A relaxing bike ride... or not

Despite my sprained ankle I was determined to utilize my time to the fullest in China. Wade and I rented bikes and set off to another minority village a few k's away. It was a very hot day with the sun shining and steaming our shoulders- mainly Wade's already burnt shoulders!

After getting minorly lost for a bit, with absolutely no help from the Chinese that we asked for directions... we finally made it to the right area. The town was on dirt roads and was surrounded by hills with jungle like plantation on it. Side note- the Yunnan province is Malaria-ville. I took my chances... I hadn't taken my Malaria pills since Brazil... the dreams were just to crazy along with all of the other annoying side effects.

The people in the village were beautiful- as the Bulong did, the looked more Thai to my eye than Chinese. They were all really nice and were very curious about us. The ride was a little intense for me and Wade seemed to want to speed ahead and continue up a mountain. I couldn't figure out why I was having such an exhaustive time in comparison to him (granted he is in better shape than I, but I do enjoy bike riding and have never really had problems before)... about half way through our day I realized I mixed up the gears and had been doing them in reverse the entire time- oops! No wonder going up hill was the most painful experience. Even after I figured this out... I just couldn't get the gears straight and I completely exhausted myself.

We stopped to get some water and made friends with some of the locals. One of them gave us some plums that were delicious! They were really sweet and wouldn't take our money. I tried to give some to the little girl that was with them and her mom made her give it back to me. She gave it right back and all I could think of is the little brats in the US that would whine to their parents about keeping it and how hesitant they would be about giving it back (or maybe I am thinking about myself as a kid!). the village was quite obviously poor, but their generosity was refreshing and amazed me.

We rode through some rice fields, on narrow dirt paths and some heavier grassy felds- which was a big mistake. I have to say though, sorry Wade, it was all worth it for the spectacular views we got. The rice fields were such a pretty bright green and made me feel like I was in a totally different world. As we decided to ride back to Jinghong, Wade's bike decided it had enough. The grass had gotten stuck in Wade's back wheel and caused many problems. We stopped, as it also began to rain, underneath a little gazebo type structure where some local teenage boys were relaxing. Wade had to literally disassemble the back wheel and parts, just to put it all back together in hopes of fixing it. Wade was quite frustrated especially by the fact that these boys were just watching him and quite obviously talking about us in a not so nice way... even though i couldn't understand them, there was not doubt they were making fun of us! Annoyed with their lack of help, rude behaviour and the bike not coming together, Wade grew increasingly upset- quite funny, I totally understood why they were making fun of us!

Wade finally fixed it- the rain stopped and we rode off. We made it a few hundred meters and stopped after parts flew off Wade's bike! It was a mess! We tried to find a ride back to jinghong, only to encounter the most non helpful locals! Hey, it was there siesta so why should they help even though they had a pick up truck?! They pointed us in a very vague direction to what should bring us to a garage where they could drive us back. We never found it and the direction turned out to take us much further and added a lot of riding to our trip back home.

Wade had to ride a broken bike back to Jinghong in very hot and humid weather... but we finally made it back! The bike man tried to tell Wade that it was his fault and that maybe he "didn't use the gears correctly" (hmmm, that would be me) and wanted to charge him for the bike. I have never seen Wade more stern before as he said "I know how to ride a bike, give me my deposit back." The guy actually did not argue, rate for Chinese when money is concerned!

This adventure confirmed the fact that we were done with Jinghong and it was time to move on...