To Myanmar?

Instead of only having dinner with Susu, I am also joined by two Swiss, Roger and Mireille. We have a nice evening in a restaurant, which ends suddenly when Mireille has an attack of stomach problems. It is time for us to leave anyway, we are the only ones left. On Wednesday morning I walk to the consulate to retrieve my passport, when I return I meet Roger & Mireille on their way out. I quickly get my bag and together we go for a breakfast after which we leave for the bus station. We miss our stop and when walking back I notice someone trying to pickpocket from Mireille's bag with a pair of tweezers. I grab the guy in his neck and make sure he has not stolen anything and push him away. At the bus station we search for a bus to go to the proper Dali and when we have that confirmed we buy the tickets and embark. After four and half hour we are surprised to find out the bus does not go further then the wrong Dali. We try for 15 minutes to have our bus ticket for the rest of the trip paid for by the chauffeur, but of course no results. Mireille even goes to the police, but although our ticket indicates the other Dali, the police officer says we are wrong. So we end up paying for the additional 17 km ride, which is only 1.5 RMB. When the bus arrives I get a very warm and loud welcome, 2 of the 3 girls I met in Lijiang are in the bus. After missing the proper bus stop again we walk to the Old Dali Inn (No. 5) where I have left most of my stuff. When checking in I am surprised by Mart, a Dutch guy I met in Almaty. He has arrived just an hour before me from Lijiang. One of the girls insists of showing her hotel room to me and together with Mart, Mireille and Roger we have look after which we have dinner and drinks together. I had planned to leave the nineth, but at the breakfast I decide I to stay another day. During the day I take it easy, I sew ribbons on the panniers so I can tie them to the bike to prevent them from getting in to my wheels. At night Mart and I walk back to our courtyard and find 2 Japanese and 2 Chinese drinking wine and beer. We are invited to join. Around 2 I go to bed, the plan is still to leave in the morning Mart and a Japanese guy stay out side but soon go to bed when one of the employees gets very angry about the noise we have been making. I thought we were rather quiet, must have been the beer then.In the morning I pack my bags, I then realize I have no clue where I left my only key, the key to my bikelock. I unpack everything to no avail. I repack everything, I wil just have to cut my lock. My eye falls on my wallet, in which I find my key. Sometimes I am more organised than I expect. After breakfast and saying goodbye to the Swiss, Mart and some others I have met, I climb up my bike and ride south. In the wrong Dali I try to exchange some of my Euro travelerscheques into USD. The woman behind the counter is angry with me because the cheques are in such a bad shape, she changes them anyway, not into USD but into RMB. She says that it is not possible, great, could she not have said this before changing? She tells me only a local can change the RMBs into USD. I ask some people in the bank to change it for me and I offer them 50 RMB for it. Eventually I am told not to bother the customers and I leave. I had expected to have some leisurely cycling to Ruili, the town I want to cross the border, this is a slight misconception. I have to take the B-road and this one is not so well maintained and has much more climbs in it than the express way. Most of the second half of the day I am climbing. My frustration is that I am all the time 50 meters below the comb, but I never reach it. I am going up, but the mountains around me also.November 11th is again a tough day. I try to take it more easy though and decide to take a little siesta. The consequence of that and my little unplanned detour, is that I do not reach Baoshan today. I end up in a little village 30 km away of this bigger town. I order a huge meal, 3 dishes plus rice and when I am finished I am glad the owner offers me to stay above the restaurant, I am hardly capable of anything anymore. I do take apart my camera, because it has been acting funny during the day. I think sweat got into it and now it says it cannot read my cards. When I put it back together it is still not working great, but for 2 out of 3 cards it works. The 12th I am totally unmotivated to cycle and I park my bike in Baoshan for the day. Not before my bike is totally covered in mud. I had to go through a mud pool of at least 10 cm deep, so even my shoes are covered.Not far outside Baoshan I have to go down over a wet dirt road. The mud flies all around and on me. Worse is that both my panniers go into the wheel and both need to be repaired. First the thread breaks and on the next stitch the needle breaks. I ask one of the women working on their little water service for trucks if she has a needle for me. I get three and a stronger thread. When I am done sewing I am invited to have dinner with them and when I leave I am offered two mandarins. Although I have only cycled 10 km until 13:00 I manage to do 95 at the end of the day and I had a new speed record, 51 seconds for a km. Not a bad day after all. The intention was to camp but I end up sleeping again in the restaurant I have dinner in. It is a dinner by candle light as there is no power.Finally cycling goes as I like it, more down than up and smooth. When I go off the road to have a quiet lunch break, all of a sudden I can move my handle bar in any direction without the front wheel changing direction. After closer inspection it becomes clear that the tube that connects the fork with the handlebar is broken. I am lucky again that this has not happened when I am going down the mountain with over 60 km an hour. After lunch I walk back to the road and first cycle slowly in the same direction I was going. After a couple of km I find a house and ask if I can weld my fork somewhere. The man tells me I best go back to the last village. In the village I take the front part of my bicycle apart and search for a welder. Soon he is found and on my instructions he repairs the fork. I am happy with the result and put my bike back together and get back to cycling. This night I do camp. I find a nice spot, next to a little stream surrounded by bamboo bushes far from the road.November 15th I finally reach Ruili. The day I arrive I don't do much useful, the next day I intend to arrange my guide to take me through the first 100 km of Myanmar, where I am not allowed to roam freely. To my surprise I cannot find any travelagent that arranges trips into Myanmar. I decide to go to the border in the hope I meet someone who can help me. I see a Jeep with the text "Beauty Myanmar" on it's side. I ask the chauffeur if he is a guide. He says he is not but he has a number for me, I can call when I am at the Myanmar side of the border and then this women will come to guide me. I thank him and cycle back to town. On my way back I am accompanied by a scooterist, who also speaks English. I ask him if he knows any travel agents that go into Myanmar. He brings me to a travel agent, but all they can give me is a number of a woman I can call when at the Birmese side of the border. At least I now have a number coming from two independent sources, it gives a little bit of comfort. After that I pay another visit to the bank of china to get USD. Again the same story, I can get EUR for my RMB. Again I end up asking locals to exchange the money for me. This time the story ends better. A woman calls a friend who is willing to change the money into USD against a decent rate. We make the exchange in the bank building. I hope the notes are not counterfeit. Tomorrow the plan is to go to the border and arrange for a guide (and permit?) there. If I cannot find any guide I might find some nice military people who want to take me through this zone, because I won't be able to go back to China.

Kunming

In the morning of the second I left, but not after changing the the tube of the rear tyre and having a dumpling breakfast. After cycling half an hour I arrive at a lake Andre and I had wished to visit, because of local Naxi villages, but could not find. Away from the lake the road goes up steep now and then, but fortunately not for long. The rest of the day it is going up and down, it feels like more up than down, though. At the end of the day I have a tough climb, but get instant reward with a nice descent in which I am faster than the bus. Around 17:30 I stop in village and the place I ask if there is a hotel around, turns out to be one. I carry my bike and luggage to my room and fall lazily on the bed, which I only leave to prepare my noodle soup with the thermo with hot water. The Godfather part 1 is showing on tv and I watch it until a power failure makes everything dark. Soon a generator is started, but I guess the satelite dish is not connected to it, so the screen remains blank. In the morning I try to set my saddle slightly higher, but is to stuck, so I give up. It is not that important, I 've been cycling with this setup for 5 months. The reason I want it higher is that one of my shins hurt and I think it might come from the position of my foot on the pedal. After a 20 km I have breakfast, eggplant and rice. A drawback of cycling on my own is that I can order less dishes. When with two I got more variety in the meals, because we could share. Still breakfast tastes good. At the end of the morning I reach the big lake Dali is lying on. I decide to take the eastern route, the big road goes west around the lake and is much better, but also much busier. The fishermen put their nets on the road full of shrimps (?) to dry. After cycling alongside the lake I see a ferry crossing the lake. I ask if also a ferry sails more south, the man does not seem to understand, at least the only visible reaction he gives is pointing at a sign which shows a few Chinese characters and 10 yuan price. I decide to read the few copied pages of the LP about this region I got of Andre. I find out that there are two Dali's and that I was heading to the wrong one. I already found it strange no ferries would go to this popular destination. I go back to the guy who was so helpfull earlier and try again if the 10 yuan is for crossing the lake. I get the impression it is and carry my bike 50 meters down, only to find out that the crossing is 130 yuan, apparently the 10 was only for entering the park. I say I already I have paid ten and that is all I am going to pay. Of course they do not understand a word I say. I take up my bike to indicate I will walk back up if they do not lower the price. Soon it is down to 50, still much to high but an improvement. We end up at 30, not a bargain, but I can live with it and it saves me a climb up and a 30km ride. Dali is a bit of a disappointment. I am comparing the city with Lijiang and it is in a totally different league. It is accustomed to tourists though, when I sit down on a bench a woman well above 50 in local dress comes to me and asks if I want hashies, a few moments later a slighly younger woman asks me the same. In the guesthouse are a lot of westerners. To one of them I lend my bike the next day. I only leave on Sunday to Kunming and I do not feel like cycling. When I get the bike back the handlebar is very loose again, but I will deal with that when I am back from Kunming. After a five hour bus ride I reach Kunming where I take my stay in the Camellia hotel, I had read the Birmese consulat was there at well and that would save me a lot of walking. Ofcourse the information is not accurate, but with some help of the girl at the reception I am able to easily find it. I find Kunming a rather boring city, but in the hostel I do meet a Swiss girl I was sharing a room with in Dali and we have dinner together monday evening. She has started cycling to Vietnam today. Tonight I will have dinner with a very beautiful Birmese girl. She would prefer I would not visit Birma because of the regime. She and her family are politically active, which has not made their life easier, she had to flee Birma and her father is in jail. Although I feel more guilty now, I still intend to go.

Gorgious Leaping Tiger

We had planned to visit 2 famous lakes not far from Zhongdian on our way south. When we arrive at the gate (!) we find out that we have to pay 180 RMB and we can only go by bus. We do not want to pay the fee and we do not want to go by bus either. Arguments are to no avail, so we turn around and continue cycling. A few km further, in the next valley we try to follow a muddy path that might also take us to the lakes. After half an hour we give up our attempt, the path got worse/disappeared and eventually we would have to climb the surrounding hills and return to the road. Although we end the day at an altitude of 2800 m, we have also climbed 1300 m. The 26th we have a short day to the tiger leaping gorge, with a 20 km long descent. The 45 km which we thought it would be turned out 70 but still the higher temperature and oxygen level because of the lower altitude make it a nice ride. We stay at Sean's Guest House which is packed with cyclists. Two groups made it their stop. They are on a guided tour through Yunnan by bike. Jealously Andre and I watch how their bikes are cleaned and repaired for them. Our bikes would like this treatment as well, but we are just happy we can relax and just put them on the balcony, at least they have a great view on the gorge. Our clothes are more lucky as we decide to give them a short wash. In the evening the guides of the groups organise a quiz, Andre and I join Kristin to form a team. We don't do well, but probably it did not help we lost the paper with the answers of the 1st round.The next day we climb to a waterfall and although the gorge is a popular destination we do not meet any tourists on our climb up. Later we go all the way down to the Jiangtse. From the guest house it looks like a docile little river, but at the water level the power and force become very clear and now it is only carrying half the water is does during the monsoon. The local families have created the path down to the river and want to be compensated. The annoying thing is that when I am almost at the bottom, they come with their claim. Reluctantly I pay 10 RMB. We decide to take a different route up and we are surprised we are stopped for the second time, by a different family with a demand of an extra donation of 10 RMB. We say we already have paid and think that it has been enough. They won't let us pass and we sit down to wait. Of course we can ever win a contest on patience, these people have all the time in the world, so in the end we come to a compromise and pay half. It is not that we cannot miss the money, but I think they should have charged us at the beginning once. Now it could be possible every hundred meters someone asks us for money. Around 11 at night a row starts under our balcony, at first it is just yelling, but when a woman's voice cries out she has been hit I jump out of bed and go down to see to it that there will be no fighting. I am surprised to find the owner of the guesthouse, Sean, with a stick on one side of a table and a woman hiding on the other side. I put myself between Sean and the woman while the shouting goes on. After 10 minutes the danger of any violence seems gone and freezing, I was just in my shorts, I turn back to bed. I should have taken the stick from Sean, but the next day I hear that someone coming from the toilet did, after which the woman went to bed also. The woman turned out to be Sean's wife and said she would report it to the police.A few of the cyclists have warned us for the deep descent to the river for the ferry and advised us to have our stuff to be carried up and down. On the way down we manage to stay in the saddle and roll/cycle down. When taken across, the ferrymen offer to take our luggage on a horse for 20 RMB, leaving us only to push up our bikes. I am glad we were not so stubborn that we insisted on pushing everything up, it was tough enough with just the bike. This was not the hardest of the day, after a few km of dirt road, the road turns in cobbled stones and at the same time goes up from 1900 m to 3500 m. The larger part of the rest of the day we climb, averaging about 5 km an hour. When we finally reach the top and the end of the stones we have a little cheer. Unfortunately the stones turn up again when we go down, spoiling the going down party. When I make a stop to put some human fertilizer on the barren ground I slip and slide down a couple of meters, I manage to get hold of a branch an get some grip with the rest of my body, preventing a 200 m slide down. A bit shaken and scratched I make an other attempt to improve the soil on slightly safer grounds. The plan was to reach Lijiang today but we are both a bit tired and decide to camp. We cycle into a little forest until we are stopped by a little river 10 m below. We are still contemplating if and how we are going to cross over the trunk, when a police car arrives. We both expect to be told to not camp here, but they are just worried about us, and tell us it is a dangerous area. We say we are alright, but get the telephone number of the policeman. We rather had had the telephone number of the beautiful policewoman, which would have made more sense anyway as she was the one speaking English. When the police leaves we carry over our stuff, item by item. At night I put my woolen sweater at my feet to get them a little bit above the cold ground. I hope this prevents me from getting cold feet. The next morning I awake with warm feet, so my little experiment has worked. Unfortunately the trunk over the river is still frozen, so too slippery to cross. We wait half an hour for most of the ice to melt and then move our stuff in a joint action back to the other side. After a short climb it is all the way down to Lijiang. Did it take 7 hours to do 35 km yesterday, now we easily do it within the hour. In Lijiang we find a guest house right in the centre of the old town for decent price. From Lijiang Andre is going to Beijing by plane and I will be going south to Dali, but before it is time to part we stay a few days in the touristic town. I get my extension on my visa in only five minutes, without any requirement of additional information. I also have the fork of my bike repaired, which was almost broken and in the process have the cables on my front break replaced. We also finally find the energy to give the bikes a well deserved cleaning. On November 1 Andre leaves for Beijing, I stay for the night and will depart for Dali the next day.