Now that we are riding on roads that are not merely on the maps but on the the easily purchased maps we start meeting other bicyclists. First there is a loaded tourist from Guangzhou going the same direction we are who rides with us for a while. Or who tries to anyway. Even the very worst bike in our crowd is better than his; None of us have much of a load beyond water; And we've got our own mechanic with a full toolbox.

         However, since I've already long since accepted that I'm one of the slower riders, as long as I'm not the very last rider I'm perfectly willing to leisurely ride along with him and chat. I never did get around to exchanging contact info or stopping to look at his map to find out the route he took from Guangzhou or how it differed from the route I took. But I meant to do so.

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         During the time I ride with him we see a loaded family group of three (who were going downhill as we were going up making it hard to stop and chat) and a group of six boys from Sichuan. Finally, at a stop to refill my water he gets into a discussion with Ah Jian regarding a problem with his bike. And as they move into the finer details of repairwork I head off on my own.

         Not ten minutes later, as I start to acquire something resembling speed, I get a flat tire. It sounds suspiciously like a blowout but we don't see anything wrong. However, I'm far enough to the rear that the time it takes to change my tire makes me last in line and I end up in Ah Zhi's truck.