We’re in mountain territory now, with today’s ride taking us to 3300 MASL in the town of Shangri-La (formerly known as Zhongdian). This town is a tourist town in Yunnan, known for its Tibetan culture and old town.

Mountain territory

Posing on a bridge

This morning’s ride was just a short one, about 100KMs over ~1.5 hours. We set off early and were treated with fair weather and sunshine, but with the mission of getting some photos with our bikes, as we’ve not had many over the last few days.

Today’s route in blue

About halfway through we had the option of going the highway or the local roads - and while I was keen to travel the local route - we travelled the highway instead for fear of poor road surfaces (Kiat’s bike is not designed for rough terrain and drops would be very costly). Upon arriving, I didn’t feel like i had my fill of riding, so my original plan to was to drop the luggage off and to explore the hills. Soon after there was a spanner thrown in the works - the hotel was so nice and lovely, with a number of activities. Riding could wait for another day!

Our hotel!

First stop in town was lunch, at a hotpot spot. We were yet to have many mushrooms, so that (almost) all we ordered. 7 varieties, one of which was poisonous (the waitstaff brought over a 25 minute timer and told us not to touch the pot until it had expired).

Poisonous mushrooms getting loaded into the pot

Next I had my eyes on the dress up / photography setup, where you can hire traditional Tibetan costumes and take photos around town. The mandate i gave to the photographer was that i wanted photos with a horse, my bike, with the mountains and grasslands as backdrop.

My steed and I

1 horsepower (vs Sandeep’s 110)

He was a funny guy, hailing originally from Sichuan, about 29 years old, and seemed to have a wanderer’s streak to him. As we rode over (he was behind me on the bike), he told me about his bicycle trip from Zhejiang to Sichuan for new year. The photography session was quite funny - it was so “extra“ with the traditional costume and the exaggerated posing. The poses he was asking me to do were all quite metrosexual, and could probably fit in one of these male themed advent calendars. I had a hard time not laughing while doing these poses! Then halfway through comes the ask: “can i ride your motorbike?” I did a quick cost benefit analysis.

• Cost: he’ll probably drop my bike. I’ve got crash bars and as long as it’s on a soft surface and at low speed it’ll be fine
• Benefit: might get better photos, good stories and memories. Worth it! We finished taking photos and then I fulfilled my part of the bargain while we were in a grassy field. Enduro mode (low hp) + no luggage, and off he went. It was actually all going smoothly until he finished riding, tried to park the bike and couldn’t handle the weight. A standing drop, rather gracefully done. Quite funny to watch and I’m confident no issues with the bike.

Photographer after taking a fall

Back in town, Kiat and I visited the main tourist attraction, a Tibetan style temple, and retired back to the hotel for evening activities.

BBQ dinner

The hotel organised a rice wine tasting and bonfire in the courtyard and most of the guests came for the festivities. People hailing from all parts, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong and Shaanxi.

Evening vibes at the hotel

Hotel courtyard after a few drinks

It was the perfect occasion for one of my cigars, and by coincidence and perhaps by 缘分 I sat next to some travellers who owned a cigar company and had an interesting conversation about cigar production in China and dowries. Apparently the market dowry rate varies by town - in Fujian it is ~280,000 RMB and in Pingtan Island even 380,000 RMB! There is even a place where it is >880,000 RMB! At the end, we swapped cigar cutters (he had a much nicer one - so it was a lovely gesture)

The cigar lads and I

Today was a great day.

Tomorrow; Daocheng Yading!

Side note - this trip is the first time I’m using my Chinese name! Everyone seems to like it.

Some stats:

• 116 KMs travelled
• 15L fuel added
• 5 unique interactions
• 40g coffee consumed

Route to date

Some more pics: Sandeep and I with Tibetan flags

Gesha from Yunnan!