San Francisco

The flight was great! I got a meal in the airport at the gate and two more on the plane. I also sat in one of the seats by the wing which is an emergency exit so has loads of legroom - back of the net!
Got through security after a lot of questions from the border guard. Think all the 'Stans' visas may have caused suspicion! I got my bike and bags and rushed up to the BART train system to get on before the rush hour. I took the BART to the Caltrain station which I took to Palo Alto, where my friend Sam, who I went to school with lives.
I rebuilt the bike in the station car park then cycled to meet Sam on the Stanford uni campus. We caught up, Sam was shocked that I'd been sleeping in drainage tunnels but otherwise very interested in the ride, he helped me plan the first part of the route through the USA. I cycled to Sam's house, met his landlady, had some food and caught up on emails. I reflected on how different it was here! I had a kind of reverse culture shock, getting back to living in a developed country was strange, having been out of the developed world for so long.
The first things I noticed as being strange were:
1. Drivers giving way to bikes, something I hadn't experienced since Western Europe.
2. No honking horns everywhere!
3. Water in toilet bowls, and always a Western style toilet, with paper and soap provided.
4. Being able to speak to people again, and hear their conversations. It makes such a massive difference!
5. Cleanliness
6. Not being stared at and blending in.
7. Polite people.
Sam got back from uni, gave me a San Francisco guide and an American phone to get me started - very kind. Then I went to bed in the spare room, which had a tank with pet turtles in it, I reflected that a tank with animals in a house in China would have probably been for eating!
The next day I went back into the city, checked into the hotel Laura had booked for us and went to the airport to pick Laura up. I hadn't had time for a haircut but otherwise was looking (and smelling) the best I had in months! I arrived about an hour early so I waited around until Laura arrived.

It was amazing to see her after 5 months. We took the train back to the city and got a takeaway pizza and a bottle of wine. We spent the next 3 days in San Francisco, ate well, went to a diner with a brilliant jazz band, cycled over the Golden Gate bridge, looked around union square and fisherman's wharf, took a ride on a cable car through Chinatown and chilled out. Laura was having a much deserved break from working the crazy hours of a recently qualified doctor and I was shattered!

For my birthday, Laura hired us a car and we went for a drive down the unbelievable Route 1 on the Pacific Coast. It's an amazing road with perfect beaches every couple of miles. We saw sea lions at Santa Cruz, then drove up to Henry Cowell State Forest and camped there for two nights under the giant redwoods. It was an amazing place. We walked around the forest and had a barbeque on an open fire. Fantastic birthday present!
We drove back up to San Francisco and stopped at a beach for a few hours for a picnic. Back in San Fran, we returned the car and went for a meal in Chinatown. We saw Alcatraz the next day, really amazing place. The stories of the prisoners who tried to escape on a home made raft and by stealing an army uniform were great. On the last night we ate in an amazingly posh French restaurant who had a deal on because it was Monday.

It was really hard to say goodbye again the next day but this was the last time. Laura's flight was delayed, which meant she'd miss her connection on Chicago so they put her on an earlier one that gave us 20 mins to change terminal and check in. We just made it and there was no time to say goodbye properly. I was really sad heading back into San Fran. Luckily Harry, my flatmate from 5th year at uni was arriving that afternoon so I wouldn't have long to be down!

I spent the afternoon fixing my bike and checked into a cheap(ish) hostel. I met Harry at Powell St station, we had a massive burger that night. Was great to see him again, we caught up, built his bike then got an early night, back on the road tomorrow - I can't wait to get going again.

China Part 7: the end of Asia

We arrived in Pingyuo at lunchtime and had some soup in a cafe that served such delicacies as 'fried mushrooms with rape', pulls out rottenly' and 'cold vegetable in sauce cow tendons'! We found a hostel then looked around the town. I bought a fan and tried to negotiate a good price for a replica little red book.
We wondered around, although it was a touristy town, it also had a lot of normal people going about their lives in the old walled town. It had a great atmosphere. Needless to say we spent most of our time eating. We had a huge feast in the cheapest place we could find, mainly consisting of pork dumplings. In the evening we chilled out and played pool at the hostel. Neither of us got 7 balled, which was a good job cos the forfeit would have been running around the table with out trousers down!

The next day we left early and found a little family run cafe for breakfast.  We left in the rain along the G108, a road we'd be following for the next few days. We had lunch in a posh restaurant and chose the cheapest food on the menu then left again in the pouring rain. It finally stopped in the evening and we found a wood next to a motorway to camp in. There was a huge que of lorries backed up on the motorway for ages, must have been an accident, but was difficult to sleep with the headlights and noise.

The next morning I turned 25! October 11th. It wasn't a particularly memorable day. We spent it riding on the motorway. We'd covered 50 miles by lunch, which we had in Yangquan. An English headmistress took us to a cheap booked place where we had soup, then we went nextdoor and stuffed our faces with pork dumplings!

We carried our bikes back onto the motorway trying to avoid the numerous human poos left by the truck drivers stuck in track jams. It was seriously disgusting. We sorted our way though a que of trucks waiting for a toll gate and darted between them stealthily to avoid being seen by the police and chucked off the motorway. We spent the afternoon on the motorway, got another 45 miles done then left it at a small town called Janxing. We found a great shop, bought dumplings for dinner, loads of snacks, rice wine and beer to celebrate birthday and candles. We left to find a place to camp and were rewarded with the best campsite of the trip so far. We found a ruined Buddhist temple carved out of a cliff. We climbed up and lifted our bikes into a cave. There were statues there, their faces had been defaced, probably by Muslims raiding the temples, like in the caves we saw in Dunhuang. We made dinner, lit the candles and table rice wine. Fantastic birthday evening!

In the morning I spent a while readjusting the spokes in my back wheel. It wasn't quite right after I rebuilt it in Xi'an. It had rained all night so it was good to be in the Buddhist cave. What wasn't good was that the road was now covered in a thick layer of wet coal dust, which we got covered in very quickly.

We whizzed downhill to Shijiazhung (very hard to pronounce when asking for directions!!) where we joined the motorway. We followed the motorway to bypass the city. After 35 miles we stopped at a service station which had an amazing all-you-can-eat buffet. We went to town on it and ate about 3x as much as anyone else there! We also managed to slip a plastic bag full of duck into my handlebar bag. We carried on along the motorway and got chucked off by the police at Gaocheng. We ate the duck sitting on a wall and fed the scraps to puppy. We got on to the G307, the last road in China, it would take us to the coast. We camped in an orchard that night, really nice campsite.

The next couple of days we followed the G307 all the way to the coast. Had some really cheap food. Dim sun for about 60p for a massive bowl of them. The road followed the motorway on the last afternoon. We passed huge sand flats and tidal channels and could smell the sea. We had fun blocking the narrow road to see how long it took to get honked at (not long).

Web passed harbours, boats then arrived at the port of Hunhuang and cycles East to try to find away to the sea. We ended up at a dead end at a power plant and they wouldn't let us through. We attacked about 5 miles against a strong headwind. I realised it was possible we weren't gonna be able to get to the sea, which would have been a massive shame. We asked around using a picture of the sea, nobody knew where to go. Eventually we explained to a couple of guys that we'd crossed the whole country and we wanted to get the coast. They smiled and told us to follow them. They got in a minivan and drove at bike pace for 6 miles. We finally reached the sea. It was an amazing feeling. I put my bike in the water, we'd made it all the way from England to the other side of China! 2 continents crossed, one to go. Phil had cycled from Urumqi the city furthest away from any ocean in the world, to the sea.

 We didn't have long to celebrate because we wanted to get a bus to Beijing. We got in the back of the van with the bikes, Phil's was half out the back door, we were holding on to it from inside! They drove us to the bus station. It turned out that there were no busses to Beijing that day but there was one very early the next day, which would get us in about 11. We went to look for a hotel but China wasn't finished with it's unbelievable restrictions and ridiculous rules yet!

It turned out we were in another city that was closed to foreigners. No hotel would take us except an official tourist one, which cost about 40 quid a night. We were taken to the police and we explained to an English speaking policeman that we had just cycled here and we needed a place to stay but we couldn't afford to stay in the expensive official hotel. He suggested we should stay in the expensive official hotel. Great! We asked if we could stay in the police station, he said no. We asked why tourists couldn't stay in cheap hotels. He said because that's the rules. We asked why is that the rules, he didn't know. He never questioned the rules and took them as gospel. Common sense had gone completely out of the window. Having read a great book (Wild Swans) about Mao's communist party that was still around until the 70s, it was obvious that despite China's massive recent development, some things would take a long time to change.

In the end we were offered a place to stay by one of the guys who had guided us to the coast for about 8 quid. Was strange to agree to pay for a room in someone's house after the unbelievable hospitality in Central Asia and Tibet but we were happy and the family cooked us a big meal!

The next day we took a bus to Beijing. We stayed in a cheap hostel near Tianammen Square. Mao's face still looks down from a big portrait having from the gate of the Forbidden City. I was really impressed by Beijing though, lovely atmosphere, much greener than expected and brilliant to cycle around.

We saw the Forbidden City, ate Peking Duck, packed our bikes away into boxes, took a bus out to the Great Wall (spectacular), then bought knives and meat cleavers as presents. Before we knew it it was time to leave China. Phil was flying back to blighty, I'm off to USA, flying to San Francisco for the next leg. I'm nearly home, just the small matter of crossing America. First though, a week off in San Fran with Laura. I haven't seen her for about 5 months, which is far too long! Can't wait.

China still hadn't finished making things difficult. We paid a guy 2 quid to take our stuff to a metro station on the back of his tried thing. He didn't take us all the way so we struggled with the bikes down to the metro. They wouldn't let us on, but a girl and a man who worked there helped us carry our bikes and get a taxi that wasn't a complete tourist rip off. We loaded the bikes and realised there was only room for one of us with the bikes so I got in and Phil took the metro. As soon as Phil left, the taxi driver could see I was stuck unless I took his car so increased his price by 2 quid. At the airport we were offered a new iphone 4 for about 100 dollars. Good deal, except no charger, the "malasian" guy selling it to us looked and spoke Chinese and he had blatently nicked it from someone.

It was a shame to leave China on that note. I was pleased to be leaving, looking forward to the next challenge but China was fantastic. Having spent 2 months there I got to know it more than any of the other countries. I saw different people, different religions, very varied landscapes and climates and probably learned more and gained more than any other part of the trip. It was also very difficult at times, with some of the crazy rules, and that was when I valued Phil's company the most. Alone, they would have been hard to deal with but with Phil they were just funny. We made a great team, so thanks for coming Phil!
2 continents down, 1 to go...

China Part 6: Xi'an to Pingyao

The cheap hotel we found in Xi'an was on the 9th floor of a building near the ancient city walls. As soon as I got there I phoned DHL on the hotel phone and was told that they would deliver my parcel, with the replacement Rohloff hub casing that day - excellent!. I really hoped they did because if not, the two weekends either side of the week long national holiday next week would mean I wouldn't be able to get the replacement part for 10 days, by which time, we'd nearly be finished in Asia.

After cleaning up, we walked to the train station, via a couple of food shops, and got a bus to the Terracotta Army. It was incredible, the amount of work that must have gone into making every one of the life-size warriors. The Terracotta Army is 2,200 years old and was buried with the first emperor of China to protect him in the afterlife. Wikipedia says 'Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.' It was an amazing thing to see.

We left the Army and headed back to Xi'an to hopefully return to the DHL parcel and an evening of bike maintenance. It wasn't there. I eventually tracked it down to the DHL warehouse on the outskirts of Xi'an and was told it was too late to deliver it and the reason it couldn't be delivered earlier was that I hadn't paid the £17 import tax on it! A double-blow, that was a lot of money for me compared to my £5 per day allowance in China. Anyway, after eventually finding an operator who could speak good English, I was told I could go and pick up the parcel tonight. The hotel phoned a Taxi and Phil and I whizzed off to DHL, the Taxi driver didn't disappoint us with his driving speed and made sure we arrived before the warehouse shut! I picked the parcel, paid the "import tax", and headed back to the hotel thoroughly relieved. That was the start of getting the bike fixed, next I had to rebuild a hub then a wheel, two things I've never done before! I couldn't afford to pay a bike shop to do it, and anyway I doubt they'd have seen a Rohloff hub here before.

The next morning I got up early and followed the manual to take the hub apart, fit new seals, put the new casing on, change the oil bath and reassemble it. It looked good and seemed to work OK! Next I used my bike as a wheel jig and attached a cut off cable tie onto the frame, positioned next to the rim of the wheel. This would show me how close to straight the wheel was. I followed instructions on which order to put each spoke into the wheel and eventually got them all in the right positions. I did the spokes up to a tension which pinged at the same note as the ones on the front wheel and put it on the bike. It worked!

Very pleased with myself, I chilled out for the rest of the day. Phil and I found a roadside BBQ that night and we celebrated reaching Xi'an, it seemed like the beginning of the last leg of China.

The next morning, after a bit more bike maintenance and ordering a few replacement bits for Laura to bring to me when we meet up in San Francisco in a couple of weeks, we set off. We went to a bike shop on the way out and they let us use their tools and hydraulic fluid to re-bleed Phil's rear brake which wasn't working. Really kind people, they wouldn't take any money for it and gave Phil a free bell!

It started pissing it down in the afternoon. We got out of the city and found a sheltered place under a railway bridge to stay for the night. The next morning I woke up to find that Phil was really ill with a tummy bug and had thrown up a few time in the night. We stayed there and rested for the morning, hoping that Phil would feel well enough to move on in the afternoon. A local guy walked past around 11 and looked concerned when he saw Phil. He returned an hour later with 2 policemen - brilliant! The asked us for our passports, I stalled them while Phil had to go behind a bush for a number 2! They were so annoying and asked for all our details and wouldn't leave us alone, so we followed them off the field and cycled off, very slowly because Phil had no energy at all. We stopped at the first hotel we saw and got a room. Phil relaxed, I went and updated my blog in an internet cafe.

We were both feeling the pressure a bit. We had to get to Beijing by the 16th if we wanted to see both the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and still had about 600 miles to do in the next 9 days - very possible unless you're ill. Phil was a bit better the next day and we cycled through pretty average scenery, a few nice hills and small gorges. To Phil's massive credit, he managed 63 miles despite being very ill. I could tell he was knackered. Luckily that night we were given a back room in a Shell garage to sleep in and the use of the kitchen which was brilliant timing. Phil told me later that he was close to stopping and hitching a ride to catch up with me. It wasn't an option to stop for any more rest days or we wouldn't make the coast in time.

Over the next couple of days, Phil got his strength back and we cycled through some boring scenery and huge industry. Massive coal power stations spurted out pollution and coal dust, which we got covered in! We reached the Yellow River again, which we couldn't see across because of the huge amount of pollution. It was considerably bigger than when we'd left it a few hundred miles ago. We tried staying in a SINOPEC petrol station, after our success Shell. To our delight they gave us a large cupboard to use. Unfortunately the manager for the night shift came along after about an hour and wasn't so welcoming, telling us we had to leave. After arguing for a while (we'd been given permission by the other manager and had unpacked everything, brushed teeth and about to go to bed) we realised there was no way we could stay there. The manager called up his son, who could speak English OK and told us he would put us up in a hotel in the next town. A nice gesture but unfortunately it meant packing everything up and cycling another 10 km in the dark. We did it in the end and the hotel was OK, it was good in hindsight to have got that extra bit of distance done.

The next day was uneventful in the morning. At lunchtime, we got a free lunch, really nice boiled chicken stew. This was in exchange for photos of us with the restaurant staff! They were planning to put them on the wall. I'd love to go back there one day to see if they did!! After more flat road with not much to look at, we found a place to sleep, in a wood with loads of huge black and yellow spiders in webs strung between trees.

After escaping the wood without spider bites, we lifted the bikes onto another motorway and nailed a few miles. We spent the whole day on the motorway, anxious to catch up miles and stopped to eat in service stations, that were gradually improving as we approached the rich cities of the East. England got knocked out of the Rugby World Cup by France, bugger!

Finally the next morning, it wasn't raining! More motorway riding brought us to the ancient walled city of Pingyao. It was fantastic, although very touristy. The walls were in good condition and it was a lived in city centre, with traditional houses next to the tourist sites. We had a looked round and chilled out, ready for the final stretch to the coast. We'd now settled on Huanghau Port on the East Coast as the best place to finish. We'd get a bus from there to Beijing.