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