Recovery, shopping and new plans!

Taking time to recover in Lijiang is really great! I think my last few cycling trips might have missed the recovery part... and I know that some of you have said so...

Anyway, I have strolled around the town, ridden my bike to small villages and monestries, been for a swim in a beautiful resorvoir and basically I have been enjoying to stay in this town.

Of course it helps that I have a chinese friend here: she explains things and makes it easy to make the local choices rather than the tourist choices; breakfast in the market costs 2 yuan and in the cafe recommended by Lonely Planet it costs about the same as home.

Interesting however to realise how easy it is to develop habits to feel at home in a new town: the same tea house, the same nice restaurant... it is a good feeling to come to places where the people recognise you... just like home. Or almost.

Lijiang is a world heritage site and with all the tourists coming here, the shopping is good even though the chinese seem to focus on scarfes and dried meat. Not what I am looking for! Luckily some smart people target the westerners with a taste for old Tibetan artifacts... The bargaining is quite bisarr... it just doesn't feel right to offer 10-20% of the asking price, but that is more or less what they offer after you leave the shop... or just on the doorstep. It feels like I have done most of my holiday shopping already, even though I am just in the 2nd week.

Also the time in Lijiang has helped me develop or change the plans for the rest of my trip: I got a contact to a guy from Australia who organised a private mini tour to ride from the north of Tibet (Xining) to Lijiang... Starting thursday! After some calling, they offered to wait 1 day for me to make my way up north and welcomed me to their group. Aussie style. Apperently, you don't need a permit and all the stuff with 4-wheel drive car when you have a company and a residence permit... and you can bring along friends.

I have no idea what to expect from the others, but the plan is to ride 80 to 100 km per day depending on terrain and conditions. Sleeping will be as usual in small hotels and a few nights in tents... sounds good to me! So tomorrow I will fix the last things on my bike and get ready. The total tour will be 3-4 weeks. I am afraid there will not be so many opportunities to update the blog, but the experience and the sights will be worth it.

Tomorrow i will look for a map, but basically we will ride the whole length of road 214, the same road that I started out on last year into Tibet, but this time i will ride north to south.

More tomorrow.