We left Dunhuang on a bus heading towards Kashgar. There were no direct bus lines or train lines, so we got bus tickets in the general direction with plans to buy further bus tickets at each town we got dropped off in. We got to Kashgar something like 52 hours later leaving utter chaos in our wake at the three bus stations we went through. In China the prices for white people are higher, and we just weren't going for it. They kept trying to charge us extra for our bikes, or trying to sell us tickets to cities we didn't want to go to so that the routing would be longer and they could charge more. Before we boarded each of the three buses we took, it usually came to Spencer standing in front of the bus not budging until they gave in to what we thought was fair. We always got the crowd on our side, they would give us winks or nods or thumbs up as we fought the bus drivers and their cronies. But the cool thing about it was as soon as the drivers would cave (usually because they realized we had a lot of time on our hands and didn't care if the bus left late) they would become our best friends. Spencer stood at the front of the bus for 30 minutes and the driver wouldn't let him take his seat. The driver was very visibly irritated at this, and Spencer wouldn't get off, then as soon as they caved, he was slapping Spencer on the back and escorting him. It was fantastic. Like they respected us more because we stood up for ourselves. The buses were mostly sleeper buses so we had beds. They were surprisingly comfortable and the time went by quickly. It was still horrible of course, but we collected some fun stories.
Kashgar is incredibly cool. It is an old Silk Road town connecting the souther Silk Road to the Northern. The people are mostly Uighur, and they don't look anything like the chinese. I see alot of green eyes, pale skin and very very manly moustaches. If they don't have really cool beards they have moustaches. Donkey's pull carts down the streets, pedestrians and drivers don't even think about looking before they make a turn and the bread has flavor. I love it.
This morning we went to the Sunday Livestock Market where people from all over the area come to sell their donkeys, sheep, or cows. Grown men arguing over the price or value of some sheep while other men try to keep their donkeys from running into other donkeys. Spencer saw a man slap a donkey on the butt (apparently this is a very effective way of determining the value of a donkey) and the donkey kicked him in the crotch. Men would unload cows from trucks, without ramps, by pulling on the rope tied to their necks, while their brothers or wives would hit the cows on the back while pulling their tales. I'm amazed that each and every cow jumping out of the trucks didn't break their legs. Cows jumping from the bed of a 3 foot tall truck does not involve very much finesse. It's actually really funny to watch.
Sometimes it's incredibly awesome how absurd the Chinese government is. It's something like a 5 1/2 hour flight between Kasghar and Beijing, but the Chinese government requires all of China to be on one time zone. In Kashgar the sun sets shortly before 11 pm. But alot of the times it's just absurd how absurd the Chinese government is. A couple of days before we got to Kashgar the NY Times did an article about Kashgar. The communist government is going to demolish the old town because of 'earthquake' danger. This city has been here for thousands of years. One man quoted in the article said 'My family built this house 500 years ago....' Five hundred years ago! And he's still living in it. And the communists are tearing it down. It blows my mind how much disdain the Chinese seem to have for culture. I've been in China for nearly two months. We haven't been in too many 'chinese' towns. We've mostly been in Tibetan areas and now here. And I've absolutely loved these 'non-chinese' areas. If I had to do it over, I would have taken more buses in Yunan Province and spent more time in the Tibetan regions and western China. It's unfortunate that the Chinese can't figure out a way to appreciate these cultures.
The food here in Kashgar has improved significantly. We find rice that isn't soaked in oil and it actually has vegetables in it. It's pretty much rice pilaf. The bread is all naan, cooked in tandoori ovens. They also have bread that is dense and shaped and tastes like bagels.
Remnants of my giardia came back for a bit. I took the medication as long as I was supposed to, but then I stopped. Now I think I'll take it until I hit eastern Europe. Spencer and I both woke up one morning not feeling well. I'm 30 years old, and up until yesterday morning I hadn't thrown up since 1989. It was shortly after my 10th birthday, it was a Saturday morning, the day of Matt Petersen's birthday party, a pool party. I woke up throwing up (some splashed onto the white part of my brand new Toronto Bluejays baseball hat), mom told me not to eat anything because I would probably throw it back up. A bit later I threw up black stomach acid and it hurt like crazy. So I never threw up again. Then yesterday I wasn't feeling too hot, Breckan and I were at the laundromat dropping off our clothes. She was telling me a story and I just stood up and said 'I think I have to throw up. I haven't done this since the fourth grade' and I walked outside, found a manhole without a cover and went to town. The man standing next to me holding a baby casually walked away, as if he expected me to do what I was doing. I'm feeling much better now.
There is a really good western restaurant in town. Spencer's birthday was a couple of days ago, and since I had to celebrate mine in Laos, we're going out to dinner tonight and getting pizza, and apple pie and cheesy fries hopefully with chili on top. Should be a good night.
5.31.2009
5.27.2009
Dunhuang, China
The only time the wind changed directions was when we turned our faces. Our route for the last four days was generally north with lots of little twists and turns to the east or west. Whichever direction my face pointed the wind turned to hit me head on. Until the last 1 1/2 hours yesterday. The road veered to the east and we had a 27 mph tailwind. I know this because I could effortlessly pedal at 27 mph without feeling any wind to the front back or sides of me. It's a cool feeling traveling on a bike that fast and feeling absolute stillness all around. Before we hit the tailwind we were passed by a 75 truck military convoy. They always travel slowly, so we could just barely get sucked into their 'wake' and speed up for about 5 seconds before we lost it and got hammered by the wind again. Then after the tailwind we passed almost every single one of those trucks.
When there is a headwind of 27 mph and I was ride directly into it at 7 mph, if I've done my vector algebra properly, I experience an effective headwind of about 350 mph. Which makes for very tired riding.
The last four days had somewhat repetitive scenery of 30 km stretches of sandy wasteland then 40 km stretches of desert mountainous beauty. The mountains tried to remind me of Red Rocks outside Las Vegas, though not as majestic, red or climbable. But beautiful nonetheless. We saw a lot of salty marshes. It resembled the salt flats in Utah, but it looked like the chinese tilled it. For no reason of course. Power lines littered the sky and we often had 50 km stretches with absolutely nothing. No rivers, towns, hills, turns, nothing. One night we slept in a 'hotel', which was really a bedroom that was separated from a restaurant by a sheet hanging in the doorway.
The elevation has dropped alot. The city we're in now, Dunhuang, is at about 3,600 feet above sea level, so we've dropped quite a bit. Dunhuang is a nice city. Trucks drive through in the morning spraying water on the streets to clean them. It feels like the most 'chinese' city we've been in. It's decently sized and it has no Tibetan influence. It's surrounded by sand dunes and gets several thousand tourists a day in the summer. They're not here yet, so I've only seen about 4 other white people. We found a white guy from Oklahoma who just opened a coffee shop which also sells milkshakes. I ate 2 for dinner along with a bowl of ice cream. He opens at 3, so we're going back in a couple of hours. This morning I needed to get a hole in the pocket of my pants fixed. I asked around for where I could find a sewing maching (I point to the hole then do my best sewing machine sound effect) and a girl took me to a door where she banged loudly and then barged in. I followed. Inside was a tailor shop with a bed in the corner. The girl sleeping in the bed woke up, got out of bed (she slept completely dressed, in jeans) fixed my pants and charged me $0.15. Alot of shops and restaurants double as houses.
My little brother just got back from a trip to China with BYU's dance team. I'm really curious to hear his take on China. I have a feeling we have very different experiences. I was strictly in rural areas, largely Tibetan regions. He spent most of his time in cities, Chinese cities. When I look at maps of the areas I've been in there are very few towns, then as my eye moves east it's almost only towns.
I've complained multiple times of the toilets in China. This morning I was walking around town and used a toilet in a somewhat nice hotel and the place had actual stalls. I'm guessing the stalls had sitting toilets, I didn't look, but I peed in a urinal. At my hotel I peed in a trough that I could smell all the way down the hall. Maybe there is a civilized China....?
We found some decent food. It's muslim food with potatoes, meat (beef if we're lucky, goat if we're not), peppers, and onions cooked in a dutch oven type pot. It's a pain trying to find it, but has been good when we have.
We don't have enough time on our visas to ride to Kashgar so we're taking a series of buses and trains to get us there. I have a package or two from my parents waiting there, full of licorice and pudding.
When there is a headwind of 27 mph and I was ride directly into it at 7 mph, if I've done my vector algebra properly, I experience an effective headwind of about 350 mph. Which makes for very tired riding.
The last four days had somewhat repetitive scenery of 30 km stretches of sandy wasteland then 40 km stretches of desert mountainous beauty. The mountains tried to remind me of Red Rocks outside Las Vegas, though not as majestic, red or climbable. But beautiful nonetheless. We saw a lot of salty marshes. It resembled the salt flats in Utah, but it looked like the chinese tilled it. For no reason of course. Power lines littered the sky and we often had 50 km stretches with absolutely nothing. No rivers, towns, hills, turns, nothing. One night we slept in a 'hotel', which was really a bedroom that was separated from a restaurant by a sheet hanging in the doorway.
The elevation has dropped alot. The city we're in now, Dunhuang, is at about 3,600 feet above sea level, so we've dropped quite a bit. Dunhuang is a nice city. Trucks drive through in the morning spraying water on the streets to clean them. It feels like the most 'chinese' city we've been in. It's decently sized and it has no Tibetan influence. It's surrounded by sand dunes and gets several thousand tourists a day in the summer. They're not here yet, so I've only seen about 4 other white people. We found a white guy from Oklahoma who just opened a coffee shop which also sells milkshakes. I ate 2 for dinner along with a bowl of ice cream. He opens at 3, so we're going back in a couple of hours. This morning I needed to get a hole in the pocket of my pants fixed. I asked around for where I could find a sewing maching (I point to the hole then do my best sewing machine sound effect) and a girl took me to a door where she banged loudly and then barged in. I followed. Inside was a tailor shop with a bed in the corner. The girl sleeping in the bed woke up, got out of bed (she slept completely dressed, in jeans) fixed my pants and charged me $0.15. Alot of shops and restaurants double as houses.
My little brother just got back from a trip to China with BYU's dance team. I'm really curious to hear his take on China. I have a feeling we have very different experiences. I was strictly in rural areas, largely Tibetan regions. He spent most of his time in cities, Chinese cities. When I look at maps of the areas I've been in there are very few towns, then as my eye moves east it's almost only towns.
I've complained multiple times of the toilets in China. This morning I was walking around town and used a toilet in a somewhat nice hotel and the place had actual stalls. I'm guessing the stalls had sitting toilets, I didn't look, but I peed in a urinal. At my hotel I peed in a trough that I could smell all the way down the hall. Maybe there is a civilized China....?
We found some decent food. It's muslim food with potatoes, meat (beef if we're lucky, goat if we're not), peppers, and onions cooked in a dutch oven type pot. It's a pain trying to find it, but has been good when we have.
We don't have enough time on our visas to ride to Kashgar so we're taking a series of buses and trains to get us there. I have a package or two from my parents waiting there, full of licorice and pudding.
5.21.2009
Golmud
China, in one of their brilliant world domination tactics, has blocked me from using blogger.....my sister Jayne is posting this for me....
I rode 118 miles yesterday to get to Golmud. This town has soft serve ice cream and I've eaten about $14 worth in 20 hours. I'm budgeting another $20 for the next 20 hours.
We left Yushu and headed northwest on a very small and not busy road. Google doesn't even know about the road that we took. The first couple hundred kilometers were paved and the mountains were beautiful. We got snowed on going over the passes and we never went below 14,000 feet until we hit Golmud yesterday (about 9,000 ft).
Our second day out of Yushu Kyle and I woke up early and pushed our unloaded bikes a few hundred meters up a mountain so we could ride down. Everything is above treeline (we didn't see trees for 10 days), so the mountains are grassy and remind of me Alaska. There was no trail of course, so we just picked our way through the less steep areas. It was beautiful.
The highest we had been on this trip, up until Yushu, was 14,960 feet (4,560 meters). On that second day out of Yushu we topped out at 16,075 feet (4,900 meters) and camped at 15,500 feet (4,750 meters). Over the next 10 days we camped over14,960 ft three or four times.
It's all kind of blurry now, the order of things. We stayed in a hotel one night, after an 80 km day where it snowed and was windy the whole time. The next day we rode 50 km through beautiful weather and terrain to another little town and stayed in a hotel. We had arranged with the lady to pay 35 Yuan per room and we needed two rooms, which breaks down to 17.5 Y each. We tried to pay when we arrived, but she didn't want the money yet, so we wandered through town looking for chocolate. Later that night, at around 10:30 pm, some hotel guy came to collect our money. We paid him and he wasn't satisfied. He told us it was 35 Y per bed, not per room. Which is only another $2.50 per person, but it was shady of him to want the money at 10:30 at night when we were out of options. They were trying to take advantage of us white people. We argued for almost an hour before we decided we weren't having it. I got up in the guys face demanding our money back ($10) when finally an old woman pushed me, twice, out the door and gave me the money (it's been a long time since I've been in a fight with an old woman). We packed up our things, got on our bikes and rode, in the snow, to a field just outside of town and set up a camp. A nice policeman showed us a good spot and even shined his headlights on us while we pitched our tents. I slept great that night.
A couple of nights later we found a beautiful campsite on a bluff above a river. It was sandy, but we didn't have any other choice. About 2 min after I got in my tent the wind started. Within minutes my tent was completely filled with sand. Everything was covered. 45 min. later it started to snow. Which was a good thing because it covered the sand and kept it from blowing. When I woke up at 1 am the snow had blown up under my rainfly and coated the walls of my tent. It shook off easily, but was still a little unsettling. In the morning there was about 2 inches on the ground. We rode 5 km into a town and sat inside a restaurant for 2 hours until the weather got better.
When I say town, I'm using the term rather loosely. After we left Yushu we only saw 2 'towns'. The rest were more clusters of 'houses' where we could maybe buy a pepsi or sit inside a 'building'.
After the sandy night we got onto gravel roads, and they stayed gravel for something like 300 or 400 km. Gravel makes everything slower. The mountains got lower and more rounded and the roads went up and down, up and down. There was almost always a headwind, so the downhills were never relaxing. We had to constantly pedal to keep moving.
One day we took a two hour break at a truck stop during a snow storm. We were about 110 km from Budongquan, where the road turned to pavement. Budongquan was also the beginning of the final stretch to Golmud so we were all very excited to get there. We decided, at this truck stop, to flag down a truck and hop a ride to the pavement. It was too windy and too cold. We found a truck driver at the truck stop who told us he would take us, so we loaded all of our stuff in the back of the truck (4 bicycles and 15 bags). As soon as we got done he told us his truck was broken. We tried offering cash, which normally would work, but it didn't phase him, so I think he was telling the truth. Why he waited to tell the truth until after we had loaded everything is still lost on me. The storm broke so we headed out again, into a fierce headwind. It was everything we could do to go 8 km/hr (5 mph). It was awful. The wind was soo strong. Only 3 vehicles passed us during the next two days to Budongquan. We would stop in the middle of the road to flag them down, but they just sped past. So we rode.
Later that day around 3 pm we decided we needed to find a place to camp (it doesn't get dark until about 9, but we like to be set up at camp by 6:30 or 7 because as soon as the sun goes down it's too cold to be anywhere but inside your sleeping bag). We needed to find it so early because we had to set up behind a wall or a bluff or something to protect us from the wind (the night before we camped in the rubble of an old mud hut). I ran for 15 min. across a field to look at a bluff while Spencer rode ahead to see if there were any buildings. Somehow he deduced that if he climbed up an over a little hill (on foot, leaving his bike on the road), there would maybe be a house. There was, so we rode our bikes across a river and asked the people if we could pitch our tents in their walled front yard. The father wasn't home and the mother was leary, but gave in. The little boy kept telling us to go up and over a different hill. We didn't listen. Right when we were about to go to bed Spencer walked back up that hill and looked the other way and saw a hotel. It must of blown these peoples minds as to why these white people would cross a river to sleep in tents in their yard, when we were 150 yards from a hotel. They ended up letting us stay in the yak dung drying room for the night. I slept really good here also. The room and yard were littered with animal parts. When I pitched my tent (we later took them down when the father got home and told us we could stay inside) I used a yak hip bone to pound in the stakes. They let us cook in their kitchen, which was surprisingly a very nice room with a nice stove. For dinner they ate cup of noodles (I'm sick of that stuff and I've only been in China for 42 days....) and a yak leg. I'm not kidding, they had a huge yak leg and they cut off chunks with a knife.
Then yesterday we dropped down off the Tibetan plateau into the desert. The last 30 km were windy and flat with the mountains behind me and nothing but open air in front of me.
I saw a book somewhere here in town that said that Golmud is the 'Salt Lake City' of China. I guess there is some big salt lake around here somewhere. But really, I'd rather spend my time scouring the grocery stores looking for Snickers bars than sightseeing.....I found some sunflower seed bread with raisins in it, some chocolate bread and some walnut muffins. Bread is very hard to find in China, so this is fantastic news.
Chinese food in general really sucks. The only comparison I can find between American Chinese food and Chinese Chinese food is chopsticks. I haven't had a single egg roll, and we ask all the time. I do think that most tourists who come to China don't have the feelings I do about the food. Most tourists stick to touristy areas, Beijing, Shanghai, Dali, Shangrila, etc....where there is more western influence. The China I've seen has absolutely no western influence. Which is really bizarre. Thailand and the other places I've been in Asia are saturated with western products. The only western things I consistently find are pepsi and coke. Sometimes I'll find oreo's, snickers, skittles, and weird flavors of Lay's potato chips.
That was too bad that night at the hotel when we left at 11:30 pm, because the Chinese/Tibetans have been absolutely fantastic. On several of the snowy/windy days when we were riding, we would pull up to little houses and they would let us in to sit by the yak dung fire. It usually takes about one minute after pulling into small 'towns' before we're surrounded by hordes of people who just stand there and stare at us. They're not at all shy about touching our things. They're constantly knocking our bikes over. One time Breckan was in the middle of swinging her leg over her bike when some Chinese guy swung his leg from the other side, beating her, and then took her bike for a spin. Our helmets are always the most intriguing. And our hairy bodies. On more than one occasion I've had a chinaman sit next to me and rub his hand on my thigh to feel the hair. One guy tried lifting my shorts to see how high the hair went. It goes all the way buddy, all the way. They love Spencer's Kid Rock lookalike beard, and he often lifts his shirt for pictures.
I really like the Chinese. Even if the toilets still blow my mind with disgustingness. It's almost to the point where we get offended if when we ask for directions they only give us the directions instead of leading us to where we want to go. Sometimes if they only give us directions, about 20 seconds later they pull up alonside us on motorcycles and wave for us to follow them. One guy in a small 'town' gave us directions, then came back a few minutes later to warn us about the beasts in the area.... Spencer thought his charades meant velociraptor's. I thought alligators. The only animals we saw were small endagered tibetan deer. I really like the Chinese.
I rode 118 miles yesterday to get to Golmud. This town has soft serve ice cream and I've eaten about $14 worth in 20 hours. I'm budgeting another $20 for the next 20 hours.
We left Yushu and headed northwest on a very small and not busy road. Google doesn't even know about the road that we took. The first couple hundred kilometers were paved and the mountains were beautiful. We got snowed on going over the passes and we never went below 14,000 feet until we hit Golmud yesterday (about 9,000 ft).
Our second day out of Yushu Kyle and I woke up early and pushed our unloaded bikes a few hundred meters up a mountain so we could ride down. Everything is above treeline (we didn't see trees for 10 days), so the mountains are grassy and remind of me Alaska. There was no trail of course, so we just picked our way through the less steep areas. It was beautiful.
The highest we had been on this trip, up until Yushu, was 14,960 feet (4,560 meters). On that second day out of Yushu we topped out at 16,075 feet (4,900 meters) and camped at 15,500 feet (4,750 meters). Over the next 10 days we camped over14,960 ft three or four times.
It's all kind of blurry now, the order of things. We stayed in a hotel one night, after an 80 km day where it snowed and was windy the whole time. The next day we rode 50 km through beautiful weather and terrain to another little town and stayed in a hotel. We had arranged with the lady to pay 35 Yuan per room and we needed two rooms, which breaks down to 17.5 Y each. We tried to pay when we arrived, but she didn't want the money yet, so we wandered through town looking for chocolate. Later that night, at around 10:30 pm, some hotel guy came to collect our money. We paid him and he wasn't satisfied. He told us it was 35 Y per bed, not per room. Which is only another $2.50 per person, but it was shady of him to want the money at 10:30 at night when we were out of options. They were trying to take advantage of us white people. We argued for almost an hour before we decided we weren't having it. I got up in the guys face demanding our money back ($10) when finally an old woman pushed me, twice, out the door and gave me the money (it's been a long time since I've been in a fight with an old woman). We packed up our things, got on our bikes and rode, in the snow, to a field just outside of town and set up a camp. A nice policeman showed us a good spot and even shined his headlights on us while we pitched our tents. I slept great that night.
A couple of nights later we found a beautiful campsite on a bluff above a river. It was sandy, but we didn't have any other choice. About 2 min after I got in my tent the wind started. Within minutes my tent was completely filled with sand. Everything was covered. 45 min. later it started to snow. Which was a good thing because it covered the sand and kept it from blowing. When I woke up at 1 am the snow had blown up under my rainfly and coated the walls of my tent. It shook off easily, but was still a little unsettling. In the morning there was about 2 inches on the ground. We rode 5 km into a town and sat inside a restaurant for 2 hours until the weather got better.
When I say town, I'm using the term rather loosely. After we left Yushu we only saw 2 'towns'. The rest were more clusters of 'houses' where we could maybe buy a pepsi or sit inside a 'building'.
After the sandy night we got onto gravel roads, and they stayed gravel for something like 300 or 400 km. Gravel makes everything slower. The mountains got lower and more rounded and the roads went up and down, up and down. There was almost always a headwind, so the downhills were never relaxing. We had to constantly pedal to keep moving.
One day we took a two hour break at a truck stop during a snow storm. We were about 110 km from Budongquan, where the road turned to pavement. Budongquan was also the beginning of the final stretch to Golmud so we were all very excited to get there. We decided, at this truck stop, to flag down a truck and hop a ride to the pavement. It was too windy and too cold. We found a truck driver at the truck stop who told us he would take us, so we loaded all of our stuff in the back of the truck (4 bicycles and 15 bags). As soon as we got done he told us his truck was broken. We tried offering cash, which normally would work, but it didn't phase him, so I think he was telling the truth. Why he waited to tell the truth until after we had loaded everything is still lost on me. The storm broke so we headed out again, into a fierce headwind. It was everything we could do to go 8 km/hr (5 mph). It was awful. The wind was soo strong. Only 3 vehicles passed us during the next two days to Budongquan. We would stop in the middle of the road to flag them down, but they just sped past. So we rode.
Later that day around 3 pm we decided we needed to find a place to camp (it doesn't get dark until about 9, but we like to be set up at camp by 6:30 or 7 because as soon as the sun goes down it's too cold to be anywhere but inside your sleeping bag). We needed to find it so early because we had to set up behind a wall or a bluff or something to protect us from the wind (the night before we camped in the rubble of an old mud hut). I ran for 15 min. across a field to look at a bluff while Spencer rode ahead to see if there were any buildings. Somehow he deduced that if he climbed up an over a little hill (on foot, leaving his bike on the road), there would maybe be a house. There was, so we rode our bikes across a river and asked the people if we could pitch our tents in their walled front yard. The father wasn't home and the mother was leary, but gave in. The little boy kept telling us to go up and over a different hill. We didn't listen. Right when we were about to go to bed Spencer walked back up that hill and looked the other way and saw a hotel. It must of blown these peoples minds as to why these white people would cross a river to sleep in tents in their yard, when we were 150 yards from a hotel. They ended up letting us stay in the yak dung drying room for the night. I slept really good here also. The room and yard were littered with animal parts. When I pitched my tent (we later took them down when the father got home and told us we could stay inside) I used a yak hip bone to pound in the stakes. They let us cook in their kitchen, which was surprisingly a very nice room with a nice stove. For dinner they ate cup of noodles (I'm sick of that stuff and I've only been in China for 42 days....) and a yak leg. I'm not kidding, they had a huge yak leg and they cut off chunks with a knife.
Then yesterday we dropped down off the Tibetan plateau into the desert. The last 30 km were windy and flat with the mountains behind me and nothing but open air in front of me.
I saw a book somewhere here in town that said that Golmud is the 'Salt Lake City' of China. I guess there is some big salt lake around here somewhere. But really, I'd rather spend my time scouring the grocery stores looking for Snickers bars than sightseeing.....I found some sunflower seed bread with raisins in it, some chocolate bread and some walnut muffins. Bread is very hard to find in China, so this is fantastic news.
Chinese food in general really sucks. The only comparison I can find between American Chinese food and Chinese Chinese food is chopsticks. I haven't had a single egg roll, and we ask all the time. I do think that most tourists who come to China don't have the feelings I do about the food. Most tourists stick to touristy areas, Beijing, Shanghai, Dali, Shangrila, etc....where there is more western influence. The China I've seen has absolutely no western influence. Which is really bizarre. Thailand and the other places I've been in Asia are saturated with western products. The only western things I consistently find are pepsi and coke. Sometimes I'll find oreo's, snickers, skittles, and weird flavors of Lay's potato chips.
That was too bad that night at the hotel when we left at 11:30 pm, because the Chinese/Tibetans have been absolutely fantastic. On several of the snowy/windy days when we were riding, we would pull up to little houses and they would let us in to sit by the yak dung fire. It usually takes about one minute after pulling into small 'towns' before we're surrounded by hordes of people who just stand there and stare at us. They're not at all shy about touching our things. They're constantly knocking our bikes over. One time Breckan was in the middle of swinging her leg over her bike when some Chinese guy swung his leg from the other side, beating her, and then took her bike for a spin. Our helmets are always the most intriguing. And our hairy bodies. On more than one occasion I've had a chinaman sit next to me and rub his hand on my thigh to feel the hair. One guy tried lifting my shorts to see how high the hair went. It goes all the way buddy, all the way. They love Spencer's Kid Rock lookalike beard, and he often lifts his shirt for pictures.
I really like the Chinese. Even if the toilets still blow my mind with disgustingness. It's almost to the point where we get offended if when we ask for directions they only give us the directions instead of leading us to where we want to go. Sometimes if they only give us directions, about 20 seconds later they pull up alonside us on motorcycles and wave for us to follow them. One guy in a small 'town' gave us directions, then came back a few minutes later to warn us about the beasts in the area.... Spencer thought his charades meant velociraptor's. I thought alligators. The only animals we saw were small endagered tibetan deer. I really like the Chinese.
5.09.2009
Yushu 2
I poohed my pants. I didn't want to. It just happened. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Not that that could ever be not bad, but I didn't have to do too much laundry to clean up.
The diahreah has mostly gone away. But I have a tremendous amount of gas. The second food hits my belly I can feel it start to roll. A little bit ago, when I was in America, I ate an entire loaf of 'high five fiber bread' from Great Harvest for lunch. That gave me the most gas I'd ever had in my life. So much so, that when my girlfriend wanted me to come over and hang out that evening I made up some story to get out of it, because I had so much gas and felt embarrassed (I'm a horrible liar, so the truth came out quickly, and we hung out anyway). But this is like eating 15 loaves of 'high five fiber bread' from Great Harvest for lunch. All day, every day. But without the really good bread taste.
I'm pretty confident that it's giardia. I have all the symptoms. And I'm in rural rural China. I don't think it's altitude related. I've been this high for some time and my symptoms don't really match altitude sickness. I went to a hospital to get some medication and the doctor lady spoke enough english to get what was going on. 10 minutes and about $3 later I had 6 different kinds of pills to take. I'll probably only take one kind (one of them is a liquid in a glass flask that I have to break the top off with a rock before I can drink it and side effects include 'permanent loss of equilibrium'....I'm not taking that one....). I'm feeling better today. We'll start riding in two, so I'll be fine.
On a related note. One time my dad and my sister (I won't say which one, but she's not the oldest and she's not the youngest) got giardia on a backpacking trip. She went to the doctor and said 'my dad and I went camping and we got gonorrhea....'
After we leave on Monday morning I don't think I'll get internet access until Golmud. Maybe 9 or 12 days away or something.
The diahreah has mostly gone away. But I have a tremendous amount of gas. The second food hits my belly I can feel it start to roll. A little bit ago, when I was in America, I ate an entire loaf of 'high five fiber bread' from Great Harvest for lunch. That gave me the most gas I'd ever had in my life. So much so, that when my girlfriend wanted me to come over and hang out that evening I made up some story to get out of it, because I had so much gas and felt embarrassed (I'm a horrible liar, so the truth came out quickly, and we hung out anyway). But this is like eating 15 loaves of 'high five fiber bread' from Great Harvest for lunch. All day, every day. But without the really good bread taste.
I'm pretty confident that it's giardia. I have all the symptoms. And I'm in rural rural China. I don't think it's altitude related. I've been this high for some time and my symptoms don't really match altitude sickness. I went to a hospital to get some medication and the doctor lady spoke enough english to get what was going on. 10 minutes and about $3 later I had 6 different kinds of pills to take. I'll probably only take one kind (one of them is a liquid in a glass flask that I have to break the top off with a rock before I can drink it and side effects include 'permanent loss of equilibrium'....I'm not taking that one....). I'm feeling better today. We'll start riding in two, so I'll be fine.
On a related note. One time my dad and my sister (I won't say which one, but she's not the oldest and she's not the youngest) got giardia on a backpacking trip. She went to the doctor and said 'my dad and I went camping and we got gonorrhea....'
After we leave on Monday morning I don't think I'll get internet access until Golmud. Maybe 9 or 12 days away or something.
pictures
A very old woman.
Spencer hassling a different old woman.
Spencer and Breckan leaving Litang.
Spencer riding through a river.
A Tibetan 'outhouse'.
Breckan and a snowy mountain.
Breckan and not so snowy mountains.
At the Lamastery in Ganze.
The monk who showed us around.
I love Tibetan walls.
Old woman on my bicycle.
When people sit on the back of my bicycle, they instinctively hold onto the seat. They could grab the seat post, but they never think of it. Most people move their hands once I sit down. She didn't.
Four bicycles on top of a minivan. What you can't see are the 50 lb bags of rice inside, along with all of our stuff. Traveling with a bicycle when you're not riding your bicycle is a pain.5.06.2009
Yushu
We got off a bus in Yushu yesterday. Our visas expire today, so we had to take a bus to get to a big enough city in time to lengthen them. Except they're out of the special visa paper in Yushu, so we'll have to wait here until it gets in on Monday. Today is Thursday. But it's working out well because I've been sick for 3 days. It made for a horrible two day bus ride. Kyle got it a little and is getting better. Breckan got it last night. Spencer is now on a 15 hour one way bus ride to Xining so he can change some dollars into yuan. Really, 15 hours to Xining was the best option. For some reason the Chinese haven't let him change money in the last few towns. And he's out of money.
I'm not sure what I've got, but I started taking anti-biotics last night. I've spent more time on the toilet in the last 3 days than I have in the last 3 months. Wait, I should say 'squatting over a hole'. I've gotten the squat down. I no longer need to take off all of my clothes. I wouldn't want to, the only thing separating me from the next guy is a knee high wall (if I'm lucky), and besides, there are never any nails to hang my pants on. I sit way back on my ankles so it doesn't kill my thighs, but standing up after a long bout makes my legs stiff. The toilets are usually outside and open air with no doors, so I have to bundle up before. It's not comfortable. When I'm not on the toilet I get gas in my stomach that won't come out either end. It's like I swallowed a box of time release alka seltzer pills and they all go off at the same time. It's very uncomfortable. And the bus didn't help. I've started eating a little. But eating is hard because nothing sounds good when I'm well (there is no way China could ever rule the world). But I've got 4 days to recover before we can ride, so I'll be fine.
The scenery is absolutely fantastic. I stared out the bus window the whole time wishing I was on my bike. It's open country with very few trees and huge rolling mountains. It's nomad territory. These people just set up tents and roam. And it's a great place to do it because of the wide open grass lands.
The Tibetan culture is the richest I've ever seen in my life, not that I've been exposed to a lot of culture. But it's straight out of a National Geographic. Women walking down the street with bizarre square topped hats, things braided into their hair, layers of wool skirts with matching jackets. Alot of them only wear the left sleeve, and they let the right sleeve dangle across their backside. I guess that's the style. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. I've never imagined a place like it. It's unreal the Chinese are doing everything they can to squash this place.
The Tibetan's rioted last year and it is evident which cities had the most riots based on the amount of police presence. It's crazy looking out over a town of 60,000 people with probably 15,000 police and military, and all the natives live in mud huts....what are the Chinese trying to gain?
In Garze we went to a lamastery. We rode our bikes up a hill and it was very obvious the moment we left the Chinese portion of the town and entered the Tibetan. The roads narrowed and all the houses turned to mud. Some old women let us stash our bikes in front of their hut while we walked up and looked around. Everything was so ornate and colorful. A monk showed us all the rooms while other monks poured tea into our palms, instructed us to slurp it out then rub it into our hair. I'm hoping it was some type of blessing, but my sickness makes me think it was more of a curse. When we got back to our bikes I tried to get a small 6 year old boy to hop on the back of my bicycle for a ride. He declined but his 750 year old great great great great great great great grandmother accepted. As I pedaled her through her small neighborhood everyone looked out their windows and cheered. She then told me to call her 'mom'. So I did.
We're back up to 12,500 feet and I can feel it just walking up the stairs. Kyle rented a DVD player so I plan on doing a lot of laying in bed watching movies. If I start feeling better there are some great peaks and ridges I could run. I don't have running shoes, but at this elevation I don't know if it would be much running anyway. But I hope I get a chance to try. I did try going into a doctor yesterday. Well, I thought it was a pharmacy, but it turned out to be a hospital, I think. I didn't have the phrase book, so I charaded as best as I could that I had gas that wouldn't come out. It wasn't an easy thing to portray, and I'm not sure they got it. A Dr. came over and took my pulse on my wrist and then put a stethescope to my stomach. When he was done he just sat there and looked at me. So I thanked him and walked out. If it gets worse I'll try again, but I'm feeling much better.
I'm not sure what I've got, but I started taking anti-biotics last night. I've spent more time on the toilet in the last 3 days than I have in the last 3 months. Wait, I should say 'squatting over a hole'. I've gotten the squat down. I no longer need to take off all of my clothes. I wouldn't want to, the only thing separating me from the next guy is a knee high wall (if I'm lucky), and besides, there are never any nails to hang my pants on. I sit way back on my ankles so it doesn't kill my thighs, but standing up after a long bout makes my legs stiff. The toilets are usually outside and open air with no doors, so I have to bundle up before. It's not comfortable. When I'm not on the toilet I get gas in my stomach that won't come out either end. It's like I swallowed a box of time release alka seltzer pills and they all go off at the same time. It's very uncomfortable. And the bus didn't help. I've started eating a little. But eating is hard because nothing sounds good when I'm well (there is no way China could ever rule the world). But I've got 4 days to recover before we can ride, so I'll be fine.
The scenery is absolutely fantastic. I stared out the bus window the whole time wishing I was on my bike. It's open country with very few trees and huge rolling mountains. It's nomad territory. These people just set up tents and roam. And it's a great place to do it because of the wide open grass lands.
The Tibetan culture is the richest I've ever seen in my life, not that I've been exposed to a lot of culture. But it's straight out of a National Geographic. Women walking down the street with bizarre square topped hats, things braided into their hair, layers of wool skirts with matching jackets. Alot of them only wear the left sleeve, and they let the right sleeve dangle across their backside. I guess that's the style. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. I've never imagined a place like it. It's unreal the Chinese are doing everything they can to squash this place.
The Tibetan's rioted last year and it is evident which cities had the most riots based on the amount of police presence. It's crazy looking out over a town of 60,000 people with probably 15,000 police and military, and all the natives live in mud huts....what are the Chinese trying to gain?
In Garze we went to a lamastery. We rode our bikes up a hill and it was very obvious the moment we left the Chinese portion of the town and entered the Tibetan. The roads narrowed and all the houses turned to mud. Some old women let us stash our bikes in front of their hut while we walked up and looked around. Everything was so ornate and colorful. A monk showed us all the rooms while other monks poured tea into our palms, instructed us to slurp it out then rub it into our hair. I'm hoping it was some type of blessing, but my sickness makes me think it was more of a curse. When we got back to our bikes I tried to get a small 6 year old boy to hop on the back of my bicycle for a ride. He declined but his 750 year old great great great great great great great grandmother accepted. As I pedaled her through her small neighborhood everyone looked out their windows and cheered. She then told me to call her 'mom'. So I did.
We're back up to 12,500 feet and I can feel it just walking up the stairs. Kyle rented a DVD player so I plan on doing a lot of laying in bed watching movies. If I start feeling better there are some great peaks and ridges I could run. I don't have running shoes, but at this elevation I don't know if it would be much running anyway. But I hope I get a chance to try. I did try going into a doctor yesterday. Well, I thought it was a pharmacy, but it turned out to be a hospital, I think. I didn't have the phrase book, so I charaded as best as I could that I had gas that wouldn't come out. It wasn't an easy thing to portray, and I'm not sure they got it. A Dr. came over and took my pulse on my wrist and then put a stethescope to my stomach. When he was done he just sat there and looked at me. So I thanked him and walked out. If it gets worse I'll try again, but I'm feeling much better.
5.03.2009
Garze
We just got into Garze. This will be short. The internet cafe wouldn't let us use the internet because we were foreigners, so we had to get a permission slip from a cop. He's allowing us one hour, as long as we don't "talk to our foreigner friends about the situation in Garze...." whatever that means.
We met up with an Austrian named Christian. He's been riding for 8 months and is going to head up through Russian back to Austria. He's ridden with us for a couple of days but is heading a different direction tomorrow.
We lost alot of elevation. We're hanging out mostly at 11,000 feet instead of 14,000. I can now walk up stairs without losing my breath. I really thought after a week of being that high it would have gotten easier. It didn't.
Mom - here are some answers to your questions and the questions of your students.....
1. We think mostly in metric now. Kilometers and meters. In Tajikistan maybe it will all be hectares? I change the elevation from meters into feet in my head quite a bit, but distances are always kilometers.
2. Only the somewhat larger towns have internet. Towns with 45,000 peoplr or so. Which does blow my mind because their toilets are so incredibly disgusting. In my personal life, I put a higher priority on clean toilet usage than internet usage. There is always electricity in these small towns. Alot of Chinese/Tibetans have cell phones. We do pass a lot of 'camps' in the mountains where herdsmen live with their families for the summer. They don't have electricity.
3. Comparison of stores in China vs. U.S....in larger cities they are similar. Grocery stores have stacks of vegatables that you pay by the gram etc...but in these small Tibetan towns they are different. Very few stores have doors. They are just roll up garage doors that get pulled down and locked at night. So walking past a store you can see pretty much everything in it. We do find larger grocery stores in larger towns. They often have two floors. They do sell junk food like in America. Just not as good of junk food. We find snickers and occasionally M&M's and Skittles. Pepsi and coke are everywhere. I like Asian Pepsi more than American Pepsi. Ice cream bars are oten weird, with pictures of peas or corn. I avoid those. I like the jello popsicles. We see oreos quite a bit and sometimes chips ahoy. We buy a lot of crackers. I can't get enough salt. Their saltines aren't very salty. It's easy to find sweet cookies, but not salty. I would love some pretzels.
4. It doesn't seem modern day. Not in the small towns. I'm sure Beijing does. The toilets really blow my mind. You'll walk into a bathroom and some dude will be squatting in the stall next to you grunting it out while talking on the phone....it's very awkward. None of the floors indoors are clean. The walls are always dirty. It's not really modern, but there is sometimes running water.
We've been having to cook alot lately. I make milk rice or breakfast with milk powder, rice, sugar, and apple jam. For dinner and lunch I usually make cup of noodles. The cups of noodles are different here. Really big with lots of packets of flavoring to add to them. They're ok...
We've also been hitting alot of police check points. It usually only takes about 10 minutes. They just want to write our info down.
Our 30 day visa is up in 3 days, so we'll probably have to catch a bus to the next large town to extend it. It's not hard to extend, we're just in the wrong place.
We met up with an Austrian named Christian. He's been riding for 8 months and is going to head up through Russian back to Austria. He's ridden with us for a couple of days but is heading a different direction tomorrow.
We lost alot of elevation. We're hanging out mostly at 11,000 feet instead of 14,000. I can now walk up stairs without losing my breath. I really thought after a week of being that high it would have gotten easier. It didn't.
Mom - here are some answers to your questions and the questions of your students.....
1. We think mostly in metric now. Kilometers and meters. In Tajikistan maybe it will all be hectares? I change the elevation from meters into feet in my head quite a bit, but distances are always kilometers.
2. Only the somewhat larger towns have internet. Towns with 45,000 peoplr or so. Which does blow my mind because their toilets are so incredibly disgusting. In my personal life, I put a higher priority on clean toilet usage than internet usage. There is always electricity in these small towns. Alot of Chinese/Tibetans have cell phones. We do pass a lot of 'camps' in the mountains where herdsmen live with their families for the summer. They don't have electricity.
3. Comparison of stores in China vs. U.S....in larger cities they are similar. Grocery stores have stacks of vegatables that you pay by the gram etc...but in these small Tibetan towns they are different. Very few stores have doors. They are just roll up garage doors that get pulled down and locked at night. So walking past a store you can see pretty much everything in it. We do find larger grocery stores in larger towns. They often have two floors. They do sell junk food like in America. Just not as good of junk food. We find snickers and occasionally M&M's and Skittles. Pepsi and coke are everywhere. I like Asian Pepsi more than American Pepsi. Ice cream bars are oten weird, with pictures of peas or corn. I avoid those. I like the jello popsicles. We see oreos quite a bit and sometimes chips ahoy. We buy a lot of crackers. I can't get enough salt. Their saltines aren't very salty. It's easy to find sweet cookies, but not salty. I would love some pretzels.
4. It doesn't seem modern day. Not in the small towns. I'm sure Beijing does. The toilets really blow my mind. You'll walk into a bathroom and some dude will be squatting in the stall next to you grunting it out while talking on the phone....it's very awkward. None of the floors indoors are clean. The walls are always dirty. It's not really modern, but there is sometimes running water.
We've been having to cook alot lately. I make milk rice or breakfast with milk powder, rice, sugar, and apple jam. For dinner and lunch I usually make cup of noodles. The cups of noodles are different here. Really big with lots of packets of flavoring to add to them. They're ok...
We've also been hitting alot of police check points. It usually only takes about 10 minutes. They just want to write our info down.
Our 30 day visa is up in 3 days, so we'll probably have to catch a bus to the next large town to extend it. It's not hard to extend, we're just in the wrong place.
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