Macau to Suixi

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Where to begin! Well, to say that we've had a tricky time of it in China so far would definitely be the understatement of the year! Despite a few bumps in the road we're on track(finally-read on!) and having a great time! We are in Suixi and despite pedalling 72 km today we are only about 28km further down the road than yesterday! We arrived in Macau on a late evening ferry on the 14th of Jan. We got word the next a.m that our bikes were finally due to arrive early that evening-woo hoo! We spent the day exploring the city. It was cool-definitely lots of Portuguese influence-it's still an official language and so is on all the signs and is spoken in government offices etc. which came in handy at the post office when we mailed some stuff home as well as mailed some stuff "poste restante" to ourselves further on in China for when we'll need them later. For those of you who may be using this blog as research one of the things we mailed to ourselves was our China lonely planet guidebook. At time of writing there is a warning on Lonely Planet's website(as well as many postings on their thorntree northeast asia forum) describing how Chinese authorities at the Lao Cai-Hekou border crossing from Vietnam have been confiscating the guidebooks! Apparently they take issue with the fact that Taiwan(a territory they claim) is shown in a different colour on the map than China. One might think: I'll just rip out the map then-NOT! This little trick isn't flying-they're apparently taking them anyway-Doh! Anyway, our bikes did finally arrive but G's bike had some damage that forced us to stay another day and find a bike shop. I didn't tape the fork to where it goes through the head of the frame and it must have got jostled around quite a bit because the lower race of the headset was smashed to bitties and the bearings were everywhere(I warned you non-bikers that there may be some bike talk!)!! With some difficulty we found a bike shop and the fix was literally less than five mins. and cost a cool 60 Macau dollars(about $7 Cdn.) for a complete new headset installed! We got away from the hotel in Macau at around 8a.m-ish the next a.m and made a bee line for Cafe Nata hoping to score a few goodies for the road(the WICKED Portuguese egg tarts for me, creme tarts for G!) only to find, much to our dismay that they were closed 😞 . As near as we could figure they should have been open but as we are quickly discovering, the accuracy of our "figuring" one could say has been less than stellar-lol! After negotiating the maze of one way steets to the border post(with a stop along the way at another bakery where we found our "faves"), I got my first flat of the day. After unpacking the bike and removing the rear tire we discovered that it was a pinch flat(for those of you non-bike geeks it's caused by the tube being pinched between the tire and rim and is usually a result of inadequate tire pressure). To save on time we decided to change the tube completely and patch the original tube for re-use later. I think that at this point we were averaging around 8km/hr- a pace that doesn't get you too far too quickly! The border crossing is all done inside buildings and we had to take the diplomat lineup as it was wide enough to accept our bikes(you're corralled(sp?) like cattle through narrow gates. The border lady kept asking if we were professional cyclists as she couldn't seem to fathom why else on earth we had so much gear. We explained that we were on a long trip with cold weather expected and would be camping and cooking. She shook her head at the crazy cyclists and waved us through. They have a series of four buttons that you can press rating the service that you received from the customs official that have little faces ranging from sad through indifferent to very happy and even though she had been kinda crabby at first I didn't have the heart to press on the bad buttons so I clicked on the maniacally happy button(plus I wasn't sure if she'd see our choice-lol!) and off we went! It took us forever to get out of the city on the other side as we can't read chinese and none of the symbols on the signs matched the ones on the our bilingual maps. Asking locals seems to be a bit of a crapshoot as inevitably loads of them gather round and each one seems to have a different opinion on which way you should go! So we sort of take an average of their opinions along with our best guess and a look at our handy little keychain compass(thanks Vish and Pips!). We're definitely improving but it's been a challenge! My second flat of the day(another pinch flat!) came about 3km after the border. We decide that we should have a zero tire deflection policy from then on(read LOTS 'o pressure!). We decided to patch the first tube I'd blown and it seemed to work fine(until we discovered a slow leak later that was manageable-just add a little air and you're good for an hour or two). All day we were never quite sure where we were and had to turn around more than once or twice. Eventually, after a discussion with a bunch of young policemen at a local station near the end of the day involving lots of sign language, laughing and referring to our phrasebook we realized that we were in Shenwan which on the map looked no more than 20 or 30 km from where we started but our odometre showed that we had gone 50km!! After explaining that camping in their compound would be "inconvenient"(we had to try!) they directed us 8km further down the road (when we asked for a cheap guesthouse) to "Good World" hotel. Well, I'm not sure that valet parking and bellhops was exactly what we had in mind but it was dusk and we didn't have a lot of other viable options so we stayed. It was 238 Yuan which is still inexpensive by our standards($34) but blows the doors off a China bike-grunge budget! As the weather was kind crappy and we didn't feel like another day of spinning our wheels(no pun intended) we decided to bus it to Zhanjiang and make up some time as our one month Vietnam visas had already commenced and were nowhere near close yet. Plus, it looked like the roads might be a bit more straightforward from there. We ended up huddled together in a freezing cold bus station together for four hours eating chocolate biscuits and raw ramen while waiting for the bus. We arrived at 9p.m in the dark and my tire was flat so while G was asking some locals about accomodation I decided to change the flat with the other tube that I'd flatted earlier and then had patched at a roadside bike mechanic(a lady!). Well, as we are finding here-youv've got to get used to having an audience and changing a flat is a real crowd pleaser! Quite a crowd of cabbies and other people at the bus station had gathered and when the tube I'd just replaced burst like a gunshot they couldn't have been more ecstatic! We all had a good laugh and after I'd finished a second but succesful tire change and they were done tooting my bike horn(that's right I said horn not bell-another crowd pleaser-thanks Eric!) we set off with our flashing LED's to the "cheap" hotel they recommended. Surprise, surprise...another fancy place! It seems like locals here don't really grasp the whole budget hotel idea-it seems like they think it would be silly to stay in a place other than one that is the most you could afford. We get the idea that that extends to clothes and cars etc. too. We broke the bank again and had a nice stay at the Jin Hai hotel. People are so friendly and helpful here-Minnie at the front desk was so nice! She kept telling us how brave we were for biking through China and insisted on helping us carry our bags. After a breakfast the next a.m(which brings us to today-Jan.18/08) we set off a little late and once again had a bit of a time trying to get out of town-we asked a bunch of cabbies at the station and had several different opinions so we used our standard procedure(see above-lol!) and decided on a direction. It wasn't until 22km and one spontaneous tire coming off the rear wheel(guess whose bike again) followed by a massive tube burst while attempting a repair(with a crowd of at least a dozen kids delighted!) that we realized that we'd gone the wrong way and would have to completely backtrack 😞 . So after 2hrs and 38 mins and 44km we were back where we started! We managed to get another 30km in so that we we would at least be on the plus side of the scale for the day. We're now holed up in a cheaper hotel in Suixi(which btw on our map looks only half that distance from Yhangjiang-unless we're not actually in Suixi-which is a distinct possibility!) and we've had a great feed of noodles(10 Yuan gor the two of us-$1.50-yeah, that's more like it!) and tea, & are sure of the road to take! We're in good spirits and ready for an early start tomorrow and hopefully a lot more progress!

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Photos

Wrong turn!
This was obviously a wrong turn but was super-fun!

Crowd Pleasing!
A good time had by all!

Comments

[Dad]

Pounds
Chris, Sounds like you need to loose a some weight. Tires are sensitive you know! Love, Dad