Hello and Goodbye: China

Let me first say that I know how disappointed all you readers must be at the lack of pictures, I apologize but in my haste I left the USB reader with E. thinking it wouldn't be a problem to find a computer with a card reader... and oh how I was wrong!

 

The more important thing is that I made it to China and I only had to leave two wrenches behind at airport security! The flight was easy, fitting my full size bike into a bike box made for a 20" bike was much more difficult. I left Laos rainy and fitful as it seems that the wet season had finally begun.

 

The first leg of my multi-stop flight took me to Bangkok for an 11 hour layover. Not a bad airport to spend a night in but I have to say that the air conditioning really starts pumping around 3am and unless you're prepared it can be a cool night. The international wing is alive into the wee hours of the morning with all the incoming and outgoing flights which means that everything from the snack bars to the high-end duty free jewelry shops was still open for business well past my ability to stay awake. I wandered the corridors for a few hours wearing myself out and finally settled down on one of a very few padded couches (in concourse E I believe) for some sleep.

 

My flight to Chengdu left the next morning on time and as soon as we took off the cabin crew started in with their excellent service, thank you Bangkok Airways! I had a full meal, two coffees, a snack, and watched a ridiculous movie in the 5 hours it took me to arrive. When I got the announcement about our imminent descent I craned my neck from my aisle seat toward the window and all I could see was a thick cloud cover. I kept my eye on the window as we continued down and still a milky white persisted outside. Then I noticed the haze was turning ever browner and I started to make out the shape of buildings, roads, cars, all things city like. We were in fact almost to the touchdown part of the flight and I would guess I could see about 10 blocks out past the airport before the smog had obscured absolutely everything else. Hmmm. I sped through the airport, both the security checkpoint and the immigration desk were a breeze and they didn't even x-ray my clumsily packaged bike box.

 

The hostel I booked with had a van waiting for me when I arrived, which made the hour trip into the heart of the city that much less of a hassle. On arriving Kat and Mike were already checked in; it was great to reconnect with them after our abrupt split up in Vietnam. I also got to meet Bob, a true adventurer who having arrived in Chengdu with a set of panniers, some camping gear, and a dream to cycle in Tibet, had happened upon Kat and Mike and decided to join up with our group. Mike and Kat had helped him sort out the bike question through a great local mechanic, tourer, visionary, and all around great guy Hans who built up a nice BMC Virus for him. We spent a few days running around Chengdu which is an incredibly easy to navigate and interesting city with every modern amenity any westerner could ever want. Hans took us on a 90km round trip ride out past the city center and up a nice twisty pass where we got to enjoy softball sized local peaches and a great view (with a bit less smog). When we got back to his shop Hans told us that the 45kms we'd cycled away from Chengdu still had us inside the city limits! Whoa!

 

As the days passed more of the group arrived. Nathan, who'd been cycling in China already (and who'd already made a bid for Lhasa without a permit and had been turned back just weeks before) arrived next and added Kiwi fuel to the fire of stories and experiences from the road that kept us all up late laughing over beers. After Nathan came Adrian, an Ozzy, who'd also been cycling in China already. Marnus arrived from South Africa after many hours in transit with two days to spare and a great classic steel bike and minimalist gear. Billy arrived last with the longest travel itinerary having flown from South America to Las Vegas with one day to sort out his gear (and all Kat's food requests) before taking a multi-leg flight from Las Vegas to Chengdu! Billy also kindly brought along my tent and a brand spanking new Kelty sleeping bag of mine that my mom had graciously gathered and shipped off to Las Vegas a few days before. With everyone gathered, bikes tuned up, snacks galore, and adventure in the air we set off for the train to Lhasa; which is where things got really interesting.

 

Our tour organizer from Dreams Travel had told us that our bikes would cost us excess baggage fees but would be loaded onto the luggage car of the train... well turns out there is no and has never been any luggage car for this train. We arrived at the station 2 hours early only to discover that our bikes would have to go on another cargo train for god knows how much, and would arrive 5 days later! Never mind though, we went and got in the Lhasa train line with all our stuff to see what they'd do with us. First they made us take off all our bags and the front wheels before we could get in the terminal. We hobbled two at a time, one with bags and one with a bike for 8 rounds of this to get all our stuff inside the train building... saying nothing of getting checked in for our own train this just got us to the next line! After a lot of negotiation they took our tickets, passports, and permits and told us to wait until all the other passengers had loaded and then to load our stuff in. We waited and waited while hundreds of people streamed past us bound for our train. Finally we got the signal to start bringing stuff through - again in waves we moved our bags and then gear to a waiting room. Once in the waiting room we moved the same gear in waves again to the train platform all the while the train is full and we're the last ones to board. We got all the baggage in and then started jamming the bikes into the vestibules where the control panels and toilets sat at the junction of each car. The train people were horrified but we just kept bringing them in until every one was loaded haphazardly and the train started moving! The officials hounded us and we moved the bikes about 6 times before they were satisfied but we did it, we'd gotten all our stuff and our people on the train! The train staff really didn't know what to make of us but they couldn't kick us off so we just stood our ground, bungeed our bikes together and that was that! Wheels and panniers lay everywhere around our bunks and it was a bit of a pain to have to sleep with all my luggage at my feet, making my bed fit for someone maybe 3 foot 5.

 

Never the less, we were off and headed for Tibet!