[h=2]Day 1: Kunming -> Luquan[/h]
We decided to stay in Kunming for one day to do some sightseeing, to enjoy the sun after the cold north and to do some crucial last time shopping.
Love on first sight.
The next day finally was the first day of our roadtrip. We didn’t leave as early as planned, partly because we tend to sleep to long and partly because we didn’t know motorcycles are banned in the centre of Kunming. So we walked to the office of Ride China, which was really close to our hotel, just to find out we had to pick up the bikes somewhere else. Totally not their fault since they sent me an email which I hadn’t checked yet. But Jah, the guy who rented us the motorcycle, was really helpful and explained the cab driver over the phone where to bring us.
By the way, time for some recommendation: If you want to rent a bike or even do a guided tour around yunnan (or into Sichuan or even Tibet), check out ridechina.com. The bikes were in good condition, everything went really smooth and Jah was helpful with any problem we encountered on the road.
So getting to the bikes, packing all our stuff onto them and handling the paperwork – 100 Kuai bills are really a pain in the ass when handling larger amounts – we were on the road at 12:30 am, way later then we planned. To make things worse it started to not only rain cats and dogs but also to hail…
That's not how you want a bike trip to start.
David unintentionally decided to test out the capability of the front brakes – yes, they work well, lesson learned, be easy on the brakes under these conditions… Luckily nothing on the bike was damaged so we could go on. Worst part of the day was going through a tunnel half way. Not only was it poorly lit (better say, not lit at all…) but all the mud, rain and exhaust emission added up to the most slippery thing I have ever encountered apart from ice. I lost my bike just going straight, still don’t know how that worked. Out of shock David unintentionally decided to test out the capability of his rear brakes – yep, they work well too… Anyway, since we were only doing like 20-30 kmh nothing happened and we could go on.
Checking up the bikes before going on.
We were not the only ones to struggle that day though. I saw at least a dozen accidents, many of them trucks or busses crashed rather badly like getting stuck in the ditch or even one truck flipped to its side. What a great impression to start your first roadtrip in China!
That would take some time...
After lunch things got better, the rain stopped and the roads become much better, yet still being wet of course. Originally we wanted to get to Yuanmou, but because of our late start and the conditions we only made it to Luquan right on sunset. Still soaking wet we stopped in the middle of the town to discuss where to look for a hotel, but coincidental we just had to turn around to find one. It was really cheap (60RMB for the double room) and they let us put the bikes in the Lobby.
Safe Parking.
We used the last couple of hours of the day to explore the town – nothing special really, just a usual small Chinese town. We found a good restaurant though and were surprised by Long Island Iced Teas based on Baijiu… Hard to believe but they actually were quiet good!
Summary of the day put into a picture.
Daily distance: ~85km
Total distance: ~85km
But don't worry, from here on things got way better. We had beautiful weather for the whole trip except one day and those turned out to be the worst roads of the entire trip. After that (except for small parts and the obligatory road constructions) we only had great roads and awesome landscapes, more on that in my next post!
We decided to stay in Kunming for one day to do some sightseeing, to enjoy the sun after the cold north and to do some crucial last time shopping.
Love on first sight.
The next day finally was the first day of our roadtrip. We didn’t leave as early as planned, partly because we tend to sleep to long and partly because we didn’t know motorcycles are banned in the centre of Kunming. So we walked to the office of Ride China, which was really close to our hotel, just to find out we had to pick up the bikes somewhere else. Totally not their fault since they sent me an email which I hadn’t checked yet. But Jah, the guy who rented us the motorcycle, was really helpful and explained the cab driver over the phone where to bring us.
By the way, time for some recommendation: If you want to rent a bike or even do a guided tour around yunnan (or into Sichuan or even Tibet), check out ridechina.com. The bikes were in good condition, everything went really smooth and Jah was helpful with any problem we encountered on the road.
So getting to the bikes, packing all our stuff onto them and handling the paperwork – 100 Kuai bills are really a pain in the ass when handling larger amounts – we were on the road at 12:30 am, way later then we planned. To make things worse it started to not only rain cats and dogs but also to hail…
That's not how you want a bike trip to start.
David unintentionally decided to test out the capability of the front brakes – yes, they work well, lesson learned, be easy on the brakes under these conditions… Luckily nothing on the bike was damaged so we could go on. Worst part of the day was going through a tunnel half way. Not only was it poorly lit (better say, not lit at all…) but all the mud, rain and exhaust emission added up to the most slippery thing I have ever encountered apart from ice. I lost my bike just going straight, still don’t know how that worked. Out of shock David unintentionally decided to test out the capability of his rear brakes – yep, they work well too… Anyway, since we were only doing like 20-30 kmh nothing happened and we could go on.
Checking up the bikes before going on.
We were not the only ones to struggle that day though. I saw at least a dozen accidents, many of them trucks or busses crashed rather badly like getting stuck in the ditch or even one truck flipped to its side. What a great impression to start your first roadtrip in China!
That would take some time...
After lunch things got better, the rain stopped and the roads become much better, yet still being wet of course. Originally we wanted to get to Yuanmou, but because of our late start and the conditions we only made it to Luquan right on sunset. Still soaking wet we stopped in the middle of the town to discuss where to look for a hotel, but coincidental we just had to turn around to find one. It was really cheap (60RMB for the double room) and they let us put the bikes in the Lobby.
Safe Parking.
We used the last couple of hours of the day to explore the town – nothing special really, just a usual small Chinese town. We found a good restaurant though and were surprised by Long Island Iced Teas based on Baijiu… Hard to believe but they actually were quiet good!
Summary of the day put into a picture.
Daily distance: ~85km
Total distance: ~85km
But don't worry, from here on things got way better. We had beautiful weather for the whole trip except one day and those turned out to be the worst roads of the entire trip. After that (except for small parts and the obligatory road constructions) we only had great roads and awesome landscapes, more on that in my next post!