Hanyuan – Ya’an – Emei

18th May 2014         15-26’C         280km
Hanyuan – Ya’an – Emei

After the lead car made an ’emergency’ stop to buy cherries, which left me exposed in the middle of the road, I overtook the guide car and rode ahead on my own for the rest of the day, letting them catchup to me in Emei in the late afternoon.  By that time I’d been sitting outside a tea-house for more than an hour, drinking tea and trying to talk to the other patrons.

Our guide car driver is generally pretty good, but the random stopping in the middle of the road, leaving me sweating while cars and trucks potentially run up my backside, was too much for me this morning and I figured it was safer to put some space in-between.

As for the rest of the Chinese driving population, the non-observance of road rules has been progressively getting worse, and today I witnessed numerous other cars/scooters cruise straight through red lights, narrowly missing other cars, along with unbelievably stupid overtaking (taxis) and trucks that just don’t care about anyone else and will try and run you down. The pinnacle today was the guy talking on his mobile while riding straight towards me through a red light (fortunately slowly) we both ended up stopped, him at 90′ to me, where I stayed stopped, until he pushed his scooter backwards and out of the way.   He looked very confused to have been challenged.

I passed a guy who was walking down the road carrying two live snakes. I stopped and took a quick photo, he was also a bit confused at me I think.

Other images that stuck with me today were the towns with highrise buildings completed, but no roads, just a rocky track through the city.  Or the other road that has been completed, with linemarking and streetlights, but the road just ends suddenly, into a field.  No doubt there are plans and there will be a road and a city in the near future.

Fried pig liver was one of the delicious Sichuan dishes on the table for dinner tonight in Emei.

Tomorrow, into Chengdu, a city of 14M people and I’m told horrendous traffic. It will be interesting.  In the morning the bike needs to be washed, as there is a rule that no dirty vehicles can enter the city, else earn a 50 yuan fine ($10). Washing is cheaper than the fine, and the bike needs a wash anyway, as it is filthy and I want to do some maintenance in the coming days.