19/6/25
Free to have another late start we indulged in the hotel buffet breakfast for £1.50 each. A nice big bowl of noodles, with some spicy pickles and plenty of the burnt chilli paste Jonathan enjoyed. Steamed buns with purple sweet potato, watermelon and soy milk on tap. By the time we left it was 10am. Most of the morning had been spent trying to find a suitable hotel in Kunming. Going to a city was always hard with the bikes, high rises made it even harder in China. Airbnb had withdrawn from China, so it had to be a hotel.
Towards the mountain pass we took an easy route. Long straight and well sealed. Fortunately this part of the G245 was smooth. Looking for hotels was stressful. There were so many nice ones that we weren’t confident could accommodate the bikes. Mountains loomed ahead of us. Clouds sat on top. It was evident where we were going: the only gap between the peaks.
Climbing started as soon as we left the urban area. Relatively gentle, it didn’t ramp up and remained at around 6% steadily for the whole 7km. We didn’t need to stop once. Overall it ended up being almost 450m of climbing. Pleasant forest made for nice scenery, but there were no views to speak of. Even when we reached the top. The descent started as we passed through the manmade cut in the mountain top.
Not more than a 100m lower down and we entered a new plateau. Glimpses of a large lake appeared in the distance. Nearby it was mainly industrial buildings. Gradually we descended down to a huge array of apartment blocks. Despite feeling like we were close to Kunming, it was another 40km.
Greenhouses surrounded us. We joined a dual carriageway that passed scenic wetlands next to the lake. Taking another whack at finding a hotel ended up with us circling back to the youth hostel. Recommended also by a fellow cycle traveller in the WhatsApp group.
Up ahead was a tunnel. Cyclists were banned. We had to come off the road and use the paving stoned path. At first it looked like it took a rough track and would climb a steep hill. Disheartened we checked Mapy and saw a pink cycle path mapped under the bridge. As we went under the road we saw it. An unbelievably premium cycle path through the wetlands. Back the way we’d come it continued. This beauty was obviously quite new. There was nothing clearly marked on the maps.
Riding on perfect tarmac we flew through beautiful, sodden, trees. Hundreds of people were enjoying the wonderful lakeside path. Walking and cycling. Miles and miles it went. Everything was perfectly manicured. Sadly it came to an end, blocked by construction works, after 10 miles. They aspired to make it a total of 70km. Dreamy.
Being back on the road was no fun. The closer into the centre of the enormous city we got, the more traffic negotiation it entailed. Though there was a perfectly segregated cycle path, it was heavily abused by electric scooters. Whooshing past our cumbersome contraptions through every conceivable gap. Soon we were in the thick of it. Clusters of identical skyscrapers. When they build here, they don’t hold back. Enduring 10 miles of it seemed absurd. The traffic flowed at least. Stopping and starting constantly made us tired and frustrated. Scooters were making our lives miserable. The positive side was they weren’t gassing us with fumes. On the whole the air quality was infinitely better than we’d become accustomed to.
The youth hostel was near Cuihu park. Otherwise known as Green Lake. The hostel had a small frontage. When we enquired about the bikes it turned out that it was two flights of stairs. Our “helpful” fellow traveller thought this hilarious. We are obviously fit young people. They didn’t know that though. All different types and ages travel by bike. Jonathan lugged the bikes up to the garden on the 3rd floor. Floor 1 is the ground floor in China. Panniers were all carried separately. A separate elevator took us to our room on the 4th floor, starting from the 3rd floor. So now we were on the 7th floor?
It wasn’t anything fancy and far more expensive compared to the fancy hotels we’d stayed in so far. At least we had somewhere to store the bikes safely. Behind a fence. We locked them and covered them with a tarp. For dinner we went to what was described as a vegetarian buffet but it was all vegan. Several delicious condiments were on offer. One of which we’d seen before but weren’t sure what it was. It tasted suspiciously like blue cheese. We asked a man sitting opposite who educated us. Fermented tofu. Sometimes known as soy cheese. Unbelievable this wasn’t available in the west, it put all other faux cheeses to shame.
There was no toilet in the restaurant. However, China has an abundance of public toilets. A phenomenal amount so there is always one nearby. When Frankie went to the toilet, a group of Chinese men engaged Jonathan in conversation. Immediately an invitation to smoke was extended. They were very friendly. We bought some fruit from a large shop. A man came over. Jolly Koh was an 84 year old artist from Malaysia. He’d been to Dali to unveil his latest piece of work. Angela, his wife, was much younger than he.
After months of delay we finally bought some durian. It tasted okay. We weren’t blown away. We couldn’t help but wish we’d tried it when we in the more tropical part of the world. A bit silly of us. It wasn’t cheap though.
Surly They Won't Make It 