Project:Bike: Watching as the wheels come off

Greetings and a happy 2009 to all!

After realising I hadn't written for so long when I wrote the last blog an early New Years Resolution was to get more writing done - unfortunately that ended up coinciding with a 2 week lay-off from cycling (but we'll come to that in a bit) so here we are, 1 month down the line and finally the next blog is here!

But where were we last? Ah yes, Kunming - a strange place for a Chinese city; clean, relatively quiet, friendly and multi-cultural - like none of the other places I'd seen in China and for once I was meeting local people who spoke English and weren't trying to sell me things.

This was great for me as I finally got the opportunity to pick the locals brains on certain issues and as over the journey I've perfected the art of getting people to talk about their local communinites and issues without giving too many of my own opinions away I was able to find out what the young people I was sharing the Hostel with thought of their country and of the current situation in China.

I have to admit I was slightly surprised by the ecclectic mix of responses I got but a few things stood out more than other and the three main topics people wanted to talk about were:

1) Learning English - Why do Chinese people want to learn English? Based on the people I spoke to it was so they could leave China. Why did they want to leave China?

2) Parents - Thanks to the 'One-child' policy that used to be in place you have a fair few who are desperate to escape the view of their parents. I met people who had been told they couldn't visit certain countries, wouldn't be allowed to go on 'dangerous' cycling trips and some people who were still having to call home at certain times of the day to let their parents know where they were, even though they were into their 20's.

3) Tibet - Now here is the one people love to talk to about. 'China deserves so much credit for what we have done there', 'Without us Tibet would be nothing', 'For what the Chinese have done in Tibet, we are heroes' and 'You shouldn't shop at Carrefour because of what Sarkozy said about Tibet'.

You get sick of it very, very quickly.

Nationalism is ingrained into people in China from such a young age (anyone who disagrees only needs to look at a Chinese school and see the massive murals of military personnel saluting the Chinese flag towering over every set of school gates) and it was dissapointing to see that the Chinese Propoganda machine had seemingly had such a high success rate in the average people I met in China.

I foolishly did try to offer an alternative (ie a Tibetan) point of view on the whole situation and it took all of 2 seconds to realise this mistake and I decided it was best not to get involved in a discussion with people who's minds were largely closed and instead I got back to my plans for the ride to the Laos border.

I'd heard a lot about the hills of Yunnan but I thought it would be simple enough - I'd taken on the sandy deserts and the snow-capped mountains so how hard could a few hills be? Well it turns out very, very hard and after 6 days of covering barely 40 miles each day I was still 4 days away from the border and it's here we need to travel back through time to the last blog and talk about the chain tool.

One of the less glamorous places I've stayed

A chain tool is a small tool which takes out links of a chain, enabling you to swap chains etc. The chain tool I had left home with had broken in Chengdu. The problems I had had previously were because I didn't have a chain tool with me. Therefore you'd think the common sense thing to do in Kunming at a bike shop would be to buy a new chain tool, yes?

It would be hard to disagree with that logic, however I knew that in Vientiane I had a package waiting for me which had in it a brand spanking new chain tool and after looking at the meagre ammount of money I had in my wallet, the cost of the repairs I had already had to have done, the likelihood of the chain breaking again and finally, the plummeting pound (the exchange rate dropped 20% during my 3 months in China) I decided to go against splashing out on a tool I would theoretically never use.

Clever me.

Some days in cycling the world can't get any better - the sun is out, the birds are singing and even the drivers don't seem to be aiming for you as much as usual. My sixth day out of Kunming was one of those days, and then in the space of 5 minutes my front gear mech fell apart, my chain snapped and I nearly broke another rear derailleur.

When researching quotes for this trip I'd always liked the one of "It's scary when there's no-one else to blame" and as I walked the 3km uphill to the next town this was ringing in my ears, only with the word 'scary' replaced by 'frustrating'.

Once there I was lucky enough to find a local mechanic who managed to put the link back together using a hammer and chisel but I knew it wouldn't hold and I was now treading on eggshells until I got to Laos.

After this I'd realised how desperate I was to leave China as I hadn't stopped to talk or get a photo with the guy who'd fixed the chain and I'd left without saying much more than thank you - I was now very, very ready to leave China.

Elephants - renowned for drink driving

And as such, treading on my pedals as lightly as possible I was able to cycle very slowly, all day, everyday for the next 4 days and after a mountainous 140km day I finally arrived at the border town of Boten in the dark. It was getting late when I arrived, and with barely a penny to my name I spent my last night feasting on my last pack of biscuits before falling asleep in a shop doorway. It somehow seemed fitting.

The last night in China

Just like my last border crossing I was up early and the first over the border and after encountering what must be the most laid back border in the world on the Laos side (1 guard, no weapons, no blockade and your ushered through this as the part where you get your visa is 50 yards further on) I was free to enjoy what was a personally big moment from me - I was in Laos! That's Laos - In South Asia!

It took a minute to settle in that when I'd planned my original trip that SE Asia was pretty much the end point - and here I was - it felt good but at the same time I was very happy I'd decided not to stop here!

And then I was off into Laos and all I can say is wow - what a difference, the place is amazing! The contrast to China in just the 10 miles over the border was mind boggling. People no longer stood at the side of the road shouting 'foreigner' at me, instead they were waving! Shouts of 'Sabaiiiiiiiideeeeeeeeeeee' (hello) came from all around, people took an interest in the bike and in turn I got the pleasure of their company. Children no longer stood dumbstruck at the sight of foreign man with a different colour skin, instead they were all running after waving and lining up for rows of 'high fives' as I sailed through their villages!

The carnival atmosphere stayed throughout all the little villages as over the next 2 days it seemed you couldn't pass through a small town without seeing another gathering somewhere or other - however it wasn't just the locals that were different, I was meeting other cyclists too! Laos is full of them - on my first night in the country I met The Velomads in Oudomxai, with them even helping me find a great place to camp outside the local monastery and I've lost count of the number I've met since then.

Some of the better Laos sleeping spots

However back to the ride and the one thing Laos was not is flat, and on my 3rd day in the country the inevitable happened. The broken link was put under to much strain again and this time it wasn't just the link that snapped.

The link snapped, went into my derailleur, which in turn went into the spokes, which in turn ripped my hub apart. Woops!

It had happened 110 km north of Luang Prabang and I was now left with no choice than to hop on a Sawngthaew to get there. I didn't find what I was looking for there (although I did bump into Matt and Mary again, a couple I'd met in Kazakhstan) so after a couple of days rest I had to hop on to a night bus to Vientiane, only to find that the only shop selling good quality components was closed for the next 5 days due to the Laos national games! Great!

After a 5 day wait I was able to get the bike road worthy again, only the hub couldn't be replaced as one had to be ordered in from Bangkok, and with that I asked the guy to order one in and hopped on a bus back to where I'd left my luggage in Luang Prabang.

It just so happened that this had co-incided with Christmas Eve and with the inevitable delays I then arrived back in Luang Prabang at 11.45 pm and I then woke up at 7 am Christmas morning - in a bus station!

Christmas Dinner

A fairly quiet Christmas which mainly consisted of continuing my Cornetto-Beer diet came and went and the day after Boxing Day I was back on the road - taking 2 days to cycle the 110km back to where my bike had broken, and then the 110km back to Luang Prabang (This more than made up for the small cheat section in China!) and then it was on towards Vang Vieng for new years.

After 2 frustrating weeks off the bike it felt good to be back riding again, and on the 29th of December, exactly 8 months to the day since leaving home I had the satisfaction of watching my odometer hit 10,000 miles and in turn, my high spiritis hammered back in to place with 3 different climbs of 16km, 20km and 18 km as I slaved my way towards the New Years I deserved.

Vang Vieng is a place that had been slated by pretty much everyone I met: A hole full of people who had flown half-way around the world to get as drunk as possible and sit in a bar all day watching Friends.

Any other time I really wouldn't have gone, but arriving at 6 o'clock on New Years Eve when I hadn't had a proper night out as such since my first day in Kazakhstan I was ready! The night came and went (I think) and on the 1st of January 2009 I woke up, decided not to cycle and spent the next 8 hours in a bar watching Family Guy.

I hadn't had a hangover in nearly 5 months, I hadn't had a proper cheeseburger in longer - I felt I'd earned the veg-out day but I have to be honest, I couldn't have stayed for longer - it really isn't a nice place to travel (and it's depressing that at the age of 22 you see people getting wasted in the street and think 'I'm too old for this') so the next day I moved on and coasted the 150km to Vientiane - which is where I'm writing from now!

So there we have it - welcome to 2009! I promise to try to keep the blog a bit more up to date over the next year (and I've set a target of £5,000 to raise by the end of the year so any help with that is appreciated!) and also thanks to my Bulgarian friends I've also got a shiny new website on the way (with more and better pics too) - so please keep reading and keep the e-mails coming in as I'm enjoying the ones I've got so far!

Ok, signing off now so a happy new year to all - here's hoping the best of last year is the worst of this.

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