Mountain Man in a Flat Land

Just a note to let you know we've arrived in Bayi, a little over 400 kilometers out of Lhasa, after five of the most spectacular days of cycling this trip. At the moment, we are surrounded by mountains of pine forests, enormous rivers, and even larger clouds that creep down late in the day to give you a veritable bucketing at night. Alaska, possibly - but no one would ever guess this was Tibet!! (Especially no one who was with us the first three weeks of riding!) Highlights included our first night out at Ganden monastery, where we camped 500 meters above the valley floor and went to bed and woke up the next morning to the sounds of a yak drive right through our camp. We followed this up with a day later with a 150K day (to all you road riders - HUGE for cycle touring!) that included a 5,000 meter pass, and then (even better) a 120K downhill (albeit into a head wind - but the first 60K's were phenomenal - even I hit 60kph!) Finally, our ride into Bayi today was just beautiful, following an enormous river through forests, past wild horses and yaks, and between massive snow-covered peaks. We're now down at about 3000 meters, and can't quite figure out where all this oxygen has come from! Not to worry - it won't last long!

Now, for those interested, the blow by blow (Hamish and I have decided to alternate days for the purposes of writing this - see if you can tell who's who ;-)...)

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Day 14 - Lhasa to Ganden Monastery

A pretty uneventful day - a final cup of coffee with Rene and his lovely wife Christine and baby, and we were off. Our first day back in the saddle after a week of sloth was meant to be a smallish one - around 50K's to the base of the 500 meter climb to Ganden Monastery, and then a hitch up the hill in the truck (we'd started a little later than intended, and wanted to see one of Tibet's original monasteries before it closed - also, this was a side trip;-)..) Headwinds on the way there gave us a taste of what was to come, but even with the slight uphill we relished the pavement, and made good time (just under two hours to the base.)

Once up a truly horrific road (which I was already anticipating coming down the next day - 8K's, 500 meters, rock/ stone/ hole/ sand-filled), we parked ourselves in possibly the world's prettiest camping spot, just under the ridge top and opposite the monastery, with the entire Lhasa valley opening below us. Not much time to relax though, so we hopped on biked and peddled the rest of the way up to the monastery. The monks were very amused - they don't seem to get many independent visitors! After we'd walked around, (getting shoo'ed in the appropriate direction all the way, as per usual), taken some pictures, been hit with an old hat of the Panchen lamas by a particularly exuberant monk (believe it or not, this is a blessing, and we got the impression not every "non-Pilgrim" gets this so counted ourselves fortunate and sent it on to friends of both Hamish and I who are recovering from surgery to remove tumors), and hiked a truly lovely kora (a circular path hiked by pilgrims, usually around a monastery or holy place and ALWAYS (if it's Buddhist) in a clockwise direction) we were ready to head back down to camp. Much amusement for everyone as we attempted to shoo away a herd of pregnant donkeys who apparently adopted our bikes in the interim so we could mount up and head back down the hill.

Our camp spot turned out to be right in the center of a yak herder's "domain". Apparently, the monastery owns a heap of yaks, and employs the better part of a village to watch them. Our tent was right near the mountain spring cum water hole, so we had a bird's eye view of a number of these massive, fuzzy creatures. Fortunately, it turns out that they are pretty tame up close (or maybe the monastery just exerts a positive influence? Or culls the violent ones?), and before the evening was over we were all scratching ears and necks, and Dong Ten was even halfway on one for a ride down the valley (luckily we dissuaded him, as docility aside, who knows where the yak would have ended up?) That evening, the nightly "yak drive" went straight through our camp about dinner time - and we woke up at 7:30 the next morning to the critters being moved back up the hill again. Definitely a novel experience - although we were silently hoping nothing would get wrapped up in the tent pegs (yep, they were that close!)

Day 15 - Ganden Monastery to Rutok Xiang (Leah)

First up (after the morning porridge - we found some cinnamon and raisins in Lhasa to make it a bit better, but I'll say it here - I'm not a fan of porridge...) we had to get back down the hill. I put my helmet on for this, and the descent (all 8 K's of it) took nearly half an hour. Yikes. Once down, though, we continued to head up the valley. 92K's of well-paved road, albeit upriver (i.e. moderately uphill, particularly later on) and into a head wind that didn't want to quit. Hamish and I took it in turns, and arrived in Rutok after about 4 1/4 hours of fairly uneventful cycling. The most interesting thing about Rutok (or at least the one we were most interested in!) was the hot springs - after only two days, we were thrilled at the idea of a wash (we've regressed!) Turned out a Chinese 4-wheel drive group was coming through and had the place booked out, so we had a two-hour wait before a "small room" (sort of looked like a hot tub room, but with springs water) came available for the frankly exorbitant price of 120Rmb (fine if there's 6 of you, pricey if it's two at USD15 for the room.) Still, our room was in a pretty basic teahouse for the night, shared with whoever wandered through, so we figured we could justify it - and the soak was lovely. While waiting, we did a little laundry in the river outside - actually, Hamish washed while I went exploring. En route to scramble up some rocks, I scared the bejesus out of myself and a poor local snake at the same time - Hamish, obviously from a country that doesn't have poisonous (or indeed any!) snakes, immediately went to investigate (whereas I was half-way up the next pass already.) Dinner was a quiet affair - we were both a little tired, and a little daunted by another day into a headwind (and up a 5,000 meter pass.) Oh well, only supposed to be another 90K day....right......

Day 16 - Rutok to Kongpo Gyampo

After feeling really clean for the first time in Tibet it was hard to say goodbye to the comfort of the hot springs and hit the road again. We faced a 600m climb over 26km up to Mila La, another 5000m pass. It was not to bad as the road was sealed most of the way and also what’s 600m at over 4000m these days (note road was NOT sealed - approx. 15K's in the middle was in the process of being ripped up by road workers! We can only wonder why (and what it would have been like a week later! -L). We must be getting well acclimatized that’s for sure, and maybe just a little fitter. The climb was also spectacular as the road twisted it’s way up a huge valley with snow capped peaks on either side. Then we topped out at the pass after 150km of climbing from Lhasa, but only a 1400m total altitude gain (plus a bit as rolling hills. L-).

After the usual photos of us and the pass, plus a few extra for a Chinese tour group who wanted photos of us, we were off down the other side. A fast downhill awaited us, and we did not mess around as we enjoyed our first sealed downhill of the trip. (The truck had trouble passing me as I flew down at 70km/hour. Even Leah got up to 60km/hr at times!!). The downhill went on and on and on. In fact it lasted 120km, of which we covered the first 90km in 3 hours!!. It was going so well that we decided to continue on further than planned and combine two days into one. By doing this we gained ourselves a rain day. (A day that we can use at a later date when it is pissing down and we do not want to ride, and decide it is better to drink coffee and read all day (hohoho! L-)). So at the end of the day we had covered 150km, climbed 860m, and descended 1655m, all in 6 3/4 hours on mountain bikes. A long day, and that is not mentioning the scenery. The head of the valley was the usual high altitude Tibetan desert. Not much was growing up there and there was not much life either. As we descended a green tinge started to appear on the hillsides; the stream grew into a river; and the trees got bigger. By the end of the day we were in a pine forest, and the fields were positively green. Quite a change from the desert of the Kathmandu to Lhasa ride!!!. The day made Leah homesick as the scenery reminded her of Colorado. Not what we had expected in Tibet.

Day 17 - Konpo Gyamda to Baipa

Boy, we didn't want to get out of bed. We'd arranged with the boys to leave at 11am, and at 10 I kicked myself out the door to find some eggs and mantou (steamed bun, pretty standard brekkie in town for us..) Unfortunately, for the first time in recent memory, the town had neither mantou nor Muslim flat breads (oddly enough, the Muslims here seem to be the bakers - not up to German standards, but not half bad in a pinch) so I ended up buying baozi (in better towns these are bread dumplings filled with either meat or vegetables...in Konpo Gyamda only meat was available..) which we then picked the meat out of. So with half-full tummies we started off towards Baipa.

The headwind would not let up - it was howling up the river, and although we managed a respectable almost-20Kph, it was a long 3 1/2 hours. Luckily, the scenery was still beautiful - trees, mountains, and river, so really we couldn't complain too much. At lunch we stopped at the town at the turn-off to Draksum-Tso, a monastery on an island in the middle of a lake (we'd hoped to go there, but hadn't planned a day for it and it turned out to be 40K's up a average road, so a bit too far) and had noodles at one of the standard Chinese restaurants along the road.

Note: Unfortunately, this is getting to be a bit of a theme - heaps of Chinese seem to be coming (particularly out of Sichuan province/ Chengdu area) to Tibet and setting up all manner of enterprises, restaurants included. Unfortunately, almost every time we try to eat in a Tibetan place, they either don't serve food (teahouse only) or only serve very limited meat dishes. We aren't quite sure what to do about this in terms of our response (where possible, we have tried to support Tibetan businesses even when a better (Chinese) alternative exists), but the (very obvious) influx of Chinese to the area - and their total lack of interest in the Tibetan language, culture, and way of life (this particular restaurant owner (woman) seemed proud of the fact she had been in Tibet for six years and still didn't speak Tibetan!) is a little disturbing. I spoke to restaurant owners in Lhasa and heard the same refrain - they weren't necessarily happy here, but the money was good, more Chinese were coming, the railway (planned in the next seven years direct into Lhasa) would improve things...and others we spoke with commented that every time a road is built, the Chinese road workers come..and then they stay. As if to prove the point, our next stop was Baipa - a hole I probably wouldn't recommend anyone EVER stay in, but we didn't know this ahead of time (oops.)

Day 18 - So to Baipa.

It was just starting to rain as we arrived (I was glad to be getting out of the rain in all honesty!) but our first glimpse of the town - two ugly strips of tile buildings on both sides of the road - and then "guesthouse" (Hamish and I both thought one word - "brothel" - as soon as we walked in) weren't promising. It was about as bad as we thought - no redeeming qualities at all - and for the first time that night we had a leaky roof, rats big enough to run off the Tibetan dogs, and Karaoke videos til the small hours. With all the optimal camping spots around, there are definitely better options. After a restless night, we were more than happy to head out of Baipa sharp-ish for Bayi the next morning. Which was when we discovered that the entire TOWN was built around a road workers camp. Which explained quite a lot.

Day 19 - Baipa to Bayi

A flat 60km awaited us to Bayi and we could not leave Baipa soon enough. The road hugged the river all the way to Bayi. Mist rolled off the snow capped mountains, and I thought for a second I was on the West Coast of the South Island back in New Zealand, that was until a Yak wandered across the road. Leah thought she was on the set of Lord of the Rings, such was the beauty of the scenery. Our small stream that we had joined after Mila La was now a raging River, and the mountains just kept getting greener, and bigger. Along the way we saw our first full-on pilgrims, prostrating themselves all the way to Lhasa. Apparently, they cover between 3 and 5 kilometers in total per day...and we thought cycle tourists were slow! Another example of just how devoted Tibetans are to their religion - we expect to see several more of these over the next three weeks.

So we are now in Bayi. A town that strikes fear into any global cyclist; a Chinese military town where the biggest building is the PSB (Public Security Bureau); a town where normally cyclists pass at 3am, as normally you are not allowed here. We have the permits so are LEGAL and have wandered around the town happily. We have been stopped on the street and asked where our guides are and we have been followed by people appearing out of the PSB at the exact time we leave the hotel, but that’s a PSB town. (Funny, and a little James Bond-ish as we try to shake our tails - or at least annoy them. We really get the impression we aren't meant to be here! L-)

Bayi is a town that is nestled in the mountains. Snow capped peaks surround us. The smell of pine trees is in the air, as is the smell of rain!!. Yes there are trees and it does rain in this part of Tibet. The town is not what we had expected. Definitely not Tibetan, but at the same time not so bad for a Chinese town. The scenery is more what you would expect in the Swiss Alps, and not in Tibet. Then at the same time as soon as you as wander off the main street you are reminded straight away that you are in a Chinese town, as it is one huge brothel. Girls are sitting around bored, waiting for the next military general or maybe a local government official to arrive. Typical of Chinese towns..

Tomorrow we are faced with a 1600m climb over 50km of road works and road workers ( I do not know which is worse, the road works or the Chinese road workers….). It might be a long day, especially as it has been raining here, so the road might be a bit on the muddy side, plus all the camping spots will have road workers tents on them. Then a 20km downhill dropping 2000m into another small town called Lunang. Now that downhill (mud notwithstanding??? L-) will be something to look forward to. For the moment, we are enjoying our plush (as we are only allowed to stay in ONE - the SNAZZIEST - hotel in Bayi!) room, reading, drinking coffee, and pretending not to think about it too much.

Bayi rest day

Day 20 Bayi to Luna (77K's, 1700m up, 1300m down)

After our rest day in Bayi the legs felt a little stiff on the way out of town. To put off today's climb just that little bit longer we took a small detour off the road to see the Cypress King tree. A 2600yr old tree, which due to some small miracle has not been cut down (yet). In my opinion I have seen bigger trees, but it is a big deal in this area so we had to see it. Onward and upward, with the possibility of 50km of roads works, we were not looking forward to the climb. Luck was on our side and when the rain started to fall, the tarmac continued, and continued. In the end we only had minimal road works plus an extra 11km of tarmac from last year. (On a Tibetan uphill every meter of tarmac counts, so it all helps.) As the rain continued, Leah felt faint, and then promptly fainted. (Not sure what brought it on but maybe the thought of 1600m of uphill..) (Hohoho - seriously we aren't sure on this one, not a pretty fit and scared the guys a bit but haven't had a relapse...and it meant I got to ride in the truck to the top, yippee!! L-).

The trees thinned as I continued the climb and eventually, it felt like an age, I could see the prayer flags that marked the top of Serkham Pass 4600m. The view from the top was spectacular, as we looked out over a tree filled valley. Unfortunately the clouds blocked the view of the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. (Namche Barwa, over 7700m). A speedy downhill waited and I was off, dropping 1100m in 22km into the small town of Luna. The interesting thing about this valley is that the Chinese have banned logging, and have made scenic viewing platforms on the road, so the tourist can admire the view. The view is amazing. It looked a lot like Switzerland. Tree covered snow capped mountains and green valleys where you could see cows grazing. We could even hear a cow bell!!! We had to pinch ourselves to remind ourselves that we were in Tibet and a basic bed awaited us in the small town of Luna.

Day 21 - Luna to Tongme (72K's, 500 meters up, 1625 meters down)

We started the day with a good brekkie (eggs and mantous (steamed buns), the food of champions!)and the happy knowledge that we have over 1500 meters to descend first thing in the morning. Starting off on asphalt, we sped past alpine scenes - except that instead of cows and Bavarians we had yaks and gold-toothed Tibetans. Hitting the dirt, the descent showed no sign of abating, and before long we thought we were back in Singapore. Following a massive gnarly river, the air is filled with insects buzzing, everything is green, and it is hot, humid, and sticky. Yaks have given way to wild horses in the road, and it is hard to believe that just one day before we were on top of a 5000 meter snowed-in pass!!!

Stopping for lunch, Hamish decides to pop off the perfectly sufficient dirt road to eat on a mossy bridge. This plan lasts until I see Jabu turning a funny shade of white (very weird on a Tibetan) and flapping his hands frantically. Seems his last encounter with leeches (in Nepal) didn't go so well, and we all follow him in mid-flight, instant noodles and Tang packed up and thrown back onto the road as an afterthought.

Continuing on, we hit Tibet's lowest altitude "on road" point - 1950 meters, which someone has been kind enough to mark with prayer flags. We can look down the Yarlung Tsampo river, cutting huge gorge down to India where it becomes the revered Brahmaputra - pretty amazing.

From here the climb begins - only 500 meters, but up one of the ugliest roads either of us have ever seen. Carved out of the side of the mountain, it is muddy and constantly broken by landslides and gaping holes big enough to eat the Dong Feng blue trucks that creep carefully along it. Sticky and humid, we shed layers with abandon - the first time our legs have seen the light of day in Tibet! The guys of course think this is hilarious, especially when they catch sight of Hamish's hairy calves. Up and down and round obstacles we continue, until we see the truck pulling off the road ahead to let a green army truck through (air horn blaring). The driver tells them "5 or 6" trucks are to follow - ten minutes later, like a line of big green ants they come creeping round the corner. Nothing else is on the road - nothing else would fit!

50 or 60 trucks later, we decide we've had enough and start "truck hopping" round corners. This fun game is a little like truck-scotch - wait for a gap and then peddle like heck and hope there isn't something waiting in the blind corner for you! Endless amusement for both us and the bored army boys. Unfortunately, we then hit a bridge and the fun ends - only one truck can be on the bridge at a time, and they can't exceed 5kph. We can see the bridge bouncing as they drive along - very interesting. Thwarted, we sit down and wait it out. After 130 trucks, the fun ends and we ride the rest of the way to Tongme to wait for the guys (who were miles behind.) Tongme looks pretty awful from the outside - generally the street is lined with miles of army convoys, OR miles of Dong Feng trucks waiting for the miles of army convoys to pass, but our guesthouse that night was fun - completely self-sufficient, from the greenhouse garden and heaps of chickens and ducks of various ages and sizes running round the yard to the very healthy looking pigs strategically positioned next to the outhouse - we're guessing they ate everything.

Day 22 - Tongme to Pomi (90K's, 1400 meters up, 795 meters down)

Out of Tongme early after a fight over who got the last seven mantous (we won, I ordered early much to the disgruntlement of the loud chinese road construction crew!) (they weren't road construction, they were fat chinese sloths. H-), we know we have a big day of climbing even though we aren't going to gain much altitude - and we're a little worried about the gray sky (a week later we find out the road is closed indefinitely due to slips from a passing storm - a common occurrence.) After the first 10K's of dodgy road, it opens out and gets a little firmer as we continue to climb, descend, climb, descend ridgeline after ridgeline following the river.

Over steep rocky uphills and through dodgy water crossings, Hamish is getting more and more impressed with my mountain biking skills (as I planted both feet stream-first on the day into Tongme - but that's another story!) The prerequisite 50 truck army convoy passes us an hour out, but in the opposite direction on wider roads they are easier to ignore.

Then, a more interesting vehicle - a four-wheel drive...driven by Westerners????? They continue to pass us over the next two hours and gradually we surmise that it must be an organized trip - but we can't quite figure out how they've managed it (fyi, westerners aren't even allowed to drive in China!). Finally we run into a nice Dutch couple parked up on the side of the road - it turns out that they are part of a group of 30 (yes, 30!) vehicles driving from Beijing to Kailash, through Tibet, and back into China. Everyone shipped their 4wd's to Beijing, and went from there - apparently the permits took 3 years to arrange. Still, it was pretty amazing and they are definitely the first group to be allowed to drive their own vehicles on this route. Some faired better than others - apparently, the new (read "more expensive" - and there was a Hummer included so there were some pricey cars in there!) cars were more prone to breakdowns (suspension arms breaking, suspensions coming unwelded, and of course heeeeps of electrical problems). One guy mentioned he'd gotten to know the locals welders pretty well, and apparently there was also a Chinese-assembled jeep that had been abandoned in Lhasa and it was anyone's guess as to its eventual fate. (Our same friend mentioned he thought he'd buy shares in Toyota Landcruisers after seeing how they are driven over here!)

We continued on after our chat knowing we'd all end in the same town that night, and shortly thereafter the peaks broke through the clouds (first time in a week we'd seen all of them - up to then, tantalizing glimpses only!) Amazing - we were cycling along the river at approximately 3000m, with 6 and 7000 meter snow-covered peaks lining the valley on all sides under a clear blue sky! On the way into Pomi, we stopped at Barkhar monastery, a monastery literally on an island in the middle of the river. Although fairly new and not too interesting in itself, the view directly out onto the river and mountains was amazing and we hung out and chatted with the friendly monk there for a half an hour. Finally, we figured we'd better move on and finished the remaining 35k's (up, down, up, down) into Pomi. We were happy to find accommodation, as we weren't sure how the town would cope with 60+ foreigners in a night.

Luckily, they let us stay in the cheep rooms - made a deal by free use of the washing machine and drying line! Our first machine wash since Kathmandu (whoo hoo!) Unfortunately our 4wd friends weren't quite used to the accommodation standard (sorry folks, there isn't a lot of luxury accommodation in Tibet yet!) and we overheard a lot of funny comments about "breakfast was alright if you like eggs and bread but there was no coffee" etc., so we had to chuckle a little (in any group of 60, you are going to get a few tossers as well.) Consensus seemed to be they'd had enough of roughing it in Tibet and were ready to get back to China proper.

We'd planned a rest/ eat/ clean bikes/ shower day in Pomi, but couldn't just leave the day at that so also had a walk out to the monastery on the edge of town. Very pretty, and a nice trail up to it proper (although Hamish was a little annoyed about having to do it on two feet rather than one bike!). We also managed to get Hamish a legit haircut at the local bath house - although the locals were stymied as to why he'd want to get rid of all his hair but leave the beard!

(Local bath house - also enjoyed an excellent really hot shower in the local public bath house. These are quite common in Tibet as the houses don't have showers. We've come to look for them the minute we hit any town with more than two pigs and three dogs! FYI, generally better than the hotel "hot showers" that wouldn't wet a washcloth! H-)

Day 23 - Pomi to Rawok and rest day (Bike 100K, 1200m up, 350m down; Truck 35km)

Another day after a rest day and another day of tired legs. (Rest days must be bad. Too much junk food, or was it the 2 hour walk Leah made me do!!!). Setting off from Pomi on a nice new sealed road, we had our fingers crossed it would last forever. It lasted 75km, and we enjoyed it covering the 75km in 4 hours. Then the road works started..... Chinese road works are unbelievable. Labor is cheap, so they throw people at the road, to the point where every flat space has a tent on it. Leah commented that the road workers were like flies as there are so many of them, and she is not far out. (Camping spots are non-existent). There must have been thousands of people working the stretch we biked, and that was only 25km up a steep gorge. After 25km of "Hello", "I love You" and other comments, we had had enough. Then the daily army convey came though, sorry 2 or was it 3 army conveys came through. That was the final straw and decided really had had enough. No camping spots, road works, worse still road workers and we had another 35km of this until we knew there was a camping spot (also, we'd done 100K's and it was 5:30 at nite - fed up! L-). So into the truck for 35km of bumpy road to Rawok Lake. Rawok lake was like paradise compared to the road works.

Hidden off the road, we made camp. The best camping spot so far. Our own sandy beach, a turquoise colored lake with snow capped mountains raising straight up out of it, old avalanches that looked like glaciers rolling into the lake, and we were even hidden in the trees. A perfect spot for a rest day, which was planned for the next day. All we needed was some sunshine and it would be perfect.

The rest day - where is the sun was Leah's wake up call as the rain pitter pappered on the tent. Oh what the heck, lets just rest anyway. So a lazy day was spent eating, playing cards in the back of the truck, reading and building a small camp fire. (Quite a challenge as the wood was really wet.) (Also, once we got the fire going the occupants of about five separate villages came over to see what the heck was going on e.g. all the smoke! L-) A great rest day made more interesting as darkness fell and the rain started to fall, then it snowed or was it freezing rain. Either way a call was made that my 3 season tent just was not made to stand this kind of weather and Leah and I moved into the back of the truck with Dongten and Jabu. (The truck still had heaps of room even with us and the guys in it).

Day 24 - Rawok to Pema (100K's, 945 meters up, 1500 meters down)

After a reasonably restful night in the truck (broken only by groans of "*&^%$, it's still snowing), we awoke to a white and gray day. In truth the tent had borne up well under the weight of the wet, heavy snow, but Hamish is convinced that in future only a 4-season tent will do. In an hour, wet heavy snow was transitioning back into drizzle, and I was a very unhappy - and cold - camper. We set off on an awful road - mud, horrific corrugations and potholes, and some bright bulb had decided to build a speed bump in the middle of all this every 50 meters. Suffice it to say, progress around the lake was slow, and Murphy's Winnebago topped it all off with an army convoy splashing by 300 meters before we hit town and tarmac (I'd already been coated by some twit in a Landcruiser a few K's before - full frontal, not easy to do on a road that bad. The steam rising wasn't just the heat of exertion.) Rawok town was a dump - not a mantou in sight. Glad we'd camped despite everything, we pushed on to the fork in the road. Left, past a massive landslide, we hit pavement and a truly scary 5K+ open-sided tunnel complex that was clearly intended to keep the mountain where it was and not where it wanted to be, namely sliding into the river below. Rocks were on the roof, water pouring through the gaps the entire way, and every so often you would see either a metal fence trying to hold back metric tonnes of boulders poking through on the other side OR an avalanche that had just made it to the tunnel proper. Pretty claustrophobic, and hard to get through fast as the road was climbing steeply.

When we finally emerged on the other side it was into a winter wonderland (at least it wasn't raining. After a while, we even saw the sun). Nearly a half-foot of snow was everywhere, drifted in yaks were blinking back at us and you could almost read the thought bubbles between their horns ("what the $%^#& just happened???? Where's George??") Locals in huge sunglasses and mummifying head gear were using tractors/ yaks/ donkeys/ pretty much whatever was available to get barley up to the plateau and the poor puzzled beasties. Obviously not an expected storm, but everyone was in good humor and Hamish had a wonderful time cutting S-curves through the snow and slush on the road. The pass came sooner than expected, on the opposite end of a big, gray (and very cold looking) lake. Relatively low at around 4500 meters, it still marks a division between the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia (hopefully that's the last snow we have to ride through - at the top there were two tracks where the snow had melted and that was it! Made for good photos though..H-). From here on in, all rivers will flow into the Pacific ocean (or that's the theory a la the Lonely Planet!).

We took some quick piccies and headed down the other side, praying a drop in elevation would equal some warmth. Unfortunately as often happens, we were heading into a howling cold headwind, and after the initial drop hit an incredibly rolling downhill e.g. we couldn't lose altitude no matter how hard we tried! Slowly we dropped, rose, dropped, rose - finally we started seeing some green and white (snow dusted, instead of covered!) fields and dry hillsides. We also encountered our first Chinese cycle tourist, pushing massive panniers up a pretty gentle hill (we're sure a bike was in there somewhere, but couldn't actually see it!) I imagine it's going to be a pretty long trip to Lhasa, but we said good luck and he went on his way. Finally we started dropping in earnest, towards Pema, our destination for the day. Naturally, we looked back and saw another army convoy heading the same direction so before you could say "start your engines" the race was on. This lasted, dodging yaks, kids, dogs, and startled donkeys, until I flatted approx. 5 K's from town (my first in nearly 2000K's, with Hamish miles ahead (it was a downhill, remember :-)???)

Turning the air an unnatural shade of blue, I started the walk in. Luckily, Haim saw me and came back (though as he said he wasn't sure if it was me, or a yak??? The mind boggles...) Even with all this, we were just getting the tire back on when the convoy finally arrived, so had to wait a bit longer and then finished the day. We ended up at a reasonable guesthouse that turned into a bar cum brothel cum asylum later that night, much to our dismay (howling occupants everywhere!). We did however see our second Chinese cycle tourist of the trip - this one a Chinese dual suspension bike with a big white rice sack strapped to the back rack. We couldn't figure HOW he'd gotten as far as he had - and his bike was filthy - but the next day we met a Japanese guy who told us he was bussing everything but the flat stuff, which explained a lot - and really is the only sensible decision with a setup like that. But as the Aussies would say, good on him :-)!)

Day 25 - Pema to switchback 16. (56K, 700m up, 585m down)

Dropping steeply out of Pema, Hamish promptly flats. (Our second flat tyre in 2000km of riding). Onwards and downwards to our low point of 2600m to the strategic bridge over the river Po (it must be strategic as the military are guarding it. It was spectacular as the approach to the bridge was through a small tunnel.) (Don't even THINK about trying to take a piccie here -the Chinese are very worked up about this bridge. L-) More importantly we now faced the highest single climb to a pass in Tibet, 2 vertical kilometers and 72 switchbacks. Onwards and upwards again, we ran into a Japanese cyclist who was pretending to be Chinese, and was cycling all over Tibet (I think this is great as he doesn't speak chinese, but bought a fake identity card in Lhasa saying he is from Xinjiang province, so is trying to pass as a minority! Brilliant! L-). After chatting to him we gave him one of our Snickers bars, (again, like gold up and the joy of having a truck as we have a plentiful supply of them) we were off again. Then three chinese cyclists appeared loaded to the max using a mixture of homemade panniers and sacks to carry their stuff. That’s cycle touring the hard way on a chinese mountain bike.

The countryside had changed again and it was hot, dry and dusty as we slowly counted the switchbacks looking for our campsite for the evening. Eventually we rounded switchback 15 to see the welcome sight of the truck parked up at switchback 16, on the only flat bit of land we had seen. The campsite of the evening was beside a Tibetan who provides water to cool truck brakes on the downhill, at a small charge of course... Rocks were used to anchor the tent on the rocky ground and we set about doing some washing in the stream that flowed 10 feet away. As the evening progressed the village walked through our campsite on their way home from the fields below, then the village donkeys and eventually the usual small kids. (The donkeys belong to the village and are used by anyone in the village to cart whatever to wherever, and there was quite a mob of them as well.) Next day the remaining 56 hairpins.....................

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Day 26 - Switchback 16 to Pomda, 42 K's, 1400 meters up, 555 meters down

To continue, rising early we had a quick brekkie of hot water porridge in the tent and were off (didn't want to get up the guys at such a silly hour, 6:30am). We knew we had another 50+ switchbacks, 32 kilometers, and around 1400 meters of climbing ahead to reach the pass. We wanted to at least beat the heat and trucks while we could. Fortunately, the morning was much cooler than the day before, and as we gained altitude we knew the heat was one thing we wouldn't be facing.

Two hours in, we were averaging between 7and 8kph on a pretty marginal road when we looked down the switchbacks below and saw a long green army convoy inching towards us - expected, but annoying. Just in front of them was our trusty blue Dong Feng truck, trying to get up to us before they did. A good half-hour later they reached us (heartening to know it took them that long, when they didn't seem very far away - a huge hill!) and after a quick top-up on water and food they were off. We rode a bit further, then climbed a bank and watched the convoy pass.

Luckily they were too occupied with not falling off the looming overhung ledge to pay much attention to us, and passed in relative (mostly air-horn free) peace. Continuing, valleys started to open as we needed the top and it was very strange to be riding through sheer rock drops, only to encounter bright green valleys with herders summer huts stretching up toward the summit of the mountain.

Higher and steeper, and what should appear but another(!) army convoy - and this time there was not hiding. We sat next to a boulder and were horned and dusted for the better part of a half an hour waiting for them to pass. Continuing on, one more bend and we could see prayer flags - altitude only 4618, but it had taken us nearly four hours of climbing and we'd gained fully 2,000 vertical meters over two days to get there, so we were happy to arrive - or at least I was.

Hamish hadn't had enough apparently, and trotted up the hill to the left to take some more pictures of the valley while I had a well-deserved cup of hot Tang out of the wind. Another convoy passed as I waited - our third in less than two hours. All these trucks seemed empty...strange. A humorous monk (or several?) has festooned the assorted "danger" signs (falling rock, sharp corners, water crossings, charging yaks...joking, but there was one we couldn't work out) that marked the beginning of the descent with a multitude of prayer flags (to the point that you almost couldn't see the signs) and it seemed a truly Tibetan way to handle these simple realities (certainly it doesn't seem to slow the drivers down any!).

The 13 kilometer sweeping downhill to Pomda flew by, and again we were amazed by the change in scenery the minute we crossed the pass. No more sheer rock walls - suddenly we were surrounded by huge grassland valleys filled with streams and springs and yaks (extremely attractive ones at that - not all yaks are equal!).

We also passed another pair of Chinese cyclists, pushing their bikes uphill. The land around Pomda was beautiful - quintessential Tibetan grasslands. Pomda itself, however, was a (fill in the blank...word removed for Stuart's email system!) There was a massive square filled with marshaled army convoys - one was getting ready to start off, and at a whistle, all drivers got in their trucks. A second whistle, and the doors slammed in unison. A third, and they were off. This, despite the fact that the road, as we learned to our dismay, was "closed".

Apparently this 100K stretch was open from 10pm until 7am....how in the heck were we supposed to ride through that? A line of backed-up cars was in the same predicament, so we had some lunch, then pulled out one of the wood boxes in the truck, took out a pack of cards, made some coffee (Nestle 3 in 1's, we're officially addicted!!), and settled in for the long wait.

We'd decided to truck it at 10pm and get through the stretch while we could - Chinese roads (and officials) being what they are, you're best to get through when you can! Annoyingly, this meant we were another day ahead - as Hamish said, "we aren't getting beaten by the weather, the hills, or the passes - but at the moment it's road works 3, us 0!!"

Suddenly, the policeman standing by the chained off road strolled over, lifted up the chain, and dropped it (at about 3pm - totally arbitrary.). Drivers looked at each other bewildered for a moment, and then it was all on! "Go go go" we were all yelling, and you would have thought it was the start of the Paris to Dakkar motor rally!

Jabu and Dongten jumped into the truck and floored it - in the meantime we were in the back trying to get the bikes tied down and watching as washtubs flew out the hole in the back (flap up in the front, heck of a wind.) We were falling on the really important stuff as it made for the back, full belly dives, to the delight of Dongten and Jabu while they jockeyed for position with all the other trucks on the road.

Finally we got everything tied down (that hadn't flown out the back already) and ourselves into warmer gear, and settled in for the drive. Interestingly enough, we could hardly see ANY road construction on the road - much less than we'd gone through before for certain, and we couldn't quite figure out which bright bulb had decided they needed to close the entire thing for whatever was going on. No matter, we were happy to get through regardless.

60K's from Dzogang we hit pavement, and Jabu was kind enough to stop the truck and ask if we wanted to ride the rest of the way in (at 6pm, into a howling headwind). "Not on your life" was our answer, and as we continued we decided it made sense - the wind blew the truck all over the road, and we'd have been lucky to do 10K's an hour into it. One thing we've learned here - where possible, cycle early - the later it gets, the worse the weather will be.

Finally, we arrived in Dzogang and after dispatching a dirty guesthouse directly in front of a karaoke bar (apparently last year's accommodation??) we settled into a brand spanking new place with a shower that almost worked - lovely! As we'd planned a rest day, and were way ahead on days, and knew the next day would be a monster (another 5,000m pass and 1300m vertical gain), we went ahead and took it - and watched the Lakers play the Timberwolves. Lakers were up in the series. Bummer.

Day 27 - Tsawa Dzgong to "Sign" Camp (56km, 1295m up, 850m down)

Leaving the small sleepy town to Tsawa Dzogong, and a very relaxing rest day behind us (there was nothing to do in the town) we face our last 5000m+ pass of the trip, (or so we thought. We learned today that we have yet another to come.... Oh the joys of cycling in Tibet). Heading out of town we motor along on the 12km of sealed road, then start the climb.

About 1 hour in we meet Adrian, a Swiss cyclist who is cycling to Lhasa, the hard way. He has no permit, and no support truck so he is carrying all his own stuff, and doing 9 - 10 hours per day on the bike. His visa is starting to run out of days and he was a long way from anywhere. He had recently run through the notorious PSB town of Markham and 3am, and been attacked by the killer dogs just past the check post. His only defense was to cycle faster, and he had a hole in his bag as proof of the attack. After chatting for a while, and telling him he had lots of sealed roads to come, we left with the usual Snickers bar goodbye and continued the climb to the top of Dungda La, 5008m.

The top is really cold, and the air feels thin when we eventually see the welcoming prayer flags. A quick Snickers bar to celebrate the top of the pass, and after the usual photos we are off down the other side before the truck arrives. The downhill is fast one, as we drop out of the foul weather on the pass into a dry arid high altitude valley.

We pass Tibetans collecting yatso gumpo. (A fungas that has parasitized a worm in the roots of a special high altitude grass. These are big business and sell for 1USD each, and do not taste too badly. More about these in Litang..) We eventually camp behind a huge sign 20km from the top of the pass, (hence why we called this "Sign Camp".). It is a great camp site. Soft grass to pitch the tent on, and stream running nearby. We have the usual staring crew of the local Tibetans for a while, we call them rent-a-crowd, as they will always turn up as soon as the tent is pitched. The big camera lens and a couple of photos scare them away pretty quickly and allows us to enjoy another great meal in the back of Truck Hotel.

(Right, I get to tell this. Hamish pulls out the cooker to find out if we can make lentils on it (as it only has one heat - HIGH) - suddenly, we see flames spurting out the back of the truck and Hamish, eyebrows on fire, (what a load of s**t. No part of me caught fire at any time!!!!) (Kicking the propane-spewing cooker out the back. All hands on deck as anything and everything is used to smother the blaze. "Won't be using that again" is Hamish's calm reply - eyebrows now a darker shade of brown. (As I said before no part of me burnt. The only part of me that was hurt was my temper as I swore and cursed at PRIMUS the stove manufacturers!!)

After this of course we have to try to "fix" the cooker - Hamish and crew of 20 local "helpers" spend about an hour clustered around it before they decide the cause is hopeless - funny pictures all round.) The end result is that the stove is working again, only after a fix it job in Batang. I am sure that PRIMUS would love to know how the stove failed, and it was a manufacturing fault as a glued seal failed, and how we fixed the stove. I will be informing them in a full and colorful explanation at a later date!

Day 28 - "Sign Camp" to Rongme, 56K's, 485 meters up, 2075 meters down

Whoo hooo, a HUGE descent planned for today!!! We are off and DOWN we go - only for a few hundred meters though, and then the short-ish ascent to Joba La (elev. 4,000) begins. After about 5K's descending we see a nicely-lettered sign in perfect english next to a totally nondescript Tibetan town: "Attention tourists: If you are in trouble, this village has an English speaking teacher". Happy not to be in trouble, we continue.

Not such a bad climb, and not such a bad road. Pausing 2K's from the top because we are making such good time, we have a cup of coffee and make paper airplanes with the guys. Jabu is clearly the man here, but there is a massive thermal coming off the rock we are standing on, and soon our write-ups from the past few weeks are winging their way over the mountains - well ahead of us!

Continuing, we reach the top - just as a Chinese TV crew arrive. They have come from Shaanxi province, and are making a travel documentary of Tibet. Before we know what's going on, I'm interviewed in Mandarin - what are we doing here, why the bikes, etc. "What are your impressions of Tibet as a foreigner" they ask. Well....."I think it's really too bad that so many Chinese are coming to Tibet now. Nearly every restaurant, hotel, and business that we have been in are Chinese-owned. There don't seem to be any opportunities for the Tibetans. We have noticed this most of all and think it is very sad." Silence. "Um, so how about the scenery?" Quite interesting, and also interesting that Dongten, who has made NO comment on anything (no Tibetan has every openly said anything about the China/ Tibet relationship to us) said that it was a good answer.

Lots of photos of us w/ TV crew (yep, we're going to be on Shaanxi TV - mightily edited, I imagine!) and down we go - nearly 2,000 meters to lose, and boy have we earned them! (I made sure that I was in the background and was wearing the ANZA windproof cycling vest, so the ANZA cycling sponsors will get a free plug on Shaanxi TV. I guess you never thought it would appear on Chinese TV!! - H)

A bit of a rough road, but the drop is lovely and before long we see the Mekong rushing to meet us. Brown and muddy, it looks completely different from the happy burbling blue rivers we've seen to this point - a little daunting. Also, as we lose altitude we notice the heat - crazy considering the day before we crossed the pass in the snow! A single guesthouse at the bridge over the Mekong is waiting for us in Rongme, town of 10 plus donkeys - but it's surprisingly clean and with good food. Unfortunately, the entire TV crew, all 11 Landcruisers of them, have ended up there, so we end up cooking lunch in the back of the truck to avoid the noise (and getting some very odd looks.)

Day 29 - Rongme to Markham (52km, 1740m up, 565m down)

With a big day ahead of us (the hardest we think we will have), we drop 50m, to cross the Mekong river. The Mekong, even at this stage, is a big river. Muddy red, and menacing, it has carved a huge river valley. The unfortunate thing is that we have to climb out of the huge valley today. We leave the Mekong behind as we start the climb to Lao Shan La (4300 meters - but up from 2500, so big!). The road climbs at a steady 4 - 5% all the way to the top. Not so bad when you are at sea level, but up here it hurt. The valley closes and opens out all the time. Each time there is a small piece of flat space a village appears, and the land is a rich green color growing barley to make tsampa. Leah was not feeling super strong today (correction - ugly ugly stomach that wouldn't quit - made it 3 hours and 1200 meters, but was just a bit much), and opted for the truck for a while.

We stop for lunch after 1200m of climbing and beside 2 chinese monks who are traveling to Lhasa, the hard way. We stare in amazement as we learn they have come from Shaanxi province (for those a bit weak on their Chinese geography, that is in the far north east, a few thousand kilometers away.) What is more amazing is that they prostrated themselves all the way to here, and are towing a small cart. (Prostrating is to go down into the pushup position, touch your head to the ground, then stand up again). In the cart they have everything we have in the back of our truck. A gas stove, gas bottle, hot water thermos, and much more. They cover between 10 and 15km a day, so definitely the slow way to Lhasa. With only 1500km to go, they only have another 100 or so days on the road. Truly amazing and the first time that Jabu or Dongten have seen Chinese monks prostrating themselves to Lhasa, so they are as amazed as we are.

I continue on as Leah opts for the truck. The climb opens out onto a high altitude grassy meadow complete with grazing yaks, then the usual half dozen switchbacks to the top, where Leah eagerly jumps out of the truck for the downhill!! Unfortunately she jumped out too early, and there is a second pass 2km later (joke, she knew there was a second pass) (I was feeling pretty guilty about the ride up L-). After a couple of setup photos on the pass, we drop down into Markham. The tarmac is misleading as we race down and realize that it comes to an end after 300m. Brakes screech as we slow down for more dirt roads. As we approach Markham, apprehension fills the air, with the thought of the killer dogs. In the end the killer dogs are fast asleep (no doubt from their previous night's escapades) outside the army compound. They are 5 big nasty black dogs. The truck passes as we continue on into the Markham check post, who promptly wave us on. We are leaving Tibet, so they really could not care less.

We are surprised by how Tibetan Markham is. The usual ($%^& - removed for Stuart's email!) ugly chinese tile buildings line the street, but just behind these are impressive Tibetan houses. Out on the rolling grasslands we can see Tibetan houses and yaks wandering. Our hopes are high, maybe we might get a half decent hotel. Oh how wrong we were. After thoroughly inspecting the room, all the lights worked, the toilet flushed and we did not back onto anything to nasty and noisy, we find stained sheets and a shower that never gets hot enough to shower under. (The hot water is on from 9pm until 7am. Why, no one knows..) We opt for the public showers then fight the hotel staff to change our sheets. If we were not paying 160rmb (20usd) we would not be so worried, but that is the most we have paid for a hotel. I think the staff were glad to see the back of us we eventually left after our rest day. To make things worse on our last morning there was no water in the bathroom (it smelt bad!!!) or hot water for our coffees, so Leah tore another strip off the front desk on the way out.

So that was Markham, the "bane of cyclists" town and our last checkpoint this side of the Tibetan border (in two days we'll be legal...and truckless! How much stuff can we throw away in the interim???). To get here we have forded rivers (or fallen into, as the case may be...L-), crossed passes, endured snow (and more snow), sleet, rain, and road works - in short, cycled through most of the rest of eastern Tibet! We've met mad Chinese cyclists pushing massively overloaded bikes uphill (gonna be a loooong trip), army convoys running into the hundreds of trucks in a day, pilgrims pulling trailers and prostrating all the way to Lhasa, and a very excited Chinese TV crew (yep, Leah was interviewed (in Mandarin!)and is going to be on Shanxi TV - stay tuned!) We tried to burn down our truck (go the gas cooker), got up close and personal with the only leeches in Tibet (had to look hard, but we found some), and gave away more Snickers bars to cyclists on the run from the PSB (we're legends over here at the mo..they pull in, they throw Snickers, they ride on...:-)! ) Of course we've ridden a few more 5,000 meter passes - we've also had both 2 vertical kilometer up- AND downhills - huge! And the scenery has continued to be amazing.

The rest day in Markham was spent sorting out our stuff for when we lose the truck. Spices are carefully sorted and packed into film canisters, clothes are sorted and some ditched, and bike tools and spares are reduced now we have to carry them. Four new tyres are put on the bikes, (the joys of having a truck to carry our stuff so far), and we are now ready to eventually say goodbye to the truck.

Day 30 - Markham to Batang, 108K's, 535 meters up, 1700 meters down

Heading out on our last truck-assisted day (:-(! ) we immediately start what for us is a pretty minor uphill - coming from the other side it must be awful! Topping out in a little over thirty minutes of cycling at 4100 meters, we take some pictures and then start to descend. The scenery is lovely as we follow another river through a gorge down the climate zones - but the road is a disaster. En route, we find a Tibetan knife, apparently abandoned. A bit scary to imagine these interesting-looking characters are running round with these in their belts, but we pick it up as a memento (and for protection?)

Finally, we reach our lowest point - the Yangtze river at approximately 2500 meters. Amazingly hot, and we have about 35 more kilometers to climb and 200 meters to gain to reach Batang. Crossing the Sichuan checkpoint at the bridge over the Yangtze, we officially exit the Tibetan Autonomous Region and can legally be unaccompanied cyclists.

Unfortunately, instead of blaring horns of celebration (as you might expect) we are greeted with spotty but annoying road works all the rest of the way to Batang, getting worse as we approach the town proper (i.e. the road - apparently 10K's out they just gave up on any pretence of working on it!) The truck was told the road was "closed" for road works until 6pm - funny, as we didn't see much activity. However, the guys told us to go ahead and they would catch us up later - then, an hour on, as we were crossing what was to be the first of many upcoming "two feet wet walk across the river flowing through the middle of the road" water crossings, they showed up.

Apparently the "road closer" had only wanted money! (explains a lot, possibly for previous "closures" too?). Finally, after nearly 6 hours of cycling we reached Batang - not a moment too soon by either of our estimates, as it had been a hot, long day all round. We took a very nice room (100% working hot shower - and sink and toilet! Hamish was beside himself!) in the hotel directly next to the PSB building - sort of the "foreigner police" in China. This will become important later.

Unloading the truck, we went to find someone to solder the bottom of the pump for the cooker (Hamish had worked out what exactly it was that needed soldering, we think) and then had a last meal with the guys. Because the road and road works were so bad, they planned to be on the road to Tibet at 4am (!!) the next morning. Needless to say, we were very sorry to see both them and the truck go - Jabu and Dongten have been wonderful, and perfect travel companions for nearly a month (definitely not always easy!). We could not have asked for better.

We spent one day in Batang as a rest day, sorting out panniers and bikes and picking up any odds and ends we might need. The morning started interestingly, however, when we went out to get breakfast. We ran into a guy wearing a police uniform who very aggressively asked us who we were and whether we had "registered" (necessary in EVERY town in Tibet, but NOT a problem in China!) I told him as much, also told him we had all the permits we needed and if he wanted to see them he could come to our hotel - the one next to the official PSB station! He wanted us to bring our passports to him (not on your life), but when it became apparent that I could yell as loudly in Mandarin as he could and was pretty sure we had a right to be there, he quieted down (his friends had already fled the minute I started talking.) As we walked away I mentioned how stupid I thought the whole situation was, which cracked everyone up (of course we'd drawn quite a crowd.) Anyway, told the hotel that if he should come by he was looking for us, but we never saw hide nor hair of him so I think he was just trying to see if he could intimidate silly foreigners (probably into giving him $$!) But a weird occurrence, and we were glad we'd asked Jabu if we could keep all our "official" visas from crossing Tibet - very apparent that we are legal.