January 27, 2022
Day H7: Active Rest
I didn't get up to much during the day, but around 3pm I went for a short 15km ride to Starbucks and back. Even then I burned 800 calories. Later on I met up with the same two cycle tourists from yesterday and we ate pizza and drank a lot of alcohol. Pretty much the only food all day, so who knows I might still be in a calorie deficit. Back at my group fitness studio, we are encouraged to do active rest days such as this where we do low intensity steady state training.
Coming back the traffic was a disaster as the pictures will show, but a delight when you're on a bike.
Once into Houhai village itself, there were just a few more turns to my hotel. The traffic thinned out more and more and I ended up down a final back alley to the place that nobody could likely find. It was all rather neat that my trusty Montague was tucked away in a quiet spot right in the middle of all this congestion. The hotel was very peaceful and secluded. But any time I wanted in and out, I could easily push through this congestion. It was pretty clear that the taxis would take hours to do this which explains why none of my friends wanted to meet me here. In short: get a bike!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Later on I met up with the other cycle tourists and we had an absolutely brilliant conversation over drinks. The best part about this is you learn stuff you wouldn't otherwise think of from typical online research.
A really interesting idea I got was what my friend called a 100km 'circle of pain'. That is to say on tours he sometimes books two nights at a hotel and charts a circular route for one day without the luggage through some really challenging terrain. In all the years of my cycle touring career I hadn't really considered doing this. I then suggested why not expand on the idea and arrange to have most of your luggage stored while you do a 3-4 day circular tour and then end up back at the hotel before continuing on?
He piggybacked off that one and explained a few other ideas as well, which I found absolutely brilliant. How awesome it is to chat with other tourists and exchange these ideas. On this note, it also became very clear when touring in China: do not *ever* take photos of military bases. That goes without saying, but the other person I was with did this and got detained for over 4 hours. He didn't know it was a military base, but the point is: don't ever assume. If in any doubt, better not take pictures.
His phone was seized in a plastic bag and his bike confiscated while he got interrogated and driven back to his hotel for more questioning. It was a horrible ordeal and when finally released he drank a bottle of whisky. Hell I would drink two.
Honestly this is the kind of stuff that scares me. As I mentioned to him, it seems that the fact he was on a bike was irrelevant. They could care less about fitness and they asked him things like how long it took him to get there and what his plan was the next day etc... If he really was a spy it would be pretty dumb to be cycle touring but these people don't get it. They never will. But the onus is on you to be extra careful and avoid any interactions with the authorities to begin with.
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 1,581 km (982 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |