By Larry and Joan Dolinski
In addition to all this vehicular traffic, the roads are further teeming with people, water buffalo, dogs, chickens, and many other animals. By way of paradox, bike travel actually feels safer on these roads than in most other places we have been on this trip. To their credit the bus and truck drivers give wide and respectful berth to the cyclists.
The most unpleasant aspect of cycling on the roads in China is the diesel exhaust spewing forth from the trucks.
The countryside is beautiful in many places but, as we have intimated, the villages and cities are positively ugly (Beijing and Nanning are exceptions). The most prominent landmark in all these ugly places is rubble, much of it, we are told, dates back to the Japanese bombings of South China in 1935.
The business fronts are ugly garage-like structures. The most offensive scenes are the meat markets (wooden tables out of doors along the streets with meat cut up and dripping blood), and the animals being sold for food, including rats, dogs, birds, and snakes. Someone in our group followed (and filmed) the transaction involving the sale of two giant rats to the kitchen at the hotel where we were staying (and dining) that day. That's the day that the two of us became vegetarians (for this part of the trip).
We are now in Nanning awaiting delivery of our visas so that we can continue into Viet Nam.
We are now approaching the ten-month point on our trip. From this point on there may be some major changes with Odyssey. The tour is running out of money and the riders are being asked for a large surcharge. The majority of the riders appear to be unwilling to put in extra money; therefore it is possible that the group may splinter (in Singapore) into those who wish to continue with Odyssey and those who wish to complete the year in Southeast Asia at a lesser cost on their own. As of now we are in the latter group.
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