Another amazing week in China. Sorry, these updates are probably sounding very monotonous, but we’ve had more spectacular scenery, friendly people and great food, so spirits are high! We’re making decent progress north now too, covering the distance we need to every day without it feeling too much like a slog. We’re into Sichuan Province with plenty of time left on our visas so we’re treating ourselves to another well earned rest day.
Right then. Back into China and time to tackle the mountains of Yunnan. We hadn’t exactly been looking forward to this leg of the trip but, one week in, it’s been amazing! We’d been expecting the climbs and the roadworks, of which we’ve had plenty, but even so, we’ve had some of the best days of the trip so far. We enjoyed our previous two legs in China, but the days could be long and monotonous, with little reward for our hard work other than seeing the distance on the speedo at the end of the day. Here in Yunnan, we are cycling harder and climbing higher than we have before, but the landscape is so beautiful and the people so friendly that we finish each day exhausted, but smiling. The past week has felt like a real adventure, giving us a taste for much more to come.
We can’t believe we’ve got through another country, ok we missed a fair bit in the south, but still eight so far. I was extremely nervous about the hills in Laos, especially after our experience of ”hills” in Thailand. I’m always the pessimistic one and Andy is forever the optimist but Laos was amazing. The scenery was absolutely beautiful, and that was in the hazy/burning fields season. The kids are phenomenal. The FFF (foreign food Fridays) incredible. The beer cold and cheap. We’ve had a great three weeks here.
Oudomxai turned out to be quite a nice little town and we stayed for a couple of nights. Our time in South East Asia has been a bit of a holiday, waiting out the winter so that when we cross Central Asia later in the year it’ll be a lot warmer than if we’d headed there in a straight line. With that in mind, we weren’t in any rush to cross the border into China, where we’ll be restricted by the time on our visas, so will be pushing to get more distance done each day.
Pedalling West 