Day 4 & 5: Orientation

Day 4

I got up with excitment and am ready to roll the wheels on the road.



Brice also felt excited for me and arrived earlier than me at my hotel lobby. He came with his bike and was going to send me off.



First thing to do was to make sure that my bike has enough fuel to burn.



It started to rain not long after we rode off. It was a wet start. After riding with me for almost an hour, its time for me to bid goodbye to Brice. I really cant thank him enough for the help and time he had given me in the past few days. ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU BRICE!!!



And so he made a U-turn and rode off in the opposite direction. I am all alone now to start my adventure. My aim for the day is to be at Nanning by nightfall. However, never did I realised that it was impossible to travel 800+km in a day in China. My first day of riding became an introduction to Chinese traffic culture and it was a long and tiring orientation.

First of all, I must say that 50% of China's road are so-so, 20% good road and 30% bad road. At least this was the case for the roads that I took, the old road. Not that I do not want to take the better road but the better roads are usually the highways which are off limit to motorcycle.

Then there are the potholes. Paved roads suddenly became dirt tracks. Most of the vehicles here do not signal and the right-of-way belongs to the bigger size. Motorcycle is nothing here. You will have to give way to them. Besides all these, the constant rain also made the riding difficult. Therefore, by the end of the day, I only managed to half the distance. At least I was happy to have make it cross the province mark. I had lefted Guangdong and am in Guangxi.



These are photos taken at the border of Guangdong and Guangxi.





I stayed at a reasonable BinGuang for the night. I asked for internet in room and if they have it, this is the typical thing you will see. A PC in the room, max speed, 100MBPS.



Day 5

Noone ever said that an adventure will be easy. It usually requires some effort and determination. The second day of riding was just as wet and tiring. But just as I started to look on the bright side to motivate myself, I begin to see some interesting things. They have some really unique way of warning people about the dangers of the roads.

In one case, I saw a totally crashed and whacked car on the roadside. One look from far, you will know that there are not much chances for the driver to survive. But as I got closer, there is a sign that says something like this: Speeding kills, Dont speed.

Here are some other interesting examples:
十次事故九次快，摩拖车族当自爱。

劝君开车不要忙，否折家妻守空房。

I also begin to realised that:

1. How bad the polluation can be.



2. When the roads seems too good to be true, it usually is. It only leads to highway which are off limit to bikes.



3. China is damn big, one wrong way could cause you lots of time. It took me more than an hour to get myself back on the right path.

4. The road signs are not bike friendly. Most of then points in the highway direction. You will need to know which sign to follow and which not to.

5. Milestones became my best direction indicators. (These are not tombstones)



6. Roads that cuts through old towns like these are most of the time the right way to go.



7. Bikes are not allow in cities. Special plates are needed in order to do so.

Here are some other common views along the way.







After another long day of riding, I finally arrived in Nanning. I got to know John, also a solo traveller, in my Binguan lobby and we ended up having dinner together. Afterwhich I went to meet my host Vivian and asked John to tag along. We had a good chat with laughters!!



Oh ya, one interesting thing about my Binguan, constructions are on going but unlike in Singapore where we will hide the ugliness, they showcase it.



It does look like a war zone doesnt it? Well, that's what I love about travelling. It opens up my eyes.


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