The second day of riding - hot and humid - temperature in the mid-30s (C), humidity 90%, sunshine all day, but the sky is barely blue with the haze and pollution. Ursula's legs are not tanned, they are dirty from the day's ride. A quick rinse of just one shirt leaves the basin water rather brown.
We were mainly on busy roads, but Hangzhou is a lovely city with parks and lakes and beautiful separate bike lanes.
Not just bike lanes in China, but at intersections, these nice tents keep the sun or rain off while you wait for the light to change. Try proposing that to our local city fathers.
As nice as these bike lanes appear, they are chaos because they are occupied not just by bikes, but by mopeds and by the motorized tricycles that are used to transport just about anything from trees and farm equipment, garbage, even taxis with room for about four people in the back. Cars also use them to access places at the side of the road. And it doesn't matter which way you go in them. Pass on the right, pass on the left. Enter the bike lane without looking - it is not a place to relax and enjoy the scenery.
The coincidence of the day was that Jacques and Myriam had booked some travel in China this week, not knowing where we'd be, not even the town. Turns out that tonight they were in the hotel next door to ours. They got bikes from their hotel for a trip around the lake. We couldn't convince them to stay with us to Singapore, though. They joined the group for dinner but for some reason didn't get up at 0515 to join us for breakfast.
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