Life On A Bike

Out of space.

Arg! I ran out of space. I think. So, I decided to listen to the second person and I headed back. I knew of a different way and all I would have to do was back track about 40 kilimetres. I was also aware that this new way would take me closer than I had planned on going to a closed area that foreigners can not cycle through. Still I had been passed by quite a few police officers and none of them seemed to notice me so I hoped that this was no longer the case. After back tracking and cycling about 10 kilimeters down the road a police car passed me and did nothing. Great! And then after another five kilimetres another police car approached me. They unfortunately did stop me. I was informed that I could go no further on this road. What could I do. After all in many ways they were being nice. From other stories I have heard they usually let you cycle into the area and then fine you. This left me with three choises.

1) Wait for the road to be cleared.
2) Backtrack past Emi shan and take a major road.
3) Call it quits.

I will give you a hint. I have just gotten back from a horse treck in Norther China, which I got to by bus.

Oooh! I guess that is more than a hint. Well basically as far as cycling goes I have run out of steam in China. I am off to Thailand by plane where I will relax and then I start a new job in Japan. It is only for the fall and hopefully I will start teachers' college in New Zealand in January. Thanks for everyone who read along and I hope Patrick has a good school year. See you in the future!

Did I say Vietnam?

Well I feel guilty about getting anyones hopes up over lots of details. But here are a few. I decided on cycling out of Chengdu. It is at these times that we become aware of our strengths and weaknesses. I am fairly good at making sure I have enough water and snacks for the journey but I am not so good in the map department. I mean it was easy enough cycling into Chengdu. Of course when one cycles in you just basically follow the traffice which in general is heading to the centre. Cycling out however is a completely different thing because where as there is only one centre there are lots of ways out but only one road I eventually wanted to end up on. So after cycling around lost for hours I gave up and decided to head back....and then found the road I was looking for. Cool! Who neads maps when all it takes is a few hours of cycling in circles getting frustrated and nearing tears.

It took me two days to get to Emi Shan, a Budhist mountain. I paid the the 30 dollar entry fee. Yikes! And climbed up likely the worlds longest staircase. I couldn't tell you how many stairs there were but I went from 500 metres up to 3000.

After recovering from that I continued South getting more and more into the countryside. It was really a bit uncomfortable as I was not on a normal route and instead of getting the usual Hawow I was greeted by the open-mouthed gawk. Still the valley was beautiful. Everything was going well until I was informed by one of the locals through a variety of gestures that there had been a landslide and I would have to go back. I thought about it and did the most prudent thing. I ignored him and continued cycling. I was again stopped by someone a few kilimetres later. I again considered his advice and came to the conclusion that I really did not know what I was doing as I didn't have a proper map or any information on the road.

Toronto to Peterborough by bike

(Patrick writing):

Well, I've been back in Toronto almost three weeks now and until last Monday I had been out of the saddle for nearly a month. I decided that it was time to go visit Peterborough where I will be attending Teachers' College and thought that in keeping with my tradition of travel by bike I should hop back on my wheels.
It was a spur of the moment idea I had the night before leaving and didn't really know what route to take, but I figured that it had to be easier than navigating in China. I decided to follow Lake Ontario's shore line and then cut north along rural roads until I reached my destination.
I didn't get the early start I had hoped for and left at about 10:30 and had only reached Pickering by noon where I stopped for a burger. From here I picked up the Waterfront Trail , which follows the shore of Lake Ontario from Niagara to Trenton for a total distance of over 350 km. Some sections of the trail are located on the shoulders of roads. A few sections are yet to be completed which caused me to do a lot of zig-zaging around new townhouse developments but for the most part it was beautiful ride through quiet paths lined with wild flowers. To see a couple images from the trail click here. I had hoped to make it to Port Hope before cutting north but by 6:30 I was only just past Oshawa due to all my picture taking and I still had over 80 km to go. For the next 3 hours I biked through beautiful rolling farm land and had a great sunset but I still had a long ways to go. Finally, just before midnight I arrived at my friend John Ball's house in Downtown Peterborough.
Well, it wasn't the Tibetan plateau but it was my longest ride at 185 km and was really nice to get to know a little more about the geography of my home province.

Off Again

Well I am not sure if anyone is still checking the sight out but if you are...Tomorrow I will be finally leaving Chengdu after more than a week. I still don't have much of a plan but I am going to head south again through the Yi minority area which is supposed to be interesting according to Mr. Lee. (Dude in a tea garden who gives out free advice.) After that if I have the time I will try to cross into Northern Vietnam and go through the mountains there. From there I will have to come up with a new plan.

Well I hope everyone is having a good summer.

An add on from Patrick: We met Mr. Lee in Ligiang while trying to order a bowl of congee for breakfast. He's a really interesting character who talks with a geeky yet dignified american accent and is partial to cowboy outfits. He's listed in all the guide books as a good source of info. If you ever find yourself in Chengdu look for him, as the guide book says, sipping tea in the peoples square.

A bit more.

After Kangding instead of going right to Chengdu I decided to ride north to Danba and from there up and over the 4 sisters mountain range and through the woolong nature reserve and into Chengdu. It took four more days of riding and was beautiful except for... As soon as I left woolong all hell broke loose. Literaly. Right at the edge of the reserve there was a factory billowing smoke and the road was full of tour buses mired down in mud from all the constrution. I couldn't believe it. My eyes started to water and I had trouble seeing from all the crap in the air combined with the grit that the traffic was throwing up. I was ready to quit right there but there was no where to quit. The noise was incredible as all of the traffic continuely lay on their horns blindy passing around corners and in short doing some of the stupidest and most reckless driving I had ever seen. I was forced off the road several times as trucks came hurtiling towards me on the wrong side of the road. Amazingly as I go closer to Chengdu things got much, much better as the roads got wider and more and more bikes appeared. Eventually I was just a normal part of traffic riding along side other riders and other strange slow moving vehicles. I arrived in Chengu at about 6:00 checked into a hostel and went and had a...hamburger.

Bye for now.

In Chnengdu

Hi Partick and hi all. Well I will start with a question. Patrick, where are you? Are you in Canada, Japan, or still in China? I just arrived in Chengdu last night. After Patrick and I parted ways I rode from Litang to Kanding (I appologize for all spelling errors but I am too lazy to check them out) It was a much harder ride than I expected. According to the instrutions I had, that came from OverLand Tibet, The highest pass I would have to cross would be 4300 metres. This proved be wrong. Out of Litang I climbed up and then went up again, infact I spent the whole day just going up and down above 4000 m at about 2:00 I went over a pass of 4700 metres a good bit higher than expected. I thought that this had to be it finally the down hill I had be hoping for. Nope! I went down a bit for sure but then right back up again. At the end of the day I still hadn't reached it and as the sun was setting I realized that I needed to camp somewhere. I found what I thought (a bit of foreshadowing here) was a quite spot just below some flapping prayer flags which I was hoping was the last pass. At about 3:00 in the morning I was woken by a loud sound followed by some munching. Apparently I had camped in the middle of a Yak's late night dinner. Now a Yak is not a terribly scary animal but in the middle of the night it is a bit disconcerting. I mean I wouldn't what it to think that my tent was something that it could use as a futon. I was also worried about spooking it and making it run right though my tent so I just lay there quitly listening to munching. When the I woke up the next day the day the bugger was still there eating.

The next day I got up and rode the short way to the pass and I realized that I had camped above 4600 metres. Woops! Still it did go down and I shot down about a vetical km or so in about 25 kilimeteres and then...starting going up again. Oh, and it started to poor with rain. By the end of the day I was still climbing and it was still raining. I ended camping again just below the pass to tired to go any further, setting up my tent in the rain and crawling into it to wait for the morning.

Wow! the next day and it was still raining. I rode the whole day in the rain got one flat tire, changed it with numb hands and continued. When I finally got to the last pass I thought this is it, a fast downhill and then Kangding. But instead I was met with construction. (I am running out of typing steam so I will make this quick) Mud and water ground my brake pads to nothing! AHHHHH! I had to walk as I was wearing out the soles of my shoes dragging them on the rode, changed my pads with numb hands again and rolled into kangdinng where I was met with the friendly cheer of "Hey Chris" from Rio a Japanese friend of ours.

Itinerary

Due to the persistent requests of one of our most faithful readers we will finally get around to letting you know where in the world we are HEADED instead of just where we ARE.
Up until this point we really haven't known where we are going. Maps are hard to find in China and when we come across them they very generalized and of course in Chinese. After living in Japan, we are quite used to recognizing kangi (chinese characters) and matching them up with road signs but we rarely know how to pronounce them. We have also been relying on information from other cyclist we have met on the road. At the moment we are relying entirely on info from Mark and Juliette (www.mark-ju.net), who we met in Lao, and Hamish and Leah (www.cyclasia.com) who we met in Ligiang.
Right now we are in Xianchang, three days riding north of Zhongdian and are making our way slowly over 4000 + m passes to Litang. For those with detailed atlases and backdated issues of National Geographic, this town lies at 4200 m and is situated on the southern Sichuan-Tibet highway. This will be the climax of my trip before I make my way by bus and cycle to Chengdu. From there I would like to drop by Japan for a brief visit via Hong Kong before finally arriving home in Cabbagetown (Toronto) for a steak dinner grilled over the Webber BBQ in the backyard.
I'd love to show you some images of the breathless views (in more ways than one) atop some of the barren passes, the snow capped mountains set against the deep blue skies, the beautiful warm valleys full of yellow barley ready for harvest or the quiet Tibetan villages and fields full of Yak and mountain goats. But this will have to wait till I'm home since I am mainly using slide film now. For those of you within striking distance of Toronto, I am planning on having a big slide show and you are all invited.

As for Chris, the road is still wide open and the possibilities endless. However, I recall him mentioning something about Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan after crossing the North-Western Chinese desert.

The Exotic Foreigner #3

I've got a massive hangover at the moment and my clothes reek of cigarettes. We are in Shangri La and have arrived in town just in time for a big horse and Yak racing festival. Tibetans from the surrounding villages are all here in their finest wear and there is a great energy in the streets. After taking in the races yesterday I passed by a group of tibetans shouting and chanting in the street. I walked up to the circle to check it out and found that it was a good old fashioned chugging contest organized by the Golden Beer Company . As soon as the MC saw me he invited me to compete.....I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this so I jumped in. I was up against 5 huge tibetans with beer bellies (which is not that common) so understandably I was a little intimidated but ready to give it a go. Just before we started they asked where I was from and then got the crowd chanting CHANADA, CHANADA, CHANADA. I ended up coming a close second but everyone else, including the winner was covered in beer. I didn't win the case of beer, but the regional manager of the Golden Beer Company invited Chris and I out to dinner. That night we were the center of attention and everyone in the group wanted to be seen offering us things. Shot after shot of "white wind" (fire water) was toasted in our honour and cigarettes and pigs legs were shoved in our hands. We were offered places to stay if we wanted to go back to Kunming and English teaching jobs with the beer company. The night ended like so many a night back in Japan......at the karaoke bar of course. Although this time there was only one english song on the menu and Chris and I were forced to sing it. It ended up being the most famous Canadian song in the world. Any guesses? It was the theme song from a movie about a big cruise ship that sank in the Atlantic. After doing Chanda proud (or not) we finally managed to excuse ourselvs.
Well, its already 11:00 am and we were supposed to leave at the crack of dawn on one of the hardest legs of the trip. We'll see how far we get.
Wish us luck!

Moving On

Sorry, Its been a while since we have come across internet. Yes, Dali did slow our pace down a little. We spent almost a week there taking shelter from the rain and induldging in the local specialties.
We have just finished hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge and climbing past 3800 meters to a pass overlooking the Gorge. It was great fun and we had some great weather for my birthday (june 15th). At one point in the day a huge rainbow arced across the gorge and it was easy to see how it got the name.
From here we head into the Himalaya in Sichuan province and up onto the Tibetan plateau. We have geared up and are once again fully loaded and ready for camping. So far, we have been staying in Guest Houses and trucker hotels which cost around 3 bucks and are found in every town shown on our map. From now on they will be harder to find and the stretches between towns will be a lot longer with many 4000 m+ passes in between so we will be forced to camp. We met some other cycle tourists in Ligiang who have given us a good idea of what we are in for. Check out their web site and read about what we will be heading into: (only it will be backwards since they did it in the opposite direction)
The Chinese internet connections are becoming slower and slower and harder to find so we've decided to stop posting pictures until the end of the trip and the updates will be short and sketchy until we have time to sit down and do it right.
Wish us luck....

Moving On

Sorry, Its been a while since we have come across internet. Yes, Dali did slow our pace down a little. We spent almost a week there taking shelter from the rain and induldging in the local specialties.
We have just finished hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge and climbing past 3800 meters to a pass overlooking the Gorge. It was great fun and we had some great weather for my birthday (june 15th). At one point in the day a huge rainbow arced across the gorge and it was easy to see how it got the name.
From here we head into the Himalaya in Sichuan province and up onto the Tibetan plateau. We have geared up and are once again fully loaded and ready for camping. So far, we have been staying in Guest Houses and trucker hotels which cost around 3 bucks and are found in every town shown on our map. From now on they will be harder to find and the stretches between towns will be a lot longer with many 4000 m+ passes in between so we will be forced to camp. We met some other cycle tourists in Ligiang who have given us a good idea of what we are in for. Check out there web site and read about what we will be heading into: (only it will be backwards since they did it in the opposite direction)
The Chinese internet connections are becoming slower and slower and harder to find so we've decided to stop posting pictures until the end of the trip. As well, the updates will be short and sketchy until be have time to sit down and do it right.
Wish us luck....