and squeezed past the truck and a retaining wall and were off. Not a police car in sight but lots and lots of litter was strewed on the carriageway where people had just chucked it out the door on to the floor whilst stationary, bonkers.
Kunming was looming fast and we reached the turn off around 5.30pm and stopped on the side of the express way. It transpired that Mrs Cheng did not want to go in to the city. Which was understandable, but we could not get out on the express way!! after 30 minutes of her phone constantly going off and dithering we finally started moving, she had agreed to take us in to the centre. As soon as we knew where we were on the map we had, we asked to be set down, with everyone expressing relief! I was able to escape her flipping mobile which had either been glued to her ear, ringing a really high pitch screeching ring or being texted on, Rich could escape the seat from hell and Mrs Cheng could turn round and leave the city.
Having said our thank you and goodbyes we headed off into the big smoke and found the hotel we had chosen and headed out for something to eat. This China was unlike the China we had experienced so far, very western in look and feel only the town centre is not left to the drinkers at night, the shops are open and it is just as busy as during the day time, we have returned to civilisation as we know it and tomorrow are off to find a good bike shop to see if we can get our disc brake fixed.
This started out like any other day, there was cloud in the sky, but not raining, it was a perfect temperature for cycling and the traffic was fairly light for a large town at 7am. This is the good part of the day, as we started going up hill the day rapidly went down hill.
Once we found the correct way out of town which is easy enough as you just look for the Mosi rd signs (thankfully in English), we started our first climb of the day, nothing drastic there, this was the start of the 213 which has been our haven for the last few days and we knew it well. Only it was slightly different, in that once we had passed through the toll gate (alarm bells) we assumed that the traffic (coaches, trucks and lots of cars) would turn off for the express way soon. Wrong... they continued on the same road as us. This road was wide enough for two vehicles to pass comfortably and accommodate us JUST. Only it was not wide enough for the kamikaze drivers who just had to overtake, on blind bends, brows of hills or my favourite.... following a bigger bus/truck when overtaking praying nothing is coming in the other direction as they can't see!!! How crazy.
Well all this was bad enough but add to the mix a, I say 6ft, Rich says 4ft so we'll split the difference and call it 5ft drop into a stone laid culvert at the side of the road with no rails in between and there is one very, very scared stoker on the back of the tandem, who is not having a good day. THEN add rain and low cloud (or it may have been high cloud and we were just high too) so visibility was rubbish. They don't drive with lights in bad weather where as we looked like a Christmas tree in comparison, and I get more scared. rounding one corner I saw that I was justified in being scared as on a short down hill section of the road was a truck lounging at a 45 degree angle in the culvert, no other vehicle involved, everyone appeared to be OK sat at the front waiting to be recovered. But not good for my peace of mind.
This continued on for about 30 miles of up and down big hills, we had done our research and the hills looked hard but I really did not notice them as we did battle with the traffic and weather whilst trying hard not to completely freak out at the stone culvert drop, or fall in it. Rich was a saint and coaxed me along but even he found it tough going and where he usually relishes pitting himself against the odds, be it the weather or the hills, due to the unrelenting traffic and the completely stupid way they drive he was not enjoying it and admitted it was just plain dangerous. Which was reinforced by the further three accidents we saw on the road. 1 rear end shunt, 2 trucks off either side of the road, where it looks like they had a little kiss in the middle of the road decided they did not like and headed for the stone culverts on either side of the road and jumped in head first!!! oh, and a moto went flying on the third one.
Half way along the route we saw why the road was so busy, the express way, which is complete on all the maps, is still being built, so they have this express way which links Kunming with Laos and Burma send all this trade traffic down it and after 6 years of building, the middle section is only just being built. Excuse me for being a little dim but is it not a better idea to build it continuously starting at one end and finishing at the other? not leaving a massive gap halfway along over really big hills so its really dangerous for everyone!!
Finally the hills gave way to a valley and the town of Pu'er/Ninger appeared. In true style we arrived bedraggled and worn down but surprisingly the day off had renewed me and if not for the weather and drivers I would have carried on, how frustrating, I had another 40 miles in the tank!! So as Rich takes inspiration from Andy McNab we did not make any hasty decisions nor on an empty stomach so checked into a hotel (there must have been a 'conference' on as a lot of hotels seemed to be full), but finally after an hour of trawling round we found one, checked in and went out for something to eat.
Decision time.... after a google maps search it appeared that the express way started again 8 miles or so down the road, over the next set of hills. I had had enough, there was nothing to prove by getting killed on a Chinese road so we could say 'we cycled all the way' I have a keen sense of self preservation which was screaming at me to find a different way to get over those hills. We took the view that the traffic would only get worse the closer we got to Kunming and if we were going to find alternative transport then we might as well go the whole way to Kunming. You read lots of stories on the web about how people hopped on a bus with bikes in China. That was the China of old. Nowadays they have modern new coaches that do not have roof racks which is where bikes went on coaches of old. So the bus was a no go. so we trawled through the phrasebook and cobbled together a sentence saying we wanted to hire a minivan/mini taxi. Well this got results and after a bit of haggling we had sorted our ride to Kunming.
16.08.10
Pu'er/Ninger to Kunming by minivan
Mrs Cheng, the driver arrived 30 mins early at 8.30am, a good start we thought. After loading the van, it was a tight squeeze and Rich was squished in the back we set off....in the wrong direction, we stopped at her house where various people came out to have a look and it transpired that she wanted to take someone with us, but there was no room, 'could we put the bike on the roof?' errrr... No. So after much ummming and ahrrring we set off.... only to stop 1 mile on for oil.....then another mile for petrol, finally at 10am we set off.
Correct decision made......the 213 to the express way was horrendous, traffic was worse than yesterday it seemed and the driving was just as bad, we were glad that we had a female driver as she appeared to travel slower and did not take such crazy risks. That’s not to say she was a good driver, as I stick to my view that all Chinese drivers should be banned from the roads!! We drove on the wrong side of the road to avoid pot holes, excessive use of horn, a few crazy overtaking manoeuvres that would have been aired on 'police, camera, action' if performed in the UK and it was a scary drive over those hills, I was so glad we were travelling by minivan rather than the bike, JUST!
The Express way was uneventful except for the requisite accident which seems to blight Chinese roads, there is far far less traffic than in western countries but it seems just as many accidents. This one closed the express way for 1 1/2 hours, in fact there were two accidents, the second being where some some big car had not stopped in time and gone into a truck and tanker. With some tricky manoeuvring we followed every other car and squeezed past the truck and a retaining wall and were off. Not a police car in sight but lots and lots of litter was strewed on the carriageway where people had just chucked it out the door on to the floor whilst stationary, bonkers.
Kunming was looming fast and we reached the turn off around 5.30pm and stopped on the side of the express way. It transpired that Mrs Cheng did not want to go in to the city. Which was understandable, but we could not get out on the express way!! after 30 minutes of her phone constantly going off and dithering we finally started moving, she had agreed to take us in to the centre. As soon as we knew where we were on the map we had, we asked to be set down, with everyone expressing relief! I was able to escape her flipping mobile which had either been glued to her ear, ringing a really high pitch screeching ring or being texted on, Rich could escape the seat from hell and Mrs Cheng could turn round and leave the city.
Having said our thank you and goodbyes we headed off into the big smoke and found the hotel we had chosen and headed out for something to eat. This China was unlike the China we had experienced so far, very western in look and feel only the town centre is not left to the drinkers at night, the shops are open and it is just as busy as during the day time, we have returned to civilisation as we know it and tomorrow are off to find a good bike shop to see if we can get our disc brake fixed.
Sunday 15 August 2010
Mengyang to Simao
13.08.10
Mengyang to a place we never learnt the name of!!! (45 miles)
Mengyang was a nice enough place, I was bored of egg fried rice so we went all out with the phrasebook and got some noodles. Not quite what we were after, as we wanted them fried with tofu,... but they came warm and we at least got an egg. If we deviate from our trusty egg fried rice we seem to come a cropper.
The ride from Mengyang to the place we could not work out the name for (our mandarin is a little rusty) was, compared to the last two days was ok. For a long time in the morning we followed the express way, weaving in and out of the bridge supports that span the bottoms of the valleys that we go up and down either side of, while the no bike express way stays on a gradual gradient (I am not bitter, honest!).
We covered the first 20 miles is fairly good time and then started the obligatory climb. we finally reached Dadugang at around lunch time and found a restaurant to eat at, ordered the favourite and was delighted to see a group of 8 army men turn up and commence staring at me, great... off putting to say the least while trying to scoff egg fried rice with chopsticks. I am getting this a lot in China and it's starting to grate. Anyhow after a quick loo stop in the loo from hell next to the pig sty (not joking!) we were on our way and for the most part it was down hill or flat/undulating. The hotel we eventually found was fairly decent and for only 60rmb a bit of a bargain even if the bed felt as if the mattress was missing and we were straight on to the hard wood!
14.08.10
unknown town to Simao (Pu'er) (26 miles)
Bliss, mostly a flat ride (well compared to what we have been doing!) and just 1 climb, we decided that we would stop in Simao AKA Pu'er (not to be confused with Pu'er 50km up the road!)and knew we had a very short ride, so we set off later than usual, this was lovely as continuous 5.30am starts wear you down.
Rich who is usually on hotel duty due mainly to his higher expectations was less enthusiastic today and we nearly missed the gem that we have found. It has all the mod cons including a computer with internet access and is by far the best hotel we have stayed at in S.E.A and China and all for ?2, bargain of the century.
We headed out to find a Bank of China as we were banking on there being one here as it is a fairly sizable town/city. After chatting in gestures and phrasebook pointing with the reception staff we estimated that the bank was a fair walk away so were surprised to find it 5 mins walk down the road, with thank goodness an international ATM. So we now have money which was always a worry. I pushed the boat out and tried to order something other than egg fried rice for lunch and got 'burn in the mouth noodles' which would have been great if it was heat hot but unfortunately it was spicy hot and my lips started to hurt soooooo badly I had to give up, dinner was definately egg fried rice!
15.08.10
Rest day, yippee..... I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Anyhow I am in need of a rest day even if superman Rich was still saying 'another 50 miles in the tank'.
The hotel is great and we have got a lot done on the internet which we needed to do. We also went shopping..... bliss... unfortunately for me I am not average chinese size, I feel a little like Gulliver over here as I am about a foot taller than the average women and then they have heels on, so no shopping for me, but we did get stuff for Rich. Rich's cycling shirts have become somewhat fragrant in the underarm department and were in dire need of meeting the bin, so we managed to buy a non pastel/florescent/vomit inducing sports top and a rather spiffing smart shirt for the evening/casual wear. So now he can throw out his old shirts and not smell, yippee.
We head out tomorrow on our next leg, hopefully we can go all the way to Kunming with out another rest day, all good training for Tibet I keep getting told!! (Rich has just corrected me.... WE WILL be going all the way to Kunming without a rest day, the slave driver!!) early to bed then for an early start, at least the temperature is being kinder to us, highs of low 20's.
Mengyang to a place we never learnt the name of!!! (45 miles)
Mengyang was a nice enough place, I was bored of egg fried rice so we went all out with the phrasebook and got some noodles. Not quite what we were after, as we wanted them fried with tofu,... but they came warm and we at least got an egg. If we deviate from our trusty egg fried rice we seem to come a cropper.
The ride from Mengyang to the place we could not work out the name for (our mandarin is a little rusty) was, compared to the last two days was ok. For a long time in the morning we followed the express way, weaving in and out of the bridge supports that span the bottoms of the valleys that we go up and down either side of, while the no bike express way stays on a gradual gradient (I am not bitter, honest!).
We covered the first 20 miles is fairly good time and then started the obligatory climb. we finally reached Dadugang at around lunch time and found a restaurant to eat at, ordered the favourite and was delighted to see a group of 8 army men turn up and commence staring at me, great... off putting to say the least while trying to scoff egg fried rice with chopsticks. I am getting this a lot in China and it's starting to grate. Anyhow after a quick loo stop in the loo from hell next to the pig sty (not joking!) we were on our way and for the most part it was down hill or flat/undulating. The hotel we eventually found was fairly decent and for only 60rmb a bit of a bargain even if the bed felt as if the mattress was missing and we were straight on to the hard wood!
14.08.10
unknown town to Simao (Pu'er) (26 miles)
Bliss, mostly a flat ride (well compared to what we have been doing!) and just 1 climb, we decided that we would stop in Simao AKA Pu'er (not to be confused with Pu'er 50km up the road!)and knew we had a very short ride, so we set off later than usual, this was lovely as continuous 5.30am starts wear you down.
Rich who is usually on hotel duty due mainly to his higher expectations was less enthusiastic today and we nearly missed the gem that we have found. It has all the mod cons including a computer with internet access and is by far the best hotel we have stayed at in S.E.A and China and all for ?2, bargain of the century.
We headed out to find a Bank of China as we were banking on there being one here as it is a fairly sizable town/city. After chatting in gestures and phrasebook pointing with the reception staff we estimated that the bank was a fair walk away so were surprised to find it 5 mins walk down the road, with thank goodness an international ATM. So we now have money which was always a worry. I pushed the boat out and tried to order something other than egg fried rice for lunch and got 'burn in the mouth noodles' which would have been great if it was heat hot but unfortunately it was spicy hot and my lips started to hurt soooooo badly I had to give up, dinner was definately egg fried rice!
15.08.10
Rest day, yippee..... I seem to be saying that a lot lately. Anyhow I am in need of a rest day even if superman Rich was still saying 'another 50 miles in the tank'.
The hotel is great and we have got a lot done on the internet which we needed to do. We also went shopping..... bliss... unfortunately for me I am not average chinese size, I feel a little like Gulliver over here as I am about a foot taller than the average women and then they have heels on, so no shopping for me, but we did get stuff for Rich. Rich's cycling shirts have become somewhat fragrant in the underarm department and were in dire need of meeting the bin, so we managed to buy a non pastel/florescent/vomit inducing sports top and a rather spiffing smart shirt for the evening/casual wear. So now he can throw out his old shirts and not smell, yippee.
We head out tomorrow on our next leg, hopefully we can go all the way to Kunming with out another rest day, all good training for Tibet I keep getting told!! (Rich has just corrected me.... WE WILL be going all the way to Kunming without a rest day, the slave driver!!) early to bed then for an early start, at least the temperature is being kinder to us, highs of low 20's.
Saturday 14 August 2010
Oudomxay (Laos) to Mengyang (China)
08.08.10
Our final day of riding in Laos was to head up to Boten, where China and Laos allow foreigners to escape in either direction! We had a rough plan of getting to Nam Noy which had a guesthouse and seeing how we felt only we cycled right through the place, Laos is usually quite good with road signs but must have forgotten this one. So we forged on to the border at one point in pelting rain with no place for cover. As we expected the border had shut for the night so we cycled back the 500 meters or so to what we thought was Boten. Wrong, it was mini China in Laos. Hideous monstrosities of buildings in lurid colours most between 6-10 storeys high. Vientiane does not have buildings this high! Anyhow we checked into the only hotel we could find and got ripped off for the pleasure. 35GBP equivalent, but at least we got some money changed as they would not except Kip.
This 'mini china' was a serious dive, There were chinese 'ladies' plying their wares so to speak everywhere, one guy was walking down the road with 'ladies' chasing him pushing cards in to his hand, where there was a pile of call cards already. God it made me sick, the whole place was seedy and as soon as we found something to eat we hightailed it back to the hotel.
09.08.10
Boten/mini China to Mengla (31 miles)
Chinese Border formalities (by Rich)
I was expecting worse at the frontier come the morning. At Shanghai in January the border guards had little boxes on their desk where you could rate the quality of their customer services (like anyone would give a Chinese official less than a perfect 10 and be allowed into the country), but that was at an international airport in the run up to an international event, the Shanghai EXPO. Not the sort of friendly touch I was expecting at a middle of nowhere border post at the edge of red China. Shows what I know, the English speaking official was very polite and conducted the formalities while engaging in some small talk about our journey. Come the red revolution, comrade, all border crossings should be like this.
Mohan, the town on the Chinese side of the border is under going somewhat of a refurbishment shall we say. I think the town planners have been watching too much Shreck as the place looks the spitting image of the place where princess Fiona comes from....A land far far away. It honestly looks like a place in a cartoon. After having rice for breakfast we set off on the expressway to Mengla. This road is a cyclists dream, good gradient, tunnels, bridges, none of this climbing melarky all very gradual and easy with a big white line between you and the traffic (not that there was any) as we were back to hard shoulder land. the 47 km was achieved with relative easy and we pulled in to Mengla wondering what we were doing as parts of it was undergoing a similar refurbishment as Mohan.
10.08.10
Yippee, today was a rest day and a get money day! we had changed some at rubbish rates to pay for the hotel at the border but that was it. A lot of ATM's in China are domestic only but thanks to the Olympics international ATM's are becoming more widespread. But wouldn't you know it Mengla has none, so we had to change some of our Dollars at the only place in town, but as the exchange rate is pretty much fixed we did not have to shop around.
Also on our 'to do' list was to sort out flights and stuff for Tibet which was causing us some concern but unfortunately, China's cuddly but over intrusive government made it's presence felt when we tried to get on the net. No official Wifi at the hotel, (thanks to Dodgy Planet, who claimed there was) meant that we had to seek out an internet cafe, but it seems that to use a computer we had to have a Chinese Internet Card, and to get one you have to show your residence permit.... doh!!
As we were wandering about town feeling rather dejected at not having proper internet access (someone had weak unsecured wifi on steps of our hotel, hotmail only) we spotted another westerner, on a bike. We headed over to say hi and found out he was heading to Laos so arranged to meet up later to swap maps and books. Yippee we are now the proud owners of a Mandarin phrasebook. We also found a couple of maps in a bookshop as John (the other westerner) had thrown his away a couple of days earlier(you really cant go wrong on the road we were on). We met up with John and went for a few drinks and some egg fried rice as that was all we could order and swapped lots of tips for the two countries, it is so much easier talking to some one rather that reading it in a book. So with beer in Rich's belly we headed off to sleep, ready for our China adventure to properly begin tomorrow.
11.08.10
Mengla to Menglun (64 miles)
HILLS, HILLS and more HILLs, today was a tough day, we got onto the expressway to see haw far we could go before we got chucked off. Well the answer is about 8 miles and we did not get chucked off so much as saw a no cycling sign and were too chicken to push the Chinese officials in the area to see what would happen! So the old road it is then, all the way to Kunming. Which is not so bad, it is shady as there are trees arching over the road, the views of the tea plantations are stunning, its quiet for the majority of the time, the only real bug bear are the hills and lack of signs, although we are having fun playing match the symbols when ever we do see one.
We rolled in to Menglun at about 5.30 after another torturous day in the saddle, booked into the best looking hotel in the town (our ploy is to look for the best looking building and hope it is a hotel!) pretty good quality for 100rbm which is about 10GBP and went looking for something to eat. By a stroke of luck we found an internet cafe that was not run by a draconian dragon and spent time booking flights and finding out that we can not blog directly and I can't get my daily dose of Facebook, this means that any babies born in the next two months need their Mummies and Daddies to email us the good news, hint hint Naomi!! Pictures would be nice too!!
12.08.10
Menglun to Mengyang (41 miles) (By Rich)
HILLS, HILLS and more HILLS, once again, one was 17 miles long, boy did Denyze like that one, though the mileage is small by comparison to what we have been doing the ride was very very tough. To make up for this I have been splashing the cash at lunch time and buying us slap up meals of egg fried rice for the outrageous price of 1 pound for 2 bowls, food is so cheap in rural China, if a little too spicy on occasions, but that soon gets forgotten half a mile down the road.
Just had a visit from the friendly local Public Security Bureau Police. They knocked on the door of our room and asked me to accompany them downstairs for a nice chat while they took over the reception of the hotel, and for the next 15 minutes or so they helped us by making sure that all of our papers were in order. Welcome to the police state!! At the border crossing they would have offered you a cup of tea if you'd have had to wait that long. Bed and and early start is in order i think before they come back for seconds!!
Saturday 7 August 2010
Louang Probang to Oudomxay
Louang Probang is a fantastic town and we were reluctant to leave the colonial backwater which is tourist central in Northern Laos. But after 4 days we could stay no more. We knew that we had been a wee bit preoccupied with the Tibet bike flight saga (wont bore you but bikes on planes in Asia don't seem to go!) and our broken spoke (drama, I never knew a broken spoke could cause such alarm in a young man!!) so we had not been doing the usual tourist trail of Wat's, Pagodas and such like so on day 4 we headed out to some waterfalls which I had not seen on my last trip here, but really wanted to see. Enter 1 tuk tuk driver who had obviously read the SEA tuk tuk driver manual of how to rip off the Farang. Unfortunately he did not read the last rule which was don't try and rip off stubborn Denyze, as the heels go in and the smiles come out and budging from the agreed price does not happen. However, I think we all may have got our just deserts as on the boat ride (cause of problems) back from the waterfall we all got caught in an horrendous rain storm and got soaked to the skin. Karma, some would say.
We set off from LP at dawn, as we were pedaling down the street we saw the local monks out collecting Alms. This is a beautiful sight all the orange swathed men and boys walking single file past the shop keepers collecting a small something from each. There were plenty of tourists out for the photo opportunity but unfortunately I found out the hard way once that when you take a camera out of an air conditioned room it is best to leave it in the bag until it has warmed up, otherwise your lens takes pics from the inside of a fog bank!! so no photos, which is a shame.
Our days ride saw us follow one river after another which was great as there were hills along the way but no real climbing like on previous days. However our nemesis the sun popped out and chased us in to a handy restaurant for 4 hours, complete with bonkers cats who kept attacking me. All in all the 72 mile ride took 7 hours but we did not hit Pak Mong the only town with guesthouses until nightfall. We would recommend anyone who is passing through here to stay at the guesthouse by the bus station as it was the best of a bad bunch!
We had done our research and knew that the next day was a real shiner!! we decided to hit the road early and I mean early! 4am early. It was pitch black outside yet still there were locals starting their day. We completed 9 miles before day break with at least 6 of those going slowly up hill. We hit several landslides that were in the throws of being cleared up and at one point had to walk the bike through as it was just to sticky. The road from here on in was in pretty poor repair. you can see that top layer is so thin that as soon as it starts to erode it breaks up pretty quick and turns into a downhill mountain bike course complete with giant pot holes and massive drop offs, we had to walk the bike down one as we though the back wheel might buckle as we are now both paranoid about the back wheel and the dodgy spoke repair!! There was one huge climb today of about 15 miles which reached a height of 1200 meters lucky for us this was the first climb and was completed in the relative cool of the early morning.
We were not so lucky on the second and after riding a ridge for awhile and loosing some height we hit the last climb with the sun on our backs. Yep you guessed it we walked, hopping from shade to shade. We arrived in Oudomxay by 2pm and could not believe that 50 miles had taken us 10 hours!!
We are two days from the Chinese border and are not sure what the state of affairs will be with regards to accessing blogger as it is a google thing. So you may or may not see a post up here of our china exploits, but we will try and find a willing volunteer in the UK to up load blog posts for us!!
We set off from LP at dawn, as we were pedaling down the street we saw the local monks out collecting Alms. This is a beautiful sight all the orange swathed men and boys walking single file past the shop keepers collecting a small something from each. There were plenty of tourists out for the photo opportunity but unfortunately I found out the hard way once that when you take a camera out of an air conditioned room it is best to leave it in the bag until it has warmed up, otherwise your lens takes pics from the inside of a fog bank!! so no photos, which is a shame.
Our days ride saw us follow one river after another which was great as there were hills along the way but no real climbing like on previous days. However our nemesis the sun popped out and chased us in to a handy restaurant for 4 hours, complete with bonkers cats who kept attacking me. All in all the 72 mile ride took 7 hours but we did not hit Pak Mong the only town with guesthouses until nightfall. We would recommend anyone who is passing through here to stay at the guesthouse by the bus station as it was the best of a bad bunch!
We had done our research and knew that the next day was a real shiner!! we decided to hit the road early and I mean early! 4am early. It was pitch black outside yet still there were locals starting their day. We completed 9 miles before day break with at least 6 of those going slowly up hill. We hit several landslides that were in the throws of being cleared up and at one point had to walk the bike through as it was just to sticky. The road from here on in was in pretty poor repair. you can see that top layer is so thin that as soon as it starts to erode it breaks up pretty quick and turns into a downhill mountain bike course complete with giant pot holes and massive drop offs, we had to walk the bike down one as we though the back wheel might buckle as we are now both paranoid about the back wheel and the dodgy spoke repair!! There was one huge climb today of about 15 miles which reached a height of 1200 meters lucky for us this was the first climb and was completed in the relative cool of the early morning.
We were not so lucky on the second and after riding a ridge for awhile and loosing some height we hit the last climb with the sun on our backs. Yep you guessed it we walked, hopping from shade to shade. We arrived in Oudomxay by 2pm and could not believe that 50 miles had taken us 10 hours!!
We are two days from the Chinese border and are not sure what the state of affairs will be with regards to accessing blogger as it is a google thing. So you may or may not see a post up here of our china exploits, but we will try and find a willing volunteer in the UK to up load blog posts for us!!
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Hell Day and beyond
31.07.10 (Kasi to Kiou Ka Cham)
Hell Day, that is what the Navy Seals call their day that does not end in training. Today was our own personal hell day. We started before dawn and headed out up the hill that had defeated us the day before. Easy as pie, we were up to the top in 90 minutes, which is good for a 12 miles of flat and up hill.
The decent was over all to fast and we started on the the longest hill of the day, approx 12 miles of continuous up hill with some 10% sections thrown in for fun, I am so chuffed that we managed to cycle all of it, no walking today. All thanks to the downpour we were cycling in as there was no sun. Yippee, I'll take cycling in the rain any day. So we reached what we thought was the top of the hill and had an early lunch in a restaurant with stunning views of the craggy peaks that make northern Loas so beautiful. Heading back out we realised that we had been deceived by the village sign and in fact the top was a further 7 miles, but with full stomachs we felt re energised. On reaching the town of Phou Khoun we stopped and re-stocked our biscuit supply at the market at the cross roads where the road splits off to the east and Phonsavan.
With the rain so bad, we saw lots of landslides along the way and riding through ones that had been cleared but with thick slippy mud left on the road was scary, the smaller ones that had not been cleared we just rode round. The descent after the town was a blessing, it gave us time to stand out of the saddle without having to power hard and was very refreshing. All too soon the down hill turned in to the next up hill slog, this was perhaps the shortest of the day at about 7 miles long but by now our legs were not fresh and the going was tough. Still the end arrived at last and we were able to buy some fruit and drinks at the stalls on the side of the road at the top. These along with the small road side shops in the villages that we pass through have been our saving grace in Laos.
The last hill of the day was upon us at 4pm, we were both flagging fast so had another handful of crackers and biscuits and set off. There was a funny noise coming from my end of the bike (typical) and we were just deciding if it was my bottom bracket (the thing that joins the pedal arms together and allows them to turn, for all you non bikies) when the chain snapped. Luckily there was no other traffic on the road as there was a bit of a wobble as our feet spun round with no resistance, if only peddling up hill was really that easy. Mr Fixit Roberts whipped out the tool kit and set to work while I sat and swatted flies. We discussed the option of flagging down a passing truck to give us a lift and I kept a look out but the only truck to pass that stopped had pineapples in the back.
All too soon for my liking the chain had been fixed and we were on our way again, the sun was playing hide and seak behind the clouds but by this time the ferocity had gone so it just enhanced the spectacular scenery when the sun did come out. We pulled up in Kiou Ka Cham as dusk was just turning in to night, it was just after 7pm and was the end to my very longest day in the saddle ever. Unfortunately for us the run of good hotels had to dry up sometime and tonight was the night, we had researched the best of the three so knew where to head for, we booked in grabbed a bite to eat and fell in to bed.
Stats for the day: 13 hours of travel 11.5 of those actually peddling, over 2000 meters climbed and a good many descended and all in 60 odd miles!!
01.08.10 (Kiou Ka Cham to Louang Probang)
Dawn came all to soon and we were off again glad to be gone from the lumpy bed from hell. Today was the last day of cycling before a well earned couple of rest days.
We knew we had two hills to climb today, the first by far the longer at about 10 miles long. But first we were rewarded for all the up hill slogging of the day before with a mammoth down hill. Yippee.... that was good fun and that was about our lot for fun for the day as the sun had come out to play so on the up hill we fried, unfortunately for me the sheer amount of time we had spent in the saddle the day before had left quite an impression and it HURT! This meant that sustained sitting(necessity in up hill cycling on a tandem) was beyond painful and we decided to walk for a while, so we walked/pushed up hill for about 2 hours and covered 6 miles, not bad. We were seriously bored and we decided to see if I could stand the pain to ride again and set off. I could just about bare it so we pushed on a reached the top by 11am. The down hill was amazing, we over took 3 trucks that had over taken us on the way up we were going that fast, Rich has got the hang of what my top speed is before I start yelling, so was very restrained.
Louang Probang by 2pm and booked into a guesthouse with WiFi so we could tackle our Tibet travel plans.
Hell Day, that is what the Navy Seals call their day that does not end in training. Today was our own personal hell day. We started before dawn and headed out up the hill that had defeated us the day before. Easy as pie, we were up to the top in 90 minutes, which is good for a 12 miles of flat and up hill.
The decent was over all to fast and we started on the the longest hill of the day, approx 12 miles of continuous up hill with some 10% sections thrown in for fun, I am so chuffed that we managed to cycle all of it, no walking today. All thanks to the downpour we were cycling in as there was no sun. Yippee, I'll take cycling in the rain any day. So we reached what we thought was the top of the hill and had an early lunch in a restaurant with stunning views of the craggy peaks that make northern Loas so beautiful. Heading back out we realised that we had been deceived by the village sign and in fact the top was a further 7 miles, but with full stomachs we felt re energised. On reaching the town of Phou Khoun we stopped and re-stocked our biscuit supply at the market at the cross roads where the road splits off to the east and Phonsavan.
With the rain so bad, we saw lots of landslides along the way and riding through ones that had been cleared but with thick slippy mud left on the road was scary, the smaller ones that had not been cleared we just rode round. The descent after the town was a blessing, it gave us time to stand out of the saddle without having to power hard and was very refreshing. All too soon the down hill turned in to the next up hill slog, this was perhaps the shortest of the day at about 7 miles long but by now our legs were not fresh and the going was tough. Still the end arrived at last and we were able to buy some fruit and drinks at the stalls on the side of the road at the top. These along with the small road side shops in the villages that we pass through have been our saving grace in Laos.
The last hill of the day was upon us at 4pm, we were both flagging fast so had another handful of crackers and biscuits and set off. There was a funny noise coming from my end of the bike (typical) and we were just deciding if it was my bottom bracket (the thing that joins the pedal arms together and allows them to turn, for all you non bikies) when the chain snapped. Luckily there was no other traffic on the road as there was a bit of a wobble as our feet spun round with no resistance, if only peddling up hill was really that easy. Mr Fixit Roberts whipped out the tool kit and set to work while I sat and swatted flies. We discussed the option of flagging down a passing truck to give us a lift and I kept a look out but the only truck to pass that stopped had pineapples in the back.
All too soon for my liking the chain had been fixed and we were on our way again, the sun was playing hide and seak behind the clouds but by this time the ferocity had gone so it just enhanced the spectacular scenery when the sun did come out. We pulled up in Kiou Ka Cham as dusk was just turning in to night, it was just after 7pm and was the end to my very longest day in the saddle ever. Unfortunately for us the run of good hotels had to dry up sometime and tonight was the night, we had researched the best of the three so knew where to head for, we booked in grabbed a bite to eat and fell in to bed.
Stats for the day: 13 hours of travel 11.5 of those actually peddling, over 2000 meters climbed and a good many descended and all in 60 odd miles!!
01.08.10 (Kiou Ka Cham to Louang Probang)
Dawn came all to soon and we were off again glad to be gone from the lumpy bed from hell. Today was the last day of cycling before a well earned couple of rest days.
We knew we had two hills to climb today, the first by far the longer at about 10 miles long. But first we were rewarded for all the up hill slogging of the day before with a mammoth down hill. Yippee.... that was good fun and that was about our lot for fun for the day as the sun had come out to play so on the up hill we fried, unfortunately for me the sheer amount of time we had spent in the saddle the day before had left quite an impression and it HURT! This meant that sustained sitting(necessity in up hill cycling on a tandem) was beyond painful and we decided to walk for a while, so we walked/pushed up hill for about 2 hours and covered 6 miles, not bad. We were seriously bored and we decided to see if I could stand the pain to ride again and set off. I could just about bare it so we pushed on a reached the top by 11am. The down hill was amazing, we over took 3 trucks that had over taken us on the way up we were going that fast, Rich has got the hang of what my top speed is before I start yelling, so was very restrained.
Louang Probang by 2pm and booked into a guesthouse with WiFi so we could tackle our Tibet travel plans.
Monday 2 August 2010
Vientiane to Loung Probang (the first 3 days of 5)
Busy busy busy..... that is what we have been. Rich getting well again as we did not set off when we thought but on the 28th!! I think Vientaine is great but not that much!! We were lucky that we did stay as long as we did as by the end of the first days cycling Rich was ready to literally drop.
We have good news on the Tibet front too, we have arranged to join a tour that has been arranged by a lady in the UK who advertised it on the Lonely Planet forum. Rich was Mr Dubious but we went round the houses and have sorted it out so we are booked on a tour. Thats the good news, now we have the headache of trying to book transport to Tibet. Flights look a nightmare with bikes and the train just as bad so we have some planning to do!
28.07.10 (Vientiane to Thinkeo)
Our route out off Vientaine was following a route description that we have found on the web. There is a great website written by a couple who travelled the world for a couple of years by the looks and written up route descriptions. It is great and lets us know what the hills are like, horrendous, just incase you wanted to know!
So there we were peddaling out of the chilled city where its the dogs that are the biggest pain for cyclists. We were considering finding a stick they were that tenatious, I am just glad there were so few cars on the road as we ended up in the middle of the road on one occasion!! Setting us up for Tibet were they have mastif's that like to play 'bite the cyclist'!! I think the fact that Rich was not firing on all cylinders and we relaxed a bit too much due to the website saying 'just follow this this and that'. Well we found ourselves on little more than a mud track. Ooops. Rich was not best pleased as he knew he did not have anything in the reserve tank. We asked at a stall in gestures and it appeared that we were going on the right dircting just not on the right road! We decided to carry on and are glad we did as we got to see a lot of the Laos contryside and villages that we would not have seen otherwise, also there was a neat little 1 car ferry that took us across the Nam Ngum River for about 35p.
Once we had found the right road, re-fueled and watered we headed off on the last part of the days ride. This is where the hills started, they were not too bad and would have been great to get our teeth into, if only the sun had not come out. Ping.... two over heating cyclists, so we decided to walk, Ping.... two hot cyclists but not about to keel over cyclists.
The guesthouse we were heading too had closed down so we got stung for a song further down the road. Rich was in no state to look any further, the place was lovely and brand new, they loved us, two cyclists covered in mud.
29.07.10 (Thinkeo to Vang Vieng)
The following morning we set off early and ground out the miles and hills, we did 64 miles and made it to Vang Vieng without getting lost, mind you we did have to only turn right at a T junction once. Vang Vieng appears at first as a rather unwelcoming place when coming from the south, due mainly to the old CIA airstrip that runs between the main road and the town, so you end up seeing the place hidden behind trees and this obsolete eyesore inbetween and have to run the gaunlet of massive, deep puddles to get on the airstrip, work out where you are then head off into town.
Vang Vieng itself is very touristy so we were able to have western food although Rich chose the wrong Pizza and ended up with one that had pretty much everyting that does not go together on a pizza. We had some things to do on the web sorting out our Tibetian Travel Permits and moving money around which was made all the easier by the thunder storm that raged overhead cutting the power every 5 minutes and dropping the all important internet connection. We were both exhausted so headed to bed for an early night.
30.07.10 (Vang Vieng to Kasi)
Today started good and finished bad!!!! we headed out of Vang Vieng clutching our freshly made up bagguttes for breakfast, yum yum. We made good time and although the hills were steep and at times long we did well doing 40 miles before lunch. We stopped at Kasi the lunch stopping place for the busses from Vientiane to Luang Probang and Ponsavan the two northern tourist towns. Had a bite to eat, at this point we had to make the decision to either carry on a further 13 miles or stay in the town.
We knew tomorrow to be a killer of a day and wanted to lessen the distance as much as possible so took the decision to go for it.....our survey says, XXX Wrong! We knew that out of town there is a big big hill which on its own would have been tough but do able. But low and behold our freind the sun popped out to say hello and fried us!! After 45 mins of pushing the bike up hill in the sweltering heat we took the soul destroying decision to head back to the last guest house that we saw. We were both destroyed and not happy with the end to what was a promising days cycle. Luckly we have once again managed to pay over the odds and found a lovely room. (Rich turned his nose up at the bungalows that had squat toilets.)
We have good news on the Tibet front too, we have arranged to join a tour that has been arranged by a lady in the UK who advertised it on the Lonely Planet forum. Rich was Mr Dubious but we went round the houses and have sorted it out so we are booked on a tour. Thats the good news, now we have the headache of trying to book transport to Tibet. Flights look a nightmare with bikes and the train just as bad so we have some planning to do!
28.07.10 (Vientiane to Thinkeo)
Our route out off Vientaine was following a route description that we have found on the web. There is a great website written by a couple who travelled the world for a couple of years by the looks and written up route descriptions. It is great and lets us know what the hills are like, horrendous, just incase you wanted to know!
So there we were peddaling out of the chilled city where its the dogs that are the biggest pain for cyclists. We were considering finding a stick they were that tenatious, I am just glad there were so few cars on the road as we ended up in the middle of the road on one occasion!! Setting us up for Tibet were they have mastif's that like to play 'bite the cyclist'!! I think the fact that Rich was not firing on all cylinders and we relaxed a bit too much due to the website saying 'just follow this this and that'. Well we found ourselves on little more than a mud track. Ooops. Rich was not best pleased as he knew he did not have anything in the reserve tank. We asked at a stall in gestures and it appeared that we were going on the right dircting just not on the right road! We decided to carry on and are glad we did as we got to see a lot of the Laos contryside and villages that we would not have seen otherwise, also there was a neat little 1 car ferry that took us across the Nam Ngum River for about 35p.
Once we had found the right road, re-fueled and watered we headed off on the last part of the days ride. This is where the hills started, they were not too bad and would have been great to get our teeth into, if only the sun had not come out. Ping.... two over heating cyclists, so we decided to walk, Ping.... two hot cyclists but not about to keel over cyclists.
The guesthouse we were heading too had closed down so we got stung for a song further down the road. Rich was in no state to look any further, the place was lovely and brand new, they loved us, two cyclists covered in mud.
29.07.10 (Thinkeo to Vang Vieng)
The following morning we set off early and ground out the miles and hills, we did 64 miles and made it to Vang Vieng without getting lost, mind you we did have to only turn right at a T junction once. Vang Vieng appears at first as a rather unwelcoming place when coming from the south, due mainly to the old CIA airstrip that runs between the main road and the town, so you end up seeing the place hidden behind trees and this obsolete eyesore inbetween and have to run the gaunlet of massive, deep puddles to get on the airstrip, work out where you are then head off into town.
Vang Vieng itself is very touristy so we were able to have western food although Rich chose the wrong Pizza and ended up with one that had pretty much everyting that does not go together on a pizza. We had some things to do on the web sorting out our Tibetian Travel Permits and moving money around which was made all the easier by the thunder storm that raged overhead cutting the power every 5 minutes and dropping the all important internet connection. We were both exhausted so headed to bed for an early night.
30.07.10 (Vang Vieng to Kasi)
Today started good and finished bad!!!! we headed out of Vang Vieng clutching our freshly made up bagguttes for breakfast, yum yum. We made good time and although the hills were steep and at times long we did well doing 40 miles before lunch. We stopped at Kasi the lunch stopping place for the busses from Vientiane to Luang Probang and Ponsavan the two northern tourist towns. Had a bite to eat, at this point we had to make the decision to either carry on a further 13 miles or stay in the town.
We knew tomorrow to be a killer of a day and wanted to lessen the distance as much as possible so took the decision to go for it.....our survey says, XXX Wrong! We knew that out of town there is a big big hill which on its own would have been tough but do able. But low and behold our freind the sun popped out to say hello and fried us!! After 45 mins of pushing the bike up hill in the sweltering heat we took the soul destroying decision to head back to the last guest house that we saw. We were both destroyed and not happy with the end to what was a promising days cycle. Luckly we have once again managed to pay over the odds and found a lovely room. (Rich turned his nose up at the bungalows that had squat toilets.)
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