CHINA

Back to China (boo) then onwards to Beijing

13/05/2011 to 16/05/2011

Russell was still sleeping so i didn’t bother to wake him, instead i just left a note in his frying pan. Again because me and Russ had drank so much the night before i didn’t feel like having any breakfast which saved some time. It was a beautiful day and i had no trouble getting to the general area of where i needed to catch the ferry, unfortunately finding my exact location was much more difficult. I was given a few dodgy directions which didn’t help but i did find the international ferry terminal eventually which i had hoped was better sign posted.

Getting onto the ferry i felt very sad to be leaving Japan, in all truth i didn’t want to leave and was seriously questioning the whole trip. Japan was meant to be a break from it and after i would be raring to go again but my enthusiasm for it all had only dwindled. I was thinking about my options as the Russian visa was looking highly unlikely.

My options are as follows:

1.       After Beijing go back to Chengdu and continue my trip from there but i would spend more time in china and not get to Mongolia,

2.       Cycle across china from Beijing again missing out Mongolia,

3.       Go to Mongolia, buy a motorbike and travel round for a couple of weeks then go back to China and carry on from Beijing or Chengdu,

4.       Carry on as normal, cycle to the west of Mongolia then catch a flight to Urumqi and carry on to Kazakhstan from there.

these people werent waiting to sit
like me we all stood

Each option has its ups and downs but this is probably the only chance i will ever have in my life to cycle Mongolia and the only time i am mentally and physically prepared for its unique challenges, i.e no roads. I still had 2 days on a boat to think about it and a few hours on a train from Shanghai to Beijing (30 hours).

On the ferry the sea was surprisingly calm and there were a few people to chat to so the whole thing went by smoothly. Getting into Shanghai i got a burst of energy, still i was missing Japan but it was made all the easier coming back to somewhere where i know my way around and how things work. 

So the first thing i did was head over to the railway station to book an evening train up to Beijing. Already things were very different to Japan, walking into the train station i had a guard shouting at me no bicycle but  this being china i just ignored him and bought my ticket which unfortunately was a standing only and again there was no certainty my bike would be allowed on. Welcome back to China, grumpy and unhelpful staff.

To kill time i sat outside a coffee shop drinking tea but this was disturbed when my back tyre out of the blue decided to explode. Having no tubes left and the patches i had were not big enough i needed to find a bike shop. Luckily in China there is lots of people with little bike repair stands looking to rip a foreigner like me off. One found me then tried to charge me an insane amount which i had to haggle down but as he had already done the job i was unable to walk away.  Job done i spent the remainder of the day drinking tea before heading to the train station and stressing the point my bicycle has to come on the train.

Surprisingly it wasn’t difficult, at first there was the ‘no no’ shake of the hand but i stood my ground blocked the queue and in the end was allowed through and to make things even easier i was escorted by somebody who spoke English to where i needed to be. As things went well i now had 3 hours to kill before the train left, this was spent reading my on book, ‘lonely planet Mongolia,’ in which time i planned a route out. In between i was entertained by the curious Chinese which now i had a break from it i found lots of fun, even more so as I knew a few Japanese words which seemed to register with them (or they appeared to). The time came for the train journey, i was meant to be standing but i chose to sit until i was made to stand, i picked my seat well as i got chatting to a bunch of university students from Beijing. We played cards and chatted away, after about two hours into the journey the owner of the seat i was sat in did turn up but i was pretty sleepy by now and had figured out a good way to stretch out fully and potentially get some good sleep. Using my shoe as a pillow my head was placed under the seat, my torso hung out in the aisle while the rest of me was under the opposite seat, people just stepped over me and i was fairly comfortable though was well short of getting much in the way of a goodnights rest.

Morning came and i exchanged details with my new friends and before i knew it the train was in Beijing.

Beijing: end of the 2^nd leg

16/05/2011 to 30/05/2011

Getting off the train i didn’t have any plan or idea of what to do except to look for a hostel, so after discovering my bike would be two hours late i set off on foot.  It was extremely hot and humid and i really wasn’t up for hiking around but i carried on until i jumped on the subway to the next stop where following the map i had torn out of a lonely planet i continued on foot. The hostel i was looking for wasn’t the easiest to find and when i did i didn’t think much to it so i headed back to the train station to pick up my bicycle.

While waiting for them to fetch my bike i planned out a route that i would go in search of a hostel. When the bike did come there was a bit of excitement as the workers couldn’t believe the size of my bike and were keen to see how it was ridden so i give them a demonstration. Time was getting on so i searched for a place to sleep, it didn’t go well the hostels i was looking at didn’t seem to great but eventually i found one that i liked.

The following day i was going to check out hotels for when mother arrived but first i wanted to head over to the Mongolian embassy to get an application form. Finding it i discovered it didn’t open for another hour so i had lunch and coming back the queue was much bigger. I grabbed and application form and having all the items i needed i thought i may as well apply and get it done. The line didn’t move fast but i got chatting to Dutch couple who also were cycling around and realizing that we would be in Ulaanbaatar around the same time thought it would a good idea to meet there. The line took forever but when it was my turn the shutters came down and i was told to return tomorrow. Balls!

Anyway i headed off my new Dutch friends (Woutern and (forgot the name)  and they showed me where there was a book shop that sold English books and we got food together. Afterwards Woutern and i decided a few beers were needed so we headed to my hostel and had a beer or 6.

With a hangover i got to the Mongolian embassy got the application done and set off in search of Hotels suitable for mother. I looked at over 15 hotels and spent hours riding round, hung-over i may add, until finding that in my hostel the rooms for the price were nicer than what i had seen and the reception staff were friendly and spoke good English so i thought this would be a good place for mother.

I met mum at the airport and we spent the next 10 days looking at the tourist sites not rushing around because we didn’t have to. We went to the great wall, Chinese opera, the zoo, museum i couldn’t think of anything else to have done in Beijing by the end of it. We also chatted a lot about what was going on back home amongst other things and when the time came for her to leave i was pretty sad and down but i knew in a few days i would be right again. One night while we were on ‘the walking street’ as mother called it i bumped into a very old face Rupert. Me and Rupert worked on the bicycle taxies in Auckland, New Zealand for a couple of months together and i barley recognised him. We arranged to meet up later in the week to talk about old times and what is new.

The day mum left i changed back into a dorm room and tried to book my ticket to Ulaanbaatar where i would get cycling again. My enthusiasm for the trip was again that of excitement and much anticipation however there was a setback that  i am unable o get a Russian visa without a train ticket but luckily there is a border crossing back into china on the far west which has recently opened to foreigners but how one goes about getting across depends on who you ask.

My long search for suitable tyres bared fruit and all the bits i thought i’d need to improve my chances of survival in Mongolia i think i got together. After meeting up with Rupert on my last evening in Beijing i was ready for what hoped would be my final train journey till home. As long as the border into western china serves me well i hoped to cycle the rest of the way on my own steam except for a boat journey or two.