Following the M41 north to Bishkek

We had a couple of days rest in Osh where there isn’t much to see. It was very hot and we mainly spent our time hanging out in the hostel researching all the visa requirements and planning our route.

We also treated ourselves to some meals out and found a bar/restaurant we both liked.

It has to be said, the food in Kyrgyzstan isn’t what you would call michelin star! Unlike China, where almost everything we ordered was mouth-wateringly delicious despite the menu being almost incomprehensible, all the dishes we have tried here have tasted and looked more or less identical.

Firstly, dill features heavily in EVERY dish. You can’t avoid it, whether you’re after a quick pastry snack or a horse kebab, it’s mixed, sprinkled and garnished on everything!

It’s not uncommon for your plate to include four types of carbohydrates – although this is great for us cyclists – and it’s very hard to find a dish that doesn’t contain meat. In one restaurant, we noticed that the vegetarian pizza was considered vegetarian because it only had one type of meat on it – sausage!

Rice, potatos, bread, pasta and buckwheat – a cyclists dream!

Three things Kyrgyzstan does well are meat, bread and beer. It’s the first time pretty much we have been able to buy fresh milk and butter too, something we both missed in lactose intolerant Asia.

Naans fresh out of a road side clay oven are delicious and whatever meat you order it’s always juicy and tender. Draft beer is common but you have to watch for the alcoholic content, we absentmindedly drank 4 pints of 11% one evening. My beer always comes with a straw…

We’ve naturally eaten a lot of horse which is very rich but delicious!

Food ranges from very cheap to average. Kyrgyzstan currency is the com (som) and it’s the first currency where we have used a 3 piece coin!

After our rest days in Osh we pushed onwards north to Bishkek.

We would be following the main highway the M41, all the way.
Despite its name, the Kyrgyzstan M41 bares no relation to the M41 motorway in the UK. It’s more like a potted A road where you often have to navigate your way through large herds of sheep, horses and cattle.

It can get fairly busy with traffic but we were avoiding a lot of this by waking up very early, siestering in the afternoon and cycling late into the evening. Kyrgyzstan drivers are some of the worst we have encountered – they get very close and they drive fast but a lot of the time the road was pretty quiet.

Again we did a lot of wild camping.

battling heat rash by washing our cycling gear ready for the next days ride

Some of the cycle was very beautiful, particularly the stretch following the river which is dammed the whole way along ending in the huge Toktogul reservoir.

Whatever you think about hydroelectric dams and their affect on the local environment, they can create some pretty spectacular lake views further up stream!!

I find Paddy busy cooking dinner after I get back from the best lake swim I’ve ever had.

We cycle through a lot of towns and villages on our way. One in three people here drive a retro Lada car and this along with the shabby soviet buildings and shop fronts makes rural Kyrgyzstan feel a little bit like a 1970s film set. I even saw a small scruffy dog trotting down a street with a string of sausages clamped it its mouth.

It reminds me a lot of a family holiday in Bulgaria I had in my teens.

We continued to experience the warm hospitality of the Kyrgyz people on our journey north.

One evening we stayed with a family who were teaching some visiting kids from Osh how to ride. We both got a go too. In my excitement I slightly ‘overdid’ my mount and nearly completed a full somersault over the poor creature!

Once on, all was ok!

Another evening we pitch our tent near some yurts and are presented with a pot of fresh hand-churned clotted cream. After our horse meat chilli (a dish we cook a lot) we had it with biscuits and our honey glazed peanuts.

It’s the best meal we’ve had so far!

Paddy also treated himself to a bottle of honey which was extracted fresh from the hive in front of him.

We are also taking advantage of the abundance of seasonal fruits available to have with our porridge in the morning.

So, despite the poor food in restaurants we’re certainly not going hungry!

The hot weather disappeared on the last day and we found ourselves sheltering under a lot of trees to escape the heavy rainstorms.

On one such stop we were invited in for ‘chai’ by an elderly man.

He plied us with his homemade brandy, bread and his own freshly prepared apricot jam.

While we ate he told us (all through eloquent gestures and sign language) that he was 76 years old, his wife had passed away 10 years ago, that he had 4 children and 8 grandchildren and that he had a bad heart for which he was taking 8 different kinds of medication.

He then got out his world map to see where we had cycled from.

After hearing about our trip Paddy showed him his taped together shoe to give him a laugh.

He didn’t find the broken shoe very amusing. Instead he disappeared for a few minutes. He came back with his cobblers kit…

And proceeded to first tack paddy’s soles back in place and then sow the holes in the fraying fabric.

This is the kind of kindness you experience in Kyrgystan.

An Introduction to Kyrgyzstan!

So it’s just under 2 weeks since we crossed the border into country number 6, Kyrgyzstan.

Updating the blog has been tricky as we’ve been doing a lot of cycling and camping.

Neither of us knew much about this country before we arrived. Sandwiched between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China it has a population of just 6 million; a dwarf in comparison to its neighbours.

Our plan was to head up to the capital Bishkek where we would spend a good stretch organising our visas for the next stage and then loop back down towards Tajikistan. All in all, taking around 5 weeks.

Formerly part of the Soviet Union until independance in 1991, little Kyrgyzstan is a relatively new country.

Naturally, almost everyone speaks Russian but the Kyrgyz language remains very strong, particularly in the southern part of the country where the people are more Persian looking and Islam is practiced more widely.

We crossed the border without knowing much of this at the time. We knew no Russian or Kyrgyz words and we even forgot to exchange our Chinese currency for Kyrgysz Som at the border… We were woefully underprepared for our venture into a new country…

It’s 4pm before we reach the first border town. There’s a strong headwind and just passed the town we see our road snaking up a very stiff gradient – neither of us fancy doing much climbing today.

We stop just outside the town and contemplate where we can pitch up. A girl of around 14 rushes out of the first house shakes our hands and beckons us inside. We are fed bread, jam and tea and told we can pitch our tent in the garden. We spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the many local kids who like climbing the bike and using our tent as a den.

Before bed a dinner of fried liver, dill risotto and a kind of homemade fudge is presented to us. This is our first taste of Kyrgyz hospitality and we feel very humbled.

The next morning we rise early and say our goodbyes to our hosts. The daughter requests we pay something towards the food. The small sum of 400 is suggested but we remind ourselves we don’t have any local currency. We readily hand over 5 USD instead which is accepted with thanks.

This first experience of Kyrgyz hospitality was tainted slightly after we reached the next town where we discovered that someone had stolen money from our bag during our stay in the house. It wasn’t a lot (the equivalent of around £40) but we felt sad it had happened after having had such a nice evening.

Something like this was bound to happen at least once and there was no point obsessing over who we thought might have taken it…. It was a good lesson that we should never leave our handlebar bag somewhere, even for 10 minutes in the living room of a friendly local family…

Our next destination was the town of Sary-tash roughly 75km away. From there we would cycle the remaining 175km East to the southern city of Osh where we would enjoy a well deserved rest day.

There would be some big climbs involved and we soon discover the blissfully easy gradients of Chinese roads are a thing of the past.

Russian/Kyrgyz road builders love a good gradient. There are often signs telling you how steep the next section will be, but as Paddy and I soon discovered, these hold little relation to the true gradient. The signs almost always read either 12% or 8% and we’ve now learnt that their purpose is to simply let you know a climb is coming… a REALLY steep climb!

I was convinced that we wouldn’t find scenery and countryside nicer than we saw in China but that was before I cycled in Kyrgyzstan.

The cycle between the border and Osh was spectacular, and for me personally, its some of the most rewarding and nourishing countryside we’ve camped in.

Stunning snowy mountain ranges which give way to the greenest, richest rolling hills you have ever seen. As we lose height, these, in turn, give way to sweeping meadows of long grass and hundreds of species of wild flowers.

Some fields are literally stained bright red with wild poppies while others are home to a thick tapestry of yellow, pink and blue.

We have also seen some stunning bird life including bright blue rollers (thanks D&P!), hunting kestrals, huge eagles, nesting storks, swathes of swallows

and this little lark who sat close, serenading us one evening.

The vast lakes and clear streams have meant we’ve rarely had to buy water and we’ve enjoyed a shower and a sunbathe in the warm evening weather. One morning I wake to find these two toady subjects making their own camp in my shoe! I contemplate keeping them as bicycle pets while one of them permits me to hold him for a while before hopping away.

All in all its perfect camping weather!

Onto this bucolic backdrop you pass collections of traditional yurts and caravans, momentous herds of cattle, groups of men harvesting hay by hand and children racing around on their pet donkeys.

Having travelled to find new pastures for their herds, nomad families sit on large rugs in the shade of trees next to their open backed trucks which they will later unload.

While stopping for our afternoon siesta (it’s too hot to cycle between 2-4.30) this travelling family of three generations invite us over for lentil soup and tea.

Their old-school truck complete with sleeping grandmother in the back, excitable kids and practical mother figure reminded me of the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath – the difference here of course is that they choose their travelling lifestyle.

The most important lifeline for these people are of course their horses. The Kyrgyz people are reportedly the best horesemen in the world and they have been breeding and domesticating horses here for well over 4000 years.

Kyrgyz horses are known for their speed and endurance and are also raised for their meat. They are big beasts averaging between 13.2-14.2 hands.

It’s pretty magical seeing a huge herd of these beautiful creatures cantering across a field in front of you as you sit eating your breakfast.

This happend so often, our cycle between the border and Osh began to feel like we were on some fantastical journey across the lands of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings…

Being here in June has meant witnessing the start of the foaling season. Not only is it nice to see these bandy legged arrivals jumping about in the sunshine, it has also meant we have been able to witness the skilful talent that is mare milking.

The people of Kyrgyzstan love drinking mare milk which they ferment to create a tangy, slightly alcoholic drink called Kumis. They also dry it into hard, Bon-Bon like sour snacks called kurut. Makeshift stalls are set up all along the road to sell both throughout the summer.

We were given a 2L bottle of kumis by a friendly lady who was waiting for a bus. Put it this way, it is an acquired taste and I’m not a fan!!

Paddy drank quite a bit that evening but this was after the bottle had been sitting in the sun all day and he had a dodgy tummy the next morning.

So our first week in Kyrgysztan has been a pastoral paradise really!

The people in Kyrgyzstan are amazingly friendly and hospitable but they also respect your personal space and privacy. They are naturally interested in you but after coming to say hello, shaking your hand and asking where you are from they leave you to get sorted, calling their children away too so you are not gawped at while trying to change out of your sweaty cycling shorts or set up camp.

This was a nice change from China, where the people are undoubtedly friendly and generous, but at times, a bit brazen! There was often a lot of staring, fiddling with the bike and routing through our bags without permission in China! You also get photographed A LOT in China (this really started to irritate Paddy after a while) but people here generally ask permission before they snap you which is a nice change.

Many men still wear the traditional Kolpok tall woollen hat which is often decorated with black or brown embroidery. Even this builder was wearing one while laying a wall in the beating sun!

The women here are beautiful and (in the South in any case) wear tied head scarfs and love wearing elaborately embroidered clothes. It’s very common to see both sexes sporting a few gold teeth.

It took us 4 days to cycle to Osh. Here we will have a rest day before cycling north to Bishkek.

China in Stats

Total number of days: 58

Number of days spent cycling: 37 / 68%

Number of nights spent wild camping: 19 / 33%

Total kilometres cycled: 2831.3km – almost the exact equivalent of cycling from John o’Groats to Lands End and back.

Longest Day: On the road between Shaxi to Lijiang -115km

Shortest Day: Afternoon cycle out of Ganzi towards Dege – 39.2km

Highest Peak: Chola Pass, Sichuan at 5050m (there were many others! I wish we had the total number of metres climbed!)

Total spend: 15,909Y (£1,690.44)

Average Daily Spend (excluding big costs such as other travel, visas extensions, bike gear, dentists etc): 167Y (£17.76)

Total spent on Guesthouses and Hotels: 1735Y (£184.57)

Total spent on trains, busses and shared taxi: 2086Y (£221.91)

Total spent on new bike gear including clothes: 2900Y (£308.51)

Meeting Paddy’s doppelgänger, a visit to the tallest natural arch in the world and a race across the desert – our final days in China!

Our visa extension for China ended on the 5th June so we planned to leave Kashgar on the 1st giving ourselves a very leisurely cycle to the border with a day or two to spare if we needed it for any reason.

Unfortunately, we had both failed to notice that the 5th was actually a Sunday, and the Irkeshtam border is closed on weekends. Luckily we realised on the eve of leaving following a conversation with Michaelangelo, our Spanish friend. Unlike some other countries, there are heavy fines for overstaying in China so this was not an option.

We were also told that we probably wouldn’t be able to cycle the full distance to the border as China (for some random, unknown reason) built their checkpoint 180km from the actual border line, and they make all travellers take a taxi to the Kyrgyzstan checkpoint.

All this meant that instead of having five days to reach the border we now only had two, leaving a day to get through customs, find a taxi who would carry the tandem, and cross the border before the weekend. All still doable but it wouldn’t be as leisurely as we’d hoped.

We were well stocked up for our cycle through the desert and we still hoped we’d have time to make an afternoon detour up to Shipton’s Arch – reportedly the highest natural arch in the world according to National Geographic who rediscovered its whereabouts in 2007.

So we set off through the hot barren landscape and on the afternoon of the first day we meet Stephen cycling the other way. Stephen is also from Dublin and I could tell that both him and Paddy we’re delighted at meeting a fellow countryman.

Stephen is the first Irish cyclist we have met and him and Paddy looked pretty identical. Weirdly identical actually….

Having met Paddy’s doppelgänger we keep going and set up camp in a village off the road. A nice family lets us camp in their garden.

The strangest thing about this part of the world is the time zone. All of China officially sets its clocks to Beijing time, but as you might have gathered already, China is a big country and Kashgar is actually 2 hours behind Beijing in real time.

Paddy and I were still on Beijing time when we disembarked the train in Kashgar and it was rather weird experiencing a sunset at 10:30pm.!

Kashgar and the surrounding area works on two time zones – government buildings such as banks and the post office work on Beijing time, but local businesses tend to keep to local time. All this can be rather confusing and its important for travellers to clarify which time they mean when booking stuff!

During our ride through the desert Paddy and I kept our body clocks working on Beijing time – this worked well for our final few days cycle as it meant we were packing up the tent and jumping on the bike at 9am but in terms of daylight it was really 7am. This was perfect for the desert conditions as it meant we could afford a siesta during the hottest part of the day and carry on cycling until late into the evening.

The desert has a kind of beauty to it, nothing like the sweeping sand dunes of the Sahara we have both visited in Morocco, but there were still camels… We are on the famous old Silk Road after all!

This landscape is much rockier with some impressive mountain ranges and the odd green oasis every 20 kilometres.

Despite the heat we make good progress and do have time to take a detour up towards Shipton’s Arch. It’s a pretty tough 3 hour cycle in the heat with no shade but we’ve filled up on lots of water from a tap in the last town which Paddy sterilises using his new toy – our new UV pen. This, along with our gravity water filter, should mean we shouldn’t need to buy bottled water ever again!

The arch is another 35 minute walk from the road and involves a pretty spectacular trek through this dry gorge and up some rickety metal steps.

When you first catch sight of it you find yourself slightly disappointed because it doesn’t look as tall as you’d expect.

Once up the final set of steps though you realise it arches over a very deep valley which drops directly down on the other side. We spend a fun 10 minutes dropping large stones into the gorge and listening to the echo as they tumble down to the bottom. It’s pretty cool and we contemplate how on earth it’s been formed…. Lindsay Sheen might be able to offer some insights here…

Pictures really don’t do it justice…

Here is Paddy scoffing his face on a refreshing watermelon at the top. Kashgar is famous for its delicious harvest of melons at this time of year.

The ride back down to the road is very quick and great fun.

We camp with the sun setting behind some impressive mountains with a view across this eerie barren landscape.

The next day we completed the 30km to the border town of Ulugqat where we spend an age trying to find the market so we can stock up on food before crossing the border. (For future reference it’s located in an underground car park a few blocks down from the main Central Park.)

It’s 12:30 by the time we reach the border control building which is really poorly signposted. We try our luck with the guards regarding cycling the remainder of the way to the border but they insist that we have to take a taxi. We ask why we can’t cycle but all they can tell us is that it’s the rules.

We’re shocked when the taxi driver tells us it’ll be 400Y to take us and the bike (drivers always try to charge more when they see the tandem!). We plead with the border guard, explaining that this is a real expense for us and he manages to negotiate a 100Y ‘discount’ for us.

Without any other option we load the bike on top of a big stack of suitcases. When I ask what’s in the suitcases the driver tells me they are Gucci hats!

As we sit in the truck on our way to the border the only pragmatic reasoning I can put to this strange border set up is the 2 hour time zone difference. Naturally the border authorities want you to enter and exit the country the same day and near the same time you receive your exit/entry stamp. There is a two hour time difference between the two borders and it’s about a two hour drive… So if you exit China at 2pm and then drive to the Kyrgyz side, by the time you get there you will be stamped in at 2pm.

I suspect that this is just me trying to assign some logic to something that just isn’t logical however… There’s a lot of stuff about China that isn’t logical and we’ve learnt to accept (and to an extent love) the randomness of this crazy country.

The Kyrgyzstan side couldn’t be more different to the Chinese side. We’re greeted by a VERY friendly guard sitting in a tiny wooden hut next to the roadside.

‘Welcome to Kyrgyzstan!’ He cries.

‘Please cycle down the road and report to the border control to receive your stamps.’

At the border control the guards make a joke at our different nationalities and our two country’s history.

‘A girl from United Kingdom and a boy from Ireland, together, on a bicycle?! How can this be!?’ He says, while winking at us.

We receive our stamps with no trouble and we cycle on down to start a new journey in country number 6. We have a pretty good feeling about this one already!

Time to explore the land of the great horsemen. Our Central Asian adventure awaits!

Kashgar

Kashgar was a nice place to relax before heading towards the Kyrgyzstan border.

Much of the historic old town (where many of the buildings were over 500 years old) has been torn down and replaced by new ‘replica’ buildings which although smart feel a bit empty of any character.

Kashgar was a central hub for the famous Silk Road and consequently has a very famous bazaar which we visited and had lunch at – a egg noodle and chickpea spicy salad with fresh bagel and homemade spicy chicken drumsticks.

Despite it being a Tuesday it was still bustling and I even witnessed a raucous fist fight develop between two of the stall owners.

We also cycled out to the Abakh Hoja 17th century Mausoleum which is an interesting place to wonder about and is considered to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in the province.

The complex consists of the domed mausoleum which, is decorated with mismatched blue and green tiles, and a number of mosques all built in the typical Uighur pairing, used for summer and winter respectively.

The whole place is surrounded by nice gardens planted with heavily scented roses, complete with an enormous shaggy camel…

We also took a walk through the graveyard next to the complex.

Our hostel was a great big building with a large courtyard full of other travellers. There were a number of cycle tourers passing through, most of them Chinese, but Henry the Durham cathedral choral boy and music student at Edinburgh University rolled in one evening having just arrived from Kyrgyzstan. It was good to swap stories with him.

There was Connar the Irish man and his wife (both in their late 40s) from Australia who were enjoying a years career break travelling across Asia and finally Michelangelo from Barcelona, who liked to wear a very long black turban just for fun (he’s actually a Christian) and who makes his living by travelling to Pakistan and Afghanistan for 3 months of the year to export the blue gem stone Lapis lazuli.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning the bike and stocking up for our cycle through the desert up towards the Irkeshtam Pass which will see us cross the border into neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and eventually see us arrive in Osh.

Swapping the bike for the train – our hard sleeper adventure north to Kashgar

So we had successfully shipped the bike as cargo two days ahead of us (or so we hoped!!) and it was time for us to begin our four day journey to the Uighur town of Kashgar situated in the western tip of this huge country.

The journey would see us cover an epic distant – about the equivalent of travelling across Bhutan, Nepal and Northern India. I really didn’t appreciate just how huge China really was until I came here.

Split into two parts, the first section of the journey would see us reach Urumqi, a 48 hour trek, arriving at 12 noon. We would have a 9 hour stop over here where we hoped to have a break from the trains to explore the city and enjoy our first taste of Central Asian culture. From there on it would be another 18 hours overnight skirting the Taklamakan desert to Kashgar.

For both journeys we had booked ourselves a ‘hard sleeper’ seat which is much better than it sounds. It’s certainly cosey with the six bunks squeezed in but the beds were pretty comfy and we both slept well all three nights.

The food on the trains is notoriously terrible and as we wouldn’t be able to use the stove on board we got creative with what meals we could cook with just boiling water which is supplied free in every carriage. Like everyone else, instant noodles featured heavily on the menu but we bulked ours up with boiled eggs and veg and we still managed to have our porridge in the mornings.

The worse thing about the journey by far was the music which they insisted on playing on the train tannoy system RIDICULOUSLY LOUDLY. This soundtrack was a terrible mix of Chinese and American pop including Every Breath You Take by Sting (shiver)… There was only a limited number of these soundtracks which meant they were on repeat all day.

My least favourite compilation was an album of ‘live on stage’ Chinese pop songs in which many of the singers found it difficult to stay in tune. There’s just something incredibly frustrating about hearing a singer clinging desperately to a bum note while they are cheered on by adoring fans…

Right music snob rant over… the second thing which was also mildly irritating was the constant smell of cigarette smoke. EVERYBODY smokes in China, and I mean everyone. You weren’t allowed to smoke in the cars but the door was kept open at all times and all smokers simply went into the connecting corridors to light up instead.

Despite these tiny annoyances, we both enjoyed our rest away from the bike. Paddy finished two whole books and I dedicate some time to my cross stitch which I had almost entirely neglected since being in China.

Having journeyed across nearly half of Xinjiang province – China’s Uiguar homeland – we arrive into Urumqi and stash our 6 panniers in left luggage.

We were then free to explore the city and get our first taste of Uighur culture. Back in the deliciously warm sunshine, we found a bus heading into the city centre with a plan to find our first kebab and nan and then take a look around the free museum which turned out to be well worth the visit despite the humorous wax models introducing you to the different ethnic groups who make up the Xinjiang social melting pot.

Many of the artefacts displayed there were amazingly preserved due to the specially dry climate. There were wooden bowls and leather clothes displayed dating from 2000 years ago and some eerie mummies laid out in glass boxes who dated as far back as 800BC.

There were even preserved ‘barley cakes’ in one cabinet!

Miles an miles of desert as we sweep west

24 hours later we’ve crossed the vast Taklamakan desert and arrived in the old Silk Road hub of Kashgar or Kashi. The town is closer to Tehran than it is to Beijing and arriving there felt like we had already crossed the border to begin our Central Asia tour. Stacks of nan breads, tiled mosques, the smell of kebabs and bustling bazaars; we were a million miles away from the Tibetan plains we had been cycling across a week before.
The heightened security at both Urumqi and Kashgar stations however were a gentle reminder that we were still very much in China and the ethnic tensions which have dominated the province’s politics for the past 60 years still exist here. It seems Beijing’s crack down on ‘Uighur terrorism’ continues.

Much to our delight and relief tandem was waiting for us in tact at Kashgar station. It was very good to be reunited with our bike, and we happily cycled towards the famous old town where we hoped to get a decent bed somewhere central.

A 24hour Chengdu Root Canal

I’m not one of those people who has great teeth. The summer before this trip I had a filling fall out while eating some Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut which the dentist on Seven Sisters road put back in, but he advised it might need more treatment. I had this tooth on a long list to get this sorted out before our trip, but unfortunately that item never got ticked off. I thought it might last a year, I was wrong.

The tooth started hurting, A LOT, coming down from one of our Tibetan peaks to Litang. Luckily we had some penicillin which I took based on some sound internet advice and a vague memory that penicillin could treat a toothache. Amazingly it did the trick for a few weeks but by the time we got to Chengdu I really needed to see a dentist.

It started with Luis, our excellent Catalan warm showers host, sending a group message to his local expat network. Within an hour I had multiple recommendations, within two hours I was whatsapp-ing with the dentist about the problem, the price and making an appointment for the next day.

I turned up at the address the following afternoon extremely nervous and not knowing what to expect. However I ended up having brilliant treatment and service.

The practice was spotless and I first got a tour of all the shiny new international equipment the have. The dentist trained in Germany and has a PhD – this pleased me greatly as those who know me know my faith in German technology! Perfect English was spoken and my fear of having to run from a backstreet chop shop was put to rest.

After an X-ray she took time to explain what was going wrong and that I was going to need a root canal and I’d have to come back in a week for the second part. “But I’ll be in Kyrgyzstan”. After a long chat about outcomes and risks she agreed to do it all in one day and give me more penicillin in case it all flared up even worse.

Just before she started I was told she forgot to include in the price the optional anesthesia (150Y). “Yes! Give me the goddam drugs!” Apparently a lot of Chinese clients don’t like anesthetic, even for a root canal!

If it all went to plan I was told I would have an international tooth: Chinese handiwork, American filling material, Japanese equipment, original bad British filling and weak Irish teeth. It was a real challenge for the young dentist, after coming back from one X-ray I found her being encouraged by the practice manager. “You have very long teeth!” she said. I had total faith in her at this stage though!

Just to add a touch of the surreal, the practice manager informed me of her love of Ireland and Celtic mysticism, Enya in particular. She proceeded to put on some of her favourite tracks to accompany us during the second half of the treatment. Listening to Enya while getting a route canal wasn’t ideal, but in some strange way it did actually calm me down.

In the end all went well, it took about 3 hours for the consultation and treatment. Total cost was less than £100 equivalent, much less than in London. I’m going to floss regularly from now on…

Chengdu

We woke to a lovely sunny morning in Chengdu and we set the bike up and spent an enjoyable afternoon getting our bearings and cycling around the city as we started to tick off our very long to do list.

Chengdu seems like a very pleasant city and we both really enjoyed cycling around its streets. We were lucky with the weather on the first couple of days but the last 2 were characterised by Chengdu’s standard weather – drizzle, smog and a hazy white sky.

We managed to find a big digital department store which took care of our need for a new camera lens cap and headphone splitter. We also cycled south to visit the big decathlon store and managed to easily spend 350Y buying various bits and pieces.

In the evening of the first day we headed over to meet Lluis our very generous warm showers host. Lluis has lived in Chengdu for six years but is about to leave the city for good to start a PHD in linguistics at Pheonix University.

His lovely roof top flat would be our home for the next four days. It was such a treat to be in a proper home rather than a hotel room and Lluis couldn’t have been more welcoming or helpful. He also had some very interesting books, a piano and a great coffee machine. All luxury items for us!

Building light show from Lluis’ roof top garden

Unfortunately he had a really busy week at work so we didn’t spend as much time with him as we’d have liked.

Lluis had very kindly accepted two parcels for us from home which contained a range of stuff from a sterilisation UV pen, a new spare tyre, Paddy’s new bank card and a Goretex jacket and new Helly Hanson thermals for me. We spent an enjoyable evening playing with these new additions to our gear.

The next four days were spent sorting a lot of stuff out. We rooted out the best bike shop in the city -Natooke – which is run by two American guys who were super friendly and really knew their stuff. They look after pretty much every tourer who passes through the city.

Tandem was left over night at Natooke and got a couple of small upgrades including a couple of spacers placed on the bottom bracket so the chain will no longer rub in the lowest gear, new bar tape for Paddy’s handlebars, two new seat clamps and most importantly a super duper Hercules-like bike stand which says it will hold up to 75kg.

Lluis helped us find a good dentist and hairdressers for Paddy as well as replenish our dollar stash by hooking us up with his ‘money dealer’, a middle aged Chinese woman who rides around Chengdu on her moped carrying a sports bag filled with at least £25,000 in various currencies.

I jealously look on as P enjoys a long head massage in the hairdresser

The third day was dedicated to taking the bike to the train station and sorting out having it shipped on a cargo train – we wanted to get this process started a couple of days before we embarked on the epic four day journey to Kashgar ourselves.

The whole thing was surprisingly easy and cheap to do. After completing a simple form and handing over 130Y the bike was casually rolled away by a guard – we just hope it will arrive safe and sound. We were told it would take between 5-6 days which means it might even reach Kashgar ahead of us.

For those who need to go through the same process with their bike at the northern train station make your way to the cargo building which can be found to the right of the main train station entrance. Here is a picture of what you’re looking for:

We also spent a lot of time on the wifi planning our next month which will see us leave China and cycle to Osh and then on to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.

Amongst the shopping, travel planning, posting, bike fixing and dentist appointments we did manage to find time to do a few touristy things.

Funny electric noodle shaver – wish i could bring one of these back for my uncle Jeff…

We took the metro south to visit The New Century Global Centre which is essentially a huge entertainment space complete with hotels, department stores, cinemas, a huge, ice rink and most bizarrely it’s very own ‘beach’ which enjoys artificial sunlight 24/7 surrounded by a blue chloride pool which simulates the tide…

It wouldn’t normally be our kind of place at all but after the remote weeks away we were both craving a little capitalist indulgence and I have to admit, the garish idea of seeing an indoor beach was slightly attractive, especially as it was teeming with rain outside. The centre also boasts the pretty cool title of ‘largest building (in terms of floor area) in the world’.

We didn’t stay long… A couple of hours were more than enough to take in the golden escalators, marble floors, big LCD screens and fast food joints (we had a McDonalds!) and unremarkably, the whole place was rather a disappointment (apart from the Maccy Ds!).
We instead retired to a bar called The Bookworm which Lluis recommended. Here we had a sublime time consuming red wine and a French cheeseboard (the first taste of both we have had in 5 months) while browsing a number of good books.

Afterwards we took the metro to Jin Jiang bar street which straddles the river next to a picturesque bridge surrounded on every side by lit up sky scrapers.

Drinks were expensive but by chance we ended up sitting at a table next to the manager of the bar who plied us with free fruit platters and cans of Weiss beer.

Consequently we stayed until late and ended up chatting to her lovely English speaking Tibetan friends about the current situation there. It was an interesting evening and we didn’t get home until 3pm.

We also had time to make a visit to Tianfu Square where there is the customary tribute statue of Mao – I still can’t get over how weird it is that there are statues of him everywhere –

and wonder around People’s Park where the trees are all on drips…

It’s a fantastic place to people watch. Here is a man practising his calligraphy using just water on the stone slabs.

We spent a nice hour sitting by the rowing pond in a traditional tea house where I partook in the ultimate Chinese relaxation treatment – having your ears cleaned.

Many Chinese people find having theirs ears cleaned intensely pleasurable but I found it rather uncomfortable, slightly nerve racking and, at points, a bit painful!! Maybe my ears were very, very dirty! I did comment to Paddy that I felt I could hear better after though.

Our last night was spent in a small French cafe with Lluis and his friends drinking more red wine and eating even more cheese.

So we’ve nearly completed our two months in China and it is time to sweep our way north west to Kashgar from where we can cross into Kyrgyzstan. The journey will take the best part of four days and three nights and will see us cover a momentous distance.

We have booked ourselves a hard sleeper seat so will have bunks where we can sleep but nevertheless we expect it to be a cramped few days.

Cycling Inertia

We naturally needed a rest in Ganzi to recover after the past week. The plan then was to cycle south to Kanding where we would sort some public transport to get us to Chengdu.

Taking this rest day however meant we had to cover the 330km to Kanding in four days. Normally 80km average a day wouldn’t be too much of a problem for us, but there were some big climbs involved, and to tell you the truth, even after a day’s rest, we were both still pretty exhausted from our northern expedition across the western Tibetan mountains.

It ended up being a hard couple of days, mainly due to the fact we were both just so tired.

Here I am making a bridge across an open sewar so we can reach the town after we found our road closed and traffic being directed around a long diversion.

On the morning of the second day I realised that we had only given ourselves two days out of 12 off the bike – no wonder our legs were giving up on us – and we were both a bit sick of the relentless cycling/camping drill.

Half way through struggling up a climb on the third day we stopped for a drink and a horrible little kid threw rocks at us.

Later in the afternoon we were chased by a couple of really vicious dogs. Luckily the large stick which we had been using as a temporary bike stand was strapped to the back. I’ve never hit an animal before, but these dogs were really going for my ankles and I gave them both a good whollop on the head before they were finally chased away by a passing motorcyclist who stopped to help us.

Later again, the rain rolled in and we agreed to give ourselves a break and get to the next major town, Bamei, find a hotel and organise transport for the last 110km to Kanding.

This turned out to be a very good decision as we managed to organise a shared taxi to take us and the bike to Kangding for 200Y and the foul weather got worse overnight and continued all throughout the next day.

Despite our driver’s slightly erratic overtaking and the countless crashes we passed on our journey to Kanding we were glad to be in a vehicle rather than battling up hill through the rain, fog and wind.

On the way down to the town we passed a huge group of Sunday cyclists climbing the long switchback road up towards Kanding airport. Many of them looked soaked through and miserable and we were very happy to be in the car!

We reached Kanding at around 1:30 and booked ourselves on to the 4:30pm local bus which would carry us and the bike to Chengdu.

Before it got dark we were able to look out and appreciate the vastness of the Dadu river which is repeatedly damned the whole way to Chengdu. At one particular section, it was like we were driving around the edges of a huge lake rather than along a river. We enter a long straight tunnel and on reaching the other side find ourselves suddenly driving along a deep, empty valley instead.

Looking back over my shoulder, I gaze open mouthed at the imposing concrete wall stretching across the full length of the gorge. It must be nearly a kilometre high, the biggest hydroelectric dam we have seen by far.

The journey took nine hours and we sleepily disembarked in the centre of Chengdu at 1:30 in the morning.

We had had to take both wheels, seat posts and handlebars off the tandem and we were not looking forward to putting it together in the dark and rain before finding a hotel.

Luckily a family approached us and said they owned a cheap guesthouse just around the corner. We settled on a 50Y price and were able to carry the bike frame and luggage between us. At least we wouldn’t need to worry about setting up the bike until tomorrow morning and, dog tired, we fall easily asleep despite the very loud snores coming from our neighbour in the room next door.

The 5050m Northern Loop – part 2 (off road)

Day 4: Dege to Horpo

Stats: 86km / 4 hours / 20.9km/h

After our nice rest day in Dege we continue on our northern loop journey (part 1 here) – from here on, the adventure would really start.

The first day from Dege, heading towards Hepo, would be easy, we knew it was paved and we would be following the famous Yangtze River (again!) downstream so no big surprise hills to climb. Most excitingly we would spend most of the day being a stones throw away from Tibet who’s borders start on the other side of the river.

All major roads and bridges to Tibet are still heavily guarded with checkpoints. Chinese tourists are able to travel freely in the region – after all, it is technically part of China 😦 – but foreign travellers require a permit and to be accompanied by a registered guide 24/7.

We very much hoped we’d find a way to sneak across along the way though, it would be nice to symbolically set foot in the region, even if it was just for 5 minutes.

So we head off and it’s a nice cycle with a lovely paved road. We pass a monastery on a hill and down below next to the river are these big tents.

A very strong tailwind helps us along and we make good headway and finally we see a footbridge adorned with prayer flags stretching over the river towards a thin track leading away from the shoreline. No checkpoint and no Chinese security in sight!

These angelic twins peaked theirs heads out of a window to watch us cross.

After the excitement of reaching Tibet we stop for our standard noodle and veg lunch and a yak fight breaks out in front of us. It’s not as ferocious as we hope, ending after only a few minor head bumps.

75km on, the paved road finishes and the last 8km to Hepo is on dirt road – it’s a very neat, compact dirt road though, obviously very nearly ready to be paved. We expect it to be complete this summer…

As we approach Hepo it really starts to rain heavily but we manage to find a small restaurant and shop where we stop for a nice bowl of noodles.

During a restbite in the showers we set up camp on a public grassy park like section just outside the town. We get an early night due to the rain.

Day 5: The end of the road…

Stats: 60km / 5:12 hours / 11.4km/h

We wake to a glorious morning and set off up the same dirt road through a gorgeous valley. Today we hope to get to a village called Dalang Duo which is where the road ends on our OSM map.

Wild flowers of every colour line the banks and up the valley we can see trees covered in blossom, their branches almost sagging under the weight of white, pink and yellow flowers.

Shaggy horses and long haired yaks keep us company as we wind our way up. We’re getting more and more remote as we climb and the white plastered chortens we have got accustomed to seeing turn into simpler stone and compact earth structures.

We fill up our water bottles from mountain streams and stop for lunch in a great gorge.

The road narrows and gets bumpier… We climb up the final valley but some of the road is too uneven and steep to cycle so we have to get off and push the tandem instead.

On one such climb the bike slips and Paddy ends up face down in the road. He’s covered in red dust but otherwise unhurt and we push the bike up the hill.

We reach the village called Dalang Duo which is the final marked point on our OSM map. Here the road stops completely and there is only a small path onwards to the next village.

We would be making some educated guesses on how to reach the valley on the other side of the 4700m high mountain from here on…

A bunch of men were laying a cement road just outside the village and so we ask them how we get over the mountain pass to Ganzi from here.

Many of them look disbelievingly at our bike then back at us and shake their heads. They point back down the dirt road we’ve just come up.

We try to explain that we are aware that there is a way through, and that we wanted to get up over the mountain and down towards where we knew there was a connecting road down to Rongpasta and back to Ganzi.

In the end a friendly monk pointed to a valley which we could see cut its way up above the village and, through limited sign language and marking points on our map, he explained that it was a steep, narrow track up to the top which then descended into a valley and connected to the road we needed.

It was clear from his facial expressions that it would be a difficult ride and Paddy and I came to terms with the fact that we would likely be pushing the bike a fair amount of the way.

We find a great riverbank spot to pitch the tent and as its early and we have plenty of fresh water to hand, we boil enough up for us to wash the majority of the dust away.

As we’re getting the tent up, a cheerful group pass by on 3 motorbikes. They have just headed down the pass we’re hoping to climb the next day. This cheers us up a lot – if they can get through so can we.

They borrow our bike pump as one of them has a flat tyre and the women casually examine all our camping gear. They also show us the caterpillar cocoons they’ve collected – an absolute delicacy in this part of China!

We fall asleep feeling apprehensive about the next day and wondering if we’ll make it over… Im not feeling the best either and I just hope I haven’t caught anything really terrible.

Day 6: The new winter sport of ‘cycle pushing’

Stats: 23.4km / 5 hours / 4.7km/h

It’s a drizzly morning and I wake up feeling very coldy but we manage to get going early… we both knew it was wise to give ourselves as long as possible to find our way up and over the pass.

We climb on the bike and start to peddle up the slippery stony track. It is very steep and it soon becomes clear that we will have to push… We manage to cycle about 100m and then have to get off to push the next 100…

This basically sums up our morning… We creep up the valley zigzagging our way around a roaring stream, half pushing and half desperately pedalling.

We’re 5km in when we meet a yak herder who signals that there is snow at the top of the pass. We can’t turn back though, we just can’t, not after coming all this way…

We keep going and some helpful switchbacks able us to cycle about a kilometre before we have to get off and push again.

The valley opens out to a boggy plain, it starts to hail quite heavily.

We stop to cook up a quick lunch and as we’re reviving slightly over a steaming mug of coffee we see the motorcyclist who had passed us earlier coming back from the top.

He stops and signals that there is knee deep snow, that he can’t get through and he’s turning back to try the way round via Dege instead.

Paddy and I look at each other.

‘It doesn’t sound too good, does it?’ I say to P.

‘No, but he can’t push his motorbike through snow, we can push our bike.’

I agreed, I also couldn’t face turning back, not without trying, not after pushing the tandem all this way…

We both felt better having eaten a lot and as we pack up, the hail stops and the sun breaks through. We take this as an encouraging sign that we should keep going.

After another two hours of ‘cycle pushing’ we reach the summit and yes, there was snow. It must have fallen the previous night.

By this point, an added challenge in the form of our footwear had developed. My shoes and socks were soaked because I had slipped while pushing the bike through a river. Paddy was in a sorrier state… One of his shoes had decided that now would be a good time to disintegrate and he was having to reinforce his foot with duck-tape every half an hour….

It was hard to see how much snow there was on the actual path so we pushed our way up and reached our first drift.

Definitely doable.

We had got through this first hurdle without too much hassle.

We turned the corner and saw the path disappeared under two foot of fresh snow. About 400m away across this smooth white carpet we could see the path snaking its way up and over the pass.

It was 4pm. We had to do this, we just had to! If we got through this we’d be over and then we would have gravity on our side.

Our only option was to leave the bags, take the bike across and then come back for the gear. To add insult to injury, as we unloaded the bike, our beloved stand broke.

Bu**er!!

With Paddy at the front and me at the back, we half dragged, half carried the tandem through the snow which, at the deepest points, came to half way up my thigh. It held up well and we rested it on the bank while we went back for the bags.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the image of Paddy on top of that mountain -trudging through the knee deep snow in his his red goretex jacket, cycling shorts, bare legs and duck taped shoes, our huge yellow ortlieb rack bag slung over his back…

If the situation hadn’t been so crazy I might have found the whole thing funny!

Anyway, we got the bike, the bags and ourselves across safely. Here is a quick snap I took of the top (photos weren’t high on the list of priorities at the time). You can just make out the faint black trail going across the right of the snow drift… That was where we pushed our way through.

So we were at the top but there was another similar snow drift on the other side of the mountain. We were no longer pushing up however, and as a new snow blizzard started (no exaggeration!) we managed to drag the loaded bike through two more drifts.

It was 6pm and we had done the hard part. The ‘road’ on this side of the mountain was little more than a narrow path through a boggy, muddy field. We needed to lose height fast though. Thankfully the blizzard had passed but we were betting that it would snow heavily again that night.

As we squelched our way down the valley we spotted a collection of buildings in the distance. Smoke was curling its way up from a small chimney!

The hut was owned by a lovely man who lived there with his young grandson (we think) and their herd of yaks. They were incredibly kind to us and we spent the evening sitting by their fire as they fed us steaming noodles cooked in chilli and rich yak ghee – the closest thing to cheese we have eaten in the last 4 months.

Over bowls of steaming yak milk tea, we showed them photos of our travels across China and made paper aeroplanes and boats in the light of their single electric lamp.

Day 7: Completing the loop

Stats: 66.2km / 3:40 hours / 17.6km/h

I woke up full of head cold and feeling pretty rotten but we knew it was pretty much downhill from here…

It had snowed a lot the night before and outside we found our very own 6.30am Tibetan winter wonderland.

Here is the mountain we passed over the evening before – now completely covered in snow! In the foreground you can just make out our host collecting the yak dung which is dried and used as fuel for the fire.

And here was the path we would need to follow…

After a breakfast of traditional tsamba (a kind of flour mixed with sugar, ghee and yak milk which is mixed with the fingers in a bowl until you get a brown dough)

I swallowed down two paracetamol and we donned our plastic bags, wet shoes and Shimano shoe covers. At the gate we said our appreciative farewells to our lovely hosts.

The grandfather insisted on wearing his hat and made his grandson run back to the house to fetch it before the photo was taken.

The snow had melted fast and there was barely a path across the wet land. We pushed our way through two rivers until we opened out into the next valley – here there was a good road which we turned right onto. It was downhill from here, we should get back to Ganzi that evening!

We were back on glorious dirt road with another impressive scenic backdrop.

Yaks – our constant companions throughout this 6 day ride!

Woman we met by a small temple built around a big holy rock…

She wouldn’t let me take a photo of her face which was amazingly wrinkled. In the bag is a large black dead bird.

I spent the day feeling very feverish. Paddy cooked lunch while I fell asleep in my helinox!

We eventually got back to the paved road, and, dog tired we finished the 35km (most of it downhill) back to Ganzi.

Shower, yak pie, and bed with a promise of a long lie in the next day I think…

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