D5: 儋州 → 阳江农场

January 31, 2024

I like the concept of the 517 hostels a whole lot more than I like the execution. The one that I stayed at these last two nights in Danzhou is at least the fifth one I've been in¹ and, other than being bicycle drop-off points if you've rented a 517 bike and don't feel like continuing, they really aren't that great.

Yes, there was a heater in my room. And yes, that heater made a huge difference in how well I slept two nights ago². There were also a plentitude of washing machines on the roof; but, if I'd been willing to make five or six phone calls, I'm pretty sure I could have found someplace cheaper with a washing machine I could use.

Tastien, which has characters very similar to this and branding very similar to this, is a new Chinese budget sandwich place that I would not have thought would get the copycat treatment

I'm bitching because—having never even seen anyone who I could pay after I picked up my key on Monday afternoon and having made a point of purchasing a new bidon on my way out this morning—I got a message on WeChat late this evening (almost 10 hours after I left) not only asking me to pay for my as-yet-unpaid second night, but asking me to pay more for my as-yet-unpaid second night than I initially paid for my first night. With regards to their already overpriced for what they are rooms, I didn't get fresh towels or a toilet paper refill on day two³, and no one came to clean the room (not that it needed it), and she expects me to pay more for the room for the second night?

Ignoring for a moment that the reason I hadn't paid was mostly cause I couldn't find anyone to pay⁴, the usual rule when I'm too tired to leave after one night, is (even with fresh amenities) for me to pay less on the second night. Not a lot less, mind you, but—on account of the fact that almost all of the operating costs are in turning the room over for another guest—still less.

These are the kind of traffic conditions I like

Having paid for a bunk at the Dongfang 517 on two separate occasions, I know that if I had gotten a bunk⁵ instead of a private room, I would have had a quarter-inch thick mattress, and been expected to put the sheets and duvet cover on the bed myself all for the low, low price of what the nearby Baolilai Business Hotel (213 meters ride to the north) charges for a king bed in a private room.

I should have gone to Baolilai in the first place except that the 517 had private rooms available at a not-too-ridiculous price, and, in addition to wanting to try to support bicycle-related businesses, I was hoping that this was going to be one of the 517s connected to a bike shop and that I could get a spare pair of eyes looking everything over before I headed into the mountains.

Speaking of 'heading into the mountains,' that's what I did today. I'm only 30m higher than I was when I started out the day, but I've gone up and down and up and down and I did nearly all of it on narrow, winding roads through groves of rubber trees. Occasionally, I was on things much bigger than they seemed like they ought to be for the amount of traffic I wasn't sharing the road with, and, at those times, I tended to get expansive vistas that lied to me and told me I was much more than 180m above sea level, but I'm definitely in the mountains.

Once I cross these mountains, I'll be in the tropical climate zone of this tropical island; so, separate from much of yesterday thinking about being a blue sky and most of today definitely being blue, the first thing I did today was send my thermals and electric mattress pad⁶ back to Haikou. The minimal⁷ weight and volume that this freed up in my panniers would then be replaced, once I got to Yangjiang at the end of the day, with the 450g of sundried medium-roast Western Ugandan beans that my preferred Haikou microroastery sent to me.

Folded up, I can fit this electric mattress pad into a gallon Ziploc bag. (However, I wanted the Ziploc)

Since I've also added bananas for morning oatmeal and managed to refill my honey with an incredibly sweet dark honey from a wild caught (probably Africanized) hive, even with the amount of oatmeal consumed so far, I'm almost certainly carrying more weight than I started out with in Haikou.

Today's ride was supposed to have a lunch stop at the I-know-it-exists because I've slept there⁸ Fanjia Township, but the upgrading of local roads and the vagaries of GPS based navigation meant that, separate from it looking like it's been downgraded to a village, I never saw it.

As a result, I kind of had the hunger shakes by the time I got into Yangjiang, and the first "this looks like food" was my meal point, not because I really wanted to do Shaxian Snacks again, but because I didn't have the energy to keep looking.

Coconut protein powder, sweetened condensed milk, and banana, and a Coconut Latte from the café next to the 517

Sure, she could be lying about it coming from wild bees. She could even have gotten store bought honey in the city and decanted it into water bottles to sell. But, it looked good, and it tastes good, and the lady sitting by the side of the road selling bananas probably makes less per month than I do, so I'm going to choose to believe her regarding the origin of this honey

Then, I picked up my coffee beans from the courier station, went to the cheaper of the two hotels that answered their phone, checked myself in, and got to work.

¹ Slept in the Dongfang 517 twice, decided against sleeping in the Xinglong 517, once shipped a bike from the Shenzhou Peninsula 517, visited the Haikou 517 with people who want to rent bikes, refilled my bidons at the Yinggehai 517, and now stayed at the Danzhou one. I feel like I may have visited the Wenchang and Dongjiaoyelin 517s but I'm honestly not sure.

² It was sufficiently unnecessary last night that, being as I'm heading south, I sent my electric mattress pad and thermals back to Haikou today

Stacks of rock for façadization of the walls and Rural Beautification

³ I didn't get towels or toilet paper in the first place

⁴ From chatting with him, the guy I bought the bidon from this morning didn't seem to be connected with the hostel part of the business

⁵ Not even going to get into the inexplicable math of groups of cyclists choosing to stay at places that end up costing more per person than if they split hotel rooms, but Chinese Hostel Culture (which is aimed at Chinese travelers) seems to be about intentionally providing a subpar service at an inflated rate so that people who have never experienced hardship can wear the badge of pride of staying at "A Travellers Hostel" rather than one of those cheap hotels poor people go to.

I think I saw more traffic on the small roads than I did on the bigger ones

One of many confusing intersections where what the GPS told me I wanted to do wasn't at all what the road was actually doing

It's so calm and relaxing on these little concrete roads

⁶ Considering how little I paid for it in the first place, if I'd gotten any sense of the Danzhou 517 being an actual Traveller Hub, I would have left it there for someone going north. However, the recent completion of the Hainan Coastal Tourism Highway means that the sort of people who want to be spoonfed their adventures aren't going to be coming this far inland.

⁷ Minimal, cause most of it was clothing and most of that had been on me.

⁸ The 2009 Chinese New Year ride was done with a woman from Fanjia.

Fresh laid concrete approaching a fairly new expressway overpass

I'm thinking these used to be streetlights

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 258 km (160 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	2
Comment on this entry	Comment	0