Boss dinner

Okay, I’m a day behind the blog but remembering that I was here in this exact place five years ago, it’s not quite as impressive to me. The Li Jiang terraces are awesome, but we only spent an afternoon and evening here, then we woke up the next morning so not much to talk about, check out some of the pictures below. I guess the most interesting component of that day is the ridiculously sleep steep climb up the hill to get to the terraces, followed by a 20 minute hike with your bags up stone steps that have been there for hundreds of years… Think about that…

It was raining in the entire day yesterday on the trip up until the very end, so not real pleasant day to reflect on.

The next day however, I woke to a clear sky sunrise after a day of rain at the terraces. So happy for no rain, the terraces are 700-year-old rice terraces that cover the mountains almost every direction and see for quite some distance. So just being in the space is inspiring. Nevertheless, we rode out in the morning and rode back down the same hill we rode up, heading towards Quingshanit Reservoir. This was another 100K day, another pretty huge day for a recreational cycling trip.

At the end , Bobby the guide’s boss joined us for dinner and were very interested in finding out any improvements we could suggest for the trip, on the one hand, that is totally awesome that they actually give a shit, on the other hand a little nervous for our guides. The boss brought a bunch of rice wine liquor with them, some of it tasted absolutely like power steering fluid, not that I’ve ever tasted that, but I poured it into the reservoir before and smelled like it tasted… anyway it was a very nice night with them, they went all out to give us a very warm welcome, tons of food, lots of liquor, and it was a very enjoyable evening!

This is one of the many things I like about China, Western visitors are so rare, that most of the people here actually give a shit about what you think! And of course is not because necessarily Chinese are wonderful ambassadors, to the contrary, as much as us as it is they want to maximize the potential to improve the trip for the next set of questionnaires that may attract…

A couple of stories about the last day or two are some parts of the trip…

I have never been on a trip where the guide is so focused on proper chain and gearing usage! At each stop, they will actually inspect our gears and call us on it when were in the big front ring in the small rear ring, or vice a versa. While that is actually in many ways commendable, because so many people trash their gears and break chains, in this case is going over the top after a while…

So today when we were riding our hundred K, that was probably a 30 km section that was on the flat two lane rd. that had some headwind. I will always take advantage of a truck or something that comes along that I can draft behind. I had just caught up to Ian at some point, and when I did I kept hearing the putput of an old truck coming up behind me, and I knew that this was the truck that I could drop behind in terms of its relative speed. So I busted my ass and caught up to it, and was drafting directly behind this wonderful blue Chinese truck! Interesting thing is, it was truck full of shit! Probably pig shit, it’s stunk like hell, but it was a fantastic ride for probably a good 10k, and that really helped in a 100 km day to have a break behind a truck!

I know the value of drinking water on these long trips! You have to force your self to drink more than you can possibly imagine it would ever need in order to stay healthy through the day. The other cyclists consistently under drink, and at the end of the day they’re always complaining about how long a ride if it is, how much of their ass hurts, how much the clicks hurts, etc. I drink probably 20 ounces of water for every 10 km consistently, I know for a fact and the other riders do not drink that much! I brought it to their attention several times, but this afternoon it was very clear that my advice was no longer walk him. So I will not bring that up again!

Ice cream has been this nutritional gift that has been hard to come by. Today riding in the second half, Mr. By stopped at a store and found this ice cream, and all of the come on popsicle sticks, not the kind that comes in the scoop. It is such a treat after riding all these kilometers to be able to provide your call sweet ice cream of some sort! So we had one of those today, mine was Neopolitan three flavors covered in chocolate. Pretty fantastic!

I am overwhelmed with the kindness Chinese people can show. Just time for me to lay down my head, prepare for another day…

Gnight all , fading fast here near Guilin…

Pix if I can…