Tag Archives: China

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Cycling Yunnan: a challenging (re)start

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December 2016

After that cold spell in Siberia and Mongolia I was pretty happy to arrive in Kunming again. With our planned route through Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and India warmer temperatures awaited us and that seemed pretty damn good at that point.

With our hosts Anne and Olaf we couldn’t have found a better starting point for the second point of our cycling trip. We spent a few days relaxing, eating good food, talking and organizing our gear.  I did even clean my bags which in hindsight didn’t make much sense but more on that later.

And then it was time to get going once more. I was excited to start cycling again – something I hadn’t thought possible just 5 months ago.

We had a beautiful first day with a relaxed cycle out of Kunming.

As the temperatures were moderate we had our hearts set on camping and thus began our search for a piece of uncultivated land. Not an easy task in China I tell you. It seems that on every peace of flatish land there are either houses or agriculture. Even on the few square meters between train tracks. Eventually we did find an abandoned house with a bit of greenery and pitched our tent.

Looking forward to a warm dinner, that’s when we noticed that our stove was leaking petrol. Not exactly something you want, especially not on the first day of touring after a long break. Oh well, cold dinner then.

We stopped early the next day as I wasn’t feeling well and even this amazing spread from a fast food restaurant in Yuxi wouldn’t do anything for me.

It was all better the next day though and we started our way south from Yuxi to the border with Laos.

What we didn’t know at that point was that the bigger part of the secondary road was under construction at the time. It could have been a fantastic road with nice scenery and moderate temperatures perfect for cycling. But back then it was just horrible most of the time.

Loose big gravel interchanged with sandy patches with broken asphalt in between.

As the road went up and down the big construction trucks used water to cool their brakes when going downhill. What would have been fine on asphalt resulted in a big muddy mess more often than not.

Two days after leaving Anne and Olaf’s nice and clean apartment we were already dirty all over. Having spent all that time cleaning my panniers didn’t make a whole lot of sense in hindsight as well.

When it wasn’t muddy any car or truck that passed us created big clouds of dust which stuck to us same as the mud.

Eventually it did get better though. The road construction was finished at some point and we got to enjoy the views from newly laid tarmac. Cycling back down to the Red River felt a bit like coming home as this was almost were we had left off 5 month back.

Even more so with coming back to the Mekong, the mighty river we had first met in Cambodia back in May 2016.

I loved this part of cycling along the river. The temperatures were rising again but still comfortable.

Cycling through small villages we knew that we were back in the tropics again and made the most of it.

Anne and Olaf had told us that in their experience most Chinese didn’t really care about people camping. So as temperatures were favourable this time around we were a lot less careful and mostly camped in plain sight. This worked out well for us and on the last day before crossing into Laos we had an especially nice camping space on a small lake close to a village.

 The border crossing went off without a hitch and we cycled into Laos towards Luang Namtha. Suddenly it was all a bit greener, the forest became denser and we enjoyed all the butterflies around us. There was much more nature and forest left here which made for a few nice cycling days.

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overland asia bound: spring is near

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December 2016

After leaving Russia we made a quick dash for Ulan Bator, Mongolia’s capital. Arriving early in the morning we had a bit of trouble finding anything open. We needed to finalize a few documents to apply for our Chinese Visa and to make it a bit more exciting we had left that for the last possible moment. Well that’s the story we’re going with anyhow. In the end we found a coffee shop with WiFi and finished the itinerary for our Chinese Visa applications together with all the necessary hotel bookings. Having done that we found a print shop to print all the documents and then made it to the embassy just in time for opening hour. Smooth! We submitted everything and were told to come back in four days.

Afterwards we had some food, bought a Simcard and after some searching, found the way to the absolutely luxurious flat of our host Amarsanaa. This was the view:

In the following days we relaxed, found some fantastic Mongolian food in a vegan restaurant and walked around to get a feel for the city.

My favourite part of the week was when our host took us on a hike to a nearby mountain with the local Rotaract club.

The wintery atmosphere was absolutely stunning and it was even better to finally get out of the smog clogged city and breathe in fresh air.

On top we played some games to stay warm which we appreciated a lot in now -20 degrees Celsius.

After successfully getting our double entry Visa we boarded a train to Beijing. As we were gradually moving south the snow slowly started to disappear. When we arrived at our host’s flat, the ever present smog thickened with the hours passing and we were quite awestruck by this view:

On the next day it was a whole different story though. There was a lovely wind blowing fresh air into the city and we could really feel the difference. So we enjoyed walking around for a bit under the clear blue sky.

Funnily (to me) you can find a lot of these open public toilets in Beijing. Yep, privacy is a whole different story here. Once you get to a touristy part, there will be separating walls in between though :).

After having a nice dinner with Surin we boarded our first Chinese sleeper train towards Kunming, the so called Spring City. Spring was near and also the second part of our cycling adventure!

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going home overland: China

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August 2016

After almost two years of being on the road it was time for a break. Physically, mentally, high time. So we ditched the bicycles, did a lot of research on trains and buses and went on a wholly different adventure!

As we have been going so slowly these past years we didn’t just want to fly home. So all in all it took as about a month to get from China to Germany. That includes time spent riding trains, buses, shared taxis, some breaks with fabulous hosts and about 10 days in Almaty, Kazakhstan to apply for our Russian Transit Visa.

While I did feel a bit sad leaving the bicycles and thus our independent mode of transport behind, I was also tremendously relieved right from the start. For a while there I would get to relax, take it easy and travel differently. Our first train ride took us from Kunming to Chengdu and lasted about 18 hours. Let me just say it was an experience, not necessarily the most enjoyable one. There are different categories in Chinese trains. To save money we had booked hard seats for an overnight train which is still okay. Once the hard seats run out they do however sell standing tickets which leads to trains being seriously crowded at times. I could hardly move for most of the ride as there were people or luggage everywhere. Still, at least we had a seat, the people with standing tickets were far worse off – especially given that they paid the same price.

In Chengdu we stayed with Peter, a fellow cycle tourer and now warmshowers host. Funnily he had stayed with a lot of the same hosts back in Australia when he was always a little bit ahead of us. Now, as he was experiencing similar travel fatigue symptoms as me he decided to stay put in Chengdu for a while and teach English. We had fun exchanging stories, eating together and going for a Chinese massage.

I also loved spending time in some of the bigger Chinese supermarkets with their lovely bulk section.

After two days we took a bus to Lanzhou as all the cheap train tickets were sold out. Not bad in comparison, no standing tickets there and only about 10 hours.

In Lanzhou we boarded another train to Urumqui. Maybe a tiny bit less crowded this time but not that much of a difference. The views were so so beautiful though and while I was content of being in a train at that time I also would have loved to actually feel the landscape change from the tropics to desert more gradually.

There is one absolutely fantastic invention in trains across China and later on also Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia…: a samowar! You can bring your own tea or coffee and have hot drinks all the way. Seriously awesome!

Apart from that I wasn’t a big fan of the (self) catering on Chinese trains. Most people bring huge bags full of instant noodle soup and other snacks, all packed in layers and layers of plastic. Only a handful of people take fresh food or eat the rice and meat offered on the train. There are people at the stations selling things like corn, baked potatoes, bread and such but it seemed to me that junk food is the go to option on trains. That’s a stark contrast to the absolutely fantastic food we had everywhere else in China.

As our Chinese Visa was coming to a rapid end we didn’t stop in Urumqi and took the next bus to Yining.

We drove on some fantastically engineered roads and this time I really missed not being able to get off the bus at any time and just take in the scenery. I have never really seen landscapes like these and will come back here one day, for sure.

Arriving in Yining was a bit of a letdown though. It took us about two hours to find any sort of accommodation that would accept foreigners. In Xinjiang province hotels and guest houses need to have special permits to accept foreigners and it can be a bit of a hassle finding one. Without the bicycles we were reduced to walking around a lot and ended up taking a taxi to a youth hostel. After travelling straight for a few days we were just dead tired. In the youth hostel we got another surprise as we were only allowed to take the expensive double room. They weren’t even allowed to let foreigners into the dormitory. Add that to the expansive vehicle and other security checks in this area and it sure felt different from Yunnan.

We loved the change in food though, the bread and Laghman, so many new tastes!

The next morning we took a shared taxi to the border, walked there to see if we could cross on foot and were denied. Why? Because ferrying people over there seems to be too good a business to pass that opportunity up. Well, that’s my guess anyhow.

The next hours were a bit of a blur. We managed to buy a ticket for the bus to cross the border. The first bus that took us over the Chinese border was rather empty. But after the actual border crossing we found this: Two buses, one locked and empty. And about a hundred Kazakhs trying to fit themselves and all the cheap wares from China into the one open bus. That went on for about an hour. There was no driver and we weren’t really sure what to do. Should we try and board the bus? Would it eventually take off? Should we wait for the second bus? Was our ticket specific for one of the buses?

We waited, we asked some people, got confusing answers, got yelled at, pushed off the bus, ushered onto the same bus… and in the end figured we just have to push to actually get on the bus. This is not South East Asia anymore where politeness and staying calm tends to get you further in general.

We did get across that Kazakh border. Made some friends in the process who helped us with explaining everything. We saw some money change hands where it shouldn’t and discussed with the border guards to let our friends leave with us. In return they helped us find a shared taxi to Almaty. Man, what a day!!

About an hour later we couldn’t have been more happy. I will tell you next time why!

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Cycling and not so much cycling in Yunnan

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July 2016

China was never very high on my list of places I wanted to go. Why I couldn’t even say. What I can say though, is that I was blown away by what we found: the roads, the mountains, the people and oh, once again, the food!!

But let me start from the beginning: After one last meal in Vietnam, we cycled to the Chinese border. It was all quiet enough and so the border guards found time to ask us about our trip and if Torsten was my special someone *winkwink*. We all had a laugh and they helped us fill out the forms. One of our easier border crossings!

Afterwards we found a place to stay and stay we did. In spite of the friendly welcome I was still tired of it all and preferred staying in places to moving forward. So we spent a few days in Hekou, the border town. We learned a few words of Mandarin, tried different kinds of foods, walked around town and took it slow. And after four nights we finally set off towards Kunming.

Cycling along the Red River was beautiful. As you can see in the picture above, China very often has built a new highway close to an old road. And these old roads are perfect for cycling. Sure, a bit more up and down than the perfectly graded highways but for that you get little traffic and awesome views.

Food places were easy to find and so we dove right into our Chinese food heaven. Contrary to my beliefs it was absolutely easy to find vegetarian food and just about every meal we had was soo delicious! In this region most eateries sported big fridges with two thirds vegetables and mushrooms and one third meat / fish. As we didn’t know the Mandarin names for any vegetables we would just point at whatever we fancied and they would prepare a dish out of that. A bit confusing the first time as we thought we chose the ingredients for a fry up but were instead presented with three single dishes and heaps and heaps of rice. Oh well, so we had dinner sorted already :).

As it got dark we were torn between camping and looking for accommodation. We weren’t really prepared for camping though and ended up staying here:

Dinner was fantastic again. I loved the concept of ordering dishes for the whole table and then sharing the food.

Breakfast was generally not so easy to find, at least if you want more than some fried bread. In Xinjie we were in luck though, this woman made fantastic fried veggies!

And again we ended up staying another day. I am incredibly thankful to Torsten for trying to understand and accept my burn out and taking it slow together.

We continued along the Red River to Yuanyang. A tiny city on the map which turned out to be huge in reality.

While it was still warm enough we did encounter some light rain and it got a bit colder overall. A development that couldn’t have been more welcome after a year in the tropics.

As you might have figured we again stayed for two days in Yuangyang. Walking around, drinking instant coffee and enjoying all the trees in the city.

It was good that our bodies were well rested because the next day was a bit of a challenge. A beautiful one at that.

From Yuanyang we rode up into the mountains looking back on the Red River.

The climb couldn’t have been more perfect. A nice 5% gradient, a relatively quiet road and nice views all along.

We had noticed the clouds all along, so the rain wasn’t exactly a surprise. What we hadn’t really factored in was the cold though. About a 1000m higher than before the rain suddenly wasn’t so refreshing anymore but downright cold. So we frantically searched for the rain gear which we couldn’t remember using once over the past year.

At our next food stop the owner gave us some hot herbal tea and again: we had a hard time figuring out when we last really appreciated a hot drink.

After some more ups and downs and about 2500m climbing in total we reached Jianshui. We had messaged a warmshowers contact but  in spite our three maps had a hard time finding the address. Finally, in the dark, with the help of several locals we made it to Kun’s place. He welcomed us with the biggest smile in his face and I immediately forgot all the climbing and cold.

Jianshui is a lovely town and after joking around with Kun that his last warmshowers guest Peter stayed for 10 (!) days we kind of ended up staying exactly 10 days as well. What can I say, we had fun walking in town…

… eating spicy Chinese fast food…

…listening to people playing music together on the big public square…

… going to the market and buying lots of spices…

… but the real reason was this guy and his bunch of friends: Kun, our host was running a hostel with his friend. And they always reserved  some beds for touring cyclists. One day he proposed us a deal: He would prepare Chinese pasta from scratch if we would make the sauce. Easy as!

And yum!

Over the course of the 10 days we were always invited to join the group for evening dinners. And we also cooked a bigger meal for everyone. We tried to make it extra spicy to accommodate the tastes and most of it was finished afterwards :).

A fellow coffee enthusiast shared her stash with me *inlove*!

Some hostel impressions:

Staying in Jianshui was once again just what I needed. Long talks with Kun and friends about life and work in China and his refreshing ideas about choosing to work less and actually being able to enjoy life – awesome! And so the days passed and we didn’t cycle further but I will always think back of that time when we stayed in that small town in China and I just felt so very comfortable.

We did cycle a bit more in the end. We had arranged a place for our bicycles to stay in Kunming while we would go home for my sister’s wedding. Three more days to go…

My highlight was definitely Fu Xian Lake. Being one of the last clean lakes in China it is a major tourist attraction and I can see why.

We even got to camp on it’s shores and oh my, it was finally cool enough to enjoy camping.

One last breakfast outside…

… one more rainy mountain pass…

… and we got to Kunming.

In the following day we occupied just about every inch of space in our wonderful host Ifan’s house. We cleaned, reorganized…

… and finally brought the bikes and gear to their new home for the next months. Thank you Anne and Olaf for keeping them safe!

After leaving the bikes we were a bit lost at first. Not we had to figure out public transport all of a sudden and the backpack weighed heavy on our shoulders. But oh, it was good to finally get that break I was longing for.

We enjoyed our stay with Ifan a lot. He showed us to a fantastic vegetarian restaurant, we had lots of interesting conversations and maybe, just maybe, we will see him in Poland some day?

But for now, we have to go, trains and busses are waiting!