Sabai di,
Et oui, on a traverse la frontiere qui separe la Chine et le Laos hier.Tout s'est deroule de facon relax, on est au Laos apres tout. Nous vous ecrivons de Luang Namtha, une petite ville assez touristique du Nord du pays...
La fin de notre premier segment en Chine s'est deroule dans un decor tropical impressionnant. Les jardins botaniques que nous avons visite etaient remplis de palmiers, bambous, fleurs tropicales, arbres a latex, orchidees, banians, lianes...Le mercure se tient autour de 25 degres le jour. juste parfait. La route est belle et passe dans le parc du Xishuangbanna, une reserve naturelle qui compte un couvert forestier tropical intact, tres rare en Chine. Une journee complete sans voir aucun vehicule, ca aussi c'est tres rare en Chine! Nous avons pris l'ancienne route, beaucoup plus divertissante que le nouvel Highway, mais qui comptait 3 cols a gravir. Nous avons meme vu des singes dans les arbres et beaucoup d'oiseaux nous ont fait un beau concert.
La trame sonore chinoise de personnes qui crachent, crient, tracteurs chinois, motos, musique dance, klaxons, speakers de vendeurs ambulants est maintenant derriere nous. Le Laos est un pays ou regne le calme. Parmi nos decouvertes culinaires chinoises, on peut ajouter a notre liste la soupe de nouilles a l'estomac, les brochettes de chien (un delice), les oeufs cuits dans le the/bouillon, les pousses de pois mange-tout (oui, la plante) et les jeunes feuilles de concombre, la soupe de couenne de porc (la preferee de Jean, mon papa musulman). Rouler dans les plantations de divers fruits tropicaux a aussi de bons cotes, dans le sens de bouffe! S'arreter pour mordre dans une papaye, ananas, fruits de la passion, mangue..fraichement cueillis bien entendu, c'est vraiment plaisant.
Ca nous a fait de la peine de quitter la Chine, c'est un pays fou! Mais heureusement, on va y retourner vers la fin du voyage.
Le Laos! C'est un pays qu'on va decouvrir dans le prochain mois. A commencer par une boucle dans le Nord-Est, environ 500km dans les montagnes ( Oui, on aime les cotes, on en redemande) et ensuite nous ferons route vers le sud et Vientiane, la capitale.
Pour l'instant, on vous laisse aux preparations des fetes, on vous souhaite bonne dinde, nous on file manger du poulet grille (Ping Kai) et du riz collant.
Bye!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
From freezing Dali to tropical Jinghong
Hi, dear friends,
We feel like we are in a totally different country here, in Xishuangbanna! And we have not crossed any borders yet! Yunnan province is not only huge, it holds a wide range of climates and landscapes; from the entrance of Tibetan Plateau to Rainforest. The rest we had in Dali gave us plenty of energy to pedal in mountains. The thick morning fog means we have to put the warm clothes on but as soon as it clears out, short sleeves are a must. We cycled in roads in various quality; from silk-smooth to harsh cobble stone pavement. Or sometimes no pavement at all!
2 days after Dali, we started climbing on a heavy duty road, very well built and on the top of the pass, we sometimes had to cross tunnels, the longest was 2,6 km. It can be sunny on one end and foggy on the other! Our efforts were highly rewarded with downhill slopes ,25km long! We reached a small city and had our passeports checked by the police. Myanmar/Burma is only a few km away and taking the wrong road can make you cross the boarders and get you in trouble afterwards.
When we waived goodbye to the police officers, the road went from perfect tarmac to perfect hell! Construction works, dust, mud, cobblestone, you name it! With road bikes, it is no easy business to go through bumps and potholes. When going uphill, our top speed is 8km/h, and going downhill with a reasonable control on the bike, you hardly reach 10km/h! We managed to cycle 100km in these conditions in one day but as the sun goes down, the last thing you want is to meet a truck in the dark. We found a trucker motel and spent the night there after a real feast of handmade sausages, eggplant and tomato omelette. The day after was not easier and we climbed 2 other passes in damn cobblestone roads. We reached Lancang (it is also the Chinese name for the Mekong River) and inquired on the state of the roads for the next days; cobble again! We decided to try the bus, and it turned out to be the most cleaver decision! The road is under major construction work and even the 5 hours bus ride was bumpy enough!
I can admit that there is sometimes a certain amount of suffering on the bike and most of the time, I can deal with it. But cobblestone roads are the summum of pain in the %^&&. Even my dad, a strong guy who knows no pain was happy to do that harsh 150km on the bus.
We are now in beautiful Jinghong, surrounded by plains irrigated by the Mekong. Fields with luxuriant crops are enormous. Everything seems to grow here; bananas, tea, grapes, rice, papaya...The mandarin caracters are now accompanied by their Lao counterpart and the Lao architecture is more present. We are only 300km by road from the Lao border and will probably spend Christmas and New Year in Laos.
27 days cycling
2650km
We wish everyone a peaceful time for the coming holidays. Take the time to get outside!
Tsai Tien
We feel like we are in a totally different country here, in Xishuangbanna! And we have not crossed any borders yet! Yunnan province is not only huge, it holds a wide range of climates and landscapes; from the entrance of Tibetan Plateau to Rainforest. The rest we had in Dali gave us plenty of energy to pedal in mountains. The thick morning fog means we have to put the warm clothes on but as soon as it clears out, short sleeves are a must. We cycled in roads in various quality; from silk-smooth to harsh cobble stone pavement. Or sometimes no pavement at all!
2 days after Dali, we started climbing on a heavy duty road, very well built and on the top of the pass, we sometimes had to cross tunnels, the longest was 2,6 km. It can be sunny on one end and foggy on the other! Our efforts were highly rewarded with downhill slopes ,25km long! We reached a small city and had our passeports checked by the police. Myanmar/Burma is only a few km away and taking the wrong road can make you cross the boarders and get you in trouble afterwards.
When we waived goodbye to the police officers, the road went from perfect tarmac to perfect hell! Construction works, dust, mud, cobblestone, you name it! With road bikes, it is no easy business to go through bumps and potholes. When going uphill, our top speed is 8km/h, and going downhill with a reasonable control on the bike, you hardly reach 10km/h! We managed to cycle 100km in these conditions in one day but as the sun goes down, the last thing you want is to meet a truck in the dark. We found a trucker motel and spent the night there after a real feast of handmade sausages, eggplant and tomato omelette. The day after was not easier and we climbed 2 other passes in damn cobblestone roads. We reached Lancang (it is also the Chinese name for the Mekong River) and inquired on the state of the roads for the next days; cobble again! We decided to try the bus, and it turned out to be the most cleaver decision! The road is under major construction work and even the 5 hours bus ride was bumpy enough!
I can admit that there is sometimes a certain amount of suffering on the bike and most of the time, I can deal with it. But cobblestone roads are the summum of pain in the %^&&. Even my dad, a strong guy who knows no pain was happy to do that harsh 150km on the bus.
We are now in beautiful Jinghong, surrounded by plains irrigated by the Mekong. Fields with luxuriant crops are enormous. Everything seems to grow here; bananas, tea, grapes, rice, papaya...The mandarin caracters are now accompanied by their Lao counterpart and the Lao architecture is more present. We are only 300km by road from the Lao border and will probably spend Christmas and New Year in Laos.
27 days cycling
2650km
We wish everyone a peaceful time for the coming holidays. Take the time to get outside!
Tsai Tien
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Dali-Yunnan province
With roughly a month behind us now, we have cycled more than 2000km in China and crossed 3 provinces before Yunnan, where we are planning to cycle another 1000km to Laos. From the thick morning fog, we are now navigating under a bright and warm sun. It feels good to wear my short sleeves again and the very attractive cyclist suntan will soon be back. We are now in Ancient Dali, a 'small' town (we are in China , all proportions are distorted) squeezed between 4000m mountains and Erhai lake, the 7th biggest in China. The scenery is really beautiful and we are stopping in the middle of that postcard landscape for 3 days, before embarking into a loop in South-West Yunnan.
As expected, the roads are more roller-coaster like and the pavement is more battered. The hairpin bends gave us a good fright when my dad drifted on wet muddy pavement going downhill at a good speed. Nothing broken. We are more cautious now and try to avoid breaking speed records.
We had our first encounters with policemen in small hotels. You can sleep in any hotel you want in China, no matter how expensive or not, the tenants have to report Aliens to the police authorities within 24 hours. Some hotels off the tourist circuit are rather inexperienced with the whole procedure, which led to various discussions in mandarin, knocks on the door in the middle of the night and police visits to make sure we were within the rules. Everything ended with smiles, and tired mornings.
Our apetite could rival the one of a pregnant women and of a lumberjack combined. Miscommunications sometimes led to extra food on the table, which did not really matter after all the kilometers and hills we cycled. China's cuisine is one of the most diversified we have tasted so far and each meal is a new discovery. The muslim hand-pulled noodles, lamb kebab, tofu stew, dried fried fish and various meat hotpots are only a sample of our sacred cyclist meals. If we sometimes feel tired, it's not because we're food deprived!
Our hability to communicate is now extended to saying a few numbers. We are slowly getting there!
Tsai Tien!
As expected, the roads are more roller-coaster like and the pavement is more battered. The hairpin bends gave us a good fright when my dad drifted on wet muddy pavement going downhill at a good speed. Nothing broken. We are more cautious now and try to avoid breaking speed records.
We had our first encounters with policemen in small hotels. You can sleep in any hotel you want in China, no matter how expensive or not, the tenants have to report Aliens to the police authorities within 24 hours. Some hotels off the tourist circuit are rather inexperienced with the whole procedure, which led to various discussions in mandarin, knocks on the door in the middle of the night and police visits to make sure we were within the rules. Everything ended with smiles, and tired mornings.
Our apetite could rival the one of a pregnant women and of a lumberjack combined. Miscommunications sometimes led to extra food on the table, which did not really matter after all the kilometers and hills we cycled. China's cuisine is one of the most diversified we have tasted so far and each meal is a new discovery. The muslim hand-pulled noodles, lamb kebab, tofu stew, dried fried fish and various meat hotpots are only a sample of our sacred cyclist meals. If we sometimes feel tired, it's not because we're food deprived!
Our hability to communicate is now extended to saying a few numbers. We are slowly getting there!
Tsai Tien!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Guilin-Kunming!
Bonjour a vous tous!
Nous sommes maintenant a Kunming, la capitale du Yunnan...
1550km en 18 jours de velo
De Guilin, le dernier endroit ou on vous a ecrit. La temperature a ete plutot maussade. Notre premiere journee de velo nous a fait suer dans le Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces; une longue montee, suivie d'une longue descente. Les paysages de cette region nous font beaucoup penser au Nepal. Les gens sont tres accueillants et beaucoup nous saluent en chemin. La minorite ethnique Dong est ici en majorite et beaucoup de gens portent le costume traditionel, tres colore, et une coiffe en tissus blanc. Les femmes ou les hommes portent les bebes sur leur dos, dans un porte-bebe tres colore. La route est assez valloneuse et suit une riviere entre les montagnes. L'humidite du matin fait en sorte qu'on dirait que les montagnes fument.
La seule journee ou le soleil s'est enfin montre, notre si belle route est devenue un chantier de construction plein de boue et de trous. La route nationale etait en pleine construction et nous avons suivi un convoi routier de bus et camions de materiaux pendant 110km!!! J'ai sorti mes plus beaux mots d'eglise ce jour la! Il fallait tellement etre concentres sur ou mettre ses roues qu'on pouvait a peine jeter un coup d'oeil sur le beau paysage. Je pensais jamais rever a du beau pave neuf dans la vie. Mes "prieres" ont porte fruit, le lendemain,la route est redevenue comme elle etait; en belle asphatte.
On a ensuite eu droit a de la pluie. Il faut dire que la temperature plus fraiche (5-10 degres) fait que rouler dans l'eau est vraiment glacial, sans compter que nos velos deviennent vite couverts de boue et rend la tache difficile lorsqu'on veut monter nos velos dans la chambre d'hotel! On a utilise le car wash pour enlever le plus gros. On a fait des distances plus courtes avant d'arriver a Guyang car la route est assez montagneuse et nos jambes menquent parfois d'energie. Une journee de conge en 18 jours de velo, c'est pas assez et on va essayer de se reposer plus longtemps a Kunming.
En route, mon velo s'est aussi mis a faire des bruits qui nous ont donne des sueurs froides...
Des la premiere journee de velo du voyage, j'ai du revisser le pedalier(!) car j'etais entrain de le perdre. Le probleme etait regle jusqu'a ce que mon velo se remette a faire des bruits de souffrance a chaque fois que je mettais un peu de tension dans les pedales, ce qui arrive tres souvent en terrain montagneux. Apres inspection, les roulements etaient lousses. Heureusement que mon papa est debrouillard en mechanique! Il s'est leve dans la nuit pour essayer d'arranger mon pedalier, qui marche maintenant normalement. J'ai aussi prononce quelques mots d'eglise en pensant a mon reparateur de velo qui, apparament, avait tout verifie et graisse mon pedalier avant le depart...
Avant d'arriver a Guyang, nous avons rencontre 2 cyclo touristes chinois de mon age et avons roule ensemble jusqu'a la capitale du Guizhou. Voyager avec des Chinois qui parlent anglais facilite beaucoup la tache et ils nous ont rendu un enorme service en nous aidant a mettre nos velos sur le train pour aller a Kunming. C'est toujours assez stressant de voir sa becane disparaitre derriere des portes sans trop savoir si on va la revoir un jour dans un meme morceau. Surtout que le service des bagages ne pouvait pas garantir que les velos allaient prendre le meme train que nous.
Le train Guyang-Kunming que nous avons pris couvre 600km en 12 heures pendant la nuit. Et nos velos etaient a l'autre bout, sans meme une egratignure. Nous sommes donc a Kunming, il fait frais mais soleil; les chinois l'appellent la ville du printemps. Notre prochaine etape dans le Yunnan nous donnera la chance de tester nos petites vitesses dans de nombreux equivalents Chinois du mont Ventoux! Nous prevoyons faire une boucle d'environ 1500km
Nous sommes maintenant a Kunming, la capitale du Yunnan...
1550km en 18 jours de velo
De Guilin, le dernier endroit ou on vous a ecrit. La temperature a ete plutot maussade. Notre premiere journee de velo nous a fait suer dans le Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces; une longue montee, suivie d'une longue descente. Les paysages de cette region nous font beaucoup penser au Nepal. Les gens sont tres accueillants et beaucoup nous saluent en chemin. La minorite ethnique Dong est ici en majorite et beaucoup de gens portent le costume traditionel, tres colore, et une coiffe en tissus blanc. Les femmes ou les hommes portent les bebes sur leur dos, dans un porte-bebe tres colore. La route est assez valloneuse et suit une riviere entre les montagnes. L'humidite du matin fait en sorte qu'on dirait que les montagnes fument.
La seule journee ou le soleil s'est enfin montre, notre si belle route est devenue un chantier de construction plein de boue et de trous. La route nationale etait en pleine construction et nous avons suivi un convoi routier de bus et camions de materiaux pendant 110km!!! J'ai sorti mes plus beaux mots d'eglise ce jour la! Il fallait tellement etre concentres sur ou mettre ses roues qu'on pouvait a peine jeter un coup d'oeil sur le beau paysage. Je pensais jamais rever a du beau pave neuf dans la vie. Mes "prieres" ont porte fruit, le lendemain,la route est redevenue comme elle etait; en belle asphatte.
On a ensuite eu droit a de la pluie. Il faut dire que la temperature plus fraiche (5-10 degres) fait que rouler dans l'eau est vraiment glacial, sans compter que nos velos deviennent vite couverts de boue et rend la tache difficile lorsqu'on veut monter nos velos dans la chambre d'hotel! On a utilise le car wash pour enlever le plus gros. On a fait des distances plus courtes avant d'arriver a Guyang car la route est assez montagneuse et nos jambes menquent parfois d'energie. Une journee de conge en 18 jours de velo, c'est pas assez et on va essayer de se reposer plus longtemps a Kunming.
En route, mon velo s'est aussi mis a faire des bruits qui nous ont donne des sueurs froides...
Des la premiere journee de velo du voyage, j'ai du revisser le pedalier(!) car j'etais entrain de le perdre. Le probleme etait regle jusqu'a ce que mon velo se remette a faire des bruits de souffrance a chaque fois que je mettais un peu de tension dans les pedales, ce qui arrive tres souvent en terrain montagneux. Apres inspection, les roulements etaient lousses. Heureusement que mon papa est debrouillard en mechanique! Il s'est leve dans la nuit pour essayer d'arranger mon pedalier, qui marche maintenant normalement. J'ai aussi prononce quelques mots d'eglise en pensant a mon reparateur de velo qui, apparament, avait tout verifie et graisse mon pedalier avant le depart...
Avant d'arriver a Guyang, nous avons rencontre 2 cyclo touristes chinois de mon age et avons roule ensemble jusqu'a la capitale du Guizhou. Voyager avec des Chinois qui parlent anglais facilite beaucoup la tache et ils nous ont rendu un enorme service en nous aidant a mettre nos velos sur le train pour aller a Kunming. C'est toujours assez stressant de voir sa becane disparaitre derriere des portes sans trop savoir si on va la revoir un jour dans un meme morceau. Surtout que le service des bagages ne pouvait pas garantir que les velos allaient prendre le meme train que nous.
Le train Guyang-Kunming que nous avons pris couvre 600km en 12 heures pendant la nuit. Et nos velos etaient a l'autre bout, sans meme une egratignure. Nous sommes donc a Kunming, il fait frais mais soleil; les chinois l'appellent la ville du printemps. Notre prochaine etape dans le Yunnan nous donnera la chance de tester nos petites vitesses dans de nombreux equivalents Chinois du mont Ventoux! Nous prevoyons faire une boucle d'environ 1500km
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Photos..
We have been successfull for uploading a few pictures on Facebook, sorry for the non-users! You can add me as a friend to see the spectacular landscapes of China...Enjoy!
Macau-Guilin, and life on the bike!
First of all thanks for the encouragements! It feels great to get emails from the other side of the planet! I hope the cold of November is not to bad...anyways here are some news from fantastic China to cheer you up.
We are taking our first day off cycling since we left Macau (850 km in 9 days) and I must say the timing is good because it's also the first day of rain we've had so far. We have left the humongous highways and the road is more quiet now. The ecclectic mix of buses, trucks, scooters and various overloaded farming carts are still following us along the way, spitting their thick black fumes into the air.
We left the flatlands in Whuzou and climbed up steep hills in a beautifull scenery. The coutryside is busy with the rice harvesting season. My dad wishes he could have one of the hills like the ones surrounding Guilin in his backyard, for rock climbing!
The quality of the roads is surprisingly good and the day before we arrived to Yangshuo, I almost had to pinch myself: the road was like silk, no wind and the beautiful karst scenery all around us. The Chinese cities are bustling with construction work, large shopping avenues, stalls full of scooter parts, household goods, clothing garments, food... China is very dynamic. There are a lot of kids and babies and the elderly often look after them while the parents are at work.
The food.
It's serious business when you travel by bike. And when the time comes, every meal is like a new adventure. Often, we just don't have a clue of what's in the plate or if the cook understood our order. The result is somewhat interesting and almost always delicious. So far, we have tasted things that we would perhaps not tried if we had known...
-Pigs knuckles
-Fish skin
-Pigeon heads soup
-Chicken feet
-Intestines/very thick veins (we are still debating on the origin of the thing..) hotpot
The sweets are great and often made of sweetened kidney bean paste. In Guandong, we mostly survived on noodle soup, bought in small backalley stalls. The won ton here has nothing to do with kleenex soup, let me tell you. The Guanxi province includes more rice in the dishes and we had an enormous lamb chinese fondue shich, after a long cycling day, tasted like heaven.
We will leave tomorrow towards Longshen , in the Dragon Backbone rice terraces. Many hills ahead to climb in a rugged terrain. The next main city ahead is Guyan, the capital of Guizhou in about 10 days.
Our legs and bikes are doing fine for now.
Ni hao!
We are taking our first day off cycling since we left Macau (850 km in 9 days) and I must say the timing is good because it's also the first day of rain we've had so far. We have left the humongous highways and the road is more quiet now. The ecclectic mix of buses, trucks, scooters and various overloaded farming carts are still following us along the way, spitting their thick black fumes into the air.
We left the flatlands in Whuzou and climbed up steep hills in a beautifull scenery. The coutryside is busy with the rice harvesting season. My dad wishes he could have one of the hills like the ones surrounding Guilin in his backyard, for rock climbing!
The quality of the roads is surprisingly good and the day before we arrived to Yangshuo, I almost had to pinch myself: the road was like silk, no wind and the beautiful karst scenery all around us. The Chinese cities are bustling with construction work, large shopping avenues, stalls full of scooter parts, household goods, clothing garments, food... China is very dynamic. There are a lot of kids and babies and the elderly often look after them while the parents are at work.
The food.
It's serious business when you travel by bike. And when the time comes, every meal is like a new adventure. Often, we just don't have a clue of what's in the plate or if the cook understood our order. The result is somewhat interesting and almost always delicious. So far, we have tasted things that we would perhaps not tried if we had known...
-Pigs knuckles
-Fish skin
-Pigeon heads soup
-Chicken feet
-Intestines/very thick veins (we are still debating on the origin of the thing..) hotpot
The sweets are great and often made of sweetened kidney bean paste. In Guandong, we mostly survived on noodle soup, bought in small backalley stalls. The won ton here has nothing to do with kleenex soup, let me tell you. The Guanxi province includes more rice in the dishes and we had an enormous lamb chinese fondue shich, after a long cycling day, tasted like heaven.
We will leave tomorrow towards Longshen , in the Dragon Backbone rice terraces. Many hills ahead to climb in a rugged terrain. The next main city ahead is Guyan, the capital of Guizhou in about 10 days.
Our legs and bikes are doing fine for now.
Ni hao!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
China! and a miracle from Macau
Our trip since Hong Kong has been very interesting. We reached Macau by ferry and took the bikes for the first time since we arrived. We rode british-style in the ex-portuguese colony and experienced the asian traffic. This city is realy strange; a mixture of kitsh Vegas casinos and portuguese ruins and architecture..and people are Chinese!
The next day, we navigated through the Chinese border of Zhuai and managed to get lost in the turmoil of that ugly place! The roads are like giant highways and we felt as we were riding on Montreal's metropolitan hwy. Finally, a policemen directed us towards a road that seemed like the right one.
I thought I was dreaming when we saw a cycling club from Macau. They were about 17 cycling gods riding in the same direction as us! They were very well equipped and organized. With them, we took over a full lane on the highway! That was just plain glorious!
We joined them for lunch and they generously invited us to the hotel they were heading to. Around big Chinese cities, quiet country roads are scarce and it means you have to ride on the highway for training!
We had supper together and as some of them were fluent in English, we brished up our Chinese and learnt more about the good manners in this part of the world. They were a great group and we will bring them along with us in our memories.
Unfortunately, the Chinese computer I am using is working very well but I am unable to read the mandarin caracters...So no picture of our great macanese/canadian super cycling team for now.
The next day, we navigated through the Chinese border of Zhuai and managed to get lost in the turmoil of that ugly place! The roads are like giant highways and we felt as we were riding on Montreal's metropolitan hwy. Finally, a policemen directed us towards a road that seemed like the right one.
I thought I was dreaming when we saw a cycling club from Macau. They were about 17 cycling gods riding in the same direction as us! They were very well equipped and organized. With them, we took over a full lane on the highway! That was just plain glorious!
We joined them for lunch and they generously invited us to the hotel they were heading to. Around big Chinese cities, quiet country roads are scarce and it means you have to ride on the highway for training!
We had supper together and as some of them were fluent in English, we brished up our Chinese and learnt more about the good manners in this part of the world. They were a great group and we will bring them along with us in our memories.
Unfortunately, the Chinese computer I am using is working very well but I am unable to read the mandarin caracters...So no picture of our great macanese/canadian super cycling team for now.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Ma nouvelle ville adoptive
Bonjour a tous,
on est arrives en un morceau,les velos aussi. La ride en avion s'est bien passee, 15 heures c'est quand meme long... Il fait pas mal chaud ici (30 degres) et humide (90 %) mais on s'amuse beaucoup. Le passe colonial Anglais est vraiment present partout et c'est interessant de retrouver une ville asiatique totalement organisee et propre. Le transport public en traversier est particulierement pratique et nous a fait decouvrir les iles de l'archipel de Hong Kong.
J'ai de la difficulte a trouver des defauts a cette ville, en fait. Et je me verrais tres bien demenager ici...
On s'est sauce dans la mer de Chine lors d'une visite de l'ile Llama et demain on se prepare pour Macau, une ville qui a deja ete occupee par les Portuguais. Le trajet se fera par bateau.
Les gens sont tres sympathiques et assez relax, compte tenu que l'equivalent de la population du quebec vit dans un territoire environ grand comme l'ile de Montreal.
J'ai hate d'enfourcher mon velo et de vous reecrire en direct de la Chine!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Hong Kong, here I come!
My parents arrived today.
My bike is packed.
My very long list of bike stuff and the not so long list of clothes is all gathered in my living room.
The pile looks reasonably small. But I still hope I didn't miss out on anything.
«Everything is made in China anyway!»
So there is still hope if I did..
After a very Ultimate supper with a few friends, tomorrow will be the time to say goodbye to my family.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Minus 25 days
By general request, I will be posting here bits and pieces of what will certainly be a most epic bicycle ride: my dad and I will be pedaling our way through fabulous China, Laos Cambodia and Vietnam for 4 months. Posts will sporadically be made in French English or both or maybe even in chinese. You'll also be able to follow us as our legs muscles get bigger or dirtier as we might include photos once in a while..
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