Portrait of an LBX

By Evan

Glorious landscapes of... Hebei! by Evan

Just two days ago when I woke up at 11:00am in my top bunk sleeper train berth, we were rushing past tranquil scenes of rolling green hills and high rice paddies. In fifteen short hours of much-needed repose coiled up in less space than corpses get in coffins, I had been passively sped back to the enchanting South and its rice, a sight that previously required two months of hard cycling across the Mad Max landscapes of the North China Plain. More than any moment in Beijing during the few days prior, it was those paddies that made me violently awaken to the fact that the all-consuming trip of my lifetime (up to this point), the one where the scenery changed gradually and pedal by pedal, is now over. As I now recall the last week up to the finale, all the events have taken on blurred edges as if part of a dream.

Without further ado, I should relate some of the details of that last week. To our dismay, the forecast called for up to six days of rain across all of central Inner Mongolia, and for once did not deceive us. The first bit out of Hohhot had us push up the longest, hardest hill we’d face for the rest of the week through a steady rain. The driving rain and gusty wind on the downhill robbed my body of all its heat and forced us to take shelter and change clothes in the first crappy restaurant of the town after the descent. I had gotten so chilled that Andy could in no way convince me to finish the day — it was still raining — to our goal, especially since the patron had cheap rooms to let. Then said patron did himself the disservice of attempting to double the cost of our fare on account of our having “cleaned up in the bathroom,” and so anger propelled me the last miserable 20 km. (more…)

I just wanted to let all our followers know that we safely returned to Beijing 3 days ago, and that the party was a smashing success. As soon as all the post-trip logistics calm down, there will be several more posts about the last part of the trip and hopefully some conclusions. Stay tuned!

By Evan

A beautiful day on the grundle busters of Bayan Nur. This picture was taken just as we realized that our path, which a farmer had told us to take "all the way" to the next village, had suddenly ended. By Evan

I’d like to quickly jot down some thoughts here about our time in Inner Mongolia as I lay in the top bunk of a Mongolian guesthouse in Hohhot. First, and as always, I don’t know why I even bother forming expectations anymore, since they invariably turn out to be wrong. We chose our current route through the “autonomous region” with a few such expectations in mind: 1) we’d be able to avoid most of the terrible industry that blighted our last trip across northern China, 2) we’d spend time with a lot of Mongolians and experience one last cool culture on the way out, and 3) by virtue of 1 and 2, we’d be able to keep up the spirit of the trip and finish out our year on the highest possible note. We were especially anxious for the above after our time in Ningxia, which was a total washout. The place was scarcely more Hui Muslim than large parts of Gansu; it was more a bastion of scientific development, with its vast industrial parks along the Yellow River alternatingly spewing odors of lighter fluid and ammonia.

So you see, we had big expectations for the grasslands of Bayan Nur, a destination we chose specifically for chances to mingle with Mongolians (since it’s just south of Mongolia). The corridor leading from Yinchuan to Bayan Nur, however, was a bleak desert traversed by innumerable coal trucks. Our only consolation for this period was the company of our friend Pete, the company of the whisky Pete brought us, and camping every night in a new place (this may be the single thing I miss the most about the trip after it’s over). Our little whisky sipping sessions were abruptly ended at the fall of dusk nightly, as swarms of mosquitoes in amounts I had never imagined in my worst nightmares (made New Orleans summer nights look like child’s play) simultaneously began their sanguine assault (more…)