Coming off the snowy pass here is some pretty common Chinese road work. They just cut a patch out of the road, and fix it sometime in the future. Would be exciting to hit this at night...
Guess the icy road caught this guy by surprise. One of the riders in our group
also had a minor crash due to the ice.
Along the way they were building tunnels to shorten the winding road. There were boulders to block cars from entering , but if you were on a bike the tunnel workers would wave you into the tunnel. Here is a narrow exit....
The last town before entering Tibet was Batang. Here everyone needed some sort of bike work. Here is Zippy getting some wheel bearings. I had put in new bearings before I left, think the accident and the bent front axle shortened the life of the bearings.
Here is the group work photo.
If you could read Chinese that would be the border sign with Tibet.
Here is the dirt road leading up into Tibet. We were headed towards the
town of Markham.
Was feeling pretty tough, thinking here I am riding dirt roads to Lhasa.
Then we passed these Chinese cyclists who were also going to Lhasa.
Damn those ego deflating bicycle people....
Here we are the town of Markham which is about 100 kilometers into Tibet. Some local kids greet us and strike amusing poses.
Fighting to have their picture taken. Had a feeling these kids were pretty
scrappy.
View out my window in the morning. It has turned colder and the snow level
is very close.
I had a very hard time sleeping. I kept wheezing all night, and could not breathe. It felt like I was trying to breathe through a small straw, and was not getting enough oxygen. So not much sleep, and in the morning felt terrible. We all suited up, and then headed up towards the pass. This does not look like a spring trip....
As we went up I kept feeling worse. We are in a very remote area, and altitude sickness can easily be fatal. So at the top of the pass I told the group that I had to head back down. It seemed very foolish to continue onwards into higher mountains feeling that bad. I really hate to turn back but sometimes you have to. Very reluctantly we parted company and headed back down the mountain towards Batang.
Now riding back down the canyon towards Batang. Rode with a couple of guys who were coming from Lhasa. This gentleman was 63 years old......
Here is one of the tunnels under construction they let you drive through.
That is fresh concrete forming the left lane. In the middle of the tunnel I thought I was riding through some mud, thinking that was odd to find in a tunnel. Then realized it was fresh cement that was being applied to the ceiling of the tunnel, and the excess was falling down.
This is a hill tribe woman along the way back to Litang. After I took her picture she held out her hand for money. Guess she has been watching too much TV. I smiled, and shook her hand. That got a big laugh out of her.
After I got to Litang late in the day I felt much better. It is at the same elevation that I left from that morning in Markham, about 4000 meters. I have never had altitude sickness before. Now was thinking maybe I had been alergic to something I ate. I have been at high altitude for close to two weeks by now so it should not be a problem. I really hate to quit......
Time to head back to Tibet !! So next morning I get up early, and head back toward Markham in Tibet. The bike is running pretty poorly, and hard to start. I make it to Batang which is the last town before you cross over into Tibet. Here the bike simply refuses to start no matter what I do. The shops here are pretty good on small bikes, so I push the bike to a big shop. Here they tear it apart and try to find out what is wrong.
Their prognosis was the stator was bad. I have replaced everything else except the stator. Turns out the part was not available in the nearest really big town of Chengdu. Then they start with the shoulder shrugging as if the bike is not really fixable. At this point I sort of lose patience, thinking I am in a really small town where it is difficult to get anything done. First thought is to get the bike to Chengdu, get it fixed, and sell it. I do not like to give up on a bike, but all these endless repairs is starting to feel like flogging a dead horse. All the truck traffic leaving town is either going to Litang or Chengdu.
So for a while I try bike hitch hiking, hoping I can catch a truck going the way I want. Very very expensive to charter a truck, as it would exceed the value of the bike. The sign says Chengdu in Chinese which I would wave when a likely looking truck came by.
After a couple of hours I gave up. The bike is only worth a couple of hundred dollars when running so not really worth organizing your life around it. So time to sell the bike and move on. Took it back to the hotel where I stripped off all my stuff.
Took it ( rolled it ) back to the same shop that said they could not fix it and asked them how much they wanted to buy the bike for as is. After some fierce negotiating it ended up at 1300 yuan. Here is the proud new owner.
Fairly dejected I drag all my stuff by hand down to the bus station to arrange the long, long, bus ride to Chengdu. I then hear a familiar exhaust. Hey, there is the unfixable Zippy roaring up and down the street 20 minutes after I sold it.
Not really sure if I was tricked or not. Hate to think the worst of people but... Now am wondering if the guy sandbagged trying to fix it hoping I would sell it, as there really would not be any other choice. Or if he sabotaged the bike from running poorly to not running at all. I did make the mistake of going to lunch when they first started to work on it. Will never know. Not too worried as it is only small money, and I was sort of hankering for a new bike.
In any event I am now on the "bus from hell" ride to Chengdu where I will decide what to do. The bus left this morning at 0600. Not an hour into the trip he center punches a big rock in the road. Bammm !! We then limp into the next small town where they spend two hours fixing whatever was broken on the suspension. This guy is just flying down these bad roads. I feel like I have just spent 15 hours in a paint mixer. You know how when you go down a washboard road at a slow speed it is not too bad, but when you go fast it kicks the crap out of you? Well we were doing the crap kicking speed.
Then late in the day we start going through passes with heavy snow. Nearly at the top of one he pulls to the side of a very narrow road with a huge drop off on the outside, and turns off the engine. The driver and the mechanic then put on overalls to work on the bus engine. They then all leave the bus to go outside. We are on a steep uphill with a death dropoff if it rolls backwards....Hmmmm. After about 20 minutes of work they replace some mysterious hose and continue upwards. Now it is dark, and the snow is falling heavily and building up on the road. Of course there are no chains, and some of the cars are already slipping around. And did I mention the death drop off ?? We finally clear the top of the pass and carefully head down to the lower elevations where the snow stops. Whewww !! I am now starting to really feel sorry for all these backpackers taking buses around. Give me a bike any day of the week !!! So tomorrow in Chengdu, where I will come up with a new plan. I really liked the Lhasa plan, but it just did not work out. Maybe next time...
Guess the icy road caught this guy by surprise. One of the riders in our group
also had a minor crash due to the ice.
Along the way they were building tunnels to shorten the winding road. There were boulders to block cars from entering , but if you were on a bike the tunnel workers would wave you into the tunnel. Here is a narrow exit....
The last town before entering Tibet was Batang. Here everyone needed some sort of bike work. Here is Zippy getting some wheel bearings. I had put in new bearings before I left, think the accident and the bent front axle shortened the life of the bearings.
Here is the group work photo.
If you could read Chinese that would be the border sign with Tibet.
Here is the dirt road leading up into Tibet. We were headed towards the
town of Markham.
Was feeling pretty tough, thinking here I am riding dirt roads to Lhasa.
Then we passed these Chinese cyclists who were also going to Lhasa.
Damn those ego deflating bicycle people....
Here we are the town of Markham which is about 100 kilometers into Tibet. Some local kids greet us and strike amusing poses.
Fighting to have their picture taken. Had a feeling these kids were pretty
scrappy.
View out my window in the morning. It has turned colder and the snow level
is very close.
I had a very hard time sleeping. I kept wheezing all night, and could not breathe. It felt like I was trying to breathe through a small straw, and was not getting enough oxygen. So not much sleep, and in the morning felt terrible. We all suited up, and then headed up towards the pass. This does not look like a spring trip....
As we went up I kept feeling worse. We are in a very remote area, and altitude sickness can easily be fatal. So at the top of the pass I told the group that I had to head back down. It seemed very foolish to continue onwards into higher mountains feeling that bad. I really hate to turn back but sometimes you have to. Very reluctantly we parted company and headed back down the mountain towards Batang.
Now riding back down the canyon towards Batang. Rode with a couple of guys who were coming from Lhasa. This gentleman was 63 years old......
Here is one of the tunnels under construction they let you drive through.
That is fresh concrete forming the left lane. In the middle of the tunnel I thought I was riding through some mud, thinking that was odd to find in a tunnel. Then realized it was fresh cement that was being applied to the ceiling of the tunnel, and the excess was falling down.
This is a hill tribe woman along the way back to Litang. After I took her picture she held out her hand for money. Guess she has been watching too much TV. I smiled, and shook her hand. That got a big laugh out of her.
After I got to Litang late in the day I felt much better. It is at the same elevation that I left from that morning in Markham, about 4000 meters. I have never had altitude sickness before. Now was thinking maybe I had been alergic to something I ate. I have been at high altitude for close to two weeks by now so it should not be a problem. I really hate to quit......
Time to head back to Tibet !! So next morning I get up early, and head back toward Markham in Tibet. The bike is running pretty poorly, and hard to start. I make it to Batang which is the last town before you cross over into Tibet. Here the bike simply refuses to start no matter what I do. The shops here are pretty good on small bikes, so I push the bike to a big shop. Here they tear it apart and try to find out what is wrong.
Their prognosis was the stator was bad. I have replaced everything else except the stator. Turns out the part was not available in the nearest really big town of Chengdu. Then they start with the shoulder shrugging as if the bike is not really fixable. At this point I sort of lose patience, thinking I am in a really small town where it is difficult to get anything done. First thought is to get the bike to Chengdu, get it fixed, and sell it. I do not like to give up on a bike, but all these endless repairs is starting to feel like flogging a dead horse. All the truck traffic leaving town is either going to Litang or Chengdu.
So for a while I try bike hitch hiking, hoping I can catch a truck going the way I want. Very very expensive to charter a truck, as it would exceed the value of the bike. The sign says Chengdu in Chinese which I would wave when a likely looking truck came by.
After a couple of hours I gave up. The bike is only worth a couple of hundred dollars when running so not really worth organizing your life around it. So time to sell the bike and move on. Took it back to the hotel where I stripped off all my stuff.
Took it ( rolled it ) back to the same shop that said they could not fix it and asked them how much they wanted to buy the bike for as is. After some fierce negotiating it ended up at 1300 yuan. Here is the proud new owner.
Fairly dejected I drag all my stuff by hand down to the bus station to arrange the long, long, bus ride to Chengdu. I then hear a familiar exhaust. Hey, there is the unfixable Zippy roaring up and down the street 20 minutes after I sold it.
Not really sure if I was tricked or not. Hate to think the worst of people but... Now am wondering if the guy sandbagged trying to fix it hoping I would sell it, as there really would not be any other choice. Or if he sabotaged the bike from running poorly to not running at all. I did make the mistake of going to lunch when they first started to work on it. Will never know. Not too worried as it is only small money, and I was sort of hankering for a new bike.
In any event I am now on the "bus from hell" ride to Chengdu where I will decide what to do. The bus left this morning at 0600. Not an hour into the trip he center punches a big rock in the road. Bammm !! We then limp into the next small town where they spend two hours fixing whatever was broken on the suspension. This guy is just flying down these bad roads. I feel like I have just spent 15 hours in a paint mixer. You know how when you go down a washboard road at a slow speed it is not too bad, but when you go fast it kicks the crap out of you? Well we were doing the crap kicking speed.
Then late in the day we start going through passes with heavy snow. Nearly at the top of one he pulls to the side of a very narrow road with a huge drop off on the outside, and turns off the engine. The driver and the mechanic then put on overalls to work on the bus engine. They then all leave the bus to go outside. We are on a steep uphill with a death dropoff if it rolls backwards....Hmmmm. After about 20 minutes of work they replace some mysterious hose and continue upwards. Now it is dark, and the snow is falling heavily and building up on the road. Of course there are no chains, and some of the cars are already slipping around. And did I mention the death drop off ?? We finally clear the top of the pass and carefully head down to the lower elevations where the snow stops. Whewww !! I am now starting to really feel sorry for all these backpackers taking buses around. Give me a bike any day of the week !!! So tomorrow in Chengdu, where I will come up with a new plan. I really liked the Lhasa plan, but it just did not work out. Maybe next time...
