October 15th: Doumenzhen 斗门镇 to Guanghaizhen 广海镇 – 41.6 miles
Day 2
Hot today, felt like the road was melting us. It was at least 33 degrees, not including the heat reflected by the road. We each drank about 4 liters of water, and regardless of hats and thick layers of sunscreen lotion we still managed to get burned.
The plan was to travel on S365 to avoid the highway – S32. Following the directions from Google map, we somehow found ourselves traveling on S32 without a sight of S365, which is supposed to run parallel to the highway S32. At one point, we had to turn back when we reached a toll gate for a bridge crossing, which made itself clear that human powered vehicles are not allowed. This was a bad news, if we couldn’t take the bridge, we would have to take a lengthy detour. But thanks to Cher’s Chinese skills, we found a ferry which would take us across the river in a town not too far away. A little ferry that could hold about 8 motorcycles pulled up and rammed a ramp into the concrete peer, keeping it there by thrusting the engine. We were able to back our trikes onto the ferry, just as other motorcycles did. It was wonderful to be on a ferry, reclined in our lounge chairs, resting assured that we were heading the right direction without any hassle, for just 20 RMB.
Everything went more smoothly than we could ever imagined, except that fact that we were attracting too many curious motorists. They flew by and looked over their shoulders, slowed down, drove parallel to us and took their time to inspect us without any concerns of their safety or ours, until they nearly veered off the road. Curiosity was not limited to motorists. Fixing my trike outside our hotel I was soon surrounded by a crowd, none of them spoke English yet wanting to communicate. One man forced a pad of paper in my hand with a money sign on it, asking how much our trikes cost. It was probably the one hundred and first time that the question was asked over the past 1 and a half days. I signed zero. I later learned that he had already asked Cher and she had told him the same. I suggested we just make up a lie, but Cher following her rigorous ethical philosophy, didn’t agree. We will see what will happed as Cher is becoming more and more fed up with the same question. We couldn’t figure out why placing a price tag on our trikes was so important to these strangers we came across. Cher had a theory that our trikes are so alien yet so similar to their motorcycles or bicycles, placing a price tag would be a good reference point for them to relate.
Curious crowd
As of our mileage, we need to slow down or else we will get to Vietnam before our visas become valid. We also need to start camping as we stayed in hotels for 2 consecutive days. We will certainly miss hot showers, especially with the amount of road dust we accumulate on our sweaty bodies.