I send you all maximum positivity and goodness from Dali, China! It's been a while since our last update and we have a bunch to send so stay tuned! For now, I'll send you a brief rundown of our first of three "adventures" in China. Next week we'll send the 2nd that Garryck is doing now.

So we go back in time to Korea and the journey to our third country of the tour, China. We took a 22 hour or so boat ride from Korea to China and were treated like royalty as they allowed us to roll our loaded bikes onto the boat and hooked us up with a private room for all our gear. We were off to a good start. We had filled up on our last bit of unreal Japanese Sushi (boy do we miss that!) so we were not all that hungry and just wanted to clean up in the brand new spa on this 7 day old vessle on it's 2nd ever journey across the sea between China and Korea. Our boat, unlike most, was clean, smelled great, and had new blankets and amenities. Huge bonus.

The ride went smoothly and we opened a bottle of special wine from our friend Mr. Yamafugi's winery in Japan where we stayed at to celebrate our 2nd country down and many to go. Before we knew it, we were in China, and the first impression was expected with smog, big industrial cranes at the port, and warmer temperatures. But we were grinning ear to ear to finally reach this exciting country neither of us had been to but always dreamed of.

We had met some folks with a school group who had talked about the possibility of hoping on their bus and avoiding the night time smoggy ride to Beijing. We lucked out as they made room on their over crowded bus for our bikes in the aisle, panniers under the seats, and cramming our backpacks in any corner available. We had a rough but fun bus trip to Beijing and arrived at a hostel for about 3 bucks a night. A free trip to Beijing from some great new friends was a terrific start to this exciting country.

Now, China is a big country and we knew we did not have the time to tour north to south, nor did we really have an interest in touring many of the industrial areas. So we decided to become typical tourists for the most part in Beijing, except we'd do our checking out the local sites on funky space machine bikes called Black Sheep Tangles that would turn the heads of the gobs of bikers in Beijing. In Beijing bikes rule the roads. The bike lanes are bigger than car lanes. There are bike traffic lights, bike round-a-bouts, bike mechanics on every corner, and they have the rightaway no matter where you are. We were in heaven from day one!

The first few days in Beijing were spent just riding around the city with new friends from around the world giving rides to dozens of folks. We toured the good ole tourist sites like Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square, but we really liked the backstreets where we could see, smell, hear, and taste the lives of the Chinese going about their daily routine of life. On the streets of Beijing you can witness folks getting massages, haircuts, medical treatments, taking naps, selling anything on the planet, washing clothes, eating...you name it, it happens outside on the streets. It was like being on another planet. The differences in day to day living are so drastic we had our jaws wide open most of the day.

Now, Beijing was super exciting for myself but Garryck had already been there so we only stayed for about a week. Garryck had seen the Great Wall but I wanted to have my peek so I did an overnight camping trip with some new friends on the old section of the Great Wall and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The weather was perfect with clear skies both day and night, providing unreal star gazing on top of the ancient 7th tower of the Great Wall of China. We all celebrated up top with some nice wine (no comparison California crew) and I brought my drum out for some music and singing. Great times by all.

The time in Beijing was mostly spent chilling out, checking out local sites, meeting other travelers from around the world, and riding the tandems locally with new friends. It was an unforgettable expereince but we were ready to move on soon enough.

Jamie's old high school friend Melinda was also in China down south studying Chinese Medicine and we were determined to hook up half way for some adventures together. So we cut out the bike touring from Beijing to Xian and opted to take a train and save ourselves the mostly industrial sites in lue of more time in the pristine high mountians of the Eastern Tibetian region. Our overnight train journey was a piece of cake as our bikes were dissasembled into two bags and it all fit in a doorway no problem with no extra fees or anything. Before we knew it we were in Xian where we would rendevous with Melinda Choy and her friends Katie and Katie.

We had a meeting point of the Flats of Remin Hotel, which was a great choice with nice clean rooms and much needed showers after a long train ride. We hung out in the heat of Xian sipping cold 25 cent beers and that evening a taxi rolled up with with three smiling faces of Melinda, Katie and Katie. We were so excited to meet up 1,000's of miles away from California. They showed up after their own long train ride and we hit the town on the tandems to find us some food. The only issue we faced was the fact that there were 5 of us and only 4 seats on the two tandems. We decided to put Katie May on the back rack of Garryck's tandem and soon enough we were rolling down the streets of Xian with huge smiles on our faces. We were in China amonst good friends, new and old, with perfect weather and no real expecations on where we had to go or when. Life was good.

We spent the next few days being tourists in Xian by checking out the famous 2000 year old Terracota Soldiers and many of the local sites, mostly by bike. We sampled the amazing food, now sporting more of a Muslim flavor due to the large Muslim population in Xian. We hit the local disco for some dancing, ate out every day, relaxed, had great massages and accupuncture treatments from the ladies and even managed to escape for a trip out of the city and to the outskirts of Xian for some nature.

Melinda, Katie Bean and myself escaped Xian while Garryck hung back dialing in the bikes for the trip to Chendu and Katie May strugged with tummy issues. We hopped on a local bus out of town to a mountain lake we were pointed to on a local map. We were itching to get out of the city and just do some camping and get some much needed fresh air (the air in Xian and Beijing can boarder toxic at times). We took the scenic ride through rural Xian to a small town at the base of a mountain and then hiked up a Yosemite-Like valley that blew us away. The air was clean, the weather calm, the birds chirping, and the trail was surprisingly clean for China.

We landed at a pristine mountain lake, set up our Sierra Designs tents on the shore, and Jamie did some swimming in the lake with some nutty Chinese guy. We then grabbed a bite to eat in a small village loaded with cute Chinese kids out playing in the streets. After an amazing meal with the locals we found it very hard to get rid of our new friends who followed us back to our "not so stealth" camping spot by the lake. They finally got the hint that it was bedtime and we did our best to enjoy a torrential downpour of rain that hammered us all night long out of nowhere.

We headed back the next day and our time in Xian was growing to an end as Garryck and I were REALLY itching to do some touring in China and stop this riding around town tourist stuff. We extended our departure one more day to get final prepartions done, and as many of you read in our last newsletter, disaster really struck in Xian, China the day before our planned departure...

For those of you who have read this section before, the tales of Garryck's bike being stolen in Xian can scroll on through. But it was the biggest scare of our trip and it goes a bit like this...

(pasted from newsletter 3, Grounded in Xian)

The day started off like any normal day in Xi'an for Garryck and Jamie. Garryck woke up early to practice Tai Chi, and then met up with Jamie, Melinda, Katie and Katie for breakfast at Kane's Kafe, the open air, tourist orientated cafe in front of the Flats of Renmin Hotel that they were staying at. Like many foreigners, they favored a Western Breakfast, vs. diving right into the rice and spice of Chinese food.

After breakfast, Garryck hoped on his tandem to go intermingle with the thousand some other bicycles on the streets of Xi'an and search for some extra straps that they could use to wrap around their panniers as an extra security precaution to keep the panniers on the racks while riding on the nasty rutted out profusely potholed roads that they would soon encounter, and to go to the supermarket to pick up a bag a rice that they would use as emergency food. While Garryck was off on his mission, Jamie hung back at Kane's Kafe, and with the help of Kane, used their newly bought maps to nail down a route out of Xi'an and determined the best, most scenic route to Chengdu.

Garryck had seen a road that was lined with bike shops out the window of the bus they had taken to see the famed Terracotta Army a couple of days before, so by using his mental GPS he was able to cycle directly from the hotel to the street. The bike shops mainly specialized in parts for Chinese bikes, which we heard could go for as little as forty yuan, less than five U.S. dollars. He didn't find exactly the type of straps he was looking for, but found some that would suffice. Besides, being on the road and having to McGuiver things was part of the fun, and the straps only cost a grand total of five yuan, so for around sixty cents it was worth the gamble to him to see if they'd work or not. The store owner invited him in out of the sun for a seat and a cup of cold tea. Their conversation was mostly comprised of hand motions, smiles and shrugs, but he was able to get across that he was thirty years old, American, and that he was cycling across China.

On his way to the supermarket he made a pitstop at a street vendor's cart to get a mutton sandwich, which are comprised of shredded mutton, julian sliced boiled potatoes and some seasoned chopped up peppers served in freshly made pita bread, a savory Xi'an specialty.

When he rolled up to the supermarket he saw some other bikes chained to the outside of the bike corral, and there was a space big enough for the tandem, so he didn't think about putting it the corral, figuring that because it was meters from the front door of the supermarket and there were hordes of people milling about that it would be safe. Of all the places he had previously locked his bike in Xi'an, it seemed the safest to him; when he left his bike he didn't have any worries about it not being there when he returned.

He took his time inside the supermarket. The air-conditioning was a nice break from the outside inferno, and one of the things he really enjoyed about traveling was walking up and down the isles of foreign supermarkets and checking out all the unusual, and often bizarre, items that are for sale. He bought a bag of Chinese aromatic rice, a combination of five types of rice, some water and some condensed milk and almond chocolate spread for slathering on banana pancakes, S.E. Asian style, that they were all fond of eating in the morning.

When he walked out of the store and looked over to where he had parked his bike and couldn't believe his eyes. His bike was gone. His eyes darted about looking for something, anything that would clue him in as to where his bike was, but there was nothing. The first thought that popped into his head was that maybe he had somehow mistakenly walked out the wrong exit, but knew that it couldn't be the case, the store wasn't big enough for him to get his bearings mixed up. Once he realized that he had indeed walked out the correct exit he ran over to where he had parked his bike and began desperately trying to ask people if they had seen it; he knew the word for bicycle in Chinese and used his arms spread out to his sides to hopefully convey to them that the bicycle is long. Everyone just gave him confused looks. He ran over to a parking lot attendant and frantically showed him the phrase, "call the police" that was in his PDA's Chinese phrases program that he had downloaded. The attendant took him over to the edge of the parking lot and pointed down the street. All Garryck saw was an an elderly streetcleaner making his way toward them down the street and thought, "what the hell is this old guy going to do for me?" In Garryck's freaked out state, he missed that the attendant was pointing at the police station behind the streetcleaner and ran off to find someone else to call the police. There was a traffic cop in the center of the intersection, so Garryck froggered his way over to him and again pointed at the phrase in his PDA. This time Garryck saw the police station when the cop pointed down the road.

None of the cops inside the station could speak English, and didn't seem to take Garryck very seriously so he had difficulty explaining to them what had happened. The hardest thing for them to understand was how expensive the bicycle is. They kept denying that a bicycle could cost so much. Frustrated, and verging on pissed off, Garryck busted out his PDA and showed them on the calculator just how much it was in both U.S. dollars and in yuan. Finally, an English speaking cop arrived and was able to act as a temporary interpreter until the official government interpreter arrived. They sat around in a room inside the police station for a couple of hours while police, uniformed and plain clothed, came in and out, during which time Garryck was allowed to call Jamie and break the devastating news to him. While he sat there he went over the whole incident time after time in his head, and just couldn't believe that the bike was stolen in such a public place in the middle of the day. After the police chief arrived and began to organize things, the policeman who was doing the interpreting took Garryck to the hotel to get his passport.

Garryck was greeted by Jamie, Melinda, Katie and Katie who all tried to comfort him, but he was too distraught to talk about it and went directly to their room and grabbed his passport. Jamie offered to accompany him to the police station but Garryck told him that there was nothing he could do there so he stayed at the hotel and began formulating plans for what to do if the bike wasn't found. Garryck's mind was only formulating what he wanted to do to the criminal if he was caught.

After they returned to the police station the official interpreter arrived and took Garryck's statement at one end of the table while the chief and what looked like detectives sat at the other end jotting down notes in their notepads. After his statement was taken and signed he was allow to return to the hotel. His friends had left some food for him up in their room, but his stomach was too wrought by anger and despair to eat. After a short outburst and release of tears he closed his eyes and wished the day to end.

When Garryck woke the next day there was the brief few minutes where he hoped that it was all just a bad dream, but reality was what it was, his bike was gone. Doing Tai Chi helped to release some of the tension that had built up in his body from the pain of his loss.

After breakfast Kane had the great idea and arranged to have the most widely read paper of Xi'an come do an interview and take some pictures. Garryck and Jamie told the reported that they'd offer a 3000 yuan reward for the person who found and returned the bike. The reporter was very kind and sympathetic, and vowed to do her best to have Garryck's bike returned.

They didn't stop with the interview in their efforts to have the bike returned. Kane helped them to translate a small paragraph Jamie wrote detailing the Peace Pedalers and how desperately they wanted and needed the bicycle to be returned. They took the paragraph to a local internet cafe where the super friendly staff typed it and arranged it on a page with a digital picture of Jamie's bike all for free, and then took them across the street and showed them where they could make a bunch of copies.

Like in any country, there are good and bad people. After experiencing such a iniquitous act, followed the next day by such wonderful acts of compassion, they were reminded of this fact.

They took the pamphlets to the scene of the crime and handed them out to people and posted them on poles around the area. It was hard for Garryck to look at the place where he had parked his bike; it was an all to vivid and real reminder that his dream, the tandem-single that James of Black Sheep had so painstakingly fabricated, was stolen.

Back at the hotel they watched a World Cup game and went out to dinner with Melinda, Katie and Katie as a means to keep their minds from thinking about the bike.

The next morning Jamie wasn't feeling well, so Garryck rented a bike again and took the rest of the pamphlets and rode up and down the back alleyways, handing them out to anyone he thought might be motivated by the 3000 yuan reward to go out and look for the bike; he was hoping to create his own army of bountyhunters. In total, over the two days, they handed out 160 pamphlets.

Upon returning to the hotel, he was greeted by Kane who, with a huge smile, said, "Good News". Garryck's heart stopped for a minute as he processed the words he had so desired to hear. He was stoked beyond compare. He and Kane went to the main police station only to find out that he was going to have to wait two days until he could get his bike back. Something about, "legislative paperwork". Garryck was going to have to produce a piece of paper that showed the price of the bike. He was told that the price of the bike would determine the severity of punishment for the thief. From what they had heard from a French cyclist they had met in Beijing, the punishment could be death. Apparently, China doesn't take lightly to criminals who steal from foreigners.

When they got back to the hotel Jamie was sitting in the cafe. They expressed their feelings of joy and relief, and then kicked back with the other guests and watched, with minds free of all worries, Brazil beat Germany in the final Game of the World Cup. It was hard to believe that two guys who knew nearly nothing about soccer before coming to Asia were psyched about getting to watch the final game.

We were both in awe that his bike was REALLY stolen and REALLY recovered and back in our possession. Every Chinese person we talked to told us it was literally a miracle to recover a stolen bike in China. I guess our tour is destined to happen. It was a week of waiting around for the Chinese government to do the necessary paperwork and release the bike back to us. They recovered the bike at a black market street for a whoping 45 US Dollars!

Now we both had some serious cabin fever and were so ready to get on those bikes and just ride away but we felt so grateful to have recovered the bike we wanted to show our appreciation to all the folks who made such a valiant effort to help us. So we decided to throw a raging party with free food and drinks for the whole bunch, including the hotel crew, the police, the Xian newspaper, the crew at the Internet cafe and anyone who wanted to come. We especially waned to hook up our buddy Kane at Kane's Kafe at the hotel who was the lead in helping to recover the bike.

We told everyone to come the next night where we had told Kane to serve up to 150 big beers or sodas all the food we needed for everyone who showed up. The result was magical. We had guests from the Xian police department, newspaper, Internet, hotel, and many of the guests of the hostel all came to share in the celebration. The food was fantastic, the beers went down super smooth, and our new friends from Ireland did their share by playing amazing tunes on their guitars and drum and getting the whole party singing at the top of our lungs many great tunes. It was an unforgettable celebration.

Now in the course of our waiting for the bike to be returned we met a very special friend Phillip from Belgium. Phillip had been touring China by bus and train and doing the traditional backpackers path. His gut was getting big and he was itching to see backcountry China. We were heading out in a few days and offered him the invitation to become our first interntational long distance guest rider and come with us down to Chengdu. He was game for the journey and we were fired up to finally be able to find someone willing to drop what they were doing, change their plans, and join our tour.

So the next day we were up early with just mild headaches from the previous night's festivities. Luckily, the three riders cut the beer consumption early in preparation of our first day of real touring in China.

Garryck climbs down the ladder of the bunk bed and gives me a huge smile. Finally we are going to get touring here in China. We start doing the last bits of packing in our panniers and moving them outside the hostel room. On the way down I see Phillip, his things all packed up in his guest backpack and eager to get touring.
So we pack up our bikes and see the Irish folks from the night before are up and looking super hung over from the festivites. They bid us farewell and soon we are rolling out the front gate of the hotel down the streets of Xian fully loaded. The bike feels huge and heavy with 2 people and the load, but it's manageable. Luckily, Phillip left the majority of his luggage at the hotel and only broght the bare minimum so we had some good power as he's a cyclist with strong legs.

So we stop off at our favorite breakfast stop for an awesome pita filled with egg, bamboo, peppers, and other mystery fillings. We are feeling strong and pedal down the streets in rush hour traffic. The streets are full of cycists heading off to work and we effortlessly pass them by. A cyclists strikes up a conversation with Garryck as Phillip and I watch Xian go by. Our plan is to head to the west gate of the city and take the major road west to hopefully hit the road that would take us to the 108 South towards Hanzhong and Chendu.

So we find the west gate and things are looking fine. We have plenty of space in the bike lanes and soon we we all notice the traffic getting thinner. Soon enough we are well out of the city and not quite sure if we are on the "main" road or not. The road eventually had a detour onto muddy, rocky terrain and we realize this is not going to be a walk in the park. After about 20 kilometers the road becoms dirt and mud for another 10 through farmland, small peasant villages, and back country roads. The touring is tough but the scenery is unreal. This is the "REAL" China. No tourists, no fancy hotels, no signs in English. We smell it, feel it, taste it, and see it all one pedal stroke at a time.

After about 30 Kilomters of asking directions and these ever changing country roads we hit the main road we were looking for. The new road is a nice smooth break from the rocky, muddy, pothole infested route we came from, although we soon missed the quiet of those small streets. We were soon rolling on flat roads at 25 kph and feeling strong. After about 20 minutes, it was time stop for our first of many "brunches", a fuel stop after our breakfast runs out. Today's brunch stop came at 30 KM down, and is a nice restaurant and hotel combo and we head in to hack through ordering. We end up eating some of the most amazing noodles and soup we've had in a long time, more than we could eat, and it was only about 50 cents each.

After brunc, all full as ever and we roll out on the smooth road for another 35 or so clicks, stoping here and there to take a leak or rest our fresh in the saddle bums. The scenery is for the most part farm land and small villages and we are all excited to finally be out of the city. We stop for a butt rest and are soon surrounded by people; a situation we soon would have to get used to. Everyone was always friendly and extremely interested in these bikes, which must have looked to them like space ships.

We finally hit our lunch stop after about 75 clicks and it's a road side shop burning coal to cook noodles and rice outdoors. We order whatever they recommend and, as almost always, it was amazing. We meet the owner and the phrase book I bought off of Melinda is now really coming in handy and the locals love it.

It's finally time to hit the main road 108 that would take us 375 KM through the mountains to Hanzhong and we are soon gradually climbing towards the hills where we planned on finding a basic place to stay after our first day of touring about 90KM.

We ask around and are soon pointed to a house that looks nothing like a hotel. I seem to be the leader of translation and language so I ask about us staying there. The man is very friendly but is hesitant to hook us up with a room. After many smiles and plenty of time writing on paper, we land a few beds in this very old and rundown hotel for 50 Yuan for us 3, about a dollar fifty each. I also lined up dinner and breakfast for another dollar or so.

So we were set. We put our bikes in the back of the house in a safe courtyard and we were laughing. Soon the owner of the hotel asked us if we wanted to go swimming in the river. Duh, of course! So off we went to get clean and cool and refresed while the owners mom cooked us our meal. I grabed a cold brew for the road and we soon caught a mini bus for us all for 50 cents and arrived at the river. There we chilled in the sun, jumped off this wall into the rapids, and took some photos. After that we hit up a restaurant for some grilled fish and cold beer for an appetizer, then were off to the hotel again.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by the entire neighborhood! There were dozens of kids all over, parents, grand parents, and folks from all over waiting to say hi to us. I then took off the panniers on my bike and I was soon giving about a dozen rides to kids and adults. At one time I had 5 riders on the bike; kids on the racks, back seat and tube between riding down the streets of this small village, laughing and giggling. This was what we came for and what Peace Pedalers is about. Life was grand!

After about a 1/2 an hour of riding around and meeting the locals it was dinner time. We were brought out about 5 dishes of amazing home cooked Chinese dishes that melted in or hungry mouths. We were loving life! We took tons of photos and sat around with the kids from the local schools giving little English lessons. We began to get tired pretty quick after that and bid farewell and hit our bedrooms for some good ole sleep. Our plan was to get up early and get an early start up the hills that lay ahead.

We bid our farewells next morning after another epic meal and were soon off and rolling up the hills. With Phillip on my bike we were climbing the not so steep grade pretty easily. After only 30 minutes of climbing we had a nice descent through the mountains. It was still pretty hazy out so the views were not all that stunning, but the mountains just came out of nowhwere and blessed us with new sites of steep and drastic rocky mountains. We soon pulled along side a huge lake about 2000 feet below and kept on climbing and climbing this gradual and relaxing climb.

After about 20 Kilometers we were pretty tired and it was brunch time again. We hit this adorable montain village with a sheer 70 degree mountain heading straight up several thousand feet right from the road it was on. We pulled into what appreared to be a restaurant, as it was the only place where folks were outside eating. "Nimen Che Fan Yoh" I asked. "Dui, blah blah blah" he said, which meant yes and whatever else I could not understand. So we sat down on the 6 inch high chairs and ordered what the guy at the next table ordered, and were soon filled up on spicey peppers and beef, noodles, soup and thick bread. Yummy!

After lunch we pedaled onwards and upwards, slowly but surely, and the views got better and better as we rode further and further away from industrial china. We burned through our brunch in just 2 hours of climbing about 1,200 feet and arrived at a cool little town with a river running through it and a hotel on the river. We stopped at a store to ask about a restaurant and she said she was the only game in town, which ment cup of noodles. NO worries, we were starving so ate some noodles and dried up cookies and a coke. It was fuel, although not our favorite.

As we were letting our food digest and cooling off on the river water our Belgium friend Phillip was exploring the nearby hotel. He comes back smiling with a brochure in his hand joking that he booked us a room at this place on the river with Kareokee bar, restaurant, swimming in the river, etc. We had only gone 50 KM so far, but we were all pretty tired so we decided to take a swim and nap by the river near the hotel. The river was truly pristine, with a huge rock to jump off, rapids to go down, and sand in the shade to nap in.

We took our nap and I met the local English speaking helper and asked her for the room rate for budget bicycle travelers. We liked this place, and we were in no big hurry to get anywhere. Soon she came back with her best offer of 10 bucks for a room for 3 on the river. We'll take it, also we set up dinner for 7:30 and now we could settle in and get a real night sleep for more climbing the next day. We did some more swimming and chilling in the sun, having relaxed conversations with our new Belgium friend, jumping off the rocks, and meeting more locals.

The next morning we had a 5:30AM wake up call and were hoping to have breakfast and hit the road early. The kitchen did not open as planned but we still had a nice meal of eggs, bread, and porridge and were in the saddle by 7 or so.

This was a day from heaven. The haze we had closer to the city was gone and we were blessed with crystal clear blue sky and views of the stunning steep mountains all around. From the gorge we were in there were montains that shot straight up 3000-5000 feet. It was stunning. We climbed gradually for a while then saw a pretty mean sign that warned of steep uphill. We got into granny gear and began our first true climbing session that got the heart pumping and the sweat pouring from our bodies.

We had a few dinner rolls left and we stopped for a basic brunch break to get us over the pass. At about 6,000 feet into the mountains we sat next to the local road workers in the shade and ate plain rolls with sweet dessert bread. After a few minutes we were ready to grind on up.

One of the best stops was a honey stand that had bee hives on site. We asked for a bottle of honey for 5 yuan and soon we saw the entire process of how they get honey from the honey comb. It was a great site watching a Chinese guy living at 6,000 feet brush off his bees from the honey comb, put it into a cyclone device to extract the honey, and make enough honey for three 16 oz bottles of honey. For a dollar each we walked away with the freshest honey we have ever eaten and it was excellent fuel to keep us cranking.

Soon we saw a tunnel up ahead and it was a site for sore eyes as we were done climbing and usually that meant the summit was near. Our predictions were dead on and after a scary, unlit, almost abandoned 3 KM long tunnel we were through the pass and on our way down. Finally, we get to go down!

The road on the other side of the tunnel was not nearly as nice as the previous roads we were used to, mainly do to a huge flood that wiped out the whole road many times. So we were now going down rocky, muddy, challenging mountain biking style roads which started our bout with flat tires in a jiffy, but it was a blast. As we kept going down the destruction of this flood became more and more evident. There were towns that literally had become ghost towns when a river burried it and took most of the houses and businesses with it.

Once again Phillp sprang into action and while I was fixing my tire he manged to use my phrase book to get us set up with some food from this recently revived restauant. Soon enough the mystery food Phillip ordred camer out as some kind of meat that none of us had a clue of, some great soup, and yummy noodles. All in all a great meal and good fuel stop.

After lunch we wanted to find some shade to chill out in and do some swimming in the river. We decended a few hundred meters down the destroyed road and soon found an area that would suffice with shade, river and sandy beach. We took a swim and I took a short nap. It was so relaxing and peaceful to just chill by the river on a hot day. We were still continueing to be blessed with amazing weather; not a cloud in the sky for 3 days!

So after our rest we continued down the river and eventually passed through the town of Foping, which was a bustling tourist town before the destruction. Only 1/2 of the town was destroyed, the side by the river so it still had some life. We passed it by and decided to carry on. We stopped for some water and were invited into some lady's house for some free watermelon and tea, and of course dozens of Chinese gawking at us and our bikes. After this water and tea stop it was time to start looking for a place to sleep so we followed the river a bit longer and soon it began to climb away from the river.

We were all pretty hungry and we were at the 75 KM mark grinding up a hill to some unknown area without food but the scenery was amazing with lush green farm land on the hillside keeping us in a good mood. As we hit the summit, it was all good. We found a cute mountain town that would do just fine. We met a guy named Chung Lin or something and he spoke a little English and agreed to help us get a hotel room for the night down in town. So he hoped on GArryck's bike and we pedaled down to the main part of town where we found a hotel and restaurant for 10 yuan a night. Very nice...so we thought.

We spent a while playing with the dozens of local kids and the 88 year old perma-smile man who made all of us laugh. More and more people from the village came and surrounded the bikes and the hotel. We took all our gear off our bikes, put them up in the room, and planned to swim in the river and eat a big dinner as we were super hungry after 80 KM of very rough riding. But then we got our first taste of the corrupption in China...

As we started packing our stuff to hit the river we were told we needed to show our passports. Soon there were three men in plain clothes sitting in our room. They wrote down the info from our passports and we were told they were the police. After a few questions and answers translated by our english speaking friend he told us that we had to go back to Foping to stay as this was not a tourist authorized hotel. We had heard from our French friend in Beijing that he had also been kicked out of cheap Chinese hotels to be brought by the police to "tourist" hotels that charge 5 times as much. After a few minutes of watiing around we decided we would first eat dinner at the place and see if the police would leave.

We went downstairs and ordred up some food, which turned out to be the worst meal we have eaten in China so far. Our perfect day was getting worse and worse. We did not see the police for a while while eating so we began to think we may be able to stay there afterall. The last thing we wanted was to pack up our bikes again and ride in the dark. But that's what we had to do...

The police came and offered us a ride 30 KM back to Foping and then ride us back in the morning, but we said no. We'd rather pack up our stuff and camp somehwere. So that's what we did.

At 10PM we packed up our bikes, put on our headlamps, said goodbye to the sad locals who did not want us to leave and started pedaling under a dark yet georgous star lit night in the middle of China on dirt roads. It started out real rocky but soon became a gradual climb up a nice dirt road. The air was cool and clean as ever, it was quiet and still, and although we were tired and dirty, we had reasonably high spirits feeling excited to camp.

One thing about China and it's 1.5 billion people is that every piece of land that is flat and fertile is being used to grown something by someone. So to find a patch of flat land was no easy task, especially in the middle of the night. After a few trial searches we found a reasonably flat piece of land that was a dried up rice field. We parked the bikes under a power line and lay our sleeping bags under the stars. That began our restless night barely sleeping.

I went to bed pretty dirty and sticky, which is always a bad start for me. Then came sleeping uncovered, which for some reason is a bit tough as well. Then came the wild barking dog that got me and Garryck out of our sleeping bags and into our panniers for knives and pepper spray. Between all these things, I was sure not to get a good night sleep. Now add the hottest sleeping bag in the world to the equation and mosquitoes biting me and whoa! I had a rough one. All in all I got about 1-2 hours of sleep and sweat a few pounds in the mean time.

As the sun came out we all decided to get an early start and make sure we did not get caught sleeping on this guys land somehow. So we pushed our bikes out of the dirt and got ready to ride. I discovered that it was not only me who got barely any sleep that night so we decided we'd pedal till we found some water and take a long nap after lunch.

The morning ride was stunning once again. The temperature was perfect, cool and brisk in the mountian air. There was a fog lifting and clearing as we rode creating a magical backdrop of huge mountain tops with fog burning off the lush green faces. We noticed up ahead another pretty big climb and we were running almost on empty. All we had was a few rolls and honey and no towns up ahead. I could do the pass without fuel, but I could tell Garryck was not liking it much. As we got up a bit more I asked a cement worker if we could buy some food but he just pointed me down the hill to the next town; not a good sign.

As we got to the top of the pass, Garryck stopped one of the many mini busses that stopped to check us out and asked them for some food. To our surprise Garryck came riding up from behind us with a smile on his face saying he found a bread tree. He pulled out two big pita bread rolls and we ate them in the tunnel with honey as we were again at the peak of the second major pass. Life was good.

So we go through the tunnel and were once again set up with a nice decent down hill for a while to a cool little village. The descent was smoother than the other one as there was no damage from floods. It weaved throgh these tiny 3 or 4 house farming towns and the only traffic we saw were the occational road workers. The curvey road finally ended after 10 KM of blissful downhill riding. We stopped there for some noodles and bread and tea in a dusty little town that had many mini buses at a junction of some sort.

We filled up on water and pedaled for about 2 hours along the river again and the roads again got rocky and the flat tires continued. I think by this day I was up to 6 or so with all the weight of two people, luggage, and the road conditinos. Phillip's knee was bugging him so we stopped a bit early for the big lunch.

By that time we finished lunch it was mid day and the sun was hotter than ever. Garryck was feeling pretty hot and tired, and was ready for a nap. The road turned away from the river and started to climb pretty steep in exposed sun. We finally hit the river 9KM away and we were ready for a swim and a nap for sure. We pulled into town, bought a watermellon for post nap snack time at 25 cents, and hit the river. Now that we were pretty far down stream the pristine rivers we knew had begun to not only become visibly dirtier but also much warmer and less refreshing. As I swam in the river I tried not to think aout the thousands of people up street who pee, poo, wash everything with harsh detergants, and litter in this same water. China is WAY behind on the enviornmental awareness and that's one of it's only major drawbacks.

So after a swim I went up to sit in the shade a bit with the locals and enjoy an ice cold beer. And boy was it ice cold. Finally I found a cold beer in the shade (as opposed to luke cold), and it was only 25 cents. Ahhhhh. After that I hit the shade and slept for about an hour or two and woke up to watermellon being served by Garryck by the river. Life is tough, eh?

So we pedaled on only a few more kilometers until we found this cute little town that for some reason attractged us to stop. I looked at the boys and said, "hey, this town looks pretty cool. Maybe we should take our time back to Hanzhong and stay here tongiht instead of arriving too late at the next town". Just as I said that the lady to our right came over and said "won't you come in?". Turns out she was the owner of a nice hotel and restaurant and really wanted us to stay.

So to avoid the police issue we had the night before I told here we want to problems with the police and she assured me there would be none. We came in, had some tea, were shown an amazing eating area and clean bedrooms and decent bathrooms. We decided we would call it a day after only 60KM and get good night sleep after the previous night of sleeplessness.

So this lady was smart. First thing she had us do is get our attention grabbing bikes out of the street and into the restaurant. Then she had us go upstars and out of site of the locals so as not to attract a huge crowd like in the previous town. We went upstairs to a private eating room with our own air conditioner included and a lazy suzan in the middle. We drank some tea and relaxed our bones.

Then came the cutest little Chinese girl we've met so far. She was about 5 or so and was learning English in school. She was so cute and learned very quickly everything we taught here. She bounched around saying "Good morning teacher", "I love you", "Good" and "Okay". We even got her to say "I'm a parrot" since she was such a good student and could repeat everything we said almost perfectly.

Soon the meal came and everthing was perfect. We had yummy eggplant, perfectly cooked rice, a yummy and spicey noodle dish and even some watermellon. All in all, a wonderfully cooked meal with good conversation. We were soon joined after dinner by the whole family to take a bunch of photos. It's almost like we are celebreties when we go to these small villages and almost every place we end up getting our photos taken or asked to send photos we take.

After dinner we wanted to clean up and were taken to a public shower area where we cleaned up our grime and the owner of the hotel bought us an icecream. We then head back to the hotel eager for a good night sleep and even the abilty to sleep in and not ride too hard the next day.

Our plans to get to bed early were soon foilded by the police once again. But this time the police were very friendly. The hotel owners must know them pretty well and pay them off, but that did not keep them from taking an our to ask us silly questions. Taking down the basic information is fine, but then the lady who spoke just broken English took this hour to have a free English lesson and ask silly questions on paper and make us answer them. We were all tired and a bit grouchy, so answering 3 times what our nationality was, telling her why we don't have a Shan Xi province stamp, why we did not sign our clearly signed passports...it got us pretty bitter. It took the cake when the police asked us what we wanted for breakfast. Phillip almost blew up when she asked us this as he was losing his patience. Finally they let us go to sleep and we all slept okay, but not perfect due to the traffic noise outside and the loud Chinese people all over the place.

So the next morning we realized why the police asked us what we wanted for breakfast. She wanted to join us and make sure we were taken care of. I guess we were at the end of our patience rope by then and did not realise that she was being sincere. We drank some sweet milk and enjoyed bread with honey to get our juices going. Garryck was feeling a bit sick and rundown, so we wanted to make sure we took it easy that day. He had been riding pretty hard to keep up with me and my Belgium motor behind me and did a darn good job at doing so.

So after breakfast we hit the road, said our goodbyes, got a huge bag of Chinese tea as a gift, passed out some stickers and were off. Garryck stopped for a big bag of plums for some vitamin love for 15 cents and the road started immediatly down hill. We started at like 800 Meters and rode down about 300 meters real quickly. We were flying downhill and soon were on rolling terrain that had amazing scenery. There were farmers with their cows, donkeys and horses, people drying all sorts of things like rice, beans, wheat, and other produce. The houses became very charming for some reason as we hit the foothills and the vegetation much more lush and very green. I soaked in every inch of the place with a huge smile on my face. The workers, the kids, the animals, the farmlands, the flowers, the architecture, the vendors...it was all super unique and out of this world.

The rolling hills turned to flat lands and we soon realized that we had indeed grown stronger in the hills. We were flying at 25 KPH most of the way effortlessley and Garryck drafted on us to save his strength. Before we knew it, we had 45 KM down and 31 to go to Hanzgong so we decided we'd do it all that day. We stopped for lunch in a small town and had nice fried rice and soup with drinks for about a dollar each. Garryck then took a nap as Phillip and I had wonderful conversation while the loud local Chinese men drank and smoked at the next table.

Garryck woke up at about 1 PM and the temperature outside was not all that hot in my opinion and I was ready to get hammer out the last 31 miles of our 5 day adventure from Xian to Hanzhong with our new Belgiun friend. Garryck was game for mid day riding and we pedaled down the flat road, which surprisingly was shaded much of the way by nice big trees alongside many lush farms growing pumpkins, watermellons, and tons of other unidentifiable goodies left and right alongside a huge river. We were making our way into a pretty large town but to our surprise the towns were quiet and the people very considerate all the way. (funny, as I write this a Chinese guy is about 5 inches from my face viewing the screen and obviously not able to read what I'm writing. Can you buddy?)

Anyhow, the ride was easy, fun, not too hot, and very pleasant. As we started to get closer to town a part of me grew a little sad that it was ending, especailly that our time with Phillip was ending. We shared some amazing times us three, and Phillip and I had so much in common. I will miss his conversation and company.

So we finally rolled into Hanzhong and, of course, I get yet another flat tire just as we arrive. We find the train station and a hotel for 12 bucks a night that is super plush with clean bathrooms, beds, AC, and bike parking. We must have looked like hell after 5 days out in the countryside; all dirty, unshaven, stinky, sun burned, oil and crap on our clothes, and packing huge bikes the size of most Chinese cars.

We decided to treat ourselves to a celebratory meal of kings for 8 bucks. We ate about 12 dishes of amazing food (minus the tendon and liver dishes) to celebrate our wonderful ride with our first international guest rider of many to come. We had great time and after dinner Garryck went right to bed to nurse his cold. Phillip and I hit the train station to try to figure out how to get to Xian the next day as he was to carry on to Shanghi and I needed to pick up the Fed Ex package of new locks from Mamacita.

So we hit the train station and were told there there no trains but one night train going to Xian. Bummer. We just missed that one for the evening. Oh well. We were determined to go in the afternoon so we found a kid at the hotel who spoke some English and he was our buddy right away. He found a way to take a day train and bus to Xian to arrive by 5PM. We were set so Phillip went out on the town to enjoy a few beers on the streetside cafes and rap out. We had amazing conversations and the gratitude level was super high as we both knew our time together was limited. We met some cool locals and drew picturs of eachother on paper and laughed and smiled. We were loving life indeed.

The next morning we got up early to meet our mascot Chinese kid and he rushed us to the train station to get our tickets and soon we were off and rolling on a nice train with plenty of space to stretch out for the 8 hour journey. The train ride went fast with some nice converstations, journal writing and naps. We arrived in Chan An and took a bus for a buck 1 hour to Xian and a taxi back to good ole Remin Hotel. I got the package from my mom, which had a ton of Totsie Pops, a letter from mom, a shirt, and towel with countries all over it. It was a nice package with all those goodies accompanying our two heavy duty locks that are sure to keep our bikes safe and sound.

Phillip and I got a cheap room to ourselves for 3 bucks each and relaxed with a cup of coffee and watched some ESPN coverage of the Tour de France. We then headed downstairs to say hi again to Kane and have dinner and a few beers. Then we met up with the other Phillip from Botswana in Africa who was performing his dance and singing routine that evening and we decided to tag along and go whop it up. We had a blast on the town tilll about 3AM enjoying our last evening together with great conversation and many laughs.

All in all, the first bit of riding in China was phenominal! And we realized just how truly awesome it is to have tandems and the ability to pick up guest riders. Phillip brought an addition to our tour that is indescribable, and we have many years of exciting guests to come with us! Wanna join? Drop us an email and let's ride!

For next adventure, check out Garrcyk's newsletter Hanzhong to Litang for the story of our trek to the Tibetian Plateau with 2 Slovanian guests. Great fun to come...