From the time my plane touched the ground at Meilan Airport to the time the first muster left the bike shop I had all of 10 hours to prepare. And that includes things like arriving downtown and sleeping. My packing list was extremely haphazard and included a number of pointless things but managed, somehow, to include almost everything it ought to have... except, perhaps, lower gears and more of them...

* Giant Windmark

         Aluminum road bike with all Shimano Sora components. I've had it for four months and have put more than 4000 km on it. I like it very much and will probably keep it for a good long time. The original stem has been swapped for a shorter one and it now has clipless pedals but other than that, the rack, the water bottle cages and a collection of minor cosmetic flaws it is the same as the stock bike.

* Water Bottle Cages (2).

         One super-lightweight cage and one normal one because two of the normal ones won't fit this bike's geometry.

* Sigma Sport BC 500 Cyclocomputer

         This computer is on its second bike and has logged more than 5000 kilometers. It has enough gee whiz functions to keep me amused and to keep the oooh data give me more data side of my brain interested but not too many. Many more functions (like heart rate, cadence, etcetera) and I'd get distracted. It also has a special function apparently completely unrelated to the battery where, if I leave it alone, on the bike, while not riding, it resets. So long as I take it off the bike (or, at the very least, write down my totals) it can go weeks at a time without losing the trip data.

* Crank Brothers Eggbeater Pedals and Shimano shoes

         New toy! New toy! New toy! I got the pedals on a special from Nashbar with shoes included but the shoes (though very very nice) didn't fit. However, my bike shop is a very cool bike shop and not only did they not thwap for me for buying something mail-order from another country they let me swap the shoes for a pair that fit. I likes them very much, they are so thoroughly geeky on so many levels from the mechanical to the bike geek and I've actually managed to purchase a piece of gear that the impressive people think is impresive.

         (What does it say about me or my friends that sexy men have actually started a conversation with me along the lines of "do your pedals really have four sided entry?")

* Sleeveless jersey

         When I got small enough to think about having my jerseys taken in (and to have curves added to them, since they are originally mens' jerseys) I decided to have the sleeves taken off of this one and get a scoop neckline put in as well. I think my tailor charged me 5rmb.

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* Short-sleeve jersey

         This one has also had curves and darts added as well as being taken in rather extremely at the sides. It's a full length zipper so I normally wear a bikini top underneath, and, should I get too warm, frequently take it off (the jersey that is).

* Arm warmers and leg warmers

         I didn't wear them. Not even once. I briefly thought about the arm warmers when my right shoulder seemed to be in danger of getting a sunburn.

* Short sleeved silk t-shirt

         Layers are good. In extreme cold (not that such a thing actually exists around here but I may be under such an illusion on occasion) I wear the silk t-shirt under two jerseys with an acrylic sweatshirt on top. It didn't get worn.

* Sweatshirt

         It's February already and we were mostly heading still farther south. Like the rest of my cool weather gear it stayed unused.

* Cotton tank top and unpadded Walmart bike shorts

         Almost civvies. I wear this combo for short trips around town. It also makes a good pair of pyjamas for bike club trips. I tie-dyed the shirt myself and am very pleased with the resulting mauve spiral.

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* Bike shorts (3 pair)

         Even if the synthetics dry out relatively quickly, it's good to have a second pair to change into for the next day. And at the level of exhaustion we were running that third pair came in quite handy for the day I collapsed without washing my shorts.

* Sundress

         When we went to Nanlihu I felt very self conscious being the only person at dinner not wearing civvies. In Qionghai (having been delivered by truck with enough time to shower) I felt very self conscious being one of the only people at dinner not wearing grimy bike clothes. Even if I did enjoy the attention caused by dressing like a girl.

* Embroidered silk jacket

         I bought it in Vietnam and was far too pleased with my new acquisition to leave it at home, even when there wasn't likely to be any place to wear it. There might be somewhere to wear it. And, in fact, there was.

* Sneakers and Pedals

         Since I'd only just gotten my clipless pedals installed the boss wanted me to have the old pedals and a pair of shoes just in case.

* Water Bottles (2)

         I briefly had three water bottles. My Shanghai water bottle from Bohdi Bikes and my two Giant water bottles (one of which was a Christmas gift from the mechanic). However, on the motorcycle trip from Hanoi to Hai Duong the Christmas bottle fell out of the backpack never to be seen again.

* Magic Foam Hat

         Required on this ride, and with mountain descents where I stopped looking at the odometer when it hit 60kph probably a somewhat reasonable requirement.

* Gloves (2 pairs)

         Both pairs were equally foul and unwashed so I washed the one pair and had them (damp) in my luggage Tuesday morning. By Wednesday they were good to wear and nearly clean.

* Sigma Sport Lambda Jet air pump I didn't use it. The one time when I needed to use a tire pump we used the upright one from the truck because although I was clever enough to have my spare tubes and tire irons in my handlebar bag I wasn't carrying my pump and had to wait for the truck anyways.

* Patch Kit

         I've given up for now on learning the skill of successfully patching a tube and instead take three or four damaged tubes at a time to the corner repair stand. However, I do use the tire irons.

* Spare Inner Tubes

         But I returned my spare tire to the bike shop when I got back from Vietnam. And it was the spare tire I would turn out to need. This being the third rear tire my bike has killed in a similar fashion at a similar length of time the mechanic did a fairly thorough inspection of the rim when we got back to Haikou and ended up spending most of an hour sanding it smooth. We don't think this will happen again (and not just because they sold me a sturdier tire).

* Handlebar Bag

         It spent surprisingly little time on my handlebars. My phone had no credit, my wallet had no money, and the pace we were setting wasn't particularly conducive to me stopping for photos even if my digital camera had had a sufficient amount of batteries (and we had a professional photographer with us, as well as lots of much stronger riders with cameras.)

* Ipod, Cellphone, Digital Camera, Nikon SLR with 28-108mm lens

         The usual handlebar bag cruft, plus some new toys delivered from the US. I did spend some time on the first day listening to the ipod but, for the most part, the ride was far too interesting to bother with music.

* One Pannier

         It was a convenient thing to put things in and leaving it at the bike shop Monday night meant not having to figure out how to ride home with two of them and my rack not installed.

* Medicine

         A huge and relatively random selection of far more than I would possibly need on a one week trip, or a one month trip. There wasn't time enough to go through the bottles (many of which were newly delivered from the US) and count out a new magic pill bottle with a reasonable number of things. Instead I had the family sized bottle of Pepto Bismol (thankfully not necessary), along with 200 sudafed, 200 benadryl, 200 claritin, 400 naproxen sodium, and my narcotics, as well as muscle rub, air-activated heat packs, and a lot of band-aids. The band-aids were especially useful in patching my handlebar tape.

* Cherry Cordial Hershey's Kisses

         A really big bag. I spent a lot of time going around handing out chocolates to my friends. Alas, none of the handsome men knew I was kissing them with chocolate kisses.