Tag Archives: Bicycle Touring

Highest Point: Continued
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Though the mountain was crowded with lots of construction workers, it was somehow comforting to have some of the road crew trying to beckon us over to their fire to warm up. They didn’t seem to understand that our lightweight clothing was plenty for as hard as we were working and we would only cool down if we stopped. Much as we would have liked to have tea and a visit, we had to keep moving.We got many cheers, thumbs up, much misinformation and even a push from two road monitors. Read the rest of this article…

A New High: A Layered Meaning
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Stupa at first pass into Tibetan lands

Creating challenges for ourselves, and facing them together strengthens the bond of our marriage. Couples often allow the romance fade as the years progress. It’s easy to become immersed in career, children, differing interests and circles of friends, and put the partner in a secondary position. We said some vows nearly twenty years ago, and our habit of creating challenges for ourselves, and meeting them as a team, has helped us keep those vows, and kept the romance alive. We may seem crazy, but the rewards of our mutual struggles are great. Read the rest of this article…

Into Tibetan Lands
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The Himalayan foothills are turning vertical and Zippy’s long wheelbase and weight is making it difficult to hold a straight line, especially when a bus screams at us with its ear splitting high pitched horn, and the captain reacts toward the 100 ft. drop off into the river! So far so good, and the old reflexes will soon come back. The first weeks are the hardest, and these mountains are really really hard. We might have kept these mountains for the end of the trip when we are fit, but then the passes are snowed in; there is a typhoon approaching the coast, and we might get it even now. Hope not.

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First Pass, Chinese Cycling Friends, and a Long Tunnel
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We caught them 1,000 vertical meters later at the entrance to the summit tunnel to great exclamations of pleasure and another round of picture taking, with Zippy at the center. There were police and army personnel all over the place, protecting the tunnel no doubt, and we had to show our passports to be allowed through the tunnel.

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Video of our first days on the road
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So many things go on during our days of pedaling that we thought it would be good to post a video of what we see in an average day so far. This is combined from three days, with lots left out!

Lucky is enjoying his ride in my front pannier, though he is beginning to get gray, just like our clothes and bodies are from the pollution and dust. He is frustrated with the language as well as we are. I’ve asked him to do a post, but he says he’s not ready to pass judgement on this bicycle touring thing, or China.

We had some hills today and the locals of Ya’an make steep up angles and raise their eyebrows, sometimes exclaim loudly, when we tell them were we are going. One man went to great lengths to pantomime that we should take a bus.
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Zippy is ready to roll!
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Zippy shrink wrapped and ready for China. The wheels are in two other boxes, along with tools and sharp objects, a third bag will carry tent and sleeping bag for the high mountains. We’ll carry cameras and the computer in … Read the rest of this article…

Shangri-la; Journey into Myth, search for Reality
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The British author James Hilton published a small novel in 1933 and set it in a Utopian kingdom in China. He was no doubt shocked at the widespread repute the location of his fictional sacred Utopian kingdom would achieve, and the misuse that would subsequently be heaped upon it. Read the rest of this article…

On the road again soon: Shangri-la and Beyond
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We leave September 1 for Chengdu, Sichuan, China to begin a tandem bicycle tour of SW China and SE Asia. We begin in Chengdu, Sichuan, where the earthquakes killed thousands last year. We will visit some pandas and probably visit our first important Buddha statue before heading into high country where the Himalayas transition from the Tibetan plateau, giving birth to all the great rivers of SE Asia. After a long crossing into Yunnan, we will drop into the sub tropics of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and end probably in Bangkok, one of our favorite cities. Read the rest of this article…