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Robin and I arrived in Hong Kong in the late afternoon, checked into our hostel in Kowloon, and explored the area a bit. We then headed to the waterfront for the Symphony of Lights before bed. The next day, I applied for my Russian visa then met up with Robin to explore Hong Kong proper….

Train K23, Beijing-Ulaanbaatar The start of a new adventure… I’m spending the next few weeks taking the train to London via Mongolia and Russia. Nothing much is new so far. This is a Chinese-made train and I’m in "hard sleeper." Any other country would call this 3rd class, but China’s peculiar brand of communism doesn’t…

Train K23, Beijing-Ulaanbaatar The start of a new adventure… I’m spending the next few weeks taking the train to London via Mongolia and Russia. Nothing much is new so far. This is a Chinese-made train and I’m in "hard sleeper." Any other country would call this 3rd class, but China’s peculiar brand of communism doesn’t…

I just mailed another pile of postcards, written during my Tibet bike trip. I’m going to send one more pile from somewhere in Russia, so here’s your last chance… If you haven’t been getting postcards and you want to, let me know your address by email (scjody@modernduck.com) or by comment here (which is public.)

June 13, 16:30: Just below Lalung Pass, 5282km from Shanghai, 4800m Morning: rolling hills (slight up), slight headwind.Afternoon: steep uphill, huge wind (mostly head.) We’re now camping in the valley between two passes. Tomorrow’s pass takes us to the world’s longest downhill! June 14, 13:00: Nylam, 3800m This morning we crossed Thang Pass (5050m), our…

From Hong Kong, I took the direct train to Guangzhou then boarded an overnight train to Shanghai – the direct HK – Shanghai train sells out days in advance (and only runs every 2 days. China FAIL.) On my first evening, I visited The Bund, the historical international/commercial district of Shanghai, where there are lots…

June 11, 17:00: Rongbuk Monastery, 5150m Everyone is enjoying a much-needed break from cycling. Today we slept in, then some of us cycled to Everest Base Camp, which was just an 8km ride slightly uphill on gravel roads. There’s not much to see at EBC itself.. it’s not climbing season so nobody is actually camped…

June 8, 13:00: China-Nepal Friendship Highway, 5085km from Shanghai, 4900m altitude Today we climbed from our camping altitude of 3960m to the 5220m Lakpa Pass. This was our hardest climb so far: about the same distance up as on day 2 but starting from a higher altitude. I could feel the air getting thinner during…

June 5, 14:30: Highway just outside Shigatse, 3860m We’ve stopped here to wait for the rest of the group so we can ride together to our hotel in Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet. We’ve ridden 90km to get here, and our total ride will be 93km. The ride was easy and fun. Straight…

Greetings from Gyantse! I’m going to do something different for this part of the trip and post my blog entries whenever I have an Internet connection. Photos will follow later. I’m going to save China 4, 5 and Tibet 1, 2 until I get those photos done though… June 1, 20:30: foot of the Kamba…

From Shanghai, an overnight train took us to Beijing. Robin and I spent a week there, taking a much-needed break from moving around every day or two. I also had quite a bit to prepare for my upcoming bike and train trips, especially buying a bike and getting some riding in! We went for Peking…

From Lijiang, we took an early day train to Dali. This train left an hour earlier than we thought.. the schedule had changed about 2 days before our trip! We made it though. The train ride was uneventful but it was neat to look out the window.. everything was new. The track from Dali to…

I’m on a “hexie” (He Xie Hao CRH3 EMU), the world’s fastest intercity train, from Beijing to Tianjin: 120 km in 30 minutes, at a top speed of 350 km/h (supposedly… but I didn’t see it go above 320 km/h.) Impressive numbers, but not really an impressive train network… because this service is all there…

Tiger Leaping Gorge Day 1: an early start to the day.. we left Mama Naxi’s Guesthouse in Lijiang at 7:30 in a minivan shared with 5 other hikers after one of Mama’s huge breakfast sandwiches. We arrived at Jane’s Guesthouse in Qiaotou just after 10, ready to start our hike. Unfortunately, Robin slipped on some…

We left Hanoi on a complicated trip to Cat Ba Town: bus, bus, boat, bus. Fortunately, this was all supplied on one ticket from one company, and wasn’t any more expensive than arranging it ourselves. Cat Ba Town is on one end of Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay. It’s mostly a destination for…

I’m currently in Lhasa.. I arrived 2 nights ago on the train from Xining. There’s much less Internet access here than in the rest of China, and I expect it to be even worse when I’m on my bike trip. Cell phone coverage is also likely to be poor. So expect delays if you send…

Robin and I arrived in Kunming on May 2 after an exhausting overnight bus journey just in time to miss the one day train to Lijiang. Not to worry, there was just enough to see in Kunming for a pleasant day sightseeing before the night train. We visited the east and west pagodas, wandered around…

Toyota pretty well owns the market for saloon cars (almost always Camry) and pickup trucks. Hyundai is the brand of choice for minivans. Honda is doing well too: they have a huge share of the small (100-125cc) motorcycle market, which is a popular way to get around in most places, and the dominant vehicle choice…

The first bicycle I ever bought was a Giant Sedona ATX back in 1994. It was a rigid frame mountain bike with STX (slightly above today’s Alivio) components. I rode it all over the trails of St. John’s, took it to university in Kingston, put it on a train to Vancouver, then rode it back…

Robin and I spent the last week in Beijing.. I needed to do some planning, book some tickets, get a visa… and Beijing is a great city anyway (apart from the pollution.) We’re now on a train from Beijing to Xining. We left the hostel at about the same time but by different routes: she…