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!
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