September 4, 2016
to Kuitun: Hunt for a hotel that accepts foreigners.
“Now they say they won’t take us” Patrick comes back out of the hotel, Rachel had started to unload her bike. “They say there are three hotels in this town that takes foreigners” and the man was pointing down the street to a green building.
This was the second hotel, the first one we checked was way out of our price range. We cycle to the green building to check it out; the hotel is full. We go back to the first hotel to see if we can get a lower rate, but now they say the hotel doesn’t accept foreigners. We are beginning to think of continuing on but the wild camping opportunities had started to look more difficult to find.
We go across the street to another high end looking hotel something like Jin ju with another 6 names. Patrick negotiates a lower price talking over the phone with an English speaking woman. It is still expensive though at 265 Y (about $40), but it is a fancy place and our options are limited.
Not much to say about today’s ride. We follow the G30 through more agricultural landscapes. The soil seems very fertile where there is irrigation water, but turns right back to desert where there is none. Much like Idaho.
At the Kuitun exit we need to go about 4km north, the city looks very impressive from a distance with many tall buildings, up closer it seems like many of these buildings are empty. The streets are very wide boulevards in a grid lay-out. In the middle are wide six lane roads, then a landscape buffer with large trees, then 20 foot wide bike lanes and sidewalk, then another landscape buffer before a paved area in front of the shops where cars park.
After we find a hotel that will take us and we can just about afford, we shuttle our gear through the lobby and down several hallways to the elevators and up to the eighth floor where we have our room. The bikes have to stay outside, but there is lots of security and the guys reassure us they will look after them.
We find a nice restaurant down the road for a noodle, vegetable and beef dish. On the way back we pick up some more of this Chinese Pabst and relax the afternoon away. In the evening we go out one more time and find a road full of restaurants. One of the places has a wall full of pictures with food dishes and prices. We pick soething, sit down and eat.
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Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 21,674 km (13,460 miles)
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