Biking Tour Reports

April 14-15, 1997

Lewis Group - Days 1 & 2

Author: Judy Man
Date: April 15, 1997
Loacation: Longshan to Kaiping

This afternoon we had quite an adventure! After a full and delicious lunch we all stumbled lazily onto our bus.

The bus ride seemed forever, and I had aboslutely nothing to do except for staring out of the window. Then, Im not sure what happened. It was so amazing. It seemed like I blinked and a harsh storm came barging in. Trees danced around our bus some fell and some broke in half. Wind blew violently and leaves flew around every where. The storm was so big that our bus had to stop and wait. Another reason is that a huge tree was lying on the ground, with it's roots sticking out. Pretty soon hail started falling and I got excited because I've never seen hail.

Our group waited on the bus until the sun came out, and we went out to help farmers with their fields and the trees on the street. We didn't just pick up a few branches, we went right into the mud. A couple of us took off our shoes and went into the fields, others helped with the trees on the highway.

When that adveturous time passed, we cruised along the way. We stopped finally and got out our bikes and started riding. The traffic was alright, and the ride wasn't very long. We reached our destination around 7:30 and the hotel was flashy. Everyone got excited and explored it.

At 8:00 we had our wonderful food and now everyone's in bed, resting from the all day adventure.

7:00 AM: Mr. Wu woke us up!
715 AM: I then woke up! (myself)
7:30 AM: Me, Davey and Michael got dressed, brushed our teeth, etc.
8:00 AM: Went down to get breakfast.
8:30 AM: Went to get bags.
8:35 AM: Went to put bags on bus.
8:37 AM: Went to get bikes.
8:46 AM: Mrs. Lewis decided we could walk to the monastery.
9:00 AM: Arrived at the monastery and had a lot of Kodak Gold moments We met the monks and got or bought some souvenirs.
10:30 AM: Went back to the hotel, and rode on the roads until we found the buses, and then we went, and ate lunch.

I'm a tree. I know you don't care, but I'm a tree. Now I'm just a bundle of logs that are stacked up. It happened on an unusual day. I was standing there sucking up water just like a usual day. I never really worked in my life. I've never spread my roots out very far because I've drunk from the water from the rice fields right next to me! The other trees tell me that I should spread my roots out, even though I have an easy water supply. They say I need to spread my roots to give me support, but I don't listen because I've never fallen, right? Wrong.

That day a sudden storm came, it started to rain and have a strong wind, all at once. Then it started to hail, it hit me hard and I fell. My feet(roots) just spilt. I fell really hard right on my stomach. I just laid there, miserable. Then the storm disappeared as quickly as it came. Then crowds appeared so did a man with a chain saw. As humans with red shirts gathered around me the chain saw cut me up. They finally pushed me to the side. There I was until women came along with hatchets and cut me up to little pieces now I am here just stacked up with other fallen trees.

Hoooooooonkkkkk! Hoooonnnnkkkkk! Look at all those "guiolos" (foreigners) wearing matching red T-shirts that have silly symbols. I wonder what they mean? Look how many people there are! I wonder where they are biking to, or even what is their purpose? Oh well, why should I bother to even think about these strange foreigners? I have a life of my own to worry about, I have to carry goods from Kaiping to Dongcheng with a pay of 20 yuan a month. How do the owners of my company expect me to live off of that money. I better stop pondering now and pay attention to the road. Good-bye!

In the afternoon we unloaded the bikes and bags off the ferry and took a bus to just past Shatang. We biked about 30 kilometers. Along the way we saw little chinese kids sitting on the side of the road laughing at us along the way. We also saw older kids working on the rice fields. The scenerey was beautiful. The rice fields were so green. It looked so much better than Hongkong althought the air was really polluted.

Message: As I was biking our group decided to stop. As we had a drink I looked at the People surrounding us. there was a man wearing a green military shirt. I asked him some questions.

Q: Do you have a girl friend?
A: Yes

Q: When did you start work?
A: He was helping his father at age 15 and started working on his own at 20.

Q: Where do you work?
A: In a palm oil plantation.

Q: How much money do you make?
A: $100 US a month.

People find hello funny. What is with the horns? I am almost falling in a gutter. Why are these kids wearing no shoes? I am stranded, thirsty, and smelling like horse. Why don't people pick up their cow poop? It's all over my shoe. Hoe much longer to go? Hurry up bike man, you're going too slow. I'm starving to death and I want food!!! The scenery was cool, clear, and interesting. The temperature was fine and we rode the bus before the rain comes pouring down.

Today in our first day of biking in China. In the morning everybody departed from the Repulse bay campus of HKIS at about 6:40, ten minutes later than planned. We rode the travel buses to the China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon in about 7:15. Everyone was hungry and some didn't eat their breakfast, so we stopped by McDonald's to buy some breakfast. At 7:30, we started to go through the immigration place, we waited for the bus to arrive, while waiting, the teacher told us to make up a name for our group, but we didn't have one yet. We finally boarded the ferry at 8:00 and started the 4 hour ride to Kai Ping. Some played cards, some had conversations with their friends, and some did trier virtual China work. We were bored of it after 2 or more hours and we eventually became the noisiest people on the boat. We finally arrived at Kai Ping at around12:00 and we rode the a bus away from the harbor and off load our bikes.

This morning on the ferry we knocked on the door to the bridge and asked for an interview. The captain agreed. His name was Yang Jian Min and he became captain after working as an engine room officer. We were riding on a Turbo Cat which is a high speed catamaran. It took us 4 Hr. 20 min. to get from Hong Kong to Kai Ping. It's top speed is 33 knots. This particular boat can "compacitate" 291 passengers.

"What excitement! There are a bunch of westerners riding bikes past our village-hurry, hurry, come see sister!" [Villages buzzed with shouts and voices, as villagers hurried to the road to watch us.] "Look sister! They are wearing bright red t-shirts with a dragon on the front. What does the symbol on the back stand for...HKIS? They are so friendly! They are waving and saying Hi to us. Oh look at that funny man with those sunglasses. They look so funny with big yellow eyelids. He said "Ni Hao" with a funny tone. He is so nice. He taught us "high five" where we put our hands up and hit our palms together. He gave us a bouncy ball to play with. It is was so much fun. Some of the children speak like us too. Their bikes and helmets look so nice. Perhaps we can go on a trip like this someday."

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