I am tired, so this is gonna be highlights only. A 68k day day started riding down the gorge beside the huge Yangtze. Back down in the valley floor, we headed north up two passes today! At our first break, we had the traditional pita-like bread, cheese, fruit/nut mix, coffee, tea, and FRESH mango! We’ve had this at every stop so far. Then, there is a lunch after that, usually at a local restaurant.

We had a great lunch today; potatoes (shredded and pan fried), chicken, cabbage, shredded lotus, rice, greens, and cauliflower. They all come out on separate plates. Fantastic!

After lunch, we headed uphill and downhill both; we are working our way to Shangri-la tomorrow. (True story! Look it up) But in tonight’s town, very small, we had a dinner similar to the lunch. It was very good.

With a group of just seven, it is so much easier to do everything vs 15. But more often it is just six of us as Jimmy the Singaporan guy who is a smoker is having an ankle problem that seems more severe as the hills continue. Saving face is a huge Asian thing…

After din, we walked up the main street, about the equivalent of two city blocks, and noticed two pool tables outside with locals playing. Kathryn (AUS) and Andrea (GER) somehow talked themselves into a game with the local gang. Paul (USA) and Kathy (NZ) played the second game. It was just so interesting watching people who shared no language whatsoever play this game. I shot some videos. By the time of the second game, a dozen locals had gathered to observe the apparent spectacle. Funny.

Then all back to hotel and in bed by 930pm. It was very hot today, so everyone is pretty beat.

I shot lots of video clips today. All day we were in varying density of pine tree forest. The smells were so wonderful. Another really good day.

Day 5 – Walnut Grove – Bai Shui Tai Cycle out along the spectacular gorge road which is literally carved into the side of the mountain. The first 10 km is downhill to the small village of Heika and from here we start to climb on a nice gradient for 23 km. After the ascent there is of course a great descent into the Naxi village of Haba where we have lunch with a view of the snow capped mountains. After lunch there are more ups and downs and a final push up to our comfortable hotel. Bai Yu Yuan Hotel. Ride 70 km. B L D

Today was supposed to be a rest day. Not to be so! A hike was recommended by guide Ja last night to hike on the high trail along the gorge. So, up at 0630 and biked up to Tina’s Guest House about 4k uphill. Only Paul, Kathryn, Andrea and me were foolish enough to do this.

Hiking up a very steep rocky goat trail for 90 minutes, we finally reached the parallel trail. OMG, what spectacular views! We continued along a trail literally cut out of rock faces with hugely steep dropoffs. Do not slip!

Crossing one waterfall, we continued on our way to the Halfway Inn way the hell up on the mountain. Up to this point we had hiked about 14k (8.5m) and up about 200m (600f) and we are already at around 9000′ here and that is noticed breathing! A very wonderfully hot day too.

Troubles… Paul lagged behind us a bit as we arrived at the Inn for a break, coffee and tea. I saw him approaching and waved to him, never considering he could somehow not see the big red door to the inn!! We waited a while and in his absence we assumed he was taking pix; not so. He bypassed and continued on assuming we were still ahead.

The three of us finally started our way down the mountain, took 90 minutes to get to the main road, a narrow two lane paralleling the river. Paul had walked all the way ahead of us, then the 12k back to Tinas along that road. Poor Paul!!! What great fortune we had…We hit that road and after about 2k walking back, a taxi van stopped, we negotiated a price, and we were ecstatic to ride back to Tina’s!! Just 50 yuan, about $7.

We had two plates of excellent fried greens, sautéed shredded potatoes with ginger, shared a beer; that was 30 yuan; about $5. I love Asia!!

Biking back to Woodys where we stay tonight, then bike out of the gorge to the north.

Most folks are lounging in the warm air on the back patio where the south face of the gorge looms so large in your vision that your neck would hurt to see the top. My pictures will NEVER do this place justice…

Day 4 – Walnut Grove Rest Day We will have a free day in Tiger Leaping Gorge to rest your legs and take in the breathtaking scenery. For the energetic there is the option of taking a hike to the bottom of the gorge following small dirt paths along its dramatic cliff edges. Oth-erwise, just sit back and be mesmerized by the sheer natural beauty of this re-markable natural wonder. Tiger Leaping gorge is believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. At its narrowest section it is only 30 meters wide and it is from this point where according to an ancient legend a tiger used a rock as its stepping stone so it could leap across from one side of the gorge to the other. Chateau De Woody Guesthouse. B

What a spectacular awe-inspiring, yet challenging day! We rode up about 3000′ to near 10,000 elevation. A couple of the folks expressed difficulty breathing, I was fine all day! So thankful for my health.

Our biking day started at White Water River, a beautiful turquoise glacial fed lake. This place was full of hundreds of Chinese tourists. It was possible to rent traditional Chinese costumes an have photos taken while atop water buffalo. I have pictures! But truly an amazingly turquoise mountain lake.

Up and up all day. We rode up a mountain pass and over into the Yangtse gorge. Just stunning to see everything, and still farming at high elevation.

We hiked down to the Yangtse while porters carried our bikes due to the steepness and rough gravel trail. At bottom, we took a rustic ferry across, then hiked 2k up the other side to a gravel road. Back in the bikes for another 12k mostly uphill along the incredibly scenic Tiger Leaping Gorge. All together 70k today, lots of uphill!

Finally arriving at Chateau de Woody in the middle gorge around 7pm, a very rustic guest house. Very basic rooms, but looking directly across the gorge. Reminds me of El Capitan in Yosemite; an incredibly high near vertical face that completely fills your view up to the clouds. Fantastic!

We had a wonderful home cooked meal of eggplant, snap peas, broccoli, potatoes (rUsty), chicken, yak, rice, cabbage soup, and a couple other dishes. Wonderful food after a full day of biking.

Tomorrow is another day to be thankful!

Day 3 – Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge We transfer to the edge of the national park and start the ride to the gorge of Yangtse River(Ch. Jin Sha Jiang). The first half of this ride has two long climbs to get to our high point of the day at 3200m. From here we enjoy a spectacular 30 km downhill to Daju (1780m), this is a fantastic stretch with some great views. After a late lunch stop it is only a short ride to where we hike down to the river, cross in a small ferry (with the bikes) and then climb out of the gorge for 2 km. We then have the option of riding the 14 km to our guesthouse. Chateau De Woody Guesthouse. Ride 76 km. B L D

So today was a short but extraordinary day in the hills above Lijiang. We stopped at a small Buddhist monastery up in the hills, and a bunch of old women there performed a traditional dance for us that we could take pictures of as long as we made a contribution, which of course we did.

So first a little information about Lijiang. It is the most popular tourist city in all of China now apparently. Lijiang was completely and absolutely destroyed by an earthquake 1996. Since then this place has rebuilt with incredible speed. There truly was an ancient town here full of old market buildings stone walkways waterwheels and ancient stuff. It has been rebuilt to look as if it’s old. Everybody says about Lijiang, it is new old. And really, if you didn’t know better you could walk through most of the ancient town and believe that it in fact was 1000 years old. It really is amazing the work that is done here. But on the outskirts of town you see in enormous housing developments being built, great wide roads some of which we were riding on today. It was really a great ride for our first biking day.

We got back to town reasonably early in the afternoon, so a couple of us went out to the main part of town outside of the ancient town, and Paul and Catherine were looking for biking shirts which they found. Then I just happened to see a foot massage sign on this one building, so we ended up having a 90 minute foot and leg and actually pretty much the whole body massage. $78 Yuan, or about $13! It hurt a lot actually, especially after hiking the day before and biking today, but I’m convinced that the massage of sore muscles is good thing. Then we met up with the rest of the group for a simple dinner tonight, and everybody’s crashing pretty early tonight.

A big day tomorrow, about 70 km in hills, and I think tomorrow will be our first view of Tiger Leaping Gorge. I’m excited for that because it is one of the deepest gorges on the planet as I understand. As is common on these bike trips, it’s just after 9 PM and I can barely keep my eyes open. How funny is that, so different from my normal life where often I feel like I can’t even sleep until midnight.

China is such an interesting place, and because one of the group members is Chinese but lives in Singapore, we’re getting a lot of other perspective on how China works from him. Apparently there is this thing they practice called Guangxi, which is if you know somebody who knows somebody, then you can get things done. It’s not about bribes in the traditional sense, but it’s about influence.

And it’s also interesting to see things being built here in such a massive scale. The last time I was here a few years ago, it was similar in that huge highways were being built, cities were being created in the middle of nowhere apparently, and not unlike the outskirts of Lijiang today where massive buildings are being built to house people that will be moving over the next years.

Sleep now…

Day 2 – Baisha Town Ride We ride north out of Lijiang and soon hit the quiet back roads that take us to Suhe Village, follow the narrow back roads passing through a few Naxi villages we will ride to Baisha, a small Naxi town that is very photogenic and is a good spot to sample some ginger tea. After a moderate climb we reach the view point of the day, a place worth stopping for a picnic with the views out over the flat plains that surrounds Lijiang. After the picnic we head down hill on the other side and cruise back into Lijiang with a gorgeous view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on our left. In the afternoon you may visit the Mu Palace or the Black Dragon Park or attend a performance of the Naxi orchestra. Dinner is on your own tonight. Hexi Hotel. Ride 45 km. B L

Right now I’m laying on the bed listening to this gang of Chinese men outside my window playing cards. Chinese men are the loudest most annoying people ever. Our day was very full, Catherine Paul and I were walking around Lijiang old town and were accosted by a woman named Li who promised us a fantastic day of sightseeing. So after while we decided to go with her for about a four hour trip. So we did sightseeing stuff but then she dropped us off at the base of the hill and basically said climb up there and you won’t regret it. She said it would take one hour to get top. Well an hour and 45 minutes later we finally got the top. We were all absolutely exhausted going up this massive hill. She sent a guide on the horse with us, but he rode the horse up most of the way while we walked. After a while, Paul needed to ride the horse up, and Katherine did for little while too, but you know me I went up all the way hiking. Well we were rewarded at the top of course. We were able to see across to another valley and saw the Yangtze River from our vantage point about three thousand meters above where we started. It was one hell of a hike. And going down was no easy chore either. Then we met up with Lee again, and she had a nice lunch cooked for us.

After what turned out to be actually about a 6 1/2 hour trip, we finally got back to the hotel and the guy was looking for us. So we have almost immediately had to leave after taking a shower to get all this damn dust off of us going up the horse trail up this mountain.

We walked across ancient town to another restaurant with the guide and that the rest of the gang. Kathy from New Zealand, Andy who is a south African living in Thailand, Jimmy from Singapore, Andréa from Germany, and the three of us. It’s a nice small group so that should be good.

I am totally beat from today. Have to get up about 630 in morning for the first day of cycling. So even though these assholes are playing loud cards outside my window, I can barely keep my eyes open and need to sleep.

Ok, seriously sleepy! Keep falling asleep as I’m trying to write this.

Day 1 – Arrive Lijiang This tour will start in Lijiang where you’ll be met at the airport. Lijiang is an an-cient Naxi town in northwestern Yunnan, with a history dating back over 800 years. We stay at fine hotel with traditional Naxi Courtyards in the old city. Ex-plore the old town, which is a delightful maze of narrow cobbled stone path and old wooden houses. Walking through its lively market square, you will encounter women dressed in traditional Naxi costume, selling anything from traditional crafts to Chinese herbs. In the evening we have dinner to welcome you all. Hexi Hotel. D

Tom

Everything becomes blurry when you travel for so many hours playing. Eventually, I got all the way to Hong Kong at about 2 AM to the Novotel city gate Hotel. Got up early in the morning mainly because I couldn’t sleep anyway and we are friends and stuff, and up with Paul and Kathryn at breakfast and had a wonderful meal with hundreds of things to choose from. But of course, there’s nothing like a bacon to make your day just about perfect. Then, we headed back to the airport and started our day journey of two more flights to Lijiang. Not too much drama there, just a lot of waiting around and doing very little other things.

As soon as you leave Hong Kong though and get into mainland China; in this case which was Kunming, you sure see that things are so different. Much less modern developments around, and yet that’s not quite accurate. It’s more like there are modern things visible and present, but they are dominated by many many many older and worn out things.

Anyway, we finally made it into Li Jiang ancient town. We are staying at that Hexie hotel and it is right on the square in the ancient town. Very touristy actually, but still very interesting. There are so many things for sale here did you just will not have seen anywhere else in the world. I picked up wool shawl for Bridget this is actually really nice. I hope she likes it. I spent a lot of time thinking about things that I purchased on these trips, and I really have not had a consistent theme except all of the textiles. But nothing to hang on the wall for each of my trips. That might have been a smart thing to have done, you think?

Last night we ate at a restaurant that had a guy working there could speak little English, so we ordered some things he suggested. Yes, now I remember about the food in China. Anything that you order fried? Comes in a pool of oil. Taste great as long as it’s really hot, but soon as the plate cools down it’s just so greasy.

Slept well last night on the rockhard beds that they have here, have the window open for some fresh air which was nice. Gotta get up shortly, Paul is an early riser and I said I would meet him for breakfast.

Nothing interesting to start day one of travel, other than my busy LB/RB mind until… Met Jeffrey from Singapore on my SEA TOKYO leg. I had a seat to myself, then a huge woman, her mom, and a 3yr old she said was under 2 pulled in right behind me after a delay. Fuck! The large kid on the large moms lap immediately started kicking the back of my seat. Navigating for a new seat, I ended up asking a guy if he wouldn’t mind if I sat beside him, explaining the kid behind me. No problem he says. What a wonderful fortuitous move that was, such insights into the Singaporian experience this has been (along with three sake). Insights about life there, economy, perspectives about the US, purchasing cars, post-retirement jobs, marriage compatibility, wines in Portugal, Macau, etc. He is half Chinese, half Portugese. So some interesting exchange about that made me put Portugal high on my next visit list!!

SN: Four hours into the flight and we’re still over Alaska! The lack of nonstop international flights from ANC sucks.

Quotes from the Brit farmers circa WW1 in movie War Horse “Some days are best forgotten.” But the best is “I may hate you more, but I’ll never love you less.”

A completely blue, clear sunny day. Very light winds up here, I am the only person here. I have never been here when it has been so silent. Easy to be in this moment with this beauty and silence and peacefulness. Cheers!

Saw Kevin on his broken bike, stopped for a beer at the lodge. A few deep breaths up the hill, but legs and cardio solid!! Yaay!

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