Gateway to Hell

March 30th

Our very own wake-up call!

The lady who owned the land woke us up the next morning by shaking the outside of our tent. When she saw that we were foreigners though she left us be and was smiling at us. We packed up our things and left. I was so happy to wake up to fresh morning air, a blue sunny sky, a breeze, my feet landed on fresh soil and surrounded by green and yellow crops, plus white and pink flowering trees. Hard to describe the feelings that took over my body, and that have almost this whole trip. How I love China's countryside, that actually is most of China.

A special visitor

We didn't bike far before stopping for breakfast. I made some incredible crispy and unmanageably salty chapatees and Alex made some tea as usual. One time he told me that he almost died of thirst in a desert from lack of water but it wasn't true or I misunderstood. We met a Chinese biker from Beijing and he reminded me of my uncle Bob. He was short and stocky, a very strong man , always smiling. He was so happy to meet Alex because he loves Brazilian soccer. Alex doesn't like soccer though, he told me that in Brazil they play a really violent soccer and are actually tying to hurt each other. He doesn't have a very good view of Brazil. This man that we met had biked across china and had started in Beijing, ended up in Jinghong, was headed north to Sichuan, then to Xian to Hebai and back to Beijing. I did all of this in the other direction and by bus and train!! Good on him. Alex has done similar travels but slowly with his yacht of a bicycle. He came to check out our spot and we were well set up. Speakers attached to mp3 playing some music, natural grass seats surrounding our fire...nice. He said goodbye after a short time and gave both Alex and I a big hug. Nice guy.

Brick Houses

The houses for the past few days have changed. Now they're made of red brick or red mud. They're more hecticly placed, attaching to each other in no particular order. Some houses only fit one person, there are tall brick towers too maybe for storing hay or drying food? It's pretty cool that the colours of the houses change in each area to match the colour of the soil...yellow, red, and where there's less soil they're made of stone.

Speedier biking

We figured out what day it is and that we have to get to Kunming soon since I want to see Estelle and Christina, my first two Chinese friends that I met 5 months ago at a hostel in Hong Kong. My Chinese Visa expires on the 2nd and I'm 3 provinces away from the border to Hong Kong. We went far today biking into the night, though there's no full moon tonight and there are big scary trucks passing us on this small country road at top speed all the time. Too bad. We passed a flame coming out of a factory that was burning so hot and orange, like a piece of hell on earth, or a gateway to Hell...