Ah bonjour a vous tous,
Nous sommes a Phnom Penh, la capitale du Cambodge et on va bien. Le soleil tape fort ici et si le bronzage de cycliste se maintient, je vais faire serieusement rire de moi dans quelques jours, lorsque je vais aller m'amuser dans l'eau sur la cote Vietnamienne. On est presque rendus a 6000km maintenant c'est difficile d'arreter plus que 3 jours de suite parce que notre systeme est completement a besoin de sa ration quotidienne de coups de pedale. Je sais pas ce que je vais faire dans la sloch Montrealaise en revenant mais c'est le dernier de mes soucis pour l'instant.
Notre croisiere de 8 heures sur le Tonle Sap (un gros lac dans lequel le Mekong et une autre riviere se jettent) nous a fait decouvrir un autre monde; les villages flottants. Et c'est comique de voir la vie s'activer sur l'eau. Les ecoliers ont des petits canots pour se rendre a l'ecole, il y a meme une coure de recreation grillagee et les petits cambodgiens jouent au soccer comme des deschaines sans que le ballon se retrouve dans l'eau. Il y a aussi l'hopital flottant, la station service, le magasin, la porcherie (!!) flottante, c'est vraiment incroyable. L'eau est pleine de poissons, c'est ici que le pays puise 80% de son apport en proteines. J'en boirait pas une tasse part contre; lorsqu'on s'est arrete pour une pause-toilette dans le resto flottant, heu bien pas besoin de vous faire de dessin ou le pipi dore va..Desolee de detruire vos illusions de champ d'epuration elabore! Et les gens boivent l'eau du lac, evidemment. Il y a beaucoup de vegetation autour et sur le lac et on a vu des beaux oiseaux. Rendus de l'autre cote du lac, on a repris nos becanes apres une bonne nuit de sommeil pour se diriger vers Phnom Penh. On boit du jus de canne a sucre presse sur le bord de la route, un vrai drink de cycliste, pas mal meilleur que du Gatorade vert.
Ah les beautes de l'Asie..
Le Cambodge a quand meme sa particularite compare aux autres pays qu'on a visite; les femmes et les enfants (pas tous, mais quand meme une bonne gagne) se promenent en pyjama n'importe quand n'importe ou!Desfois avec des talons!??
On a rencontre encore plus de cyclistes, dont 2 quebecois qui avaient une ferme bio et qui ont tout vendu pour partir en tandem a travers le monde. Ils ont une fille qui me ressemble.
Demain on part en direction du Vietnam, on va s'amuser dans le delta du Mekong.
A bientot.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Laos-Cambodia (and a shortcut through Thailand)!
The beauty of this trip resides in the freedom of riding a bicycle and being able to change plans when we feel like it. First of all, we were convinced we would not have enough time to come to Cambodia and second, the idea of paying a little visit to the Thais had not even crossed our minds before. But here we are, in Siem Reap Cambodia, very happy about our decision...
We had a rest from the hills in Southern Laos, it was flat but also windy. The road we took followed the mighty Mekong but we were, for most of the time, always a few kilometers away from the river and saw more dry rice fields than anything. Vientiane was fun place to stop; we visited the war museum and met up again with some other cyclists we had met in the North of the country. For those of you who think we are away for a long time, we were the poor ones with the shortest trip and all the others had the pleasure to cycle from 6 months to 5 years!They are a great bunch and I find it's always a pleasure to listen to their stories. More travel ideas for the years to come! We also came very close to participate in a cycling event in Vientiane, a bicycle race with mountain, road and timetrial categories. And for both men and women! I would have tried my best but we were out of time on our visa so we did not participate.There is an interesting building in the city called Patouxay, which is inspired by the Arc de Triomphe, and it is made with concrete that was originally donated by the USA to build a runway for the airport(!). It's the place where the cycling race started\ended. It's funny to see all those very strange colonial references.
We had a good time in Laos; the people are just very friendly and the countryside offers superb scenery. We crossed over to Thailand as our visa was running out and with a day where we got lost ( yes, we did manage to do that in a country that has just about a handful of roads!) we decided to take a shortcut to reach Siem Reap, in the North west of Cambodia.
We only spent 2 nights in Thailand, but that was just enough to have a taste of the country's world class roads and of the delicious Thai food. I'll have to go back there one day.
The day we crossed to Cambodia was very strange. There is a filthy rich casino resort on the Cambodian side and then a few hundred meters of pavement and BANG, dirt roads! Mentally prepared for the famously destroyed cambodian road network, we went through the first 120km of dirt road without much trouble other than being covered with dust at the end of the day. Then we reached one of the country's main road to reach Siem Reap and that was more of a cowboy experience. A good section of it was just very bumpy and dusty roadwork. It seemed to have been like this for a good while; the government perhaps just does not have the money or is too corrupted to finish the roads properly. So I arrived in Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor temples, just covered with a thick layer of dust that accumulated over my layers of sunscreen.I was surprised the guesthouse accepted us, we were just so dirty.
The countryside in Cambodia is beautiful but also very heavily mined (land mines) .. The old people also speak French very well, we spoke french 4 times in the first 2 days in some very remote places, that was odd!
Jean bought an hard boiled egg with a foetus inside, even if he was very hungry he did not eat it..
We'll take a boat tomorrow to cross the Tonle Sap, a huge lake full of fish, birds and crocodiles!
A la prochaine
Have a good minus 30 degrees!
We had a rest from the hills in Southern Laos, it was flat but also windy. The road we took followed the mighty Mekong but we were, for most of the time, always a few kilometers away from the river and saw more dry rice fields than anything. Vientiane was fun place to stop; we visited the war museum and met up again with some other cyclists we had met in the North of the country. For those of you who think we are away for a long time, we were the poor ones with the shortest trip and all the others had the pleasure to cycle from 6 months to 5 years!They are a great bunch and I find it's always a pleasure to listen to their stories. More travel ideas for the years to come! We also came very close to participate in a cycling event in Vientiane, a bicycle race with mountain, road and timetrial categories. And for both men and women! I would have tried my best but we were out of time on our visa so we did not participate.There is an interesting building in the city called Patouxay, which is inspired by the Arc de Triomphe, and it is made with concrete that was originally donated by the USA to build a runway for the airport(!). It's the place where the cycling race started\ended. It's funny to see all those very strange colonial references.
We had a good time in Laos; the people are just very friendly and the countryside offers superb scenery. We crossed over to Thailand as our visa was running out and with a day where we got lost ( yes, we did manage to do that in a country that has just about a handful of roads!) we decided to take a shortcut to reach Siem Reap, in the North west of Cambodia.
We only spent 2 nights in Thailand, but that was just enough to have a taste of the country's world class roads and of the delicious Thai food. I'll have to go back there one day.
The day we crossed to Cambodia was very strange. There is a filthy rich casino resort on the Cambodian side and then a few hundred meters of pavement and BANG, dirt roads! Mentally prepared for the famously destroyed cambodian road network, we went through the first 120km of dirt road without much trouble other than being covered with dust at the end of the day. Then we reached one of the country's main road to reach Siem Reap and that was more of a cowboy experience. A good section of it was just very bumpy and dusty roadwork. It seemed to have been like this for a good while; the government perhaps just does not have the money or is too corrupted to finish the roads properly. So I arrived in Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor temples, just covered with a thick layer of dust that accumulated over my layers of sunscreen.I was surprised the guesthouse accepted us, we were just so dirty.
The countryside in Cambodia is beautiful but also very heavily mined (land mines) .. The old people also speak French very well, we spoke french 4 times in the first 2 days in some very remote places, that was odd!
Jean bought an hard boiled egg with a foetus inside, even if he was very hungry he did not eat it..
We'll take a boat tomorrow to cross the Tonle Sap, a huge lake full of fish, birds and crocodiles!
A la prochaine
Have a good minus 30 degrees!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Northern Laos to Vientiane
Happy New Year everyone!
We are writing from Vientiane, the first capital city we have visited so far...
From Luang Namtha, we cycled through very nice mountains and managed to climb devilish hills. The gradient of the road here is not as gentle as in China and we had our share of 20 % climbs. Laos is not very populous, nor particularly rich, we did not come across many guesthouses or restaurants in the 500km loop we did in the mountains. So we sometimes had to cycle long days in a hilly terrain and carry enough food to keep going throughout the day. We ate sticky rice by the kilo! That was the best cyclist food we could get a hold on. I have to admit that this region of the world is a real paradise for cyclists who like serious climbs and mindblowing descents, in a fantastic scenery without much cars. The people are also very enthusiastic about seeing cyclist falangs (strangers) and children rush towards us shouting "sabai di" as we cycle through their villages, often a handful of bamboo huts with farm animals running around.
It is one of Asia's poorest country and children, especially, are not always healthy-looking, mostly from food deprivation. The mountains offer little space to grow anything and they can seldom rely on fishing for protein. Often, children would use slingshots to kill wild birds or wander around in the woods to grab anything crawling on the ground. Thay also have no toys, a couple of times, I made a distribution of colorful origami birds, it's easy to make and doesn't take much space in my luggage. And the children looked very pleased.
Laos has very interesting sights, the Plain of Jars being one of them. Located in Phonsavan, this site is very misterious, huge granite jars have been carved in the middle of nowhere and their use has not been quite understood yet. Some archeologists think they were used as burrial containers, some other believe it was used to make rice wine (!). Going down south towards Vientiane, we stopped in Vang Vieng, a very weird touristic place where young foreiners get hammered while drifting on the river on tubes. They also sip down marijuana shakes while watching numerous episodes of Friends, looking like brainwashed zoombies. It was a pityful sight.
The markets, on the other hand, were absolutely surprising, we saw things there that we never thought of eating.
-baby birds
-flying squirrels
-water rats
-dried rats
-white worms
-bats
-eggs with embryos
-cat stew
I was too effraid to get overweight so I did try any of them. My brother Alexis however, would certainly be delighted to try them all.
We are now half way through this whole bicycle adventure, here are some numbers:
4200km cycled
43 days of cycling
Tire punctures:
Jean:4
Francoise:0
Falls:
Jean:1
Francoise:1
(with minor scratch and cuts)
Longest day: 140km in the mountains (8 hours on the saddle)
Shortest day: 32km (3 hours in rain and steep climbs, we called it a day)
We have decided to follow the mighty Mekong down to Cambodia and visit its southern Vietnamese delta before going back up north. So far, cycling has been a lot of good fun and we don't envy backpackers at all! I think we are now condemned to travel this way for the rest of our lives! Which feels great!
Speak to you next time!
We are writing from Vientiane, the first capital city we have visited so far...
From Luang Namtha, we cycled through very nice mountains and managed to climb devilish hills. The gradient of the road here is not as gentle as in China and we had our share of 20 % climbs. Laos is not very populous, nor particularly rich, we did not come across many guesthouses or restaurants in the 500km loop we did in the mountains. So we sometimes had to cycle long days in a hilly terrain and carry enough food to keep going throughout the day. We ate sticky rice by the kilo! That was the best cyclist food we could get a hold on. I have to admit that this region of the world is a real paradise for cyclists who like serious climbs and mindblowing descents, in a fantastic scenery without much cars. The people are also very enthusiastic about seeing cyclist falangs (strangers) and children rush towards us shouting "sabai di" as we cycle through their villages, often a handful of bamboo huts with farm animals running around.
It is one of Asia's poorest country and children, especially, are not always healthy-looking, mostly from food deprivation. The mountains offer little space to grow anything and they can seldom rely on fishing for protein. Often, children would use slingshots to kill wild birds or wander around in the woods to grab anything crawling on the ground. Thay also have no toys, a couple of times, I made a distribution of colorful origami birds, it's easy to make and doesn't take much space in my luggage. And the children looked very pleased.
Laos has very interesting sights, the Plain of Jars being one of them. Located in Phonsavan, this site is very misterious, huge granite jars have been carved in the middle of nowhere and their use has not been quite understood yet. Some archeologists think they were used as burrial containers, some other believe it was used to make rice wine (!). Going down south towards Vientiane, we stopped in Vang Vieng, a very weird touristic place where young foreiners get hammered while drifting on the river on tubes. They also sip down marijuana shakes while watching numerous episodes of Friends, looking like brainwashed zoombies. It was a pityful sight.
The markets, on the other hand, were absolutely surprising, we saw things there that we never thought of eating.
-baby birds
-flying squirrels
-water rats
-dried rats
-white worms
-bats
-eggs with embryos
-cat stew
I was too effraid to get overweight so I did try any of them. My brother Alexis however, would certainly be delighted to try them all.
We are now half way through this whole bicycle adventure, here are some numbers:
4200km cycled
43 days of cycling
Tire punctures:
Jean:4
Francoise:0
Falls:
Jean:1
Francoise:1
(with minor scratch and cuts)
Longest day: 140km in the mountains (8 hours on the saddle)
Shortest day: 32km (3 hours in rain and steep climbs, we called it a day)
We have decided to follow the mighty Mekong down to Cambodia and visit its southern Vietnamese delta before going back up north. So far, cycling has been a lot of good fun and we don't envy backpackers at all! I think we are now condemned to travel this way for the rest of our lives! Which feels great!
Speak to you next time!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Le Laos de chien (joke de Jean)
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!
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 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
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