Portrait of an LBX

• On a wild goose chase around Baoshan trying to find a coffee factory. #
• Did not expect our coffee adventure to go in this direction. Meeting with a coffee producer — 4 espressos and 2 brewed coffees — 哎呀！ #

By Andy

2010/05/23 — 90 km

The view climbing out of Danjia, by Andy

Right away Devi gets to witness our interminable stupidity. After another noodly breakfast, we climb 10 km out of town up cobblestone roads. The laoban at breakfast had told us to “just keep going straight” while motioning wildly to the right when we asked her how to get to Mengsheng (勐省), the halfway point on our trip to Gengma. So when at the top of the 10 km climb we get to a fork in the road, we head right and down the bumpy, cobblestone path for 4.5 km. When the disappears on the other side of a small town, I ask an old man the way to Mengsheng. I’m not exactly surprised when he points back up the hill and tells me to go the other way at the fork.

Half an hour later, we’re at the top again and taking the proper turn, which leads us down a few sit-bones-busting kilometers of cobblestones before finally spitting us out on the provincial road, which to our surprise, is completely torn up and under construction. The biggest reason we decided to take this route of crazy mountain roads was to avoid massive stretches of torn up provincial roads with trucks kicking dust up into our faces.

Good old construction for endless kilometers!

But here we are, and at least it’s downhill. In fact, we finally get to cash in all the elevation karma we’ve built up over the past few days in the mountains as we clamber down the uneven slope, descending for a full 20 km into the valley where we hit Mengsheng for lunch.

On our way out of Mengsheng we ask five or six times how to get to Gengma, each time receiving different answers. Some have never even heard of the place, which is the county seat of the next county over. Others tell us to head back up to the torn up provincial road high above, while others tell us to head down the hill and out of town. Eventually enough people tell us to go out of town until we get to a bridge that we figure that’s probably the way to go. (more…)

• Tomorrow we go to Baoshan, home to much of China's coffee bean production, for a rest day. #
• Skype 2.0 app finally allows calls over 3G. Wish they had done that back in the beginning of our trip! #
• After seeing tea leaves on dirty floor of tea factory getting walked on, no wonder you're supposed to dump out the water after first steep. #
• Geography/culinary lesson: ordering 土豆 in southern China or Taiwan may get you peanuts (makes more sense anyway!). Use 洋芋 to be sure. #
• Just got muddy and planted some rice with some farmers. Going in for tea now. #
• Got invited in for another delicious country dinner. Now trying to make it to Baoshan before dark #

By Andy

2010/05/22 — 83 km

After a breakfast of (you guessed it) noodles, which Devi forgoes, we shoot out of town on a newly paved road, flying down the mountain a top speed and slowing down only to work our way through packs of cows walking down the road. We hit flat land and then some uphill, but something doesn’t seem quite right.

“We’re not going in the right direction,” Evan says, tapping the compass mounted to his handlebars. We ask the next person we see on the road, and sure enough, we’re on the road heading to the Burma border to the west. We call ahead to Devi to get her to turn back, and then begin the climb back up the mountain to Xuelin. Nearly back to the village, and now 7 km into our ride, we see a sign and a turnoff that we failed to notice while flying down the mountain. It’s good Devi gets to see how unfailingly stupid we are.

Our new road is no longer paved. Thankfully it’s not cobblestone either — just a sandy, dirt road, washed out from the massive rainstorm the night before. Why China would build a newly paved road straight to the Burma border but leave the road between Chinese towns a washed-out mess is beyond me. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that logging is illegal in China, but Burma has abundant rain forests that are strangely disappearing and being replaced by bare, clear-cut mountains. I’m no expert.

Personally the main reason I don’t like dirt roads is that I have to go slowly when going downhill. The whole fun of climbing a mountain for me, besides the incredible view from the top, is the rush of careening down it on the other side. Nevertheless, we hit the bottom far too soon, and it’s time to begin climbing.

Today is a climb like we’ve never had. The small, dirt road, barely more than a path really, shoots straight up the heavily wooded mountain, like whoever dug it out in the first place had never heard of a switchback. My legs, with all the power and discipline of eight months on the road, strain to keep me moving forward. It’s not a particularly hot day, overcast in fact, but within minutes my jersey, shorts and socks are heavy with sweat and I’m trying to blink the sting out of my eyes. I have to pause every kilometer or two for a breather. (more…)

• New pics from Evan http://is.gd/ctiaS #
• Bought 4 bags of black tea at tea house yesterday, then they tried to charge 100 kuai extra for tasting. That's bad business…didn't pay #
• Had lunch with some nice workers at a small mountain tea factory making green tea, then climbed to 2200m, a new high for the trip. #

By Andy

2010/05/21 — 47 km

Having arrived so late in Fubang the night before, we opt for a “natural wake-up” (自然醒) rather than the usual alarm. It’s the best night of sleep I’ve had in a week. We frequently wonder why we don’t get better sleep considering the physical trials we put ourselves through daily. The night before took it out of me physically, but I think the mental exertion involved in the snails-pace climb up 15 kilometers of cobblestone road alone in the dark jungle was what finally brought me to the point of true exhaustion and thus a good night’s sleep.

We walk down the street to what looks like the only restaurant in town for a breakfast of noodles, which Devi is already tiring of. Since Henan, baozi and jiaozi have been scarce, and breakfast has been noodles just about every day.

After breakfast, we leave behind the concrete road in Fubang for the cobblestones again. To my surprise, the mountain keeps going up! As if 15 km of climbing wasn’t enough! A kilometer later we reach our turnoff, just as the sky once again starts to look like it wants to pick a fight with us.

Waiting out one last bit of rain after lunch, by Andy

Our new road is cobblestone as well, when it’s not mud, and it quickly dashes my hopes and dreams of an easy descent for the first half of our ride. It also seems to fork into two directions every few kilometers, and we keep having to stop and wait for another passerby on a moped to make sure we stay on the right route. China doesn’t bother making signs for most things, probably because the roads are traveled almost exclusively by locals who have no use for signs. (more…)

By Evan

Tutu pouring out some Laobanzhang for us at his house, assisted by his baby daughter, by Andy

So fair readers, after leaving Mr. Ma in that last post, we continued southwest to Jinghong (景洪), capital of Xishuangbanna, and a quaint little town on the Mekong. In Jinghong, several important things happened. First, Alexis decided to leave our team and continue traveling at a slower pace. We are sad to see him go but happy that he’ll be conducting a much more extensive exploration of this wacky place than a year’s time would have allowed. He’ll be opening his own blog soon, the address to which we’ll post once it’s available.

Second, Andy’s girlfriend Devi flew in to accompany us on a motorcycle for two weeks. Third, we spent long, languishing days full of coffee and omelettes and conversation with other lost souls wandering through Asia, including some on bikes. We left five days after our arrival, refreshed, minus a Frenchman and plus an Americanette. So it goes.

Our first stop out of Jinghong was Menghai (勐海), where a famous SOE (state-owned enterprise 國營企業) tea factory, the aptly named Menghai Tea Factory (勐海茶廠) purportedly invented the art of force-aging Pu’er tea. That means that instead of aging it properly, they jury-rigged a process to partially rot the stuff in order to make a quicker profit off of low-quality leaves. Who’da thunk they’d invent a process like that in a place like China? Anyway, the factory wouldn’t let us in — said something about state secrets they had to protect, even though it’s now private. Oh well, their tea was poor and overpriced, as we found out at the tasting room next door. (more…)