T4: 红毛 → 保亭

February 3, 2025

This turkey was taking up the path and didn't care who wanted to get past

Why, if today (or the day that I left the Hilton, for that matter) had a decent amount of kilometers completed by bicycle does it get the "T" designation for "Transit" as opposed to "D" for "Day"?

You could ask the same about the "R" rest days, or "W" work days (which are sometimes weather days) that have also included biking but which didn't get a "D."

Basically, if the majority of my time is spent doing something other than biking, or (for car/train/airplane days) the bulk of the distance traveled is done other than by the power of my muscles, it isn't counted as a biking (D)ay.

I traveled with my bike, just not necessarily on my bike

The old road has a much steeper descent and crosses the plain below in the middle right

So, even though today started out with the idea that it was going to be a biking day, the amount of time spent in a car makes it a (T)ransit day.

The plan was to go from Hongmao to Jiachai and down the new Rainforest Road to Shang'an and Taiping. I'd taken the road from Jiachai two years ago when it was a tiny little concrete thing that had hills both for walking up and for walking down, so I was really looking forward to seeing what they'd done to it.

I also wanted to visit the wild hot springs Feng Kaishi from the Qiongzhong Bike Club had told me about but which I'd missed out on cause the last time I came this way the hours of daylight left to me weren't enough to be safely sure I would make it to the only available lodging.

They really did an incredible job with this place

I'm not on board with the current trend in teepees as outdoor decor

Speaking of amazing construction standards...

However, although the hot springs are now a signposted attraction, they, along with a bunch of other things that also got skipped last time, and some things from last time that I wanted to see again all got passed on.

When we were looking for lunch, we thought it was still on the itinerary but there wasn't a single place in Shang'an that was open for lunch and, even though they weren't riding a bicycle, the media crew was hungry.

Wait a second ... what media crew?

The ones from the Hainan Daily who, in vaguely similar fashion to last year's thing with Major National Media Outlet, had contacted me about doing a thing related to my countryside bicycle excursions and digital nomad life and then kept rescheduling it because other things came up.

Except, only very vaguely similar.

Because, unlike Major National Media Outlet, rescheduling happened far less often, on a shorter time scale, didn't involve the assumption that I'd completely change my plans just for them, and involved consideration of me as a human being.

Does it help that, given my role iin the International Media Center, we're technically co-workers? Maybe.

Does it help that the guy driving the car wearing a thermal vest that was swag from the same bike club as the jersey I had on? Also, maybe.

Old road coming to an end because the retaining walls for the new road cover it

And, if you credit good managers with creating a good working environment that leads to people who are more pleasant to work with, my having once gone out on a few dates with their boss (about 17 years ago), then that also played a role. Otherwise, it's been so long since we last spoke that not only did he not know that they were doing a feature on me, I didn't know he's now one of the guys in charge.

In any case, even though I was far and away from being the only person that is on their filming schedule, because they left the city with the knowledge that they were going to eventually be meeting up with someone on a bike, they came in a car that—in the event of wanting to go somewhere else faster than I could on my own—was big enough to hold a bike.

Isn't it shocking how provincial-level media can figure this out but the national-level folks who were renting a car¹ solely to come meet me couldn't be arsed to bother?

Also, in all the bits where they roped other people into being on camera with me or used other people's spaces, they asked nicely for permission, and didn't move or stand on a single piece of furniture.

Anyways, over breakfast, around the time I was trying not to be too glum over it starting to rain sometime during the night and everything I had hung up to dry getting soaked again, I had gotten a call from the media crew asking where I was and where we should meet.

Carrying my rained on laundry back to my room

He has definitely driven near bicycles before

Since they were in Shuiman (which doesn't have an expressway exit), I had to intentionally be extra dawdly, but that's really not that hard for me. Then, they came and got me, took some shots of me at the resort, drove me to the Rainforest Road, and decided around the first climb that it was looking gray ahead and if they didn't put me on my bike on the road soon, we might get more rain².

We never got rain. I got about 20km of glorious riding with hints of recognized things in the distance and a shit eating grin on my face as I realized, more than once, "this is a hill I walked down" as I swooshed down perfectly banked curves on switchbacks that probably cost millions of dollars to build.

I can only begin to imagine what this is going to do to the local economy

Failing to find any open lunch in Shang'an, my bike and I got back in the car for the drive to near my booked hotel.

This bit of road was already an S-grade provincial route before it became the Rainforest Road and, much to my surprise, hasn't gotten any work done on it. They haven't even added signs or painted logos.

Not as steep or narrow as the farm roads, it's still pretty steep and pretty narrow and I'm very impressed with Fat Me from 2023 for making it in to Taiping before dark and very understanding of why I stayed there for two nights.

Once lunch was over, poor rural mountains where dogs feel comfortable sleeping on the road and give you a dirty look for making them move were deemed a bit too unphotogenic and, after cancelling my hotel reservation and picking up my poste restante courier delivery, I was back in the car for pretty much the rest of the day.

Some orange flower they wanted to take pictures of me taking pictures of

They were far less impressed with the meal than I was, but they haven't been mostly eating whatever is available as a single person

We stopped and hiked up to a waterfall that I wouldn't have otherwise visited. We also got my bike out for some flatlands stuff prior to my pretending to work at a bougie café where it was too late in the day for me to try their special Coconut Oil Coffee³ and which turned out to be owned by someone who follows me online and who was Really Excited about me just showing up unannounced.

Then, I booked a hotel in the town I was supposed to stay in tomorrow, and they dropped me off on their way to the expressway and their next task.

¹ as opposed to taking one from a company fleet

Double Achievement Unlocked, first second floor lobby and first time staying in a Supply and Marketing Collective

Interesting lobby posters on the illegal employment of Foreigners

And the penalties for not registering⁴ a foreign hotel guest

² Turns out that rain and gray was why they left Shuiman early, and they ended up going back to Shuiman after they dropped me off

³ I left with a free bottle of their extra nice skincare grade coconut oil.

⁴ I registered myself

Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 1,161 km (721 miles)

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