Ride 5-9, to Kaili the long way

Ride 5, Zhaoxing - Congjiang

After a couple of days rest at Zhaoxing I was ready to continue cycling. Congjiang was only 50km away, so it would be an easy day. This was the first day with a cool morning. Before it was always around 26-30 degrees, but now it was only 16-18 degrees… almost cold. But I couldn’t bring too many clothes as I have limited space in my bags, so I only brought 1 pair of pants and 1 jacket, no sweaters or anything else with long sleeves as I thought it would stay warm for a long time.

So I started cycling with my cycling shorts and a t-shirt, but luckily because of the cycling I was feeling warm in no time. For the first kilometers the road condition was very bad. Holes everywhere and a lot of dust. I think this was because there were lots of trucks everywhere and they were moving rocks and gravel to somewhere. Anyway a bit later I saw an entrance to a highway and although I can’t cycle there, the road next to it was much better.

After a while I saw a car wreck next to the road, it looked really bad, so I parked my bike and walked over to the wreck to take a photo, but then I heard a bang and looked back…. the wind had blown over my bike and as I had parked it on the edge of the road it had fallen into the ditch next to it… crap! I ran over to pick it up, but it was too heavy with the bags attached to it, so I removed my bags and pick up my bike. Luckily nothing was broken as it fell perfectly upside down (see photo).

A bit later I got my first bit of rain while cycling. First I thought it was just a little, but when it kept raining I quickly put on my rain cape and continued cycling. After about half an hour I stopped to eat a second breakfast (these days I get hungry really quickly after eating some noodles for breakfast) and when I was finished the rain had stopped luckily.

Early afternoon I arrived at Congjiang and I quickly noticed that this was a very boring city. There’s really nothing to do, except for a lot of K-tv’s, but next to here is Basha which should be a nice town to visit. So I went there the next day, only Basha is built on top of a mountain. It was about a 9km drive, but without joking, the whole 9km was uphill… there really was no end to it!

When I entered Basha of course there was the ticket office (as it’s quite touristy), so I asked the girl if I had to buy a ticket. She looked at me and asked where I was from… “Hélán” (Holland). Then she looked at me again and told me I could enter without buying a ticket, sweet! I guess they only charge the package tourists and not some crazy guy who just cycled all the way up the mountain ;)

Basha was nice, but as it’s very touristy it just didn’t feel the same as the villages I had visited near Zhaoxing. I did meet a group of old Chinese tourists who were from Daili. They were amazed that I cycled here from Yangshuo and in no time I had five SLR cameras with zoom lenses pointed at me.

In the evening I wanted to go out for dinner, but when I walked by the reception the girl asked if I’d eaten yet. I said I was going now, so she asked me if I’d wanted to join them… yes, why not. So a little later I joined them for dinner and we talked a little about where I’d been. And of course with dinner there has to be alcohol, so the owner poured me a glass of baijiu (rice wine, about 50%). After 1 glass I told him I shouldn’t drink much more as I had a long way to go the next day, but he insisted to finish the half full bottle, so ok… then after we had finished it he said he had two more beers, but that would really be too much, so I thanked him, but friendly refused.

Ride 6, Congjiang – Bakai

Kaili is about 210km away from Congjiang, so I knew I could never do all this in one day. Therefore I had planned to cycle as much as possible the first day and then I would see how long it would take to do the rest. And I should be able to cycle a lot the first day as there were no big mountains according to the internet. While cycling this seemed true, but… the road condition was terrible!! I cycled 105km the first day, but I think at least 90km of the road was really really bad. Holes and loose rocks everywhere and when I finally had a little speed from going down a slope I had to brake again as over the whole width of the road were loose rocks and holes. Sometimes I thought it would improve, but nope…

Then early afternoon I suddenly saw some cyclists who were cycling in the opposite direction. So when we met I stopped and they did too. It was a group of about 11 Chinese and they had started in Kaili a few days ago and were on the way to Congjiang, Sanjiang and Guilin… haha, I had just come from that way. It was really nice to see some other cyclists and I could even speak a little bit of English with them. After talking and taking some photo’s together we all took off again.

At around 2 o’clock I arrived at Rongjiang which is a big city, but I didn’t stop here as I had “only” done 80km and I really hoped to do at least 100km. So I continued and as there were no road signs I asked around which way I should take towards Kaili and everyone I asked was really friendly and pointed me in the right direction (at least, so I thought). At that moment I thought I really didn’t need a map anymore as most of the time the way is very easy as I just follow the one big road and in a city, people can point me in the right direction.

After about 100km it was just after 4 o’clock, so I said to myself the next town that is bigger than 20 houses I’ll ask around if there’s a small hotel available. And already in the distance I saw a town, that seemed bigger than the ones I had passed through earlier, so when I arrived I asked the first person I saw if there was a hotel and I couldn’t believe it, but the answer was “yes”!!

A few minutes later I had found the hotel, so I got a room, which was really simple and with a wooden bed, and besides that the bed was made of wood, so was the “mattress”. I have come across this more often and normally when sleeping in such a hard bed I would wake up every few hours being sore and then turn around a fall asleep again. But luckily this time there were two beds in the room, so I used the blanket from the other bed as a mattress, which made it soft enough to have a great sleep that night.

Ride 7, Bakai - Sandu

The next day I continued on the same road and it was still very bad. At one point I even fell of my bike, although I was able to jump off before it hit the ground, so I didn’t hurt myself.

These days I also met lots of local people in their traditional clothes. Especially the women still wear it and all minorities have their own colorful clothes which look very nice. I also still meet many children and now and then they run along, so I cycle a bit slower so they can keep up with me, very fun.

At the end of the day I had done about 85km and I had arrived in a semi-big city, Sandu, so I decided to stay here for the night. While I was in my room I checked where I actually was, as I was still cycling without a map, and I noticed I had taken a wrong turn somewhere. I was still going towards Kaili, but more around it instead of going straight to it.

Anyway, from here it was about another 100km to Kaili, so I wasn’t too far away. But I was feeling more and more tired, so instead of trying to get there in one day I decided to make 2 easy days out of it.

Ride 8, Sandu – Duyun

I had asked again for the road towards Kaili and several people pointed in the same direction, so I followed that road. It went up a mountain, but at one point I didn’t have a great feeling about it as I saw a big highway getting closer and closer and I knew bicycles can’t cycle there. But I still had hopes that there would be another road parallel to it as I saw some motorbikes coming down and they are also not allowed on the highway.

After a long climb I was finally at the top, but…. only one road was there, the highway! Oh crap… well, I didn’t want to turn back, so I cycled up to the tollbooth and I told the guy I wanted to go to Kaili. He said many things, but I didn’t understand any of it. So I said “ting bu dong” (I don’t understand). So he started to talk to the girl in the other booth and then he talked with me again, but I still didn’t understand him. And then he said “qu qu” (go go) and smiled to me. I thanked him and cycled onto the highway… wow, that’s the first time ever!

The road is really good, so I felt great and was hoping to maybe reach Kaili this same day. But this changed quickly, because the highway was high above the ground, so there was a lot of wind, but it came from the front, so it was actually quite difficult to keep a good pace.

Luckily there were many tunnels, about 6 I think, and in there was no wind, so I could cycle much faster. But as this was only 10km altogether the biggest part of the ride was really really tough. An extra problem was that I hadn’t brought much food, because normally I cycle through many villages where I could always buy some snacks or noodles, but they are not there on the highway!

After a while I saw a gas station ahead, but when I arrived there it was still being built and not yet open. So I finished my only food; two bananas and a mandarin and hoped there would be another gas station or exit very soon.

Then after about 40km I was feeling really exhausted, so I decided I would stop at the next exit. And a little further there was an exit, so I drove off the highway and waved goodbye to the toll booth. But I decided to ask the person there if there was a hotel nearby. He told me there wasn’t, but that at the next exit (15km away) there would be, so although I didn’t want to I cycled back onto the highway and thought “come on, 15km is just another hour, so that’s not too much”.

Well 15km further I indeed saw a big town coming closer, but when I arrived there I couldn’t find an exit. I was able to change to another road on the highway, which I hope had an exit, but no… so I continued cycling past this town and another 15km further I saw another city where luckily I was able to exit the highway, but before I did I saw a gas station and a little restaurant, so I quickly went there to eat some fried rice as I was starving! After that I was able to find a hotel without too much hassle. So at the end of the day instead of the 40-50km I hoped to do I had cycled another 70km with terrible wind and a lot of uphill cycling, what a day… but I did learn that a human body can do so much more than you think you can, as long as you keep going and don’t give up.

Ride 9, Duyun – Kaili

When looking at the map, again I noticed the highway didn’t go straight to Kaili. So again I had cycled sort of around Kaili, but although all the extra kilometers I was now finally in reach of Kaili. The easiest would be to enter the highway again and as I didn’t want to search for a local road next to the highway I just got on it again. Luckily the wind was much less today, so it was a bit easier than the day before.

I knew the road would be pretty much straight forward. First about 30km cycling straight and then there would be an intersection where I turned right. From there I cycled another 15km to Maijiang and behind that city would be Kaili. I hoped it would be very close, but when I got there the sign said another 18km… oh well, at least I was almost there now, so just keep going!

At one point I saw a flat tire laying on the middle of the highway and as I was getting closer to it I thought “shall I do a good deed? No, yes, hmmm, ok let’s do it!” So I parked my bike against the railing and looked back. Two cars were getting closer, but they were still far away, so I ran onto the highway and grabbed the big tire to pull it to the side. But it was much heavier than I thought, so I lost my grip and the tire slipped away from my hands. In the mean time the cars were getting closer and closer, so I quickly picked up the tire again and pulled it to the side. Luckily the two cars had slowed down and as they passed one of them horned to me and gave me a thumbs up… which gave me a very nice feeling! So although I wasn’t allowed to cycle on the highway, at least I did something in return ;).

It’s actually funny that although it’s not allowed to cycle along the highway, lots of police cars drove by, but none of them stopped to talk to me. Also the people at the tollbooth didn’t care much. As said the first day I asked to enter and it was ok, but the second day I just cycled past the tollbooth and no one said anything. Even when I left the highway the people in the booth gave me a smile or looked a bit surprised :).

And then finally, 4 days after leaving Congjiang I had arrived in Kaili. It was supposed to be 210km, but I actually cycled 330km in 4 days straight. I was really exhausted, but still had to find a hotel and unfortunately Kaili is not really suitable for bicycles as it’s built on a hill. The hostel I wanted to go to I couldn’t find, but luckily there was a tourist information nearby and they recommended me another hostel which was very near and also the cheapest in town, just 45 RMB for a dorm room.

I stayed in the hostel for a little while as I needed the rest, but Kaili is also very nice. Although there’s not lots to do in the city itself, it has lots of nice street food. During the day there are many noodle stalls and other small shops with a lot of different kinds of food. But in the evening many more street vendors come that sell a lot of kebabs or other barbecued meat and vegetables. Really delicious and so far I’ve eaten something different every day. They even sell fries on the street, but here it’s not with mayonnaise or ketchup, but with chilies, still very nice though and fun to eat it with chopsticks.

During my stay in Kaili Coco’s father visited me as he’s from Guizhou and had planned to visit his sister. He also studied here in Kaili when he was young. We joined a nice lunch (hot pot) with some of his old students and in the evening even more of his old students came and we had a very big dinner with in total 14 people. After dinner we went to K-tv and of course I sang a few songs in English, which I’m slowly getting better at.

As usual, here are the links to the rides I did:
Zhaoxing – Congjiang: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/50765706
Congjiang – Bakai: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51567252
Bakai – Sandu: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51568198
Sandu – Duyun: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/51896116
Duyun – Kaili: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/52168438