Don't give up on the bike tour

We nearly got so discouraged by the pollution and unpleasant ride in South China that we almost gave up on the bike tour. But we finally reached a compromise. We will take a flight from Macau or Zhuhai to Laos and cycle in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand and take another flight from Bangkok to Turkey and cycle continuously in Europe.

This blog post will cover day 5 until 9, which is today.

Our ride into hell began with a pleasant breakfast. Something we both never tasted before. They cooked it with a special machine which consists of two big flat plates one of which they put inside an oven during that they would put rice flower gel onto the second plate.

And out of this comes that.

We just packed our stuff outside a nice hotel with a large double room. The hotel prices in the areas surrounding Guangzhou is cheaper than if we rented two beds inside a hostel. It was about 20 USD per night for two people inside a large double bedroom per day on average. Usually the rooms are clean and very livable. WiFi is always included and breakfast is usually included if you book the 7Days Inn chain.

That day, we rode over 59 km, so far the longest ride during our trip. Our average speed was 14 km/h. We were slightly improving.

We needed to take a ferry that brought us from Dongguan area to the Nansha island. It was for free. We saw on the way a giant nuclear plant. First time I saw that.

Nansha island must have been a rich area since the roads were very well made, traffic was low and very nice housing with lots of green areas and little mountains full of lychee trees. But it was here where we discovered the ghost town of China. Entire city blocks were totally empty but ready for people to move in. There were no more construction signs nor blockages. Even all the shops were fake and empty. They had signs outside that looked almost real but there were no shopkeepers nor customers. So we figured that it must have been a ghost city. It was kind of scary.

But next to it was a nice park where there were nobody. We figured that in China, the beautifully crafted areas were almost empty because only few people can afford these areas. The really crappy areas were full of people and endless cars because that was where the normal people lived and worked.

Inside the park we had a rest for about half an hour.

Not only did China changed through time but also during any one time, China changed from place to place very suddenly as though you would pass through a third world country to a first class city within just a few minutes ride on a bike. It was incredible to experience that. One moment of paradise was followed by hell of trucks over trucks and bumpy roads. That exactly happened to us after we crossed the bridge to land in the are of Zhongshan city. It was an industrial town where they still had a lot of infrastructure to build up so there were numerous road works and lots of trucks going back and forth. The roads were very bad and we almost made a few accident on that single day. The pollution levels shoot up so high that we both got sick in our lungs for couple of days. The pollution also abruptly changes depending where you go in China. In general, pollution is less or none existent the further South/West and the closer to the Pacific coast you go. Since that day it was our guiding principle to find pleasant places to ride and stay in China.

We stayed two nights in Zhongshan city mainly to avoid the rain and to recover from the pollution. We discovered a bit of the town during that time. There was a nice park where we went after going to Pizza Hut.

Then we saw lots of elderly women dancing together at the corner of that park. It was quite typical in China. You usually see them during night or early morning and they tend to be old people either dancing or doing taichi or some other sports.

We finally had to move out of our pleasant hotel room.

Only to discover some people killing chickens on the street for sale. First time we saw this.

Later we discovered a small village with pretty old buildings.

We then landed in Zhuhai area which suddenly made our trip extremely pleasant. The roads were so well made because they had a segregated road just for bikes on either side of the street. This made our ride very safe and simple. On that day we rode 49 km from Zhongshan to Jiazhou island next to Tangjiawanzhen in the North of Zhuhai area.

We took a lunch on the grassfield of a residential district with totally exotic fruits.

We reached a mountain which was stunning. The air was clear and it wasn't that hot anymore.

What followed was the finest Chinese ramen I had since my childhood. It was the Lan Zhou La Mian with beef. The stock smelled exactly the same as I remembered it 20 years ago.

Another longer rest at a cafe to restore strength and to avoid the sun.

Without any clue that we would find a huge rice field just an hour later.

We finally arrived at the island we stay for two nights. It was beautiful. Lots of mountains and greens.

With tasty local food.

And well preserved old architecture.

For tonight I just bought from this market lots of food for a BBQ.

We will now go for a hike which I shall report later tomorrow.

So far our bike packing tour from HK to France has now two interrupting flights between China and Laos and between Thailand and Turkey. But the majority of the tour is saved.