Luopuluoshan Pass To Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, Sichuan Province

Saying huru to Luguhu Lake we had 6 km of lovely round the lake side twisties, then sharp left and straight up and onto a mountain road which took us up and over the first pass, the views over the lake were gobmackinging beautiful and our ever gaining elevation gave us a whole new perspective, this is the awesome part of moto travel and having your own wheels to do what you want to do and go where you want to go while feeling every sense you simply do not get in a car with windows up.

Ellen has put a wee vid together so we can share this with you.

The next part of the assault was flat-ish and villages, then with a left turn it was all on x 10.

Straight into a tight gorge with abrupt but stunning scenery, took my memories back to Peru, this so far is the best part of our trip with scenery overload.

But wait there’s more, send no money (as seen on TV), through the gorge then along some farming flatlands then it became full on in an instant, what I would call the Stelvio Pass of Sichuan Province with a few (lots) of rock feeding on the road and the occasional (lots) of goats sifting around sitting on the road, ad a complement of cattle and some stray sheep and you have the mix in hand.

At first it was weird, virtually all the traffic had gone and apart from the livestock we had the road to ourselves for the good part of around 70km all bar about 4 cars in total.            

We rode through stunning tree covered single lane clifside road, rocky outcrops etc and the highest point took us to 4008 meters above stress level, it just pips Mt Cook by 284 meters which is 3724, however there are no roads on the top of Mt Cook.

If you think you can see yourself riding through here do it, we did and the results were amazing...although dirty LOL.

Bein Kiwis and living in Wanaka I think we are qualified in beautiful and this mountain pass was worthy of beautiful.

Cresting the pass the long downhill opened up the entire valley in front of us, here we have the area of Sichuan Provence which has the Muli Tibetan Autonomous County so the area has a lot of Tibetan people, they are very welcoming and friendly.

At one stage on the downhill leg I had the throttle fully closed for around 10km and in third gear using engine braking at about 45-50-km per hour steady, that gives you an idea of the gradient and length.

The rules here a very very strict about where foreigners can stay, only certain hotels can host foreigners so it was a little interesting getting a place to stay the night (at an undisclosed desination to keep our host out of trouble) without getting raped cost wise being foreigners, normally it is quite the process involving police and all.

Settling in early meant we could spend the time getting this together to share with your guys, we hope you find it amazing appreciating being there is everything.     

The vid, enjoy.

  

Kunming To Luguhu Lake

Upon Ellens return it was time to burn some rubber and leave Kunming to head north- ish, first desto Yuamou, very very warm indeed but not sticky, Yuamou is the home of what is considered the oldest humans/man in East Asia, not as far back as Africa where claims are as far back as 7 million years, makes New Zealand pretty young in comparison.

View from the loout 

The Museum is a place I normally stay out of unless moto related (last Museum I was in was Italy Moto Guzzi factory), I am a cheap and shallow bloke who likes boob, bikes and booze but this place had my interest.

I have to admit I love geography and seismology, this does have an “ology” and not too far removed, the fascination of seeing where we have evolved from was cool, the displays and information here were first class and they even had English as well.

Like facebook but in reverse LOL

Museum experience ticked it was onward to Panzhihua, again it was hot and dry, very grateful for AC at night or it would have been impossible to sleep.

The road from Yamou right through to Panzhihua and slightly beyond was extremely twisty, so much so my shoulders were having a whinge, picture the Takaka hill but half the width and steeper, approx 4 x higher and over 400km long….it’s a full-blown workout.

Not sure if these guys pay road tax.

Never thought would say I wished for a straighter bit of road but I did, after wrestling the bike through tight corner after tight corner and the other drivers that use our side regularly meant it wasn’t a relaxing ride but more a full time test where your good result meant you lived.

Then…we came around one corner to find a truck had crapped out and was stopped just on the tight exit, a little bit of heavy braking and we stopped in time as another large truck was coming through from the opposite direction.

Dude needed an award for squeezing the truck through the gap without ripping anything off either vehicle, you couldn’t have fitted a fart in between them.

Our destination not too far at Luguhu Lake, and yes we had to pay 70 yuan each for the privilege of riding on a public road (not an expressway), we need to do that in Wanaka, charge all the terroruists to drive through our beautiful town.

As we were at 2700 metres it was a bit cooler and not sticky so very pleasant, we had be fanging it for 4 days so we took 2 nights here to travel around the area.

This is the highest mountain in this area at 3745 meters 

Luguhu Lake, very nice

The famous lovers trees

Next is Shangri La in the Sichuan Province through some serious mountainous roads which I am looking forward to.  

Mile Around And About To Kunming

Mile Around And About To Kunming

Both of us loved Mile the people there were very accommodating all except two different ladies at two different shops who obviously have the same grudge, they really should find a leading role in terrorism and they would do well.

Our hotel which was $118 yuan (around $29 bucks kiwi) included a hot tub at the top, 2 lovely young ladies at the front desk and the deal maker, free lollies in reception…..if they had undercover parking for Shou Lyu it would have been the undisputed best yet however the hot tub made up for it.

Both nights we got into the tub (there were two), wine and epic views of Mile, spoiled rotten we were.

  

On our decent walk around the town we came across a world, as we approached, we saw Australia …..but New Zealand did not exist, sorry Kiwis apparently you are no more, I will get on the presidential hotline and sort it out.

Part of our stay we took a bus to the conical shaped brick structures and out to a winery, the structures were ok but at $80 Yuan each entry fee then another $20 Yuan each to get to them on a minibus neither of us wanted to go that badly, my preference and Ellens is old Chinese architecture, I find fascination in their building methods and beauty of yesteryear with the REAL craftsmen square tapered dowls which lock harder with any movement or pressure.

The winery was very very nice, as we finished the guy brought out the 68 % alcohol as a good by roadie and yeap Shou Lyu would run fine on that juice, leaving there I felt slightly sluggish (must have been something I ate) and having to walk uphill got the poor ol lungs workout.

Piling back to Kunming to see Ellen off to Beijing took care of half a day of road racing with some brilliantly spastic manouvers which I am slowly getting used to, I enjoy aggressive drivers cos you know what they are gonna do, it is the unspeedfreaks on the three wheeler trikes that just turn across the road and don’t even look and they do it at a moment or less notice, we have seen so many nearly get cleaned up by trucks.

Part way back to Kunming this bridge was quite a sight, piss stop and hydration stop.

Arriving back in Kunming felt like going home, knowing where we were headed etc was comfy, I had a tooth issue where a filing fell out and my brain leaked so I was feeling stupid, Ellen had an appointment booked to finish her teeth so they did mine at the same time. 

Ellen piled off to Beijing to get family stuff sorted after dads passing and left me home alone in Kunming with roasted duck, grog, a cool moto and time....what can possibly go wrong LOL.

I headed to Moto Morini Shop and proudly I made it right across the city and back on Shou Lyu navigating my way around ring road 2 which I am NOT allowed on...did it bro!!   

Wenshan To Mile

Wenshan, very nice and clean, we had a few things to get sorted...and we did, 4.56 pm rolled around so completed just before knock off time.

Shou Lyu got an upgrade with her name on the cases.

Dinner time rocked around, just up from our place they were selling Oysters....big bastids too, 35 yan for a doz, so $8.75 kiwi, I got a half doz due to the size and I wanted to try other stuff, the Oysters were cooked in very very hot chillis the result was sting ring but that is another story.

A young fella of the people who owned the cookery brought me over a glass of water, he musta known bein  whiteyfoo that I might steam a bit, anyway he wanted to know where we came from, I took the time out to show him, his eyes were bigger than dinner plates with interest, it was cool.

The nightime area was lit up beautifully too.

From Wenshan to Mile, there was supposed to be an epic rain storm coming in, we were slightly ahead of it so we bailed with vigour to get as far as our time would buy us.

The usual gumball rally getting out of town then semi peaceful roads from there except for a tuk tuk that ran straight across the road in front of us…a puckerup moment there, they were bloody lucky we were not a bus or big truck of which there were plenty and fast.

We even got onto a very nice main-ish road which we were allowed on, then came the ETC which is the toll station, confusion set in as our navigation we have exclusions of Expressways and Motorways because riding two up we are simply not allowed to by law….BANNED

Approaching the Toll gate in line the lady saw us and my stupid whiteyfoo face looking confuses and signalled for us to the far right and continue….so cars pay tolls on non toll roads and motos don’t…makes sense LOL. 

Off the motorway that we were allowed on we turned into a wee town for a scoff and a redirection for navigation, there was a dude on a pretty cool cruiser style bike (never thought I would say that)….here is the pic, it had design style features like the Confederate brand of motos, pretty well unknown in the big world but cool.

Dude was proud of his bike, onya bro!!

Through the hills it started to rain and got cold however that was short lived and before long we were on an epically  l o n g  downhill to a basin and following a river, it was very hot and sticky but no rain.

Into Mile we arrived dry much to our surprise and having clocked nearly 250 km under our belt for the day, big number from China travel, the hotel even had a hot tub so we made the most of that.  

Mile town and around up next.  

Lvchun

After the shit news of dads passing and a morning packed full of phone calls, emails, copying, forwarding etc the weather lifted and the upper management decided we could have the afternoon off to explore Lvchun which we had made a specific place to go to.

The weatherman was obviously on strike as no sooner we saddled up we were refreshed yet again however it was not heavy just annoying enough to pull the curtain on the great views.

Our mish was to go to some terraced rice fields, our turnoff sent us up a single lane road which was smashed by weather and the subsequent road works, it was Xiao Lyus first time to dip her boots properly in mud.

This was going well up till it wasn’t, we came across a large mound right across the road with a digger on top, game over go back to home base.

Back at Lvchun we continued our part afternoon off with a decent wander through town and get some food, I was the subject of attention from four wee kids in a supermarket, they were pretty cool and in the end they plucked up enough courage to ask for a photo with them and they seemed pleasantly surprised when I said no problem at all.

Some random pics.

At least we had an air change in our lungs and a bit of time out to enjoy before hitting the paperwork again. Did mention Chinese like paperwork, mighta done prior LOL, Immigration (renamed irritation) were not being entirely helpful, our New Zealand Embassy based in Beijing were doing what they could as much as their hands were tied tight as to what they could do.

On the road, one of three trucks carrying window turbine blades

Heading back to Mengzi to the irritation we arrived there with an encyclopaedia load of paperwork, we had to have JP signed docs, passports, bank statements, NZ Embassy stamped paperwork, verifications …and that was for the first part.

After much negotiating, toing and froing and discussions they gave us an S2 VISA for 30 days, now the speed that things normally happen here at a bureaucratic level would send a sloth to sleep so it will be interesting to see what happens, there is NO compassionate leeway here, again it is exactly set up to fail every which way you go as they could easily give more time on compassionate grounds which didn’t seem to exist,  seems they give someone a uniform and stupid fucken hat and they think they are Starsky and Hutch.

Anyway, it took from 2.15 pm till 5.30 pm but we got there, now it will be a sprint photo finish to get family stuff done and make it back to the Laos border for another attempt.

Now we are headed back to Kunming so Ellen can fly to Beijing to take on the onslaught of tidying up.

 

 

            

 

Lvchun, Yunnan Province China, Town on a Knife edge

Lüchun China, town on a knife ridge. Our ride out from Mengzi was dry to start with then the rain came down ....so much so with the road flowing.

New bike, new tyres, new road, unfamiliar with any of this meant we were tip toeing our way carefully, a bunch of scootas in a group, one of which was two up came up behind us, some overtook us and the two upper was last so we followed his lines.

On the corners were red painted areas which are normally slippery as hell, these had a bit of grit in the paint so ok but still no knee dragging to be done.

Bit by bit pushed a little more feeling the bike and getting confidence with the rubber on the road contact which I am comfortable with now and have to say the tyres are pretty good for our level or riding, the road surface however with tarseal base, water laden with fine clay mud and marble stones is defo be careful material, a couple of times the front wheel felt loose from aquaplaning.

We arrived in Lüchun to our hotel safe and sound after a beautiful ride despite the damp, the scenery was outstanding and we really are in the back blocks of the real China.

Lvchun from the air, this is not our photo, we stole it off the net.

That evening we received phone call from Xiao lan, dads wife, dad had fallen very ill from his long battle with cancer, it didn't sound good as he was in hospital.

Another call later that evening from the doctor confirmed things were going downhill quickly, at 11.08 pm, 9th June Shifan Luan (dad) left us.

Although not unexpected it didn't help on the day with tears galore.

Wednesday 10^th June, for obvious reasons our mission had taken a complete U turn, our VISA runs out on the Monday and our plans to exit to Laos turned upside down.

Now our focus is getting Ellen back to Beijing for family stuff.

With no urgency for our VISA which expires on Monday when we will become illegal aliens and we are around only 4000km away, only 1000 km a day, given we cannot ride motorways or expressways here in China because we are two up that is simply impossible, our only option is Mengzi which is 220 km away to plead our case

Some frantic phone calls, emails to the New Zealand Embassy in China and obtaining documents to get a special purpose S2 VISA was priority, then came the kicker.

As Ellen has blood connection no problem but me …problem child, we needed our Marriage certificate to show we are married, easy done only 10000 km away at home and have no idea where it is.

Now, we can apply for a Marriage certificate no problem but they will only post it and the website says most people get the certificate in two weeks, we have 4 days before when we become illegal then shit deepens 10 fold with Chinese beurocracy.

Emails to a JP verifying our marriage etc …gezz the mission of proving who you are and are you marriage while standing right in front of them….FFS

So, we recommend, as little as it may seem to include a PDF or whatever of your marriage certificate (assuming you are married of course) in case this situation arises, of all the moto travel we have done this is a first time but add brother, mother sister etc into the equation and you have difficulty if you are on a travel VISA, just something we had never considered.

We will get through it but the hoops, within hoops, within hoops (and doing it blind folded, hands tied behind your back LOL) it surely is a test.

R.I.P Shifan Luan        

Jianshi

Town and about, being a tourist trap so has everything really spendie that you don’t need.

Our first afternoon was immigration to find out about a time extension but first was lunch and saving a three wheeled scoota rolling off down a road for which the lady was extremely grateful, she knocked the block out from under the wheel then it started to get away on her, she yelled out to her mates for help but I was right there so I grabbed it and stopped it much to her surprise because she was still looking the other way screaming and I had already stopped it from running away….she took a second to grasp why it had stopped, whiteyfoowheelchoc at your service mam. 

Jianshi vibe is cool, the people are very nice … and cos they wonna sell ya something, my Chinese has improved by immersion into their society and ways, I cannot spell any of the words but I can understand more and more as we go and can parrot the sounds to make them understand me.     

During todays walk we came across Walmart…LOL, last thing I thought we would see in China but it did have some westyfoo wine so we got a bottle to have.

Some funny things here, certainly different to Kiwi style and that is what makes traveling cool.

Some of the places....

Its not the size of your shop it is the way you sell from it.

Dude has more dance skills than me

Jianshi old town sunrise gate

Double dragpn bridge or 17 arch bridge

Little house on a bridge

Part of the old town square

 

Kunming To Naguzhen To Jianshi

Our first official trip with luggage and all out into the wilderness and adventure of China, after the pre run shake down and setup runs and everything went well, a few adjustments made which were.

Took the rubber inserts out of the foot pegs mainly because of me knees which like a little more space and the nearly 20mm extra room is coul. Also the rubbers when wet were a little slippery...take that how you will, Kevin I know what you prefer LOL.

Adjusted the rear brake pedal down because the pegs height was lowered.

Set the rear static spring sag for the weight, there was basically no spring preload so it was saggy in the bum so with two up and a 3 cases although only 87L total the rear spring needed tightening (maybe too much duck and pork belly LOL) to take fatso on the front.

Adjusted the forks to be more compliant …at least to start while everything is new and tight but now it sucks up Chinese road bumps better than a (insert your favourite sucker here), also dropped the forks through the clamps 10 mm for standover assistance (insert your favourite dwarf joke here)

After viewing some footage from our on board camera the front is slightly on the piss so I straightened that out…sorry and no you were not drunk.

Set the height for the centre stand to rest up properly to give us more ground clearance.

Some other minor adjustments to levers etc to my preference so nothing other than customizing the positioning to my liking and comfort.

First trip out was to Naguzhen city near a lake, we made a fairly epic navigational fuckup along the way which turned into a coulas road through little villages and rolling hill country, not sure were we missed our turn but the travel Gods looked after us.

Our hotel, 5^th floor with very very quiet neighbours, they were all dead as it was a cemetery, the Police came and passported us in which is standard practice, there are some hotels we simply cannot stay at but this one was good, the Police were very friendly and helpful and the dude at the front desk had a Landrover 110 model toy, must be a good bastid.

Out for dinner across the road that evening to a Muslin based eatery, the ladies were very nice to us and the food was outstanding, nice to be writing this in amoungst the crap we get fed everyday about extremists as these guys were just doing their thing ....like us.  

After an uneventful night and a good sleep with AC we piled off on our next stop Jianshi which was only 90 km away, we planned to stay two nights here but on arrival turned that into three nights, what a cool place, as luck would have it we rolled in the door and got sorted with heavy rain tailing us so we made it in without getting wet by the skin of our teeth.

The road in through the city was an education with lane marking meaning pretty much nothing so it provided entertainment with vehicle ripping through spaces skinnier than a size 00 supermodel.

Jianshi....more to come.

Pick Up The Bike And Our Stunt Ride Home With First Impressions

Pick Up The Bike And Our Stunt Ride Home With First Impressions

Welcome to the family Xiao Lyu, (pronounced in English shou luh) in English means Little Donkey.

Following our good lady home from the dealership she was on her little electric scoota and she was slashing through traffic aggressively like a stars wars fighter scene so it was fun but a little stressy as we were 2 up with our cases on (wide-ish) and a new bike that I had ridden only a coupla hundred meters to the workshop and back prior to this.

Being an “efficient rider” (maybe slightly aggressive) I bought into her riding style pretty quickly, my mirrors were out of adjustment so I could see all the flights coming into Kunming but not the swarm of electric scootas jamming themselves through a ½ scoota space on either side of us, this was daunting at first because of the pace and flow.

After a few minutes of racing I felt pretty comfy and just had to look left and right to make sure Houdini wasn’t trying an unexpected maneuver. We made it home safely and in one piece so a major hurdle past and happy to have Xiao Lyu at home so we can adjust the mirrors, set up the navigation etc.

We are fitting radiator protection mesh (about $8 kiwi) as Xiao Lyu does not come with anything and a front and rear camera system hopefully to avoid any dispute should something ugly happen, insurance fraud from “deliberate accidents” for money is rife here so a good idea to record it.     

First Impressions, having only ridden a short distance around 25 km we didn’t get to “quietly” look, learn and listen but comfort wise she is excellent so far.

The ergos I set it up roughly for me before leaving the shop so some fine tuning with levers and bar position will be done, this will come with some riding time under the belt.

The power delivery is very smooth with no vibration and the wee 450 I believe will be an absolute pleasure for our travels, it is no power pack but is more than adequate and very easy to ride even tho she is still as tight as a dutchman having to pay for something. The factory tires despite looking like Pirelli STR’s which are reasonably quiet are very noisy but I am not bothered by this, how they stick to the road is important so time will tell.

Our riding space on the seats seems very good, we positioned the rear case quite specifically so Ellen can rest against it given it has comfy back rests.

The footpeg to seat ratio is fine for both of us, some taller riders remove the rubber inserts on the rider pegs for more room but being longitudinally challenged I don’t think I will need to, again time will tell, Ellens ergos are fine.

The 6 inch colour TFT dash is readable in any light and auto dims when you go through a dark spot like a tunnel or under an overpass and even the switchgear is backlit…although I hope not to ever see this as it would mean we are riding at night which we do not do.

That is it for now, waiting on the weather to play ball so we can poke some miles on her and see Yunnan Province.  

A small vid for the way home.