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Yunnan Province; China

Mar
2004-09-14 15:37:29

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Kunming. Mountain climbs between Kunming and Jinhong are generally 20-30kilometers in length and about 7% steep. The roads are for 75% in good condition, even the alternative roads. The main road is very busy because of all the heavy loaded dump trucks. On the 6th day, after 73 kilometres we are sick and tired of the trucks and the wet clothes of the rain in combination with the long steep climbs.

We decide to stop a lorry that can take us over the last 40km steep pass. The driver looks puzzled when we pulled him over and maybe he doesn’t understand why we don’t cycle. We load up the bicycles in the back and after pointing on the map were we want to go it seems that he goes another 140km. So who are we not to make use of that. We are a bit tight in our visa time, so an extra day is fine with us. The road condition (when driving fast) is not so well, but the bicycles are well fastened to the rail of the side of the truck and we are surfing with our sunglasses just behind the driver’s cabin. After 20km of a roller coaster ride we suddenly turn right just after a bridge and our small lorry takes a shortcut onto the, not yet finished, toll highway. An illegal entrance to this new highway, going steep down for a couple of meters with us still surfing on the back looking over the cabin. Then we reach the new asphalt, and can finally speed up of the illegal route. By the way he moves around the various (unfinished) objects we notice that he has used this route before. It is getting cold and dark and we move fast while we watch the busy traffic going over the other road next to ours with a lot of bends in the road and going up and down.

After an hour driving we see a light in the middle of the road and a red ‘stop sign’ is waived at us by a policeman to pull over. There are several minibuses and lorries standing behind each other, with their drivers arguing with the policemen. We can only guess how much the fine is since our driver doesn’t ...