Fukuoka to Yame County - 85km

Wow. What an amazing ride. It was a very cold , bleak morning in Fukuoka, and it wasnt for 65km that I broke out of the burbs.  I decided to completely wing it as far as the route, so I was choosing quiet back roads at random from the mapple to avoid the busy highways, that are often without a safe hard shoulder. The particular route I chose was very nice, and took me on a steep climb through some beautiful coniferous forests, and later that night I camped next to a river in some tiny village. For a few hours I sought refuge in a yakitori place, and warmed up with some tea and watched a few bouts of sumo. I made use of their facilties (heated toilet seats and all) before retiring to the tent, where it rained all night, and all the next morning.   

Fukuoka Japan

I got hold of some 'real' antibiotics in Fukuoka, the Dutch doctor advised me that Chinese pharmaceuticals are not always the real deal, the country being plagued with many bogus drug manufacturers. This would explain why my symptoms returned shortly after I was removed from the IV anti-biotics in the hospital. I bought some ridiculously expensive new antibiotics, disposed of the Chinese drugs, and it took me an extra few days to fully convalesce in Fukuoka. In the meantime I bought some parts and worked on the bike in the space I was given (2m square area of the arcade) near my hostel. With new bar tape and a few trimmings it was looking resplendant once more amongst the rest of the Japanese bikes.

Fukuoka very much reminded me of me Melbourne. It was quite bleak ugly by day, but at night it came to life. Obviously the Japanese people and signage provided a point of difference, but there was something very melbournesque about it. If i'd been less strapped for cash, in better health, and with some english speaking company I could have had a right good time exploring the numerous bars in the area.  Since this wasnt the case, I ate cheaply at convenience stores, photographed some of the bars, and tracked down 'Touring Mapple', that is apparently so essential for navigating in labrythine Japan. The Mapple turned up at a bookstore in Tenjin Core (A plaza near Tenjin Station). This place has a huge bookstore where you can buy basically any Japanese reading material you might require.

Shanghai

Having just spent the past 50-60 hours aboard crowded buses and trains, eating cup noodles and what I think was vaccum packaged tofu, I was elated to be in the seemingly clean and modern metropolis of Shanghai. This feeling of elation was however short-lived, and within 12 hours of my arrival I succumbed to an incredibly severe bout of food poisoning, landing me in hospital on an iv drip for 2 days. I never found out what it was, but the fallout was a missed flight, and an expensive medical check up when I finally arrived in Japan.  

Mekong River Flophouse to Somewhere before Lincang - 19km

Hoping I would be free of the quarry in around 10km, the horrible dusty conditions continued on and on, with more road blocks and stubborn construction foremen to deal with. Thankfully after another hour and half of this, some guy in a pickup stopped and motioned he could take me to Lincang. Rather generous guy, after dropping me at a hotel, he also gave me some water and didn't want any money for the ride. The bike was utterly filthy, dust covered everything, and had no doubt clagged the bearings in my old fashioned headset. I cleaned it all up as best as I could but later decided it probably wouldn't even last till Japan at this rate, so tｈｅ next day I took a sleeper bus to Kunming, with plans of  a sleeper train to Shanghai and then flight to Japan. The bicycle travel coupling was indispensible for this exercise.

Regarding the train connection, my timing couldn't have possibly been worse. It was the end of the Spring Festival, a time when most Chinese are returning home from visiting relatives. It is considered to be the largest annual human migration, with around 180million people coming and going on trains. Kunming station was like nothing I have ever dealt with before, it was so, so crowded and filthy. Thankfully the internal waiting rooms periodically emptied, and the toilets werent as dire as the outside ones, where hundreds of  familes were huddled under doonas, or lying on flattened boxes awaiting trains. These makeshift campgrounds seem to be a fallout of the crowd control system. It works such that you cant enter the enormous internal waiting areas without a valid ticket within that day, hence the campouts.

My own abrupt change of plans meant I hadn't the time to book a train ticket prior to departure, so the only tickets left were in the most expensive class. The skinflint in me didn't appreciate this at the time of purchase, but I later realised this was definately a blessing in disguise as the train was filled to capacity. The soft sleeper births were a haven of peace for what was nearly a 2 day journey.

Yongping to Mekong River Flophouse - 66km

Terrible, terrible day. Almost ruined the bike. Road was more like a quarry. They were mining rock from the steep cliffs straddling the road. I got stuck in 6 road blocks waiting for the dozers to clear piles of rubble , the worst of which held me up for two hours. I managed to negotiate through most  of the blockades by insisting I could carry my bike over the piles of rubble. One of the them was a little larger than I anticipated, and I almost slid down the sheer cliff face attempting to clamber across with my 40kg touring bike, it was so damn awkward.  Much to my relief a concerned worker ran to my aid and helped me across. Below is a sample of the road conditions you can expect while the 323 is under construction. Later in the day, whilst I neared the Mekong river huge explosions rocked the valley, just metres from where I was riding, gaping holes were being blown in the cliff face, and I was allowed to just wander on through as though it was perfectly safe. The lodgings as you cross the river are basic; dusty mosquitoe net hangs over a couple of mattresses, but there is nothing else until for at least 20km, and I was travelling at a speed of just 6-7km/h. The presence of an alsatian dog, going crazy in a cage out the front almost put me off going in. If your going this way the flophouse is the building directly next to the bridge. If you stand out the front next to the caged beast for long enough, the owner will emerge. 

Jingu to Yongping - 53km

Perfect road, but big climbs. I was climbing for around 35km in the morning, and then its mainly downhill all the way to Yongping. Yongping has internet, cheap hotels etc. Arrived early at 1pm but glad I didnt go any further as will be explained in the next installment.

Puer to Jingu - 93km

One of the hardest days Ive ever put in. Mainly due to the climbs, bad roads and it was hot all of a sudden too. Heading west to Jingu, you turn off the 213 and onto the 323, which is largely under construction. Although I was not aware of this until it was too late to pull out. Jingu wasnt too bad, there was an abundance of cheap and decent hotels, as well as very modern shops.

Simao to Puer - 70km

Leaving Simao is a real challenge, the road is quite bad in many places so there is very little traffic on the 213. Nothing much eventful happened, I communicated via SMS with the Swedes who were experiencing very bad road conditions on the 214 as well. I saw on the news that southwest China is under the grip of a prolonged drought, worse than the usual dry season and that water shortages were occuring all across the region. These girls were collecting a heavy cargo of water in their bicycle carriage for their families supply.

Dadugang to Simao - 78km

Simao is described as an uninteresting little town in the Lonely Planet, but it is anything but little. The construction boom was in full swing and there were scores of imposing new buildings throughout the town. The ride was not memorable, and I have no notes from this section so I will say it was boring. I was invited to my first Chinese feast that evening however, where I swilled copious amounts of rice spirit, beer and Puer Tea. All of them tasted the same, infact really cheap chinese beer is like water, there is so little flavour. Tsingtao was nowhere to be seen, I think that beer is actually brewed under the auspices of Europeans or people who have some idea about beer. Most of what you can buy in Yunnan was really just chemical water, Kingstar, Coolbeer, Pearl River, Dali, they were all the same. There are alot of different types, the swedes had been trying a new beer each day and agreed they are all the same.

Jinghong to Dadugang - 93km

We set off early after breakfast at the Banna cafe. They were opting to go to Dali on the 214, so I followed along, only to discover the roads were absolutely shocking. Worse than the section between Udomxay and Natuei in Lao. With my racing bike these roads were turning out to be a big problem, but for them with mountain bikes it was not so bad. I decided to turn around and go on the eastern road, the 213 and we could cross paths again in Lincang in around 5 days time where the roads are apparently better. I had to reclimb yesterdays 14km descent leaving Jinghong, and then  cycled through some lovely tea plantations for most of the day. I was also treated to the best meal in China so far, Sichuan style pork with noodles and pickled cabbage. The Sichuan peppercorns are unmistakable due their citrusy bite, and mouth numbing properties. Suprising how difficult this was to find after here, I got the mandarin for this dish off the internet but couldnt manage to order it anywhere else, but this funny little roadside cafe. Dadugang has a hotel and some other basic shops. Best way to find the hotel is to hassle all the shopkeepers along the main street. Its hidden away on the upper levels of a building behind the shops.

Menglun to Jinghong - 70km

Today wasnt terribly eventful, chatted to the swedes as we rode through the mountains. They had been planning to go into Tibet after leaving Dali, but had curtailed that idea due to its visa compliations, (land borders are currently off limits to travellers, the only way is to fly into Lhasa now) and were now hatching a plan to ride to Chengdu, with a tour through some of Chinas highest peaks - Jade Dragon and whatever the other one is called. Theyre something like 6500m, which sounded impressive so I said I would come along with them as far as I could manage. Bought some new warmer shoes in Jinghong, a footprint for the tent and some warm socks for what I anticipated as a chilly next few weeks.

Mengla to Menglun - 115 km

Hrmmm.. certain health complications arose in Mengla that I wont go into great detail about, but despite this I attempted to stave it off by eating only biscuits, and drinking water and orange cordial, which is what Chinese seem to think is fruit juice. I was still following the Xi Xiao expressway for the first part of the day, and I wouldnt recommend it mainly due to the tunnels. The first few are relatively short, but I spent thirty minutes walking through a 2-3km tunnel, and then decided I couldnt do anymore, so began looking for the old highway, the 214. Apart from the tunnels, the expressway is quite safe, its so new and flat, really a great road, and there isnt much traffic so if you dont mind trapsing around in the dark for a few hours each day, in some places it might be an option if the old roads are bad. The scenery is much nicer on the 214 in this region though, it would be no exaggeration to say it was the most beautiful area of forest I have seen on the trip so far. The 214 takes you right through the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, where apparently tigers and wild elephants still roam. Given the density of the forest I can definately believe this is possible, but its also very likely any tigers have been killed for use in Chinese medicine. * The more I found out about Chinese medicine, the more absurd some and impractical some the cures sounded. Attempting to service a population of over 1 billion with rare animal tinctures is completely crazy and wrong, yet this style of treatment is still the most widespread. I dont really have a problem with their philosophy of balancing the 'chi' to deal with minor imbalances, but some traditional medicines must be discontinued.


Around 2pm I made it to Meng-something, possibly Mengyang?. It was actually quite nice, there was a separate old town area with stone buildings, and further along was a forest park where it seemed I might be able to find accomodation or camp. I then wasted some time making enquiries and riding to non existent accomodations the park staff had suggested. On my way back to the park for the second time I met two Swedish guys, about my age, both cycling towards Dali and beyond. It was good to have riding companions so I decided to push on all the way to Menglun with them. They also revealed to me the ultimate riding food for disease riddled China; compressed army biscuits. They look like pieces of MDF (chipboard), and taste like wood fibre with added sugar. But they fill you up, give you slow release energy and I experienced zero bowel motions in 4 days while eating them, so I wasnt complaining.

* I just read upon returning to Australia, that the last known tiger in the Xishuangbanna nature reserve was killed and eaten by a villager in December 2009. The man was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the crime.

Natuei to Mengla - 68km

Flush with a supply of Yuan from the exchange in Luang Namtha, I was finally ready to head for the border. Whilst there are no ATMs for foriegn cards at either side of the border, another option would be to take currency (US, or Lao Kip) to the border and change it at either Boten, or Mohan, I cant remember which but I thought Id play it safe and get plenty of Yuan while I could. The road leading to the border is very new looking, and so is Ban Boten. Its historically been called Ban Boten, (Ban being the word for village in Laotian) but I think it will shortly superseed this title due to the massive Chinese construction effort currently going on. Everywhere you look there is an enormous new building going up. Most were empty looking, unfinished, gawdy yellow or pink monstrosities with ambiguous purpose. There is currently no demand for accomodation of this style, or in this enormous volume down here in Ban Boten, but obviously there are big plans ahead. Much of Northern Lao looks as though it is rapidly coming under strong Chinese control. Both Udomxay and Luang Namtha had a large Chinese presence amongst the hoteliers and shopkeepers I dealt with.  In Boten I also discovered the strangest eatery Ive come across, it was so super clean, I was almost tempted to eat there, but on the sign they were advertising Pangolin! - an incredibly endangered, and very cool looking scaly anteater that should not be turning up on the menu! As I discovered in the ensuing weeks there is very little conscience about this sort of thing in China, and things like bear bile are unashamedly advertised in Chinese medicine stores. Ill get onto dealing with the roads in this section in my next post, but following the road from Mohan to Mengla on the Xi Xiao expressway isnt the best idea.

Japan Arrival

I will be posting a blog for the China section as soon as I have time. As I was informed, blogspot.com and most other blog sites are not accessible now in China. I think there are ways around this, by logging in through proxy servers or some such techno-babble, but it was all beyond my capabilities at the time. Riding in Yunnan Province was both amazing and tumultuous for various reasons. I arrived in Fukuoka yesterday, and hope to get moving around Kyushu on the bicycle tomorrow.