Holidays and Ideas

Today's weather: High = 18 Low = 8
Sunny and gorgeous

Well it's official, spring has sprung in Shanghai. Good timing too, as the April holiday is just around the corner. For the record we'll be getting April 1,2,3,4 off. The same will happen next month for the May holiday, that is May 1,2,3,4.

So it's a really good deal, especially considering we won't need to do any making up time on the weekends, as is usual for Chinese holiday schedules.

The theme of the April holiday is the Qingming tomb sweeping festival. For the May holiday, it is labor day.

It won't be long until July 1st hits and summer begins. I'm definitely coming back for another year of teaching at this school in Shanghai, but will need to plan ahead for some educational upgrades this summer.

So it's looking like a month back to Vancouver to do a week-long AP Calculus training course in the first week of July. As well, there is going to be a motorcycle training course in the last week of July. Meanwhile, that leaves about a 2-week gap in between courses and I'm already starting to think of how I'm going to fill that time.

Long distance bicycle riding obviously crossed my mind, and this may be the perfect opportunity to tackle such a trip in my home province, after having done countless trips previously in Asia.

The 'crazy guy on a bike' website (http://crazyguyonabike.com) has posted many journals and reviews of a very promising ride, which I'm currently doing research on. It's basically a ride up the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, and the ferry to Prince Rupert. Once there, the road goes east to a small town I grew up in northern BC, by the name of Terrace. I've been meaning to do this ride for quite some time now, and an actual visit there would tie in nicely. That is, of course, if I can find anyone I know who is still living there.

Most bike journals involve this particular run as part a much larger circuit, either continuing across Canada via the Rocky Mountians, or going to Alaska via the Cassiar Highway. At the extreme end of things, people have even biked the Dempster Highway to the northernmost town in Canada. Those kind of northern circuits are hopelessly beyond my abilities, but it would be nice to attempt a portion of it and then catch a flight back to Vancouver, say, from some other town up north.

From my experiences last summer, bike trips in Western Canada or the USA are much more difficult than similar trips in Asia. The 'lack of services' factor is the biggest obstacle. For all intents and purposes, it is wilderness compared to what biking is like in Asia. It's not like you can stop off for a coffee, grab food and snacks every 5km, chat incessantly on the cell phone for pennies, or crash in a cheap hotel when you feel tired. Due to the long distances between services and the high costs of everything, planning is essential. Many people camp in campgrounds that charge more than bungalows in Thailand. They cook their own food, etc.. I may very well have to follow suit, or else start saving now. Couchsurfing is also an option which I'm looking into.

The second thing is that biking, or motorcycling for that matter, is a lot more dangeorus back home, due to the differences in driving behavior and the higher speeds. Since Asia is a two-wheel culture and people are used to seeing those kind of vehicles on the road, the idea is that you hold your line, look ahead, and people weave around. The congestion keeps the speeds down. Things look chaotic on the surface, but it is safe. Ironically, when you have the sparse population and wide open spaces back home, it is dangerous. Traffic goes much faster, and the painted lines on the road are absolutes -- not guidelines, as they would be in Asia. This is dangerous, because many provinces and states have now put in 'rumble strips' which are a cyclists nightmare as I have learned through my reading.

We'll see what happens on this one -- at any rate, it is only a few months before summer starts.