My world walk blog part two China #32

My world walk blog part two China #32

11th October I arrived in smoggy Maoling which I was told is a small Chinese city of about six million. I needed to have some work done on Karmas wheels and also have a rest as it had been a tough week and I was feeling a bit emotionally drained. 

Sometimes hotels can be tough to find in China, so I jumped on the first one I came across. In the ideal world, it would be nice to check out the room before I parted with my money but it's a bit of an ask for the worker to escort me to and from the room when it is on the sixth floor and the hotel has no elevator. Still, I should have known better as the cost was only two and half Euro. I just wasn't in form for further tramping around the city that day. It was more of a doss house with small grubby rooms and little privacy for there was a hand-sized gap at the top of the wall. The light from my room had my neighbour knocking on my door telling me to turn my light off and it wasn't even eight o'clock. The shower was filthy and I stayed clean by not using it. I also used my seeking bag.

I was tempted to forfeit my money and go off looking elsewhere but I just stayed put.

When I have a safe place I usually leave my passport in the room when going out to dinner, but not there. 

Saturday I went down the road and found a nice place for my rest day. I don't like to sit around in squalor on my days of leisure, I work hard enough to deserve better. 

Then I had to find a bicycle shop on Google Maps. That was challenging and not to mention a lot of footing it around for Google seemed to lump every motorcycle shop into a bicycle category. However, on the fourth attempt, I lucked it out when I found the German Bicycle Shop. Earlier I also had to track down a hardware store to purchase some washers. Reason for that is because several spoke heads had busted their way through the rim. So the washers were to put on the spokes to prevent this. It's a specialised pop-off wheel which has its own shaft. This usually has bicycle shops flummoxed when it comes to alignment as it doesn't fit on the alignment rig they use. However, I have been there before and it can be aligned in a workshop vice, and that's how the man managed. Cost, less than a Euro and I had a hard time getting him to accept my tip. 

Next day I was on the road for 31 kilometres to Xiadong and for the second time in a few days a bridge was impassable and I had another long detour along some quaint backroads. I presume this didn't show up on Google Maps as closed because Google is banned in China and perhaps they don't have the latest local information. As mentioned before I can use it and the similarity banned Facebook because I have a VPN installed on my phone. This is essentially an unblocker. If anything happens to my phone and I need to get a new one, then I won't have a VPN and will have major communication hassle. I have heard that despite the Google ban that the company still have 600 staff based in China. There is also talk of legalising Google Maps if stuff like churches are removed from their China maps. It's also been reported that Google is working on a compromise search engine (from memory I believe its called Dragon Fly) for the Chinese government. All of the usual sensitive stuff like human rights and religion will be removed. This project has many Google staff and rights watch groups up in arms. 

Then I walked on through a  village where a dog was up on a table waiting to be sectioned and cooked. I'm sure I've eaten dog before, God knows what else I have eaten. The golden rule in China is not to ask what one is eating for they make everything tasty. Recently I read a report that the Chinese government and also the Vietnamese are starting to disfavour the eating of dog meat. This is not only because of bad tourism publicity but because the first cases of rabies have occurred from the consumption of dog meat

That day I also stopped at a scrap yard to see if I could pick up a couple of spare 20-inch wheels for Karma as the ones I have are a bit dodgy. Previously I mentioned that I was thinking of picking up old 20-inch wheels and doing a respoking job. The problem is that the spoke count is different and my hub which is about a thumb length and is also smaller than the standard ones on child bicycle wheels. However having looked at so many wheels over the last few months in bicycle shops I have noticed that there is a hard to find size that is about a centimetre longer than mine. My latest idea was to look for one in a scrap yard and find an angle grinder to modify it! 

So that's what I did and the staff there couldn't be more obliging. I actually picked up two spare wheels and a nice man used a pencil grinder to remove a lip so as my shaft could fit in. Then using an angle grinder he ground down the outside hub walls so as the wheels could fit onto Karma! It worked a treat. And then they treated me to lunch in their canteen! 

I had a nice Google translate chat with them before I left and they mention that work every day collecting and sorting scrap and never get a day off. One of them showed me a translated message saying that it was their pleasure to help me that it was fun (please see photo) And of course no charge for the work. The Chinese are such wonderful people. 

Then I marched on to my finish in Xiadong and had more hassle trying to find accom. After a while, four young lads escorted me to a pricey hotel and when I indicated that I would rather pitch my tent they found me a really spacious apartment in a building which was behind a clothing shop. The storekeeper seemed to be acting as a broker and then after I handed over my equivalent of eight Euro I had a ten-minute wait for the apartment block owner to escort me to the apartment. 

Then the young lads who told me that they were all 15-year-olds carried my stuff up to my room and then lit up cigarettes in the room! Ah yes, China, I just love it!