From Yunnan to Guizhou Province
Northwest Yunnan was spectacular with its authentic Tibetan culture, gorgeous views and friendly people. But also, there was a big presence of package tourists, Chinese and international due to relative ease of accessibility of the region. Reaching the town of Zhongdian, better known as Shangri-La, was another milestone: being back to “civilisation”, and the first and best place to obtain the desperately needed visa extension. After I had found the PSB Office, I managed to get another two months on the spot without hassles. I also got my camera repaired. Mr.G, the manager of the place where I stayed, had a look at it, fiddled about a bit when suddenly it seemed to work again. I had done the same, spending ages to get it going, unfortunately without success. Apart from that it felt good to enjoy the company of fellow-cyclists and of course, a wider variety of food than instant noodles and tsampa.
From Shangri-La I took a back road leading to the northern end of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. I went through the TLG, and headed straight for Dali, deciding to skip Lijiang. There were several reasons, but the main reasons probably were that I needed a break to digest my experiences and that I was missing a goal, now that with reaching Shangri-La the great Tibet adventure was over. Dali Old Town was a pretty touristy place as I expected it to be, I didn’t feel like staying there, so I decided to head straight for Kunming. Later on in Kunming I heard lot’s of good stories about hanging out in Dali, so I kind of regret to not have stayed there. Anyway.
Naïve as I was, after mastering the big climbs in Tibet I expected the stretch to Kunming moe or less to be like cruising. In reality it was more strenuous than most of the cycling in Tibet. In Tibet I knew what to expect from the road ahead, being rewarded with great views most of the time, here it was going up and down steep hills, no good views, and quite often lots of air pollution caused by the heavy traffic. In addition, the days have become mostly grey and rainy, so reaching Kunming and having a break was again a big relief.
Kunming a.k.a Spring City due to its elevation of 2000m (6500ft) above sea level, charmed with international and slightly French flair. And, I’ve been told there was supposed to be a decent bike shop in town because I desperately needed a new chain. To find a certain bike-shop in a city with a population of 5 Mio is not an easy task, but at least I had the name of the shop and knew that it would be well stocked. I managed to find it, bought a new chain and replaced the old one. Unfortunately I had sent the sprocket removal tool home when going crazy about saving weight for the Tibet leg in Kashgar. Therefore I couldn’t flip it and had to file the worn-out teeth in place for working together with the new chain. In the beginning it worked reluctantly, but after a few hundred kms the moving parts had re-adjusted to each other. All parts did, except for the chain ring up front. The chain ring which I flipped was actually not meant to, despite the mechanical possibility, but when climbing up hills I was accompanied by a squealing sound which didn’t vanish and was quite annoying. Kunming will probably also remain in my memory as the town with the cheapest hair styling service ever. I couldn’t resists when I saw the shop’s advert of a special hair cutting service offer for the equivalent of 0,70€! I walked in, not expecting much, but was treated to a nice haircut, beard trim and my hair washed 3 times accompanied by a head massage each time!
After staying for about a week in Kunming I left for the Shilin, a place with bizarre geological rock formations and one of greater Kunming’s main attractions. But, as usual in China, the Chinese tend to make such places some kind of “Disneyland”, catering for the package-tourists. Problem with that is, that the atmosphere is almost completely taken away from the place and, in comparison with the average Chinese income, ridiculously high admissions are being charged. On the other hand, I sort of find this typical chinese peculiarity fascinating in a bizarre way.
So I continued on to Guiyang, another Chinese metropolis. The ride to Guiyang was even tougher then before to Kunming. It was even more a struggle – short days, grey and rainy and many long, steep climbs had a strong impact on my emotional well-being. Additionally camping was next to impossible, so I had to cover certain distances every day to reach a place with a hotel. On the other side, people have been surprisingly friendly, which was compensating a bit for the depressed mood I was in. Cycling into big places like Guiyang is always a bit of a headache – but thanks to the good descriptions of some locals this time, I found the hostel on the first attempt! Guiyang itself amazed me in a different way.
It’s a city with not much of interest for the average tourist. And, relevant for me and quite remarkable for a place of this size, Guiyang doesn’t have any McDonald’s restaurants, only KFC’s. It might not be politically correct, to admit supporting exploitative junk food places like this, especially the icon of this industry, but, who’s responsible for their success then anyway? I admit, I do have a craving for junk food at times, and yes I like McDonalds, I even prefer it over all the other stuff to be found out there. Ok, back to Guiyang. Walking the streets of Guiyang being perhaps the only “long-nose” in a city with a population 1.7 Mio, one can experience a rare kthing which can still be had in a lot of places off the beaten track in China: EVERYBODY will turn heads to catch a glimpse of this “Laowei” – Perhaps because most of them only know westerners from Television and haven’t seen one in real life! Isn’t that an awesome experience, feeling completely alien? Next destination will be Guilin, so stay tuned…
