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.
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