I left my hotel late on purpose today. I wanted to enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery so I couldn’t have the sun shining into my eyes.

I expected to get tea in the morning at the hotel – that is at least. There was only a young girl in the dining room, which was also serving as a garage for my bike and although she showed me a pot full of rice she didn’t give me any bowl, plate, chopsticks or anything else to use for eating it and she, for some reason, didn’t understand the gesture for eating that has not let me down so far. What she did however was that she pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wanted me to write down what I wanted. She obviously was not aware that something like alphabet existed and therefore that not everybody was using the Chinese characters. To make her realize I had to write a short sentence in English.

So since I had nothing for breakfast I was now looking for a bakery shop since I really felt like having some pastry. In the second city I was passing through I passed a big motorbike shop that advertised SUZUKIs as opposed to the local little bikes and since one of my rear break pads was completely gone as I mentioned before I decided to give it a try here to have it replaced. After riding through the gate to the back of the joint I was immediately swarmed by mechanics and in a couple of minutes my bike was being worked on already.

They didn’t have the exact same brake pads I needed but at least the side that was completely gone fit perfectly. The other did not but my original one was still fine so I didn’t bother to offer my spare original brake pads that I carry with me. I give it a try with the replacement from these guys, as I’m not sure if I maybe would not need a replacement brake disk as well thanks to my neglect to replace the brake pads in time. It might wear the brake pads off too quickly now. I should see soon anyway.

After the brake pad was replaced and my brake re-fitted to the bike I was offered / told to take the bike to a washing spot to have it washed. Since I haven’t washed it since I bought it new and since these guys were so nice to me I thought to myself: “What the hell, I’ll pay some more to have all the mud, dust and Australian grasshoppers still sticking to my water cooling mask removed from it for once.”. To make the wait more pleasurable I was invited for a lunch to the joint’s canteen.

After the lunch I went to check the progress with the washing and found two guys working on it with toothbrushes in their hands. It didn’t look like it would be finished very soon so I went for a walk and to buy some sweet desert after the spicy Chinese lunch. I bought a couple of ice creams for about 6 cents each. They weren’t great but I was happy as at least they were cold while almost the whole of mainland China is now experiencing very hot temperatures.

When I came back they were almost finished with the bike wash. It took them almost hour and a half, but the bike was now looking like new again. I almost couldn’t believe that it was my bike. People told me before that the bike definitely didn’t look like only 5 months old. I think they would change their appraisal now… :-)

Now the bike was looking great but had little problems starting. I was offered to have the battery checked, to which I agreed since I have neglected to do that since I’ve left Australia as well. The reason is that the access to the battery is not that easy thanks to the pannier frame. Now I was still in the maintenance mode from yesterday so I did it and really, the battery needed some distilled water top up, which was done and the battery was subsequently recharged as well.

I also got a nice company T-shirt for my business at this motorbike shop.

“OK, I really wonder how much all this going to cost.”  I was thinking to myself. I thought that anything up to 300 Yuan would seem a fair price so when I heard the total price I couldn’t believe my ears. I’m sure that you would yourself not have been able to guess the price of rear brake pads, the work to replace them, bike and panniers’ 3 man-hour wash, battery maintenance, a lunch and a T-shirt, but try anyway… ;-)  Try now as the next sentence will reveal the total. OK, not this sentence yet… Do you have your guess? Well, it was 30 Yuan. Yes, you read correctly – a two-digit number consisting of 3 and 0. Even in China, that I was already finding very cheap so far (as opposed to what Lonely Planet made me believe), I could not comprehend (and still can’t) how all of the above can cost USD 3.60 only.  How much do the people here earn?!? Well, it is for sure that I was very happy that I stopped here even though it cost me 3 hours of valuable riding time. (I was supposed to be in the north of China by now already and I am still thousands and thousands of kilometers from there while my progress is much slower than I would need.)

After riding through some more breathtaking scenery and descending by another 1000 vertical meters on roads that feel like they were made for the greatest possible enjoyment of motorbikers I arrived to a city that is not marked on my GPS map (as many other big cities in China that I’ve already ridden through). I asked a group of man playing cards on the street where I would find – yes, you guessed it – the cheapest hotel. One of the younger guys got up, hopped on his bike and took me to a 30 Yuan hotel. They told me that there was nothing cheaper in town (that is if they understood me properly through my gestures), which I didn’t really believe but went up to check out the room. Well, to tell you that I was surprised for the second time today would be an understatement. I was taken aback. The room (which was only 5 Yuan – or 60 cents – more expensive than the one in Kunming that had no bathroom and only had a shared toilet) was big, was nicely furnished and had big TV, fan, air-conditioning, the drinking water machine that you find in workplaces, and a bathroom with hot water. As I needed a proper shower, a shave and didn’t really feel like using the toilets in the past two days I thought that I could accept such comfort from time to time, especially for this kind of price.

When I got back downstairs to unload my bike there was a young guy who could speak English. We talked a bit and at the end he and his friend helped me to move my stuff to my room and ended up spending the evening with them and few of their other friends, drinking Chinese tea, eating various beans and nuts and generally having fun. John, which is this guys English name, turns out to be an English teacher in one of the local schools. We agreed that I would visit his school tomorrow morning so that the students and the teachers, none of who have ever seen a foreigner before, would have the chance.

I also thought I had great luck meeting John because he informed me that the Czechs were playing with Greece on Euro 2004 tonight early morning. That was yet another reason why my hotel room for tonight was perfect. Well, we lost, which I would prefer not to see actually, if I had the choice. :-(

(267 km)