Having a great time in Kaiyuan, treated like a Hollywood star by people here. Henry gifted his pedals, high quality expensive & wouldn't accept any payment. In awe, incredibly generous. Going to rest up and enjoy this place for a few days.

Great ride here, a big climb, running out of daylight maybe gonna camp rough, then a huge downhill appears from nowhere, payback time, and coasted smugly into town. Friendly bike shop, fellow enthusiasts and an English speaking doctor, guided me to a good hotel, noddles & beer evening dinner together. They were keen to help in the quest for quality hard-wearing bike pedals, the next day, I was guided to different shops with no success, until Henry gifted his own pedals, removing them from his pride & joy bike and swapping them to mine. I was going to bus it to Kunming to buy some, no need, so staying here a while.

School Teacher

Next, I met the local English school teacher & invited to give a talk to his students. They enjoyed having a native English speaker, as there are few foreigners, I was treated like a Hollywood star, no effort required on my part, just enthusiasm. Meeting students & teachers was fabulous, recounting humorous travel experiences & laughing. Questions and answers session, quite shy coming forward with their English, giggles, rewarding when they realise their spoken English is working.

Then a student asked if we could pose for a photo together, then the whole class wanted one, a huge rush, mayhem, posing, arms around each other, bla bla bla, tremendous fun. Life as a model, an experience. Took so many photos, their cameras & mine. The next request was to buy souvenior one dollar notes, and again, the students were real pleased to get one, so I exchanged about 30 and ended up with a fist full of Chinese small currency. Normally, would have kept my dollars, but the students were so keen and people here have been good to me. Pretty frantic too, handing out 1 dollar notes, and the Chinese cash equivalent thrust into my overflowing hands. Then it was off for dinner with the English teachers, Larry, Rita & Queen, where I learnt how hard they worked, 6 and half days a week, holidays being a chance to catch up on sleep. Wish they had the same travel/spare-time opportunities as us westerners.

Joined the local band in their superb den of rock, a penthouse shack; electric guitars, bass, drums, all the gear, so we jammed along to "Hotel California", followed by the loud stuff, ye hah. They played some local Chinese music, very good. Interviewed by Kaiyang TV and press, so including Xian, that's 30 minutes of fame altogether. Ma's brother was getting married, and we attended the evening meal, friendly, they fed & gave me beer, many people wanted to down a drink with me, and I ended up quite merry, then off for pool/snooker where I kept rushing to lavatory, and finally a late night BBQ. Exhausted, four of us crashed out in my hotel room.

The Doctor had some business in Mengzi, so we made a day trip, sparkly new town/city, lots of investment, aerobics in the park, performers practising for upcoming holiday celebrations, great place to live and a classic over the bridge noodle soup. Met an English teacher supervising a large group of students, when she translated that I'd cycled from England, everyone cheered spontaneously, gosh the star treatment, blush. The taxi driver drove through a field bypassing the toll-gate, cool, paying the field owner a fraction of the price. Interestingly some commemorative rail tracks, a left over from the French, when they were attempting to build a rail line from Vietnam to here.

Kaiyuang has been the best locals experience so far. Jump in, go with the flow, see where the river goes, accept invitations. Good feeling about this place, they enjoyed my company too, everyone happy. An excellent place to teach English for 6 months, but alas, I'm on bike quest. Been so good, I've stayed longer than planned, thanks to:- Ma Haonan who guided me everywhere, Henry Cai for donating his pedals, Larry the school teacher, Zhang Xin the doctor with his superb English and interesting conversation, and everyone else!

On the Road Again

A relaxing ride to Jianshui, then a minor lake-side track through small villages, working the land and coal fired industry, blacksmiths... Mounds of coal outside each house, the smell hanging in the air for miles, an interesting aroma when mixed with morning dew. Probably England was like this 100 years ago.

Then I came across Boris, a fellow cycle tourer from Slovenia, who'd set off for a small tour of the Balkans, but ended up after 16,000km. Carrying amazingly little luggage, no spares & no worries, good approach. His original bike was run over by a reversing truck in Tibet, having to divert to Kunming to purchase a replacement. Joining forces for now, easy going relaxed dude, even more lazier than me in the mornings, and a good rider.

Mountainous here, the passes are long, so its 20/30km UP and 20/30km DOWN, then repeat again... Usual fantastic scenery and rice terraces, I've seen so much rice cultivation over the years of travel and never tire of it, collecting/harvesting/planting, buffaloes wallowing in the mud, outlying villages, it's a way of life, hard maybe, looks so healthy/natural compared to the cities.

More of a SE Asia feeling now, ethnic people/villages, being on the fringes of China nearer the borders with Vietnam/Laos/Burma. We have 400/500km to cycle to the Laos border, and no hurry, we'll enjoy the last days of China before hitting SE-Asia proper. The town of Mojiang had a tropic of cancer tourist kinda theme. Estimate that I've crossed the Tropic of Cancer 5 times on this trip.

Plenty of roadside accommodation between the towns/villages, convenient places to finish a days ride, rural/streams in the mountains (there are no flat roads), and a decent meal. We're using the old A-road, quiet and rural, little traffic because of the modern express-way a few kilometres away & following our route.

The express-way slices through the landscape like a knife through butter, a toll road with entry/exits every 20km or so. Amazing construction, much easier for the lorries/cars as it's all engineered in straight lines, gradual long uphills and downhills. Not good news for the locals as there's less passing business; truckers accommodation, beverages, mechanic shops to fix things from the bumpy road. The inevitable drift of people to the cities, that's modern life for you. Tempted by a 'short-cut', we got through the barbed wire fence and onto the express-way. Turned out to be a steep 30km uphill, the old road could have been easier. Then back to the old roads following mountain contours, forever winding left/right, switchbacks, crossing streams, going through the villages etc...

Feet up in Simao

Now in Simao, possibly the birthplace of tea, another notch in the travellers belt. Simao is located in southern Yunnan Province and is home to a dazzling array of diverse ethnic groups and is covered by forest for over a third of its area. Situated just below the Tropic of Cancer, and ranging over 1000 meters in altitude difference, Simao is one of East Asia's richest biodiversity hotspots. Experts believe that tea was first cultivated here, and enormous tea fields cover the hilltops in the shadows of vast primeval forest. As a major nexus along the Ancient Tea Route, Simao served as a meeting point for the cultures of Asia, and a conduit for the exchange of cultural knowledge. Note, there was an earthquake here recently.

Just come back from the town square, where there's folk music and dance every evening, kinda in a big circle, men/women/young/old, arms around shoulders or holding hands, anyone can join in or if you're shy you can watch & stroll around. All the men sing, then its all the women, very cute. Looks innocent, something we lost in the west, and it's fab watching local people relaxing and enjoying themselves. We ate our food on the move, from the many food stalls at the market, roast/fried potatoes on a stick, skewers of this/that.

All the Tea in China

Good ride to Mengyuang, downhill most of the way, 25km of banana trees each side of the road going off into the distance. Obviously a major banana region here, we bought 2kgs yesterday for $0.40 (or 20p in England). Big downhill to Mengyuang, an easy 130km and huge quantitys of tea, all the hills you can see having pruned tea bushes, very distinctive.

Avoiding the traffic, we took the unopened express-way, why not? It's more adventurous, 3 velvet smooth lanes to ourselves, zooming up and down the hills, a 3 km tunnel still under construction, greeting bemused construction workers. When the express-way changed direction, we didn't care, ending up in Jinghong, then using minor roads to make amends. A real bonus, because we rode half a day along the banks of the Mekong River, one of my favourite things, wonderful to see this far North, this river winds lazily through the heart of SE Asia, many fabulous roads & towns along its banks.

New stuff: pineapple plantations, rubber tapping & coconuts, I guess, because we've dropped height from the Yunnan Plateau, thus the climates changed. Vegetation is more tropical, and people more Lao/Thai, with women in colourful silk dresses & houses on stilts. Then we met a French/Ukrainian couple on honeymoon, cycling on a tandem toward Laos, so joined them for a while, ending up in Menglun. Boris is a relaxed dude, like myself, no worries, we'll always find somewhere to stay along the road, where-ever we end up, plus we have our tents.

Gang of Four

Mengla and only 60km to the Laos border tomorrow. Fabulous lunch stop today, we over indulged ourselves, sharing 6 dishes, and with Chinese food, the more the merrier as you share. Hard doing an uphill pass after lunch, he he he, an easy going day in others company, no hurries. In fact it looked quite hard for Romain and Natasha on their tandem bike, perhaps it's a little worn out, creak creak. Laos is very popular amongst cycle tourists, expect we're going to come across a few later. Everyone burst into hysterics when some yappy dog run after me and attacked/bit my rear cycle bags, even the truck driver coming the other way hung out the cab laughing.