Breakfast was included this morning and I got some rice porridge and noodle soup. It was perfect stodge for a day’s riding. I’m still not feeling well at all, but the lure of a few days off in Kunming motivated me to keep going.
I didn’t realise that I was still a few kilometres from the centre of town. Nor did I realise how big Chengjiang is. It was Saturday morning and the wide streets were empty with hardly anything open but the buildings were huge. It took a while to clear the city.
I was then immediately into the uphill – a long gradual climb with some nice views and plenty of cyclists coming the other way. Over the top, there was a short downhill towards the next lake, and a city that looked like it was still being built and growing. There were lots of expensive cars too. That’s something that’s been increasing as I’ve gone north.
Next was the lake, and being Saturday, it was full of people enjoying the outdoors. Really full. It was great to see. There were hundreds of people cycling and not one eBike in sight.
The wind got up and meant that any section near the lake was pretty horrible. I had some lunch and generally tootled around until leaving the lake for the last 10kms into central Kunming. I navigated to what I thought was the right hotel. Unfortunately, there are two with the same name in town and I’d gone to the wrong one. When I realised, I had a few kms of Kunming traffic to navigate and finally made it.
With such a high proportion of electric vehicles here, the quietness of the traffic really struck me. (Bad choice of words).
I was tired and exhausted on arrival, where I caught up with Miles. It was good to see him and we arranged to grab a beer and some dinner, but first I needed a nap.
Dinner was a couple of doors down the road in this untouristed suburb.