Chongqing to Hohhot

Attachment 8396
River crossing #1

Attachment 8397
Mountains south of Wutai

Attachment 8398
Same place

Attachment 8399
Pretty nice spot for a holiday house!

Attachment 8400
River crossing #2


Attachment 8401
Just inside the south gate of Wutai moountain


Attachment 8402
A very new looking stupor. Forgive me if I'm talking crap here but it just looked to crisp to be old


Attachment 8403
An older looking temple


Attachment 8404
Prayer wheels within old temple

Attachment 8405
I always identify with Buddha, maybe it's a beer belly thing


Attachment 8406
The lake of serenity - if you take away the tourists


Attachment 8407
New ancient marvels being constructed before your eyes


Attachment 8408
Same stuff being sold in Yangshuo and Dali etc but with a pneumatic drill to buid the atmos

Attachment 8409
Just beyond the northern gate of Wutai


Attachment 8410
Half way to Hunyuan

Attachment 8411
Alleyway in Hunyuan


Attachment 8412
Brick houses in Hunyuan - a nice bit of character I thought


Attachment 8413
These groups of people were having a great time gambling (or watching) in various different games (Hunyuan)


Attachment 8414
By this time I had developed a full on ass fetish


Attachment 8415
Lamp posts in Datong. Remind anyone of war of the worlds? I was expecting death rays!

21st

Left Hunyuan at 9.30, nice enough roads and pretty scenery until Datong. Had an oil change over breakfast and then stumbled upon an old city wall, explored further and got slightly stuck inside. Whilst finding a way out saw a new looking section under construction, not sure if the whole thing's modern or refurbished, either way a nice discovery. The roads between Datong and Hohhot were absolutely clusterfucked with trucks and the surface was pretty potholed for that reason. I took the route that followed the northern shore of the large lake, maybe called Daihai, and rode the bike through the marsh to the shore. I'm not sure what I'd have done if I'd got stuck but luckily I didn't. The lake itself was gorgeous, as were the surrounding mountains.

Made it into hohhot by 3 pm then drove around for ages looking for the yingang bike shop. I thought I'd ask them personally if storage was an option even the the Chongqing office had failed to contact them. Eventually found the bike street and stopped at the only shop with big bikes (125s) in the window. All the other shops were selling ebikes, scooters and 25cc mopeds. Hohhot has a no motorbike rule in the city centre but there are loads of ebikes etc and the cops didn't bother me. Anyway, the suzuki shop said they were affiliated with yingang and would happily look after my bike for a month. Seems like they're gonna leave it in the showroom with the others. They seemed like decent blokes so I feel pretty safe leaving the bike with them, fingers crossed!

Google helped me to find a golden hans German bbq/buffet/beer restaurant. I'll be there every night for sure, 10 quai a pint for proper beer! Will explore the area to the north of hohhot tomorrow.

Covered 320 today, 2990 total.



Attachment 8416
Nice and pikey oil change


Attachment 8417
It was a game of two asses Gary


Attachment 8418
Surprise wall in Datong


Attachment 8419
Same


Attachment 8420
Ancient or modern - who can tell...

Attachment 8421
This guy must be the local MacDaddy, an ass and a cow together? Niu.


Attachment 8422
The track to the lake started off OK, then ended


Attachment 8423
Lakeside mountains


Attachment 8424
Daihai lake just south of Hohhot


Attachment 8425
Me

Attachment 8426
Hello boys!


Attachment 8427
I didn't ask why they were strapped to the bike but I had a feeling there wasn't going to be a happy ending for these gals


Attachment 8428
Insert your own ass related joke here ".............."

Attachment 8429
Coil problems


Attachment 8430
Monument to the horde


Attachment 8431
Think your hard mate? Do ya? Do ya? Ok, maybe you are...


Attachment 8432
There be Mongolian hobbits

22nd

Woke up with a stinking hangover after a few to many at golden hans. Got down to the suzuki dealership at 9.30 and the bike wouldn't start, no spark. We improved the earth connection on the coil and it seemed to be ok, so off I went. About 1 km up the road it cut out so I scraped off some paint and redid the earth and headed north towards wuchuan and the steppe. Finally got to the grasslands and the bike cut out again, this time it had spark but it wasn't working with the HT cap on. I rigged up the lead to be close enough to the spark plug to work without the cap by linking cable ties together around the whole block. It failed a couple of times but got me back to wuchuan. I assumed the HT cap had gone kaput so put on a new one and rode off about 10 metres before it cut out. We looked at the earth again but it seemed ok and changed the spark plug, confusingly the bike was fine when it was stationary but cut out on the move. The mechanic initially refused to change the coil saying it was fine but I insisted and its running fine now.

After all that I couldn't be arsed riding any more so headed back to town to be there at five on the dot when golden hans opens its doors. They're gonna have to wheel me out at 10 tonight!


Attachment 8433
My pikey fix. You may laugh but it got me back into town!


Attachment 8434
This lovely couple stopped to see if I needed any assisstance


Attachment 8435
What's this? A lover's toilet? Dead romantic like...


Attachment 8436
I introduced myself with the traditional greeting 'burka burka muhammad jihad' and was welcomed like a long lost brother


Attachment 8437
These were in Siziwang, north east of Hohhot. I've not got a clue what they were but I really wanted one