Cyclists' heaven and hell

Total distance: 5092 km
Dali - Weishan - Gonglang - Yu Xian - Lincang

Cyling from Dali to Lincang was tough but fantastic with stunning views. We cycled through hell and heaven along the highway 214.

Hell! Every morning a very long climb, between 15 and 26 km, awaited us.

Heaven! Once we made it to the top there was cyclist's paradise: very long descents! The longest descent we had was 30 km on perfect roads. We just let the bicycles roll and enjoyed the stunning landscape. We were surrounded by green mountains. People cultivated the mountains in forms of rice terraces.

Looooong descents!

Hell! Tunnels! Some of them were long and not well lit. Now we do know why we carry the additional weight in form of front and rear lights with us.

Weishan old town

Heaven! We stopped in Weishan and Gonglang on our way to Lincang. Although Weishan is mentioned in guidebooks like Lonely Planet we were surprised to be the only tourists in the city. We strolled in the old streets and we actually liked it more than Dali. Weishan has still old traditional buildings, nothing renovated and things are still authentic. Gonglang isn't a tourist spot at all. Probably locals in this little town never ever see any foreigners. It was very interesting to see this "isolated" and real Chinese town.

Hell! The hard beds. Although sleeping in a hotel every night has one big advantage, that is one shower per day, it also has its disadvantage, that is the hard beds. Sometimes we wish back the nights on our comfortable inflatable air mattresses in the tent.

Our camping mattresses are needed!

Heaven! Yunnan is home to more than 700 minorities. Whenever we came downhill from a mountain pass and rolled into a new town or village, we saw different people with different traditional costumes etc. In the valley between Dali and Weishan there are many Muslim Chinese. Shops have descriptions in Chinese and Arabic like in Xinjiang province and many women wear headscarfs. One mountain pass later there are no more Muslim Chinese. It is surprising how mountains must have isolated people in the past.

Hell! Our poor ears were suffering. Not only from the constant honking on the roads, but in one hotel below us was a KTV bar - oh, the Chinese love singing - and we almost became deaf. We can't imagine how it must have been inside the bar. Dear Chinese Health Minister, please do your people a favour and introduce a volume limit! For both KTV and horns!

Heaven! We still enjoy the Chinese food. It's so yummy and cheap. One thing that we have noticed is that the further south we travel the more the taste and quality of noodle soups changes. While we had self-made fresh noodles in spicy soups in Xinjiang province, people here in Yunnan province use the dry and boring noodles. Also the closer we come to Southeast Asia the more rice noodles are offered. Anyway, we had our best noodle soups in Korgas, just behind the Kazakh-Chinese border: Xinjiang the noodle soup paradise! On the other hand the rice quality gets better and better here in Yunnan. People get rice fresh off the ubiquitous rice terraces.

Hell! Well, you'd better get your Hepatitis A vaccination if you want to try the local street food restaurants!

Hygiene? We ate here anyhow.

Heaven! Vegetation is changing! Banana trees, banana trees! The little bananas are thousand times better than the bananas we get back home.

Hell! It must be the rainiest October in Yunnan's history. We actually expected the dry season in October but it rains a lot! Luckily it is not permanent rain but it still means that we have to put on our rain gear. By the way, we have entered the summer region again, cycling in shorts and T-shirts most of the time!

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