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!!