Day 5 | From the Valley to the City of Hot Springs
September 9th 2011
328km to 409km
We mount our bags onto our bikes and head out to find breakfast on the way. Only then do we realize that the villages are too small to offer any food service. As we cycle along a singing tuctuc sails past us selling crisps out the back of it. We shout after him and he lets us try each kind. We cycle to the next village where we stop to munch on our crisps. While Neil is off to the shop to buy some juice, an old man pushes his grandson in a pram over and stops in front of Lana. He asks her if she is Chinese. Once the neighbours realize that the aliens can communicate they slowly one by one move over, until the whole village is out chatting away to the old outsiders.
We cycle through the charming valley and admire the stunning scenery. For lunch we buy a bag full of sweets, cakes and mystery sausage and take a bypass off the main road to find a nice-ish spot to set out our picnic, but giant ants take infest our blanket and we revert to a standing picnic.
Our planned destination for the night will take the rest of the day to cycle to, so we head back onto the road. At the next big road junction we see our first road sign to Changsha! A very satisfying moment, especially since it proves we are going in the right direction. A few kilometres down the road we discover a road sign pointing to `The international city of Hot Springs’, located in an area the Chinese government has designated an ‘official tourism demonstration spot’ – with names as exciting as this we decide to divert from our original route and head into the land of hot springs and protesting tourists.
It starts raining soon after, and we arrive in the neon haze of the city in the early evening. After 4 days of villages and towns, the chaos of the city with its sea of taxis and lines of fast food restaurants strikes us a bit, but we soon adjust to city cycling again and search out a bed for the night. A street populated with clothes shops selling an array of wonderful Chinglish good leads us to a hotel where manage to find a room with internet. We unload our bikes and head back out for something to eat. At the edge of the shopping district we find a market with delicious looking food stalls, so we take shelter and enjoy a dinner of noodles, fried lotus flower, and chicken kebabs. With tired legs and weary eyes we decide against taking a walk to see the sights of the city and head back to the hotel to get a good night’s rest for another day of cycling tomorrow.
5 days down with 5 to go, and all is going well on the tour