The last few days I have crossed through a mountain range... it looked like a nice road and a good way to get away from the traffic around Chengdu, but it turned out a to be a road full of surpises!
What it feels like to be a superstar: Arrive in a village and people want to touch you and your bike, somebody fixes hot water so you can make coffee, people are friendly and say hello, 5 girls invite you for diner and even though they dont speak any english they want you to stay and drink beer with them, you fly down-hill on perfect asfalt for 30 km, you get the best room for half price...
What it feels like to be a tramp: The road dissappears in the fogg, the mud clogs up the wheels and you fall over, covering all of you in mud, including the new camera, you bike 50 km on a bad road to discover that you missed the turn, when you discover that nobody wants to speak to you, after finally getting a ride back to the missed turn-off, there is nowhere to stay and you sleep along the roadside, you are chased away from local fertility event and people refuse to sell you water and food, despite the store being full...
The scenery and the people compensate for the toughness of the cycling: I have no cycling computer or altitude meter, but I must have passed over 2500 - 3000 meters at least twice, the ridiculous down/hill in the end showed that I had gained lots and lots of altitude. The gorges I rode in made me feel like riding on the bottom of the Grand Canyon! So high!
The minority people in the district I am in are the Yi, they still live very natural (or poor and backward by chinese standards) a lot of folk clothes, but also a lot of empty beer bottles along the road and quite obviously the problems and poverty seem bigger closer to the main roads than on the mountain.
A thought that keeps coming back: How many chinese would cycle from Stockholm to Dalarna to see some people in folk clothes?
All together things are good. I am tired after 7 days of riding. I have now come to the south of Sichuan and will cross over to Yunnan by bus. I know. But need a rest day and the whole area is flooding after the most torrential rains that are causing problems with floods and roads in the south of china. Last year it was the earth quake, now it is floods.
In Lijang I will spend a few days in the country side, then I will continue by bike to the north... also I hope to find a usb cable soon.
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Kontrasterna gör livet värt att leva! Ler. Tur att nya kameran är ler- och vattentät! Du är förmodligen nära att dö av trötthet; Du tar bussen! I´m proud! Och glad att du mår bra!
Lerinpackning och cykling samtidigt :)
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