Adventure Motorcycle Magazine Subscribe Now

Page 2 of 6 FirstFirst 1234 ... LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 55
  1. #11 Re: China, West to East (Urumqi,Xining,Xian,Yantai) 
    Senior C-Moto Guru zhu's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Chengdu
    Posts
    626
    Great trip and great report. Nice tip about the bike size on the train btw.

    With regards to changing oil, I just buy the oil at a bike shop ( Castrol 15/40 if I can get it) and let the guy change it. They just charge for the oil so why get your hands dirty I reckon. I do keep an eye on the guys tools though and if he starts to approach with a 12" crescent I get out my own socket.

    Nice ride and glad to see the heatstroke episode ended well.
    Reply With Quote  
     

  2. #12 Re: China, West to East (Urumqi,Xining,Xian,Yantai) 
    C-Moto Guru TexasAggie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Nanjing, Jiangsu PRC and Dallas, TX
    Posts
    434
    Excellent ride report. I am jealous of your language skills in Mandarin. 11 years here married to a local and I still suck at Mandarin. Looks like you guys had the experience of a lifetime. Well done.
    DT
    Keeping the rubber side down.....most of the time.
    Nanjing wheels:BMW F800GS / Texas wheels:BMW R1200GSA & 70' Bultaco El Bandido
    Reply With Quote  
     

  3. #13 Re: China, West to East (Urumqi,Xining,Xian,Yantai) 
    C-Moto Regular cryptographicide's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Yantai, Shandong
    Posts
    96
    @zhu. I usually do the same thing. Near by my house, I had a great place that I went to. They had a good selection of good quality oil. They were fast and cheap. They always threw in a free wash too. Last time I went, they tried to use an imperial wrench on my metric bolt. I lost my shit and told the manager that I'd never come back. Luckily, a shop a block away offers the same service. Both of my local shops are car focused. The bike shops WILL NOT give me service. Even an oil change is too difficult. Coming with this experience to life on the road lead me to search for car repair places before I looked for bike shops. This ended up being a mistake in Turpan. We actually passed a huge Japanese brand dealership with Japanese style business model. They had a big entrance for repairs and service. It looked like I was at home. I kicked myself because ten minutes before I had just chinky-rigged a rusty metal bar onto the back of my bike. That's the trouble with finding places when you're on the road. You just never know what the city/town has until you live there or spend enough time to weed out the gold from the shit.
    1995 Suzuki Intruder (2005-Present){Canada}
    2003 Daelim Daystar (2011-2012){S. Korea}
    2014 Jialing 200 GY5A (2015-Present) {China}
    Reply With Quote  
     

  4. #14 Re: China, West to East (Urumqi,Xining,Xian,Yantai) 
    Senior C-Moto Guru zhu's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Chengdu
    Posts
    626
    Yeah you can never be sure what is around the corner or over the next hill. I carry three kg of tools with me and I'm always looking at what I can get rid of, but I used every single one of those tools at some point. Err except my tyre levers on the last trip, the only puncture I got was outside a bike shop with a fridge full of ice coffee and a comfy chair... So I just let the guy have at it. Still don't think I will be leaving the levers at home.
    Reply With Quote  
     

  5. #15 Re: China, West to East (Urumqi,Xining,Xian,Yantai) 
    C-Moto Regular cryptographicide's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Yantai, Shandong
    Posts
    96
    Hami - July 12

    How we got our Hami melon



    It's all Gaosu from Turpan to Hami. You don't gain any elevation either, so it's all just hot. Really hot. The sun beats on you, and the wind, normally cooling, when it blows, blows hot as hell. When you move at the same speed as the wind, the sweat pools above your eyes. The engine sheds heat between your legs, unable to get wind past the cooling fins or through the radiator. When you don't ride with the wind, it tries to tear you from the road. The rocks are surreal and dead. We made stops every 50 km's or so, to go to the bathroom or relieve our asses. The best bathroom spots were animal overpasses. Designed to handle the water that would occur during flash floods, these tunnels were easily large enough for an animal to sneak through. Squatting in one was comfortable and semi-private. Usually, it wasn't too tough to sneak down into one from the highway. Leaving Xinjiang, the security on the Gaosu become much more strict.

    The first fuel stop we made, I got to fill up at the pump. Then I figured out why "safety" means using a teapot. I was tired and staring off into space while the attendant filled up the tank. She shoved the nozzle into the tank and squeezed the trigger, locking it in place. Then she too starred off into space, as if my tank held 50-100L. Two seconds later gas was flying everywhere. It covered our bags, the seat. I looked at her with clear resonant disdain. Then she said the Chinese phrase that I hate the most, "不好意思“。It means "a bad meaning". People say this to me when they mean, "I'm sorry", or "I can't help you", or "Oh, well.". What it really means is, "I've lost face because of you, so leave now, and save me some face." The next gas station we used the teapots. But they were full of dust because we were the first customers and they had been left out all night. So I take the teapots in and try to explain that they need to be washed. An young man agreed that gas stations should be able to provide clean teapots and if the teapots are dirty, the customer shouldn't have to pay for it. So he washed the teapots for me. From Turpan to Hami is about a little less than 370 km's.

    We got into Hami around 4pm. I went around the ring road and tried to take an exit from the Gaosu, but some silly monkey dumped a few truck loads of sand on the exit ramp. Whatever, that shit doesn't stop a dirtbike. Had to find a bank to get some cash. Baidu Ditu makes that really easy. Then we needed some snack food. This meant, we wanted a real supermarket. Not a chaoshi that sells some beer and chips. The way we found this was stopping on the side of the road and waiting till we found a reasonably intelligent person walking by, staring at us. Then I asked them where the nearest chaoshi was. "NO, not little tiny chaoshi, a real big chaoshi." This gathered a puzzled look, but the meaning was understood and I got the name of the well known underground place that sold an actual selection of food. The name was all I needed to plug into the map app and found it in 5 mins. I waited beside the bike while Andrea went in and bought stuff. It seemed easier to do this than to unpack all the stuff, lock it all down, and cover it with the tarp. I waited for over an hour before Andrea called and explained that she went out the wrong exit and the security guard wouldn't let her back into the store so she could cross to the other side and leave by the correct exit. The security guard said that the water she just bought and had the receipt for could be clear explosives and it was simply not possible to reenter. So, she had to walk about two km's around the building to find me. This task is not something Andrea is designed for. I navigate...Andrea makes sure I don't punch idiots who get in my way. I'm also not allowed to scream at idiots. When she got back, she was in tears. In the mean time I had the time to meet a cute little old Uighur man who insisted that I need to buy a Uighur style hat. He was particularly insistent that it should be a similar pattern to his little cap.

    From there, we drove to a place called the melon garden. We drove 20km's out of town to the garden just as it was about to close. This meant that the guard was no where to be found. We checked-out the greenhouse. This place was cool. They grow melons for different purposes and breed some to be sweet. Some to be small enough for one person to eat in one sitting. Some need to be able to grow without irrigation or in intense sunlight. Each melon plant grows straight up and is hung about seven feet above the roots. The melons hand heavily from this vine. Thousands of plants all hanging there interbreeding with each other. We only had a few minutes before the park closed. From there, we took some back roads and looked for a fallowed field for a campsite. We found one. It was off the main road, but beside and in sight of a tiny, dusty road. We stopped and ate supper. It was crackers and some spicy red bean dip. I wrote in my journal and Andrea set up the tent. A nearby shepherd was bringing his sheep from the pasture as the sunset turned to twilight.

    Just typing this next part makes me get angry.

    A man in a red Hyundai Tiburon pulls over and leads his friend into the field to talk to us. He is clearly a Han guy, his friend is Uighur. He tells us he is a local resident. I ask if he owns the fallowed field. He says no. Then he says we can't sleep here, we need to register first. The Uighur friend has an expression on his face that says, "This is a waste of time. Lets just leave these guys." But the Han is oblivious to that social cue. So, we pack everything up and are about to ride away. We should have just rode away but he convinces me to stay. He says maybe the police will allow us to register and then continue to sleep here. We wait ten more minutes. It's totally pitch black out.

    Then the police show up. Not one car. About six cars altogether. Two vans with lights flashing. All of a sudden about twenty Uighur men are standing around. A tall Uighur uniformed officer comes out and wants to see our passports. I'm calm and relaxed. Andrea is nervous, but holding together. The police decide that there is no problem. They offer me a cigarette. I decline. We are, obviously not allowed to camp. Not just in an unused field, but anywhere. There is no place in Hami that someone can go to pitch a tent. I'm not surprised. They tell me that we need to return to their police office and register then we can find a hotel. They tell me that both Andrea and I will ride in the van and some other guy will drive my bike. I politely tell them that idea is unacceptable. I drive my bike and Andrea can ride in the van.

    In the van, the two police officers are very kind and try to make Andrea a little more relaxed. They ask questions. One of the officers practices his English a little. Inside the station, they take our passports again and begin filling out paperwork. The tall uniformed cop asks me to have a seat instead of standing. At first I refuse but Andrea reminds me that we should listen to what they say. So, I sit. We get our passports back. It's well after midnight.

    Andrea and I have been going since dawn. We're tired and on edge. It's clear that the officers all feel bad for the situation. The officer who has a few words of English comes in and says to us, "Welcome to Hami". Andrea is overcome with irony and it shows on her face in the form of a hushed exhale. I smile awkwardly. The meaning behind our reactions was regretfully clear. Next, the tall cop brings us a melon. We refuse three times. The fourth time, he simply puts it in my lap. Next, he asks if we want to get some food. I decline that as well. He let us refuse that one. Next, is the trouble of finding a hotel room.

    The officer with a little English volunteers to help us find a cheap room in town. Andrea and I get on the bike, and he leads us to into the city. We stop next to a skuzzy little convenience store. It's all locked up for the night. The cop calls a number and a big fat man comes from the back and unlocks the door. He takes me behind the building, through a dark parking lot, up two flights of stairs and into a little hobbit room with two wood platforms that didn't have any form of mattresses. For this room, he wants 100 yuan. I tell him the most I will pay is 50 yuan. We do not come to an agreement. There was just no way I wanted to leave the bike in a totally dark parking lot. So, back on the road and the cops find another hotel. This one has a posted room rate of 150 yuan, but the cops get the price down to 100 yuan for me. I check out the room and find out why the room rate dropped so easily. The mattress is covered in bed bug eggs. There were no actual bugs or dead bugs and the floors were stone. It was about 1:30 in the morning. I agreed to the room and we said goodbye to the cops. Then we brought our stuff into the room and set it on the desk and furniture raised off the floor. We fell asleep on our air mattress on the floor. Not once did we see a bug. It was just the eggs in the bed.



    Through the whole situation, everybody was calm and rational. The cops were friendly and very helpful. I'm fairly certain that they thought the whole situation a waste of time, but a required waste of time. The law is the law. The Uighur police officers saw that the law was carried out in a courteous and hospitible manner. The motivation for why the Han called the police is still unclear. He was just randomly driving along, when he saw two foreigners standing next to a tent in a field during sunset. Something about that situation made him think that the best possible thing he could do is to call the police. He did not own the field, nor did he know the person who owned the field. All I know is he was really happy when the police all showed up. He was like a little puppy, dancing around in circles and waging his curly little tail.
    1995 Suzuki Intruder (2005-Present){Canada}
    2003 Daelim Daystar (2011-2012){S. Korea}
    2014 Jialing 200 GY5A (2015-Present) {China}
    Reply With Quote  
     

  6. #16 Dunhuang 
    C-Moto Regular cryptographicide's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Yantai, Shandong
    Posts
    96
    Dunhuang - July 13-15


    The Road That Eats Cameras


    We didn't wait around in the morning. We had a quick breakfast of snack food and we left. We made good time on the Gaosu, since we were still in Xinjiang. We stopped every 50 km or so for a quick break and a few times we made it as far as 80km in between stops. At one point, we were stopped and Andrea gave me a kiss. A semi-truck passing by gave us a pull on his airhorn to tell us how excited he felt. We ate our Hami melon on the side of the road. This was a unique spot where the fence on the side of the road had a gate that was left open. So we pulled through and enjoyed the less windy shadeless area 100m from the road. Then we took a sniff. Just upwind of us we a huge pile of rotting melons. Some asshole had taken the liberty to dump an entire truckload of melons and garbage. The nice thing about the heavy wind is, if you take a few steps to the side, the wind carries the smell away. The melon was great. Sweet, juicy. Tasted just like a cantaloupe but shaped like a football.




    After entering Gansu, the our path diverted to the south. We left the Gaosu and got on a much poorer rood. We road was flat and straight but the pavement rolled and heaved. The road was busy with truckers and tons of tourist buses. All with a constant and oppressive side wind. On the satelite map you can see the lines in the gravel and dirt caused by wind. It looks like it was made by rivers that flow across the land. But, the lines are from windy pushing rocks in one direction, all day, everyday. We stopped at a town and grabbed some lunch. We ordered chao mein. (炒面) It came in a very unusual way. The noodles were not long, but instead chopped short and shaped like macaroni. I loved it. This dish was great.


    Outside the restaurant, Andrea and I looked around. It was hot. Probably above 40'C. We decided to screw the idea of camping. Our experience the previous night had left us with an especially resentful taste in our mouths. It would be a hotel for us. But hotels in Dunhuang are expensive. Dunhuang is a tourist town. Foreigner rules are in full force and cheap hotels were impossible to find. So, we stayed in a hostel again. Dap hostel in Turpan had given us a business card of her friends hostel in Dunhuang. So, we called them first. It ended up being a really similar set-up. They gave us a great secure spot for the bike. There was lots of shade. It was around 100 yuan for us to stay the night. We called and made reservations.




    The ride into Dunhuang became a little more green and shaded as we got closer. It's a really nice city that is built around a river. We saw significantly less Uighur influence but that is no surprise since it's in Gansu. The first thing the hostel owner did for us was try to buy tickets to Mogao Caves. These are very important Buddhist caves with a lot of really impressive fresco's. I knew Andrea was really excited about seeing them because she had been talking about them since the first day we began planning the trip. The hostel owner was totally surprised that in the two days we would be staying in Dunhuang, all the English tickets were booked. We asked about Chinese language tours and she said, those are booked too. So, we didn't get to see Mogao caves. Nobody cried.

    After getting settled into the hostel, we decided to check out the nearby sand dune visitor center. It was a well put together tourist spot. A ticket could be used more than one day. They just scanned your finger print and linked your print to your ticket so other people couldn't use it. Riding the camels cost a hundred yuan and the ride was long enough that you were just getting bored of the experience when you had to get off. The dunes were pretty and we enjoyed everything there despite the fact that we had to share it with thousands of other tourists. I think the park cost 120 yuan each, but our student ID's gave us half price.












    When we returned to the Hostel, we sat down for a dinner of snacks and writing in my journal. The owners invited us to their party and explained that this was the hotels first anniversary. We enjoyed a little hot pot and a few warm beers.


    The next morning, I needed an oil change. I passed a place near the hostel that rented quads. I ended up going to a shop that sold oil by the drum. He had some cheap looking motorcycle oil that he wanted to sell me for 80 yuan. I paid 35 for it. I think he was trying to play the foreigners-will-pay-any-price-you-say game. He had the tools to change the oil, but from looking at his work, I'm guessing he had only changed the oil on his own bike. He ended up pouring oil all over the dirt in front of his shop. This made the family who owned the store next to his laugh at him. He smiled sheepishly in response. I asked if he had any grease for the chain. He said no. So, I went back to the quad shop and asked them. The shop is on the other side of a small, concrete ditch that was filled with fast flowing irrigation water. It was cool to see such an abundance of water in a place as hot and dry as Dunhuang. I parked the bike near the water and ask if the shop has any oil for my chain. I mistakenly left out the Chinese word that seperates grease (huangyou) from oil (you). Dude stands up and reluctantly grabs an old nearly empty bottle of oil. He leans over, pours a stream of used oil all over my chain, sprocket, and axle. The oil drips all over the ground and rear suspension arm. My mouth is open in disgust. Then, he takes the now empty bottle and chucks it carelessly into the irrigation ditch. ...yeah. I'm sitting here trying to think of a way to describe how I felt. It's more than just disgust. It's a realization that this behavior is acceptable and typical in China. It didn't occur to him that I was upset at him for doing that. He didn't think about it. The clean, blue water in the irrigation canal, water that is so precious and important to a community surrounded by dunes, gravel, and desert, is exactly the best place to put a used motor oil container. That mentality, as demented and ridiculous and it sounds, is so typical that it didn't occur to this man that I was standing in front of him with my mouth gaping trying to hide my reaction to his behavior. BAH!

    Next we road 80 km to the south. These 80 km were, for some reason, some of the longest in the entire trip. I'm not sure why. Possibly, the heat, this wind. But I know that everything hurt, everything was annoying, and I needed at least 5 breaks to finish them. At one of the breaks, Andrea put her small camera on the saddle bags but forgot to put it in her purse when we started moving. She found it missing about 10 km s later. So, we had to back track. I found the spot we stopped, then a few meters away, we found the camera.

    We were headed to an area in the desert that, in the time of the silk road, was very important. This was a section of the great wall, one of the sections furthest from Beijing. Yumen was one of the most western outposts on the great wall. The tiny guard facility and some sections of the wall are still extant today. They are not the stone versions of the wall that you see near Beijing or the clay brick versions near Jiayumen. These walls were only about 2 meters high, and not wide enough to walk on. They were made of layers of packed much and reeds. But insanely old. A lot of the wall has been eroded by wind, but it isn't as damaged as you would think.
















    Some strange desert berries. Didn't eat.


    We traveled about 40 km back to Dunhuang when Andrea stops me and tells me her little camera is missing again. She is really annoyed at herself and hatefully searches through all the places it could be. I see how much she is beating herself up, so I reserve my "How can you lose a camera twice on the same road?" look and instead use the "It's ok. We have four other perfectly good camera's." look. At this point in the day, I'm already tired. It's the heat of the day. Andrea is the same and were worried about another fainting incident. We decide to give up on the camera. I mean, if it wants to be lost so bad, let it be lost. So, we go to the next destination. 20 km outside of Dunhuang, we visit the western ten thousand Buddha caves. An arrogant and completely ridiculous man was unable to explain to us that we could only buy tickets to the cave immediately before a tour was about to begin. He simply and enthusiastically said, come back in thirteen and a half minutes. We walked into the valley and I did something that made all the Chinese people stare with wide-eyed shock. I removed my shirt, soaked it in a small stream with clear water, and put it back on. It was the most refreshing thing I could possibly have done and I loved it. I shivered and coo-ed with chilly delight. The dozen or so Chinese people who saw me do it completely forgot to close their mouths. We returned to the ticket seller, who had been replaced by a kind and intelligent woman who took our money and apologized for not being able to give an English tour. She said she was studying but hadn't finished memorizing the script. The western thousand buddha caves were small and few and, like bezeklik, mostly destroyed. I suggest you give it a miss, unless you are looking for a stream to soak your shirt in. We stopped for water and made it to the museum about two minutes after it closed. We were told it was too late. I literally begged them to let me and they did. I'm not too proud.








    From there, we had a quick bowl of noodles from a shop owned by a talkative Uighur man. I asked for Chaomian, hoping for the same awesome dish from the day before. He said that he didn't have Chaomian because it was too hot to Chao anything. This is understandable so I asked for cold noodles. After bringing two plates, he sat down next to us and began talking about motorcycles. He pointed out his brand new suzuki bike. It was one of those 125cc, drum brake, 5-spoke plastic rim deals. I asked if he ever takes it off-road. He didn't answer the question, but instead asked if I want to drive my dirtbike on the dunes. I said, "No, It's too heavy and it has the wrong tires for ..." (I don't know the words in Chinese for sand, dunes, or desert) He insisted that my dual-purpose bike, totally loaded down with luggage, is the perfect bike for the sand dunes. I continued to disagree. Next, he whips out his phone and shows me a video of a redbull competition in death valley. I explain that these are different bikes with special tires and death valley's dirt is harder and easier to drive on. He insists that my motorcycle is the perfect bike for sand dunes. I explain that I wouldn't be able to go fast enough and I would probably fall off the bike. He insists that my motorcycle is the perfect bike for sand dunes. Now, I try to have a deep respect for mentally challenged people and always try to avoid ostracizing those with mental difficulties. I wanted to eat my noodles and chat with my wife, but there was a pleasant and friendly who man was stopping me from doing that. I didn't want to tell him to leave me alone. I didn't want to insult him. My solution was to ignore him. This didn't work. He continued to show me pictures and videos of motorcycles and motorcycling that he thought was interesting. I said nothing except <slurp>.

    Back at the hostel, we did some laundry and relaxed a bit before hitting the hay.
    1995 Suzuki Intruder (2005-Present){Canada}
    2003 Daelim Daystar (2011-2012){S. Korea}
    2014 Jialing 200 GY5A (2015-Present) {China}
    Reply With Quote  
     

  7. #17 Yumen...kinda 
    C-Moto Regular cryptographicide's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Yantai, Shandong
    Posts
    96
    Yumen July 15
    Odometer: 3911


    Hide and Sheep




    I woke up early, but didn't quite get a grip on the day. You know when you hear the alarm, sit up and think, "Ok, lets go." Then you fall back down and pass out for an hour or two. I guess, when you're tired, you're tired. It was really nice not traveling with deadlines or a fixed schedule. If I needed a rest, I got a rest. I eventually started packing and doing bike maintenance. The chain needed tightening because a couple of rings had fallen off. I guess it is a solid fact that Chinese chains, even if grease and well maintained only last 4000km. Quickly, the bike was packed and we were off.

    Getting onto the main road, we saw a fairly large group of motorcycle touring guys. They all had big bikes. I couldn't tell the make, but they were prepared for long trips. Everybody was wearing reflective jackets and pants. Later on, a little ways down the highway, we saw another group of Chinese guys riding cheap 125 cc Chinese red tank bikes...You all know the ones I mean. They had those soft green side bags that are designed for carrying parcels. From Dunhuang, going south, the only option is the Gaosu. We simply rode past the toll gate on the entrance. They waved happily as we drove past. There were other vehicles on the road that were clearly not allowed. We saw a Sanlunche going about 40km/h. At least our bike was above the minimum speed. Our first leg, we made 100km before we needed a break.

    Lunch break was in a small town called Guazhou. Andrea was craving vegetables and it was a good call. We had a plate of pickled cabbage and some fried rice. I came back from ordering and paying for the meal and could smell Pannada burning on the exhaust pipe where Andrea had leant him. He wasn't damaged much. We sat in some cheap yellow plastic patio furniture under a little tent. It was shady and outside. The day hadn't become unbearably hot yet. I wiggled a bit in my seat and heard a snap before I went tumbling to the ground. I totally destroyed their plastic chair. The waitress came out and assured us that it wasn't a problem. Then I, more carefully this time, sat in another chair at the table.



    From Guazhou, we made our way to Yulin Grottos. The road to Yulin was some of the more interested and drivable roads in that area. What I mean is that it wasn't perfectly flat and straight. Yulin Grottoes were in a shallow gorge. There were lots of trees for shade. At the ticket office, we asked about student tickets, but the ticket seller was unable to clearly communicate that there is no student price for and English tour. She scurried out of her booth and found the English tour guide. We chose to get the tour in English for an extra 15 yuan a person. Yulin was quiet and cheap, compared to other attractions. 7 Caves were open to us. These 7 were more impressive to us than all the other grottoes that we had seen combined. There was a daoist cave, which was particularly interesting. The art was very different from the other buddhist caves. There were motifs common in Ming and Qing dynasty paintings. The colours were also more vibrant and contrasting. They used deep blue and reds to contrast the images. The big attraction was a 24m Buddha Maitreya. It was completely plated in gold and built withing a great cave. We walked in the cave and saw a small buddha sitting there. "Oh, thats nice." Then we looked to the side of the little Buddha and saw a 10 foot high foot. Your eyes slowly trace their way to the top where they find the Buddhas head about 80 feet above you.






    On the way back to the Gaosu, we saw herds of camels and sheep grazing in some grassland.




    Back on the Gaosu, I noticed that people started treating me differently. At this point, there was a secondary highway to the side of the Gaosu. But the road was terrible with potholes and rolling pavement. Some parts the pavement would end and be replaced with terrible gravel. This road was packed with trucks trying to avoid the tolls but keep their speed. They would crash over the road at 60km/h. I tried to stay on the highway, but after a few belligerent drivers, I began to feel the secondary road might be safer. One driver on a white Haval SUV. (To those who are considering buying a Haval SUV, please don't. All Haval drivers are complete assholes. I see a Haval now and I think, "That prick is a cheap cunt, I hope his teeth fall out and his family leaves him because he is so pathetic".) This Haval pulls up beside me, slowing to match my speed, and follows in my blind spot for a while. He checks out the bike, sees that we are foreigners and decides he needs to intervene. So, he gets in front of us and begins to slow down. I go around him. He does it again, pulling in front of us and motioning to pull over. I do a quick check with my clutch hand. Nope, all the straps and ties seem in order. He is not a police officer, nor is it anyone of any official significance. It is just a jerk in a Chinese brand SUV. I pass him again. He tries to pass me. This time I slow down to 30km/h and keep driving straight. He matches my speed and continues to play this strange game of leap frog. It takes a few more leaps for him to get sick of driving so slow and realize it's not worth it. He eventually floors it and rides away. After this, I take the first exit off the Gaosu. The secondary highway however is so terrible. I couldn't keep a speed higher than 50km/h. Andrea was starting to get whiplash from the bumps and I knew the bike and luggage was taking a beating. We continue for a few hours until it starts to get around 6 pm. The sun was getting lower and we needed a campsite. So, I drive along, looking for promising side roads. I find one that runs under the highspeed rail line. This takes me to grazing grounds. Lots of shepherds are walking around with sheep through really tall grass. Ok, this looks pretty good. I find a tiny trail off the road and check out the grass. The ground is strange. It's hard and crispy on the surface, but immediately under the surface it's soft and spongy. Driving the bike in this is like driving over a crispy pillow-top mattress.




    We drove through the tall grass till we were out of sight of everything. No one coming down the road could see us. We were out of sight of everything. Even the bike couldn't be seen. You would have to walk over top of us to see us. So, we tucked our shirts into our pants and our pants into our socks and sat down in the crispy dirt next to the beetles, worms, and ticks. We waited for darkness. A cloud started rolling past and it looked really dark. We hadn't seen a hint of rain since we started our trip. The wind was blowing this cloud toward the mountains. It was gaining altitude and loosing heat, the closer the clouds got to the mountains, the more they looked like rain. Almost every cloud eventually had a little thunderstorm tantrum and dumped a bit of rain before clearing the first few peaks and heading into the range. It was strange watching a queue of clouds line up and take a leak. If I had been the cartographer, I'd have called that place Urinal Mountain. I'm watching the clouds and snacking on a bag of things called "strange taste Chongqing horse nuts" when we hear the baying of a flock of sheep. It's ok, they would have to be literally on top of us to see us. Then we hear she shepherd yelling. He's closer than we thought. "Ya! Ya! Yaa-ha-ha-ha!" He is getting closer. We listen for another fifteen minutes. Slowly, he continues getting closer. Eventually, we hear his bell ringing. Then a sheep walks past us. Oh crap. I stand up and he is about 5 meters away. I say "Nihao". He responds with a word I don't know. He doesn't speak a single word of mandarin. I explain that we are just snacking and resting in the grass. My speech is completely non-sense to his ears. So, our communication quickly degrades into gesturing. I motion that we are just leaving. He motions that we should follow him and his sheep. I don't want to. I doubt he is going to call the police. But, I can't tell his intentions and, honestly, after the last time we tried to camp, I wasn't in the mood to trust any Chinese people. The completely language barrier only aggravated the situation. So, we got on the still totally packed-up bike and drove off. There was about 30 minutes of usable light left.


    I drove through some fields before finding another grassy spot near a brook. This spot had better ground. It was far less bumpy and more comfortable. It also wasn't that hot. Comfortable in the low twenties, so room temperature. The only trouble was the mosquito's, who were finding breeding very efficient thanks to the brook and the low lying stagnant water that surrounded it. As we pulled up, a cloud overhead decided to spill it's load a little early and began to drizzle on us. The tent went up quick and we hid inside for the rest of the night. Nobody bothered us for the rest of the night.






    Last edited by cryptographicide; 08-26-2015 at 04:53 PM.
    1995 Suzuki Intruder (2005-Present){Canada}
    2003 Daelim Daystar (2011-2012){S. Korea}
    2014 Jialing 200 GY5A (2015-Present) {China}
    Reply With Quote  
     

  8. #18 Re: Yumen...kinda 
    KING of MCM LOL prince666's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    china (Longkou), Hainan
    Posts
    2,002
    One driver on a white Haval SUV. (To those who are considering buying a Haval SUV, please don't. All Haval drivers are complete assholes. I see a Haval now and I think, "That prick is a cheap cunt, I hope his teeth fall out and his family leaves him because he is so pathetic".) This Haval pulls up beside me, slowing to match my speed, and follows in my blind spot for a while. He checks out the bike, sees that we are foreigners and decides he needs to intervene. So, he gets in front of us and begins to slow down. I go around him. He does it again, pulling in front of us and motioning to pull over. I do a quick check with my clutch hand. Nope, all the straps and ties seem in order. He is not a police officer, nor is it anyone of any official significance. It is just a jerk in a Chinese brand SUV. I pass him again. He tries to pass me. This time I slow down to 30km/h and keep driving straight. He matches my speed and continues to play this strange game of leap frog. It takes a few more leaps for him to get sick of driving so slow and realize it's not worth it. He eventually floors it and rides away
    Great RR well done and thanks for posting.


    Just got back myself from a ride over west from Longkou, had the same shit with Cars/SUV on the expressway checking you out taking pictures , I just let it go for a short time then I just pull over and stop hoping their car will stop as well ? then we would see what all the fuss is about.

    Now when I am on my CF 650 TR I just open her up and piss them off because their shit SUV can't keep up with me.

    Not sure what game the dicks head are playing but it's all the part of living here in China I reckon
    "Arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics, even if you win you're still retarded"
    Reply With Quote  
     

  9. #19 Jiayuguan 
    C-Moto Regular cryptographicide's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    Yantai, Shandong
    Posts
    96
    Jiayuguan - July 16
    Odometer: 4238

    Hiding in the Mountains



    We were up at the first sign of twilight. Both Andrea and I were worried that some shepherds would show up and make trouble. We were on the bike in half and hour and I tried to find the highway. I had GPS on my phone and it could tell me where I was, but I couldn't get signal, so no satellite maps. We drove around a maze of fields and cart trails, trying to find the road. I knew that there was a road a km north of us, so I drove north and got stopped when the road turned into a muddy trap. I also knew the road curved towards the south, so we headed east, trying to get to it. This time we were stopped by a large lake. I saw a mosque to the south and since you build mosques near people and people often build their houses near roads, the mosque may be near a road. On the way, we had to go down a little ravine. I missed my gear going up the other side, the bike bogged out and stalled, then slid backward into a deep pond. The front tire was still on the road, but the back was totally submerged and I was standing knee deep in swamp. The great thing about a 250cc bike is, even full loaded, I can lift it. So, I lift it back on the road and drive away with wet boots. We get back on the road and, after about two hours lost in the maze, continue on. From sheep-camp to Yumen was about 100 km.

    The road was great. It was still super early and no one was around. The road was new, and wound through farms and fields. We saw sunflowers and canola. Everything was green and alive. This is something that we hadn't seen in a while. In Yumen, we find a baozi restaurant for breakfast, a store to stock up on water and snacks, a place to wash the mud off the bike, and a gas station all right next to each other. So, we hit each establishment in order, doing all the running around we needed to do in one quick shot. The car wash people let me wash the bike myself. I don't trust the waterproofing for the particularly sensitive EFI stuff to a pressure washer. So, I always tell the dude with the washer wand that I know which parts can't get wet. It usually works. Also, the car wash is often free.

    After Yumen, however, the road went to shit. Alternating gravel and pocked pavement. Just terrible stuff. I got sick of it quickly and decided to try and sneak on the Gaosu by entering through a broken section of fence. Getting past the fence was easy. Then I had to ride up the embankment. I got Andrea to jump off, then I had to sit right in front of the steep section, gun the bike and pop the clutch. I overestimated the juice I would need and ended up popping the tire up in the air. I lost my balance and fell on my ass, but the bike made it on the highway. The maneuver would have been a complete success had I not busted off the mirror and bent the brake lever forward. I was wearing the armour, so no pain. Just shame.



    A shot of some sand formations caused by wind-erosion.

    Once on the Gaosu, Jiayuguan came swiftly and comfortably and we had no trouble at any point. We got to Jiayuguan just before noon. Jiayuguan is the official end of the great wall, although we had totally just seen the really old sections in Dunhuang. It might be the last major fort of the great wall. There is a cool fort there, but we got the feeling it was a tourist trap and only drove around it. We went to check out the overhanging great wall. There was an entrance where you had to pay money, but there was also a section that you could climb on the wall without paying. We just drove around, had a little look and continued on.




    I needed another oil change. (every 1000km, no oil filter on this bike) and I needed a new mirror and brake lever. We typed "摩托车修“ into baidu maps and it lead us to a mechanic. He was a real problem solver. The brake level was replaced in a minute, the oil changed, and he just epoxied the mirror back in place. We had lunch while it set. His wife was really friendly and bought us some bananas. When people in China get me really angry, I try to remember the nice bananas and people who go out of their way to be kind.



    The bike shop.


    The noodle house we had lunch in.





    We were planning on backtracking a little bit and heading into the mountains along what could have been an amazing road south of the boring flat desert Gaosu. This road wound through the mountains. I saw twisties on the map. Even if it was a significant amount of gravel, I was excited about taking this road. So, we go along and before we start climbing, I have to head 30 km straight into the wind. The bike doesn't want to keep up 80km/h now. It is limited to 60km/h. I'm concerned but write it off as due to the headwind. Then we start to climb into the hills . The pavement ends almost immediately, but the gravel isn't too loose and I can keep 50km/h safely. That should be ok. We keep climbing. The bike begins to lose power, like a lot of power. I slow to 30km/h. The road is steep and gravel. This I can handle, I just go slow. It is about 300 km to Zhangye by this road, but we should be able to make it with a hard day of riding. We keep climbing, the bike being really weak and slow. Then we get to the pass and I realize how high we were. It was 3500m and the temperature at 2 pm felt like 10 degrees. We were planning on camping nearby but our sleeping bags are rated for 10 degrees and if it dropped another ten degrees overnight, we would be having a tough time. That, combined with the poor performance from the bike, the not so great road conditions, I decided to save some time and take the Gaosu. So we turned around at the pass and headed back down until the air got a little warmer.



    Pass at 3500m











    When we spotted the area that would make a good campsite, I made Andrea walk, and drove the bike through a creek bed until we were higher up the hill and away from the road. We made camp in a mountain meadow, far out of sight of the nearest road. It was one of my favorite camping spots on the trip. Finally, Andrea was able to relax.










    1995 Suzuki Intruder (2005-Present){Canada}
    2003 Daelim Daystar (2011-2012){S. Korea}
    2014 Jialing 200 GY5A (2015-Present) {China}
    Reply With Quote  
     

  10. #20 Re: Jiayuguan 
    C-Moto Guru TexasAggie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Nanjing, Jiangsu PRC and Dallas, TX
    Posts
    434
    Great Report! I also have similar feelings about trying to look at the good folks you meet on the way and let those that that I do not think deserve to share oxygen with me leave my mind. I am not always successful! Then I remember my statistics and engineering from many years ago. The real issue is the size of the pool. If you have 10% asshats in the USA, you must remember that means that there are 30 million asshats in the country. In China, the percentage is the same but there are 1.4 billion people, that means there are 140 million asshats in the same footprint.

    That being said, I often forget my own knowledge in the heat of stupid and shit for brains people. Good to see that you have a good handle on your situation!

    the more people I meet, the more I like my dogs.....
    DT
    Keeping the rubber side down.....most of the time.
    Nanjing wheels:BMW F800GS / Texas wheels:BMW R1200GSA & 70' Bultaco El Bandido
    Reply With Quote  
     

Page 2 of 6 FirstFirst 1234 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Urumqi-Turpan-Dunhuang-Labrang-Xian-Yantai Trip Planning
    By cryptographicide in forum Ride Prep and Making Tracks
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 07-08-2015, 10:20 AM
  2. Few weeks in South West China
    By Brice in forum Ride Reports and Meetings
    Replies: 81
    Last Post: 03-06-2013, 06:31 AM
  3. Qinghai: Where to rent a bike in Xining?
    By viragodyl in forum Ride Prep and Making Tracks
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 09-02-2010, 04:47 AM
  4. Ride the West China this Sept - Suggestions?
    By ChristineG in forum Ride Prep and Making Tracks
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-25-2010, 11:33 PM
  5. Difference btw. East and West Canada
    By CrazyCarl in forum North America
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 06-04-2009, 07:36 AM
Bookmarks
Bookmarks
Posting Permissions
  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •