Bye Bye Vietnam, Sabaidee Laos!

Efter leaving Hanoi I pushed on another 140 km to the city Thanh Hoa where I had an invitation from Son and his family. The evening started off really nice and Son and I played some tennis before heading back for a late dinner. Somehow I manage to play ok after being on the bike all day.

My stomach was making some noise that night when going to bed but I didn’t think too much of it. But when I woke up the next day it was really bad and most likely I had eaten something that my stomach couldn’t handle. So that day I spent most of the time in bed only to get up sometimes and try to eat something. And I was really lucky to be where I was because Son and his wife took really good care of me and even if I wasn’t great the next day I was on my feet and getting my energy back.

So I was back up on the bike on Sunday but decided to split up the distance to Vinh in two since it was 140 km and I didn’t have all my strength back. So that evening I stopped in a small town after a relaxing 80 km ride. That evening I met two nice guys at the restaurant I walked into. They waved me to their table and told me that they had plenty of food and asked me to join them. Only one of them knew a little English and we could talk some during a nice dinner. After dinner the one who spoke English left for home while the other guy wanted to show me around.

So I got on the back of his bike and we drove far from the town through rice fields in the dark. I thought we were going to a café but it turned out that he first wanted me to meet his family. And after a quick visit at his home we had some coffee and played billiard that night with some other of his friends.

The next day I had a short ride to Vinh where I met up with my host Pham. She showed me around a bit before heading back to her family home. That evening we met up with her friend who spoke better English witch was nice since Pham and I had some difficulties understanding each other. And the world proved to be a small place when we changed facebook info and it turned out that she had worked together with Linh who I met while I was in Ha Long.

I stayed another day in Vinh and met up with another couchsurfer because Pham had to work. Amy and I drove a bit out of town to the village where Ho Chi Minh was brought up. Maybe more exiting for Vietnamese that really like him than foreigners, because it wasn’t many people there. But what I found interesting was the houses they had built up as they were many years ago. Amy and I had a nice day and it was interesting going there with a local who remembered her grandparents living in those kinds of houses.

After leaving Vinh I headed west towards the border crossing to Laos. I had some problem with the bike since my pump is really bad and need to be changed, I had no luck finding one in Vinh but got the tires pumped at a bike shop. So after a late start I rode 50 km to a little town before the road started going up in the mountains. And of course did I have a flat tire on the way and yet again had to struggle with and swear at my crappy pump. In the small town a was really happy to see two other long distance bicycles standing outside of the hotel I stopped at. It was André and Karla from Brazil. Unfortunately they were going in the other direction but we had a nice evening together sharing stories and giving some advice about the countries we both just came from. Really nice people and I hope to bump into them again somewhere in South East Asia.

The road to the border was about 20 km uphill to the top where the crossing was. But the road was nice and there wasn’t much traffic so I could enjoy the climb with great views even though I was quite tired once I got to the top.

The crossing was fast and smooth and since I already had my Laos visa in the passport the process was quick. And after crossing the border the road went downhill about 30 km to a small town where I stopped at a Guesthouse recommended by André and Karla. My first plan for Laos was to head south towards Cambodia, but the last days in Vietnam I started to think about going north instead. And eventually I decided on that option and set my sight for the capital Vientiane. The first whole day of cycling in Laos was quite hilly with some really steep ones. But it was really beautiful at some places and well worth the hard work getting up there.

The next two days I rode along the Mekong River to Vientiane and arrived here yesterday afternoon. The weather is warmer than in Vietnam even though the morning wind can be a little cold. Also the roads are a lot nicer here than in Vietnam with much less traffic, and so much quieter since the cars and motorbikes aren’t honking as they do on the other side of the border. So it feels great being here and the plan is to take it quite slow here for a while and go for a trip up north.                              

South East Asia, here I come!

After about one month break in Hainani finally was on the move again. From Haikou I got on a ferry heading for Beihai. It was quite a comfortable 11 hours boat trip and I had a good night’s sleep before waking up to some Chinese music blasting in the speakers. I stepped off the ferry to a dark cold morning but felt exited to do some riding again.

Right after getting off the ferry I met two other cyclists, one of them with his bike upside down trying to fix something. We started talking, well as good as we could with their limited English. But the girl Jia knew a little and plus the help of an translate app were we able to communicate. It turned out that we were going the same way and decided join together. The two of them had met on Hainan a couple of days earlier. Jia had rode her bike from Inner Mongolia starting in July, and I got more and more impressed by this little 21 year old girl with a brave heart and a strong will. Wang was also young at 20 and had been riding for a couple of weeks before joining up with Jia. After breakfast during a still cold morning we looked up a bike shop to fix Wang’s bike because his back wheel was in really bad shape. It took some time and we didn’t get going until after 11. We were all heading for Qinzhou that was about 100 km away, so there was no time to lose after a late start. We arrived in Qinzhou just before sunset with tired legs, at least I had because I hadn’t done any cycling in a while.

We met up with my couchsurfing host Hung who was really nice and had a room for Jia and Wang too. We had a really nice evening together and had some great food, probably the best oysters so far in china. And after that we went for a walk around the old part of town. The next day was New Year’s Eve and we all stayed in Qinzhou. In the evening we went to Hung’s friends pottery workshop where we could see some really nice handiwork and also try to make something of our own, which is not easy..

We met up with some other friends of Hung that night and had a really good time celebrating the New Year. And I have to say that I am really excited to see what 2014 has to bring..

On New Year’s day the three of us was back on the road heading for the border town of Dongxing. For the first part of the ride we rode along a beautiful small road along the sea that Hung had suggested.

But after a relaxing start with great views we got on a really bad, bumpy road. Can’t be lucky all the time. We reached Dongxing in the evening and found our self a small hotel with a room for the three of us. We were hoping to be able to ride together for longer, and at first it looked like Jia would get her visa the following evening and be able to catch up with me. But Wang’s plans changed since he also wanted to go through Vietnam. But with no passport he had to get back to his hometown and back the next week. So we said our goodbye at the border and I went along alone super exited to cross the first border in four months (not counting Hong Kong). The crossing was really smooth with a special line for non-Chinese where I was the only one at that time. And with no visa needed I just got my stamp and 15 days stay.

The first couple of hours riding was just amazing. I had almost forgotten the great feeling of riding into a new country and just take it all in. And after being in China for four months were most people just stare at you, here in Vietnam people are smiling and waving as I go by. After a stop in a small town I reached Ha Long the next day. It’s quite touristic there and that was a big change for me because I hadn’t met many tourists in a while. Almost felt a like “Asian” when I saw some European tourist at first in the town. I smiled and said hi, but they weren’t as excited as me =)

I met up with Linh from Couchsurfing and she found me a nice place to stay, had a really nice dinner with her family and went out to meet some friends at a café. And one big difference from China and Vietnam is the coffee. Here they got really good coffee and small coffee shops everywhere.

The next day we woke up early and headed down to the port for a boat trip around the famous Ha Long Bay. And we had a really nice day. On the same boat we met some other travelers, three people from Indonesia and a hitchhiker from France.

The bay was really beautiful and also the cave we visited. After the bay tour all of us had lunch and of course some coffee after. In the evening Linh and I made spring rolls that was really tasty, of course because we made them. And after dinner we went on a little motorcycle ride around town and to a nearby island. The next day the alarm woke me up at 6 a clock, I wanted an early start because the plan was to ride 150 km to the capital Hanoi. So after a noodle soup I got on the bike with a long day ahead of me. The ride went better than expected and I got into Hanoi around 5 pm. I knew the traffic in the city would be crazy and you really got to watch for motorbikes coming from all directions.

In the evening me and my host Hien went to her friend’s house for some really nice Korean / Viatnamese food. Then we had a little walk around the city and ended up at a nice café overlooking a lake. And on Monday I did some sightseeing around the city at a temple and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Yesterday Hien and I had decided to go for a bike ride around the West Lake. The weather was perfect for a ride with some clouds and around 20 degrees. It was a beautiful ride on a nice path along the waterside.

After that we went to the war museum that witch was of course a bit depressing but also interesting to see. After a tour around the museum we cycled on to the cinema to see the The Hobbit and later had a nice dinner before cycling back late at night.

Today I’ll pick up my visa for Laos and continue south tomorrow. It feels great to be back on the move and I’m really looking forward to the rest of South East Asia…

Starting up again

After a month’s break here on Hainan I’m getting back up on the bike today. I’ll take a ferry over to Beihai and from there ride towards the Vietnamese border.

It’s a strange feeling starting up again after a break and I’ll probably need some time to get into it again. But I’m motivated and looking forward to South-East Asia. And after some quiet time here on the blog I’ll be sure to update a lot more from here on..

Tropical Island

After leaving Guangzhou I had my sight set on Hainan Island. I hadn’t been cycling along sand beaches since leaving Turkey which seems like a very long time ago. So I was really looking forward to go there even if some people had told me it was a bit too much touristic there. One night on my way towards Hainan I stopped in a small town that unlike many other towns had many old buildings that had not been torn down to build new apartments, and had a really cool main street that was very narrow and packed with people. After I had had dinner I walked into an empty bar to use their wi-fi since I didn’t have it at the little hotel I was staying in. It was a really cool and modern bar and the bartender got very surprised to see a foreigner walk in. And after a while her brother showed up who spoke some English. We had a fun night, the people there were really cool and all my drinks were on the house!

The next day I continued west with a nice tailwind pushing me on. And when I arrived in Zhanjiang and tried to ride my bike over the bridge a guard grabbed a hold of my bike and told me it wasn’t allowed to ride on the bridge. Since small scooters where allowed I thought the same applied to the bike, but apparently not and I had to turn around and ride to the ferry that went over to Zhangjiang. There I stayed with a teacher at the university, a really cool man named Denis from Canada. I stayed for two days and hung out with him and his girlfriend Mya and had many interesting conversations about our views of China. And since he had been living here for 7 years he saw things a little different than I.

After Zhangjiang it was time to head for the island. I had to ride 140 km to the ferry and the small road I choose was not very good and even worse was the “shortcut ” I decided to take. But I made it to the ferry at about 5 pm, and during the day I meet two other Chinese cyclists also going to Hainan. We rode together and had company on the two hour bout ride to Haikou.

But once we got over to the other side we split up since we had different plans for your time on the Island. They were cycling around the island starting with the west side. And I planned to stay in in the first city Haikou a few days and then make my way down the east side. In Haikou I stayed in an apartment occupied by a really nice bunch of people. There was a Russian couple with a baby on the way at any moment, three Polish and once Chinese girl. I stayed for three nights and also met up with another couch surfer on the last day and had a really nice day with some sightseeing around town. The architecture in the old part of town is really interesting and not at all traditionally Chinese. We also had some really tasty local food like oysters, crab and a lot more.

The next day I got back on the bike heading south. It was mostly transport the first day on a gray rainy day. The day after I ended up at a couch surfer’s parents house. She worked in another city but arrange for me to stay there. It was a little difficult because they didn’t speak any English. But it was fine for me and I tagged along with the father to go fishing. I got a couple but not as many or as big as her dad; the master fisherman.

The wind continued to be in my favor as I rode along towards Sanya. There I had made plans to meet up with a friend that I had meet a couple of weeks before and we had a great weekend where I got spoiled, staying at a really nice resort in Yalong Bay and the last night at a cool guesthouse in downtown Sanya. There’s a lot of hot springs around this area and even on mainland around Zhangjiang I saw many signs for it. So on Sathurday we had a very relaxing day at a hot spring resort and I have never been so relaxed in a long time. Except for when we went into the fish therapy pool. A bath filled with small fishes that eat on your feet. And for someone as tingly under my feet as I am it was difficult having a straight face.

After a little mini holiday I got back on the road. And instead of riding around the island I had instead decided to go up through mountains back towards Haikou. People I talked to suggested it and said it would be more interesting than riding the west side where the road is quite far from the sea most of the time. But it was hard work riding up the hills in the tropical weather, even though it is “winter” and not as humid as it is during the summer. But it was still very sweaty getting up the hills under the burning sun. But the big upside to being in this sort of place is the fruit. Everywhere along the road you can stop and buy fresh delicious tropical fruits like bananas, mango and jackfruit.

The first two days after leaving Sanya was very hilly and the second day I got up early and left Wuzhishan in the morning before it was too hot. And the biggest climb was right after leaving Wuzhishan and the road went up to about 900 meters. And the rest of the day continued with the road going up and down and of course the downhill’s are over so fast and the uphill’s seems to go on forever. And when going fast down a hill I got a reminder what can happen if you’re not careful and go too fast. I came up to a long line of cars and saw there had been an horrible accident with a car and a bus. And what I thought about after was that it is strange that I haven’t seen nothing like this before since many people here drive like crazy and you always have to be on the lookout for crazy drivers, motorcycles coming right at you on the wrong side and people walking out in the street without looking. So I’m lucky that nothing have happened to me.. . “Knock on wood”. These people were not as lucky.

Today I rode from a small town named Tunchang back to Haikou. The mountains were done so it felt nice to ride on flatter roads after two days with a lot of uphills. But I prefer uphill to what I had to deal with today. Almost the entire way there where road work and where there was no road work the road was extremely bad with many holes muddy gravel roads and trucks blasting by covering me with dust.

So now I’m back in Haikou staying with Sara who was the couch surfer I met up with the last day during my first visit in Haikou. And soon I’ll get back to the mainland and make my way west towards Vietnam. China has been awesome but I’m looking forward to go to a new country, hear a new language and meet new people.

From huge cities to the country side

When coming back into China I stayed a couple of days with Stacey, the same host I had in Shenzhen before I left for Hong Kong. And it was really nice coming back to a familiar place, something I don’t get much of. Unfortunately I was coming down with a cold and wasn’t feeling too well. So resting up at Stacey’s place was exactly what I needed. But I wasn’t very sick and still had fun there and she took time out of her busy schedule to spend time with me. She introduced me to some great food and I ate and ate, with was really good because I still had some weight to put on after my stomach problems the week before. I left Stacey and Shenzhen on Thursday and cycled just 60 km to Dongguan. It was nice to have a slow start after not cycling that much for a while and also because of my cold.

Reached 20.000 km on my way to Dongguan!

I knew cycling in this area wouldn’t be much fun because it’s so densely populated, and it even if I’m cycling from one city to another it almost feels like I’m not leaving the city because there’s housing all along the road. And even if I tried to find smaller road there still a lot of traffic and the air quality is really bad. But luckily it was a short ride to Dongguan where I met up with my host Tian Ye and had some lunch. He didn’t speak much English so we had some misunderstandings, but it was still a nice day and we went to the Keyuan Garden that was a place with old buildings, a nice garden and a museum. There we also met a very interesting old man who had studied in Sweden among other places and we stayed there for a while and talked.

The next stop was the huge city of Guangzhou and yet again I had to deal with the heavy traffic into the city. I stayed with Isabel who was Canadian/Taiwanese girl teaching at a collage. She had a nice big apartment a little north of the center with was kind of nice because it was calmer then the busy center and also with an awesome view from the balcony. And I was not the only couchsurfer at her place, there was also Pawel, who was staying for a longer time and later in the day another Chinese girl named Amanda arrived. It was great meeting other surfers and in the evening we had a really nice oyster dinner at one of the favorite spots close to the flat. The next day I met up with another couchsurfer while Isabel and Amanda went to the zoo. Sundae and I where both very indecisive so we just wondered around town, tried to get into the museum but for that I would have needed my passport. But we still had a nice time and decided to meet up later that night.

I got on the metro and met up with Isabel and Amanda outside the zoo, both a little tired after a whole day of walking around. Amanda and I went to see the Chang Long International Circus, something I had never heard of but was told it would be up to the standard of Cirque du soleil. And it was a really awesome show. It had everything from amazing stunts to a bear riding a motorcycle.

Us three met up with Sundae and her friends at a cool student bar with cheap bear. It was a nice ending to a fun day. The next and last day for me in Guangzhou was a little slower pace and I met up with yet another couchsurfer named Wendy. We had a tasty dinner and the funny thing was that she worked for the same company as Amanda did. But in different cities, so they didn’t know each other.

On Monday it was time for me to get back on the bike and try to make it out of the enormous city. It was not fun at all and the traffic was crazy. But eventually I made it the 100 km to Zhaoqing where I was staying at university campus with a teacher. But he wasn’t mainly an English teacher but a Polish teacher. I never thought anyone taught Polish in China, so that was a bit of a surprise. Tomasz was a really nice guy and we had many talks about really everything. But he was a little busy with work, but then it’s a great way to be in contact with more than one couchsurfer in a city. So the second day in Zhaoqing I met up with Renee later in the evening for a little walk around town and dinner. Unfortunately it was raining a lot this day so when walking around the big lake I couldn’t really see that much with was a pity since everyone said very nice things about the lake.

It wasn’t raining when I left Zhaoqing the next day, but it was gray skies and I was ready for rain later on. But even if it rained later that day and the road had a lot of ups and down with some very steep uphill’s it still felt great to be out of the area aroung Guangzhou and Shenzen where the traffic is really bad, and instead be cycling among the hills with green surroundings, fresh air and almost no traffic.