So now the next part....

After I returned to Urumqui I said goodbye to my travel pal Nick and headed off to Dun Huang on my own. A 23 hour sleeper bus (again, they smell like a gym locker room) though the desert until I arrived. All very nice desert Oasis and quite a nice little town. I found some accomodations next to the Singing Sands Mountain (massive sand dunes that are up to 1700m high) and settled in for the next chapter. Didn't fancy paying to get in the chinese way so walked around the fence and climbed around for free - take that system!

Being that it's the desert it was damn hot, though the night sky was cool and spectacular. Without the usual air and light pollution I was able to see every star in sky. I spent about 5 days in Dun Huang, partly due to the fact I got sick and had to sit in bed dying for a few days (thanks Martin and Katerina for helping me get better!). I went and saw the Mo Gao Buddist caves, all very nice but certainly didn't feel like Indianna Jones discovering some ancient treasure, more like a stupid tourist who needed his wallet lightened.

Made a break for the next destination. Lanzou. Not actually a destination but a way for me to get to Xin'ing. 14 hour hard seat train, arriving in, wouldn't you know, a big generic polluted chinese city! I stayed for 20 minutes then caught the bus to Xin'ing. What a dump.

Well, Xin'ing is also a big soulless chinese city, but it had a nice enough vibe. Met a load more hardcore cyclist, some of which had been travelling for years! It was here I decided that my travels were becoming A) uncomfotable bus/train ride, B) hostel in generic chinese city and maybe C) going to see a 'thing' (cave, Buddah, temple, etc). Time to make it interesting.

I bought a Giant bike (it was normal size, Giant's the name) and with an itinery from Sam the Dutch extreme cyclist (four years and counting) I left Xin'ing for Chengdu. 'Look at me, I'm cycling across China, I'm so crazy and spontaneous!' I though for the first few days, I missed the first turn and decieded it was no big deal to take a shortcut. Up roads that were not sealed at insane degrees of steepness that had become quagmires due to the rain. This wasn't cool, what's happened to my great cycling adventure? Each night I would have to find a place to stay, couldn't stay in many places because I was a whitey and the police would routinely come into my room in the middle of the night and ask me what I'm doing and check my passport. Oh dear!

It didn't stay like this for long, I found some great places, I was like a celebrity in the remote places I was travelling through. I'd get invited out to eat all the time, people would never allow me to pay for anything. They enjoy giving me food, beer and cigarettes (great for long distance cycling) and just staring at me. Hours of fun! The most extreme case of over generousity was when I was in Hezou, I got taken to a bar by some guys who all turned out to be police and spent two days there drinking watery beer, eating, smoking, listening to american gangster rap music and chinese ganster rap music. Taken on a tour of the buddist monataries and then more booze. I had to get out of there!

Next portal was Lu Qu, really pretty little town where I stayed in a Monks hostel, I had to bargain them down as they were trying to rip me off. Had a photos taken with some random locals then dragged off to the photo printing shop so they could print them and have them laminated immediatly. They were tibetan and wanted me to eat with them, well it is my duty, so raw corn flower, butter and water patties and rice stew with meat and chunks of sheep fat. Yum!

The next day was the big ride to Zoige - 150 km. No problem I thought. Except that it was uphill all the way with a headwind and climbed to an altitude of 3800 something meters. f***. It was really hard mentally and physically. I also had no sunscreen. Endless grasslands, steep hills, nothingness, cows and one stupid Australian wondering when the next goddamn town would come. Eventually it did come. I think I almost went mad at one point as it took 11 hours. I had no lights (so going through pitchblack flooded tunnels for 1km is hours of fun!) and needed to get to my destination before the sun went down. Well I made it obviously and was very grateful for the rest. My sunburnt legs were a great talking point for the locals ('besides why are you here?') and I ate and slept.

The next town was cool, Song Pan. Another long ride but all downhill and amazing mountains. It was worth all the other bulls*** for this, it was amazing. beautiful mountains, the scenery had changed again for the 100th time, the people had changed (Han chinese rather that sword wielding Tibetans) and I just enjoyed the ride. I met westerners! I hadn't spoken English for 11 days so nearly ran up and hugged them. I suppose my Chinese did improve in that time (I can ask for a room all by myself now) but I apreciate how lonely all this solo cycling can be. It's actually nice to talk to people.

The last stretch I couldn't do on my bike due to the length of the death tunnels, some were 3km long. That and this stretch of the road was like something from Armageddon, the 2008 earthquake had torn the whole area to pieces, whole highways where twisted and smashed for miles, bridges collapsed. Total descruction. Of course China is busy rebuilding everything but something like 90,000 poeple died and it's easy to see how. So no, I didn't mind missing this part.

And now I'm in Chengdu, they have hot showers, McDonalds, the internet and people to talk to. Awesome! So now I'm in Sichuan. I did 3 provences (Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan) and about 900km or so at silly altitudes. Not a bad start I guess. Now can I be bothered doing it again to Vietnam....