City, villages, funerals, hills and another ancient village – Eryuan to Shaxi

Today’s ride on Komoot 

It was such a nice hotel, I didn’t want to leave. Everything here was convenient – food, coffee, supermarket. 

Plus, I only had 50kms to ride but it did involve a dirty big hill. It was a cool morning and as I ate my breakfast, I could see locals in thick coats and jumpers. So why would I leave early ?

When I finally checked out, the lady on the front desk couldn’t believe I was travelling by bike, so she watched me pack the bike and kept shaking her head. 

Leaving to the north brought home to me how large this place is. Finally away from the large buildings, I was immediately in farmland with gangs of workers tending to their fields and crops. I spent the first hour on local roads often through small villages. That’s so much nicer than grinding out the kms on a busy road.

At one point there was a group of old men sitting around an intersection of lanes. When I came through, I missed a turn because I was saying hello. When I turned around and came back, they all had a chuckle.

Not long after, I saw a parade coming down the lane. I thought it must have a religious based thing but it was soon obvious that it was a funeral procession. It was pretty sad. There were a lot of upset people and it wasn’t right to photograph them.

Ahead of them walked a guy with a bag of firecrackers. It was his job to let a cluster of them off every 50 or 100 metres.

After the villages, the climb started. Today’s effort was a 15km climb that went up 700m. As enjoyable as it was to go along local lanes, I’d avoided shops and food places and started the climb with not much food to keep me going for the couple of hours it would take me to reach the top. After a few kms, I thought I saw a mirage. There was a cluster of small restaurants with views over the lake below.

I got a bowl of noodles and a coffee. The noodles tasted great but I’m unsure of the contents. I didn’t recognize much animal or vegetable. Still, they were perfect for that point in my day.

The climb afforded me fantastic views of the lake and surrounding countryside as I followed the curves and switchbacks up the side of the main hill. I could see my lunch stop from various vantage points along the way.

The top of the pass was uneventful but the downhill was fun. It was so much fun, that I missed a turn off that meant an extra couple of kms on the flat run into Shaxi.

I’ve been using AMap as well as Google maps to direct me around towns. Google is notoriously incorrect in every country I’ve travelled in Asia. It’s good at pinpointing my location though. Amaps is terrible at that, but the content is pretty good. Neither could help me find the hotel. They both said I was close.

So, I went back onto Trip.com where I made the booking and the only hotels here had different names. Finally, I got the local language address and showed it to a Chinese tourist who read it aloud. Then I realized that the English name of the hotel in Trip.com, was wrong. As well, the words she read out sounded exactly like a hotel is walked past. And that was it. Two maps and a booking app each got it wrong in their own way.

Directions aside, the people running the hotel are amazingly generous bringing me tea, hot milk and biscuits over the course of my stay.

Shaxi itself has the ancient village which attracts tourists but in lesser volumes than Dali. It’s got a nice feel and strolling around was easy. One highlight was the guy walking his three labradors. He threw a stick into the water near some fishermen. So one of the dogs dived off the two metre wall to get to the stick first – right in the middle of them. They weren’t particularly happy but it was fun to watch.

At dinner, while I was faffing around translating the menu, some Chinese Australians from Sydney (Killara) introduced themselves and ordered for me. Raymond and Anita are over here for a holiday. Great to meet such nice people again.