It was at one end of a lake that was nice. Water is so nice after all those concrete forests in downtown and around Shanghai. As I was cycling along, my eyes were like a camera snapping images left and right. Too bad I could just stop here and there to take pictures. The pics wouldn't be sceneries but more a human documentation. People in bags boarding buses to town, getting ready for the start of first work day after Oct 1 holiday. You could tell they were all from out of town, from villages. Then I passed two men, suspect the faces were molded by working under harsh conditions (could be only 47 years old) but they looked over 55s. Each of them wore Chinese made leather shoes, worn out. A suit that was oversized and it was a trademark of villages. Then on their shoulders, each carry their work tool - a pick made of steel, the one that used to break a wall down. Then at one end of pick, dangling, swinging was a small bag (probably some belongings) and a thick jacket. They were walking heading to the direction of Shanghai. Out of country visitors definitely need to do a cycling trip in order to people watch and think a bit deeper about this country.
The ride to the Yacht club was uneventful. We got there, had our so call b'fast. I was expecting a local noodle shop that I craved at rides toward this direction. Nope, we at there. Good thing I brought $. Well... Western you know, Yacht, so more expensive. How expensive? RMB 250 for 3 of us. 2 hamburgers, two orders of scramble eggs w/ croissants, one latte and one coffee. Ummm... I wasn't expecting to eat at the club there. Iron wife made the decision; ha! Well, after 2 and half hour ride one would be hungry too! We headed back in the direction of Shanghai around 9:45am. We didn't arrive at the bike shop until 2:00pm. Long huh? Not the distance, we were clipping along until I had a flat! Couldn't avoid big bum on the road. 15 seconds after I crossed it, my back tire was flat.
Couldn't patch it w/ our patching kit. Finally we made a decision to ride and pump. Good thing we were not far from town. Every 2KM, I stopped and pumped the back tire. Got to the designated bike shop at 2pm, by then we were all tired and hungry. Didn't have anything to eat since 930am! We had a bowl of noodle while we waited for the fix. The guy at the shop asked: "Do you want light-weight or durable?" Durable as the inner tube weight would not make that much of a diff to my already feather-light bike. O yeah, we did bring a second inner tube, but that too was faulty with a hole.
Well, at least now I know how to change a tire and how to take it off the back!
All in all, a good day's ride. There were some roads we will not take in the future, not safe, crowded and dusty. Hey, if we didn't try today we would never know. I have my iron-wife/GPS (valid only in China only, does not work in Australia, NZ and any countries in the Southern Hemisphere, some US cities) .
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