Gerd Mueller - GLOBAL CYCLING

As we had to wait for our visa extension we had time to call the past. When we first crossed the border in November last year, it was so impressing. What a huge country ! Big streets, buildings and promotion.

And our second time in China, especially in Kashgar, this is only a small „village“. In Chengdu we noticed dozens of living advertiser in inflatable costumes, who jamed the streets. Never-ending construction sites, where workers crossed big gorges by small chain bridges; no safety measures at all. Well, people here are more „consumable material“.

Then between the skyscrapers multi-lane streets over three levels.

But there exist awsome places in China. Unfortunetly they are „scenic points“ and tourists come in swarms by busses. Then they get an entertainment-program like in Disneyworld. Dancing performances, quad-biking, paragliding.souvenir shops. You will not find old restored houses. During the cultural revolution many building were destroyed. And this is still the current policy.

The best time for us was traveling as backpackers. By bus or train to the scenic points and no view to the monster constructions sites, bad roads and the very poor people on the countrysite.

China is not any more the country of the cyclists. A booming economy with an increasing gap between poor and rich. If you are rich you must have a SUV´s or , if not so rich, even a scooter. Making money is the religion, every day.

By the way : currently the Chinese prime minister Li is in Germany. with his delegation he is on "shopping tour" to buy German companies with their know how. will become funny, if next week Mercedes Benz and Siemens belongs to a Chinese company ;-)

But we were highly surprised about the extreme friendly people ! Soldiers, policemen, trucker, in the cities... no reason to complain ! And most of them have a funny kind of humor.

And the food: most of the time very yummy. but no chicken feet ;-)

But it is enough for us. We want to go as fast as possible to Laos. In Kunming we met Albi from Switzerland and Koldo and Ainhan from Basque. Albi is a long-time globetrotter and Koldo and Ainhan are cyclists. They told us about the roads to the south and we decided to take the bus by a night ride to Jinghong, which is still in China. The buses are not good for tall people . I am only 186 cm, but I am too tall for all the public transport in Central Asia or China. Most of the time it is a torture for me.

The last 200 km we were back on the bikes again. due to the increasing temperatures and humidity it is important that our bodies should be trained.

Well in Jinghong, we met Albi again ! He is such a sympathic person with a huge experience about traveling.

Jinghong is much more beautiful than Kunming, but these bloody scenic spots exist, too . We avoided to visit any of them. 15 Eur per each person for artificial bullsh... is wasting money.

within 3 days we cycled from Jinghong to Mengla. We had a campsite in a caoutchouc plantation and in the early morning, the farmer came to cut the trees. Very impressing !

Then we cycled on a new road, along many banana plantations, through an insane number of tunnels, to Mo Han, the last village in China. I fullfilled my 7000 km on the bike.

On May 13^th, we crossed in Boten the border to Laos, our 14^th country. Well, we are really excited :-)

we did not taste it :-)

painful massage.... Autsch !

Koldo and Ainhain, now good friends !

German Vollkornbrot , so yummy !

Koldo and Ainhan with much less luggage ;-)

highways in the cities

slepper bus, but the bed too short for me .

Jinghong

chicken feet , never tasted it !

Jinghong

Temple in Jinghong, like Disney World

Albi from Basel, so great to know him !

rice terraces

stone forest

rest in the heat .

market at the highway

caoutchouc

camping in the caoutchouc plantation

rare trees, because there are now only mono cultures

so exhausting to cycle through twenty tunnels

brakes of the trucks are water-cooled !

Fong, we met him in Kunming . now on the road again !

no trip for sissies ;-)

we waited for the German "TÜV", testing the bridge ;-)

Günter, our mascot, always happy :-)

"Disney-World" in China

permanent surveillance

Kunming

In Kashgar, which is quite close to the Kyrgyz border, we started our second time China as common backpackers. Now it was time to sit on the bicycle again. In Leishan we had the first visa extension and now cycling again. What big pleasure ! We took the shortest route to Kunming, which lead us along the edge of the Tibetan Highlands.

We have not been sitting on the bikes for quite five months (for Astrid „only“ four months, I had the food poisoning in November, so one month longer for me) and therefore we planned the stages cautiously.

Due to the monitoring and censorship of the internet in China we were dependend on our paper maps, which was unexact and had many mistakes regarding the elevation. Since the third day from Chengdu, it was permanently going uphill. From 433m altitude up to over 3.000 altitude. Every day it was raining for several hours or even the whole day. At 2400m it began to snow very strong. After the winter in Bishkek without any sports this climate and the tough tracks exhausted me extremely.

Back on the road again, we had the impression that whole China is a big construction area. New streets, villages tunnels, powerstations, all over trucks transporting sand, stones, gravel, machines, cranes.... absolutely insane. So much noise, dust, exhaust gases. Streets and tracks with big potholes. Especially the horns of the trucks were a desaster. They are so loud, sometimes we used ear plugs.

Well, from a Chinese girl we know the reason for the big constructions. China has 8-years-plans. Due to the Olympic games in 2008 all constructions had to stop for Beijing. Now they have to hurry to fulfil the plan.

All this was a big torture for us. When we changed the big road to a smaller one, we were very glad. It was still raining and always uphill, but the landscape was gorgeous. And the people there were very interesting.

We are convinced that at some places there have never been Europeans before. People were highly astonished about us, the children feared us first.

The people were very small. Even the men were smaller than Astrid. Many of them wore traditional clothes with amazing headdress. Men wore a kind of a turban , women a long plait fixing a pillow on their head. Both groups wore most of the time capes. We have not taken many photos because they were quite shy.

After some days of permanent rain a group of women, sitting in front of a small shop, invites to join them at their campfire. We were chilled to the bones and we highly appreciated this offer.

They offered us a bed in the small shop and we got delicious food at the house of our host. Her name was Tschinjomatsi. After dinner she gave us some hot water to wash our faces. What a luxury in this wet and cold region !

The next day we cycled up to the snowline. First it was still asphalt, than it changed to gravelled road with many potholes and it became more and more impossible to cycle or even to push the bike. Fog, torrents of water and damp snow gave us the rest. It was 4 pm and it was important to reach the summit and the next village. There was no possibility to rest or camp. On 2800m a pickup stopped and Jacko asked us, if we would like to load our bikes and luggage . Fortunetly on this day we arrived in Meigu and Jacko took us to a hotel. Many hotels in China are not allowed to host foreigners so he booked the room on his name.

We stayed there for four days, I was really groggy and had to relax myself. Well, honestly, I am 45 years old and I have a very good endurance and power, but I need more time to relax than younger people. That´s life :-)

We took the chance to change our plans to cycle to Kunming. No more higher mountains.

We cycled along a river, which lead to the river Yangtze. Most of the time we had very bad tracks with ankle deep mud, but a very beautiful canyon with dripstones. Coming closer to the Yangtze, we noticed more and more construction sites: barracks, trucks, cable cars, walls, bridges, dust, dirt, blasting operations, hours-long closed roads.

By accident we cycled directly into the 3-Gorges-Project ! Well there were soldiers who did not allowed us to cycle through the project. They were very friendly but we had to take a small truck to take us through the coming reservoir.

Then we had a marvellous landscape, 35 degrees, banana plants.... within a few days from snow to heat. :-)

It started again going uphill. 20 kilometers. I became more and more exhausted. A tribute to the last two weeks. No more power in my legs. On April 20^th we arrived in a small village. We had some rice in a restaurant and we watched the news on TV. An earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter-scale, happened only 200km far away. We got some SMS from our friends and relatives, but we were absolutely O.K.

We booked a room, and the next day, I was still without any power, including diarrhea. The deadline for visa extension came closer and closer, so we took the chance to take the bus to Kunming. 8,5 hours of a horror-trip. The seats to small for me and even for Astrid, a passenger in front of us permanently vomiting. The journey was a real torture. When we arrived in Kunming, we had to cycle 16 km to the hostel, then we had to take our luggage on the 3^rd floor and this with only one Coke and some cookies during the whole day. Nothing for sissies :-)

Now we can relax in the hostel and due to public holidays we have to wait for our visa until May 6^th.

By the way: in the unknown village we got an invitation from the hotel owners for dinner. The nightmare for a vegetarian as Astrid came true. Chicken feet in a soup..... Chinese like to eat chicken feet in all variety. Fried, cooked, with chili..... it is not my gusto, too :-)