A Bike Ride Around Erhai Lake

We rented mountain bikes from our inn and set out for a day's ride around Erhai Lake. Once we got far enough away from town we were able to get off the main road. We then found ourselves on dirt roads winding through very small villages. Most people ignored us but were very friendly if we would stop to ask which way to go. It was a great ride around the lake to Wase, where a regional market is held for area farmers every Friday. We were used to being the only foreigners around, but here we were the only outsiders of any kind--everyone else was from neighboring villages and had come to buy or sell food, clothing, cooking supplies, or various other items. We bought a snack but there wasn't much else for us to buy at the market--we just soaked in the scene and enjoyed ourselves. It was unlike anywhere else we had been. The entire town was jammed with people, tables, and wares. We were planning to take a ferry from Wase back to Caicun, which is about a 5 minute ride back to Dali. The tourbooks assured us that a ferry runs from Wase to Caicun until evening. Our innkeeper, who is also a guide and knowledgable about the area, told us it would be "no problem" to get the ferry to Caicun. But when we got to Wase we heard the phrase "mei you" for the first time in China, which means "no have." We're not sure if the ferry stopped running altogether, or just on that particular day, but it rapidly became clear that there was no ferry to Caicun for us. By this time it was too late for us to have any chance of riding the rest of the way around the lake before dark and we were also getting a bit tired. So we took a ferry across the lake to Xizhou, which is about 15 km north of Dali. The ferry operators "scammed" us by charging us about $2.50 each instead of about $1, but at that point we were just happy to be heading in the right direction and rationalized that we had big bikes that we wanted to get safely across the water. It got a bit embarrassing when the ferry operator went around and pretended to collect the higher fare from other patrons, some of whom played along and some of whom refused. Everyone else on the ferry lived in Xizhou and was either coming home from shopping at the market or from selling various items. Many of the other people had large baskets filled with food or other items. One woman even walked up the gangplank with a full-sized desk tied onto her back! We successfully made it across the water, the ferry driver carried our bikes down the gangplank for us because we apparently looked a little wobbly. We got on our bikes around 5:30pm as the sun was getting ready to set. A friendly dentist we had met on the ferry caught up to us on our bikes and helped us navigate to the main road from the town's small port. First we had to carry our bikes over fresh-poured concrete because they were repaving a road, then we had to scramble over an enormous pile of debris that the pavers had put further down the road (so cars wouldn't plow into the freshly poured concrete, i guess). Finally we got to the main road and zipped along for a while. Bill was in the lead and Giselle started despairing and even got a bit whiny about how adversity was about to overcome us. Bill tried in vain to reassure Giselle that it would be ok but she was about ready to steer her bike over the side of the road and sleep in a farmer's field for the night when, on the horizon, she noticed the three San Ta Pagodas which meant that we were approaching Dali. At that point, Giselle knew that we could make it to Dali, but Bill began to despair because it had been so much work trying to reassure Giselle. So Giselle began to reassure Bill that we could make it. And, sure enough, we did. We reached the north gate of Dali just as the last bit of sunlight disappeared. We stopped for a few minutes, caught our breath, and then walked through town back to our inn for hot showers and hot tibetan goulash. All told, we rode about 70km. It was a long day that didn't go exactly as we had planned but it was one of the most amazing days of our trip and one of the best adventures we've ever had.

img_4154.jpg Checking out the bikes before we leave town. This is the gate we reached later, just at sundown.	img_4157.jpg When she needs help, she signals and the backhoe lumbers over for assistance.	img_4160.jpg Beautiful fields along the road. We rode up this main road for about 17km, and then were on smaller roads the rest of the way.	img_4162.jpg
img_4163.jpg Once we got on smaller roads we would occasionally come to sleepy small towns like this.	img_4165.jpg We watched women pile into the back of this truck and then we followed them out of town. They must have been going to a field up in the mountains to harvest a crop of some kind.	img_4166.jpg working the fields	img_4169.jpg
img_4172.jpg	img_4173.jpg We were tired and stopped for a rest. Then this woman slowly passed us and made us realize that we had little to complain about--our bikes were far fancier, in better shape, and not nearly so burdened with cargo as hers.	img_4174.jpg	img_4175.jpg
img_4176.jpg Bountiful Baskets	img_4177.jpg Gravesites up the side of a hill opposite the fields.	img_4178.jpg A beautiful tree-lined stretch of road (that was actually paved!) between small towns.	img_4179.jpg
img_4181.jpg	img_4182.jpg	img_4184.jpg	img_4186.jpg
img_4187.jpg	img_4188.jpg	img_4190.jpg Outside Wase. We knew we were close to the market because there was a steady stream of pedestrian and bike traffic (with empty baskets) heading into town ahead of us and a steady stream of pedestrian and bike traffic (with overflowing baskets) heading out of town. We were starting to get excited.	img_4191.jpg Getting closer to the center of the market. The streets are filling up with vendors and shoppers.
img_4192.jpg	img_4193.jpg Now that's a lot of peppers.	img_4195.jpg	img_4199.jpg Women bundling up their purchases.
img_4200.jpg This is our ferry. We sat on the little stools in the foreground.	img_4201.jpg Passengers helping each other onto a ferry.	img_4202.jpg One last chance at a pile of vegetables.	img_4203.jpg
img_4204.jpg	img_4205.jpg Heavily burdened.	img_4206.jpg	img_4209.jpg The lady in blue helped us understand that there was no ferry to Caicun.
img_4210.jpg A photo of the next ferry over. It also was going to Xizhou. This afforded us a (small) reassurance since if something happened to one ferry, the other would be able to help.	img_4211.jpg A young girl played and had a snack near the port.	img_4212.jpg	img_4215.jpg The ferry operator was greeting her passengers.
img_4216.jpg Boys were playing near the water.	img_4217.jpg Goodbye Wase!	img_4218.jpg This man is a dentist who lives in Xizhou. He was very curious about us and worked to communicate with us despite his very limited english and our even more limited chinese. He also helped us find the main road once we got to Xizhou. He went to another part of the boat when the ferry operator was pretending to charge people a higher rate because (we assume) he did not want to take part in the charade. Everywhere we went in China, real "salt of the earth" people were willing to help. We felt very lucky.	img_4220.jpg Fellow passengers.
img_4221.jpg	img_4222.jpg We began preparing ourselves for the race against time to get back to Dali.

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