Brice and I are looking for oil. The gents are ahead of us, as is now the practice. They are slowed by Gong Jianping, so we can take our time setting off.
Stopping to commune with nature on the outskirts of Damxiong we are struck at the beauty of this place. Despite the refuse and shoddy upkeep, the green grass and crystal sunlight conquer all.
When we set off, we are enjoying more than ever the scenery. This part of Tibet is green. It is an amazing change: green, where the eye had previously taken in little but brown and brown and brown. It does something to the spirit to drink green.
We eventually hit a junction where traffic is being diverted over some pass on a road that extends out to our left, South. We continue on the main road, because we can navigate the roadworks with our bikes. Because of the diversion, there are very few vehicles.
We are stopped momentarily to add air or drink water. A Chinese guy comes by on an iron bike. I check out his watch: Deng Xiaoping. Hey that is a cool watch! Okay, I’ll look for one in Lhasa and every other town that’s big enough to have a crappy state-run department store full of goods that might not turn over very fast. Maybe I can still find a Deng Xiaoping watch, even though he’s been gone for four years now. And presumably President Jiang Zemin is most keen to see less attention paid to Deng.
Pushing on we eventually come to the top of the current uphill stretch. The boulders are enormous up here. We wonder if it will rain.
This is a the highest we'll get today, and the prayer flags are here in abundance to prove it.
It is time to dip into our provisions and refuel, enjoying the last dry weather we might get today. Unfortunately, some kids are doing their best to prevent this. It is unclear what they are doing up here, other than hanging around, harassing passersby. We cycle down a safe distance and re-picnic.
Sated, we pack and push our rigs to the road, pointing tyres west.
There is ample downhill here: we are within a day or two of Lhasa, so it is time to lose altitude.
As we close in on Yangbajin -- a city with a hot springs and a radio tower -- we stop to chat with a PLA crew working on the road. The foreman is a pretty jolly fellow and we all have a nice time talking. Brice’s Mandarin is coming on nicely. Polite and interesting questions include “where is your guys’ home?” They tell us names of towns in Hebei, Henan, Guandong and Shandong provinces. We can usually say we’ve been there, maybe even to their specific city.
The foreman guy confirms that our friends have already been through. They left a message that we should find them at the hotel by the hot springs.
Brice and I push on into town. First order of business is finding a post office and getting the maps stamped. That accomplished, we find the hot springs and the guys, in a hotel nearby.
The five of us mosey over to the hotsprings and most of us indulge. The water is super warm and it feels really good. They have practically an Olympic-size pool of it here. Kind of strange, but lovely all the same. We order some grub and finish with a nice meal.
The restaurateur urges us to try the karaoke lounge over near our hotel.
We would never have noticed it. It is situated within a compound also hosting our accomodation; it is hidden behind some buildings and appears to be made from an unused warehouse of some kind.
Hardly anyone is here tonight. It is really just us. But no matter, we four get along great, and we are enough entertainment just ourselves. Gao Ceng and Fangkun both have a go at the microphone.