So long China. You've been beautiful and ugly, frustrating and funny, welcoming and rude, delicious and disgusting, full of peaceful roads and noisy red construction trucks; often all in the same day!After 59 days and nearly 3000km of pedalling in China, we were more than ready for a change. We leave you with a video … Continue reading China UPs and DOWNs
From Shangri-La our plans were dictated by the number of days remaining on our Chinese visa (and also our desire to meet our favourite cycling Dutchies in time for Christmas =)). We had more than 1000km to cover in just over 14 days. Given that the terrain was relatively flat (in comparison to our previous … Continue reading A border dash with a hiccup
It took us over a month to cycle from Lanzhou to Shangri-la on the Tibetan Plateau. We experienced a crazy range of elements and landscapes: from the white snow cold in the high mountains to the autumnal green valleys and steep bare rocky gorges… And a lot of prayer flags, prayer wheels and smiley amazing … Continue reading White snow, grey yaks, green valleys and multicoloured flags
A few days after heading away from Lanzhou it soon become clear that we were gradually entering a different region. Signs started having not only Chinese characters, but also Tibetan script. On the horizon a few golden roofs of a temple or a stupa began to pop up. A few colorful flags dancing in the … Continue reading Tibetan Plateau
Despite our excitement, the first few days of cycling in China were undeniably difficult. Funny and interesting, but also incredibly frustrating! We seemed to face a wall of "mei-yo"s, aka "don't have". Sim card, money exchange, petrol for our stove? Mei-yo, mei-yo, mei-yo. All asked in conventional places: mobile phone shops, banks and petrol stations. … Continue reading Mei yo!
It was fair to say that we were both excited about entering China. We had applied for the visa months ago, when we were in Tehran, but now it was actually happening. As we kept excitedly exclaiming to one another as we cycled towards the border: "we're going to China!!". China felt far away from … Continue reading Chhhiiiinnnaaaaa!