Day 17 & 18: The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday.
Day 17
The place that I stayed at last night was cheap and good. For only 20 Yuan, it has got a TV in the room and an electronically warmed bed. Ofcourse the price I paid for is only for one bed but as there is noone else staying in the same room, it was as good as having the whole room to myself.
Breakfast.
Saw this minibike at the carpark of the guesthouse. Reminds me of my bike back at home.
A picture with LiTang, a Tibetian town which was out of bound to foreigners durign the olympics, a place where unrest took place.
G318, the route that I will take today.
Saw some tibetian houses and decided to take a photo of it.
Soon some tibetians saw me and they gathered around my bike. They were as curious about me as I was about them.
Then came along a tibetian on a bike. I like their traditional wear. Very interesting.
Riding on, I am rising to even greater height.
Now I am at 4718m above sea level.
Tibetians tents.
Tibetians at work.
Can you see that something is flowing out from his nose? HAHA. Thats the reason why I took this photo.
Met some cyclists who are riding into Tibet. This route that I am taking is very popular with cyclists for getting into Tibet.
Watch out!! Sheep!!
Getting free water from the stream.
Another Tibetian rider. It is easy to tell that he is tibetian from what he is wearing. Take a look at his mirror. I noticed that all the bikes here have mirrors fixed in this way. I wonder why.
Saw a truck that sells this snack from TianJing. You just need to get his attention and he will stop and sell it to you. They drive from province to province. A mobile business.
More beautiful views.
Hey, its him again.
I finally ran into a group of bikers after so many days of riding. They are from a motorcycle club in ChongQing. They too are riding into Tibet. (Am I missing out something? Everyone seems to be going in the opposite direction as me. But I had no choice. They are all Chinese, I am Singaporean. They are permitted to do so, I am forbidden.)
More of Tibetians.
I thought I had seen the worse roads in China but I am so wrong. This is the worse so far.
What happens when tarmac suddenly turns into wet, soft and sticky mud? It becomes difficult to handle. My tyres sank into the mud and got stuck many times. I had a hard time trying to get it up and out. There were also many heavy vehicles on this same road on both directions which made it worse. Then my bike had difficult to start. One by one, all the bad things start to occur. I had my first fall in China.
I was not the only one with difficulties on this road. Many heavy vehicles got stuck too. This cause a massive jam. Excavators were used to rectify the problem.
The road was so bad that I only managed to do less than 50km in 5 hours. It was a painful 5 hours. Stuck, Push, Start, Go, Stuck, Push, Start, Go. I cannot remember the number of times I repeated this cycle. One thing for sure, it was tiring and I am now muddy and dirty all over. And when I am finally done with the bad road, I am now facing another problem. I still have to cross over one mountain before I get to the next town but nightfall is coming soon. I still have alot of distance to cover. This is bad. I am getting worried.
Crossing a mountain means that I will have to go upslope. Climbing a mountain on this bike is S.L.O.W. The speed is no different from that of a tortoise. So as expected, I ended up in the dark which means that I will have to go even slower as riding in pitch dark in the mountains is extremely dangerous. I cannot even see my own hands if not for the headlight of my bike. As much as I tried to avoid getting into this kind of situation, I am now in it.
Just look at how dark it is.
I really dont like riding in the dark especially in the mountains. It just feels dangerous to me. So as soon as I saw some villages, I went ahead to knock on the door. I wanted to ask if they are willing to let me stay at their place for the night. This tibetian opened the door and came forward. He was very funny. He asked where am I from and when he heard Singapore, he said, "Singapore, WAH!! Never see a Singaporean before, must shake hand." And then he gathered everyone to shake hand with me. HAHA... So funny.
I do not know why but something had stopped me from asking for a place to stay. Instead, I asked how far am I away from the next town. "Less than 50km, you just have to cross this mountain," he replied and so I rode on.
Getting stuck in the mud and trying to get out of it had already consumed much of the petrol. Now, going up slope means riding in low gear and high drag. This comsumes even more petrol. So if you do your maths right you will know what happens next. Yes, I AM OUT OF PETROL!!!!!! Bad things just keep coming...... Oh no... Dark, cold, alone, in the mountains, foreign place, no petrol, haven had lunch and dinner, no place to sleep.... What could be worse?
The only thing to do now is to keep moving. So I got off my bike, kept my headlights on and began pushing the bike. After pushing upslope for quite awhile, the road started to decline. Thanks God. So I got on the bike, and let it roll.... and roll.... and roll.... I kept rolling and rolling but it never seems to end. And if you are a seasoned biker or driver, you will have guess what is going to happen next. The headlight starts to get dimmer and dimmer and soon, GONE!!! Thats it. My battery went flat. I am now in total darkness. Sigh.... My bad things list is getting longer. What else can happen next? What should I do next? Can someone please tell me?
Got off my bike, took a look at the surrounding and saw some lights just hundreds of meters away. Slowly and carefully I pushed my bike over. Asked if there is a place for me to stay and the answer was yes. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Now at least I have a roof over my head for the night. I felt so blessed.
This is my bed. Tibetian style.
Left the bike at the doorstep. Dont know what should I do with the bike and I dont wish to think about it too much. I take things very easy and I take one step at a time. I am already done for today so let's just leave the rest for tomorrow. No point dwelling on it. It will not help to solve the problem. What has already happened, had happened. There is no point crying over spilled milk. What will happen, will happen. No point thinking too much. So, without lunch and dinner, and with dirt and mud all over me, I lied on this unfamiliar tibetian bed and went into dreamland.
Day 18
Look at what my bike had become.
The thought of just dumping my bike here and to carry on my trip without a bike did come across my mind but come to think of it, I am not ready to give up this motorcycle trip yet. This is an adventure ride and no adventure is completed without obstacles. I am not going to give up. I will push on. And so I got myself mentally prepared and began my morning exercise. A good way to keep myself warm in this cold temperature. It is only 10 degree.
It was no joke to push a bike with a 30kg backpack on it on this mountain terrian. Pushing it upslope was hell and I had to stop every 10-20m to rest. Soon my arms became tired and each of my rest time became longer than before. But I still had to push and so I did. After pushing for quite some time, I saw an oil tanker stopped at the side of the road. Hope had arrived I thought and so I went forward and asked if they could sell me some petrol.
To my disappointment, this is a tank filled with desiel. No luck. (Sidetrack abit.) Even with the highly flammable sign painted on the tanker, the driver was smoking right next to it. Thats dangerous.
Now that I still have no petrol, I can only carry on pushing. And so I push and push and push. I cant believe that I am actually sweating even though it was 10 degree. Tough, it was really tough. Everytime I stopped, I was very relactant to start pushing again. I almost wanted to give up, I really did. Looking ahead at the road infront of me, I dont know how far more I can go. I am getting really exhasted.
I suddenly had flashbacks of all those tough times that I had gone through when I was still a trainee. It was also tough back then but I did not give up, and so I also should not give up now. Although physically I am weak but I must be mentally strong. Mind over matter, If I dont mind, then it does not matter. Nothing is impossible, even the word itself says I-M-Possible. The only easy day was yesterday isn't it? And so I removed my scarf from my neck and tied it around the handlebar.
The scarf serves as a reminder that I can do it and to motivate myself even further, I decided to sing. And so I began pushing my bike and singing the following song to myself:
"
When the whistle blows, slient everywhere,
And the flag goes up, in the battalion square.
Soliders all around, never let you down,
Cause we are the best, in the SAF.
*
Oh echo... oh echo out loud
Commando is on its way now.
Oh echo... oh echo out loud
Commando is the best around.
Looking high above, Charlie flies by,
And the parachute blooms, like a flower in the sky.
I wanna be, Commando,
Just like the others, in the battalion square.
REPEAT *
"
Time seems to pass easier when I had the right mindset and then after sometime I finally see the town from a distant.
Took a break and saw another cyclist. He is also heading to Tibet.
Snow mountain in the rear also cheered me up.
Then finally, A PETROL STATION!!!
So happy that I finally made it to a petrol station. Filled up and moved on. Now, I think luck is on my side, it is all downslope after the petrol station. And so I made used of it to try and start my bike. On the ignition switch, clutch in, kick in to gear 1, clutch in again, let the bike roll and when the bike gained enough speed, I threw the clutch and open the throttle. Out came the roaring sound of the engine though the exhast pipe. What a successful push start!!! YEAH!!!!
So I rode to the town and decided that I want to rest for the day. Decided to take a break for one day. It was only after I got to the town that I realised that I had lost the right side cover of the bike. Now my battery is exposed.
Nevermind that. I haven had yesterday's lunch and dinner and today's breakfast. So I washed up (I came here with dirt and mud all over, remember?) and went to satisfy my tummy first. Sichun Food, Hot and Spicy. Yum Yum.
We all know about the earthquake that had happened in Sichun earlier this year. This is a noticeboard that has updates for the people.
Went around the town after lunch, had a very negative encounter with one of the countergirl in the post office. All the poeple I met so far are very nice and good, she was the only excepttion.
ME: Can I take a look at that? (refering to a closed book of olympic stamps)
SHE: Do you want to buy? If not cannot see.
ME: Can I have a look first?
SHE: Stamps. What is there to see? Dont tell me you have never see stamps before?
ME: I know it is stamps. But I want to see the designs.
SHE: Cannot see if not buying.
ME: If I dont see, then how do I know if I like it?
SHE: Nothing much to see. What do you want to see?
(then she relactantly took out the book, did not even pass it to me, flipped through it in 1-2 sec and she placed it back.)
SHE: ok, so do you want to buy?
ME: No thank you.
(and I walked off)
What an attitude!! I would had sack her if I am her boss. Very poor service. Anyway, I did not let her spoilt my day. Oh ya, people always say that the girls from Sichun are the prettiest in China and I think I know why they say so. It is because they are all very fair, at least that's what I see. I think thats the reason.
Then I went back to my guesthouse. Was surprised that everyone seems to know that I came here on a motorcycle. Chatted with them and then dinner. Yes, food again. I am so hungry you know.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
The place that I stayed at last night was cheap and good. For only 20 Yuan, it has got a TV in the room and an electronically warmed bed. Ofcourse the price I paid for is only for one bed but as there is noone else staying in the same room, it was as good as having the whole room to myself.
Breakfast.
Saw this minibike at the carpark of the guesthouse. Reminds me of my bike back at home.
A picture with LiTang, a Tibetian town which was out of bound to foreigners durign the olympics, a place where unrest took place.
G318, the route that I will take today.
Saw some tibetian houses and decided to take a photo of it.
Soon some tibetians saw me and they gathered around my bike. They were as curious about me as I was about them.
Then came along a tibetian on a bike. I like their traditional wear. Very interesting.
Riding on, I am rising to even greater height.
Now I am at 4718m above sea level.
Tibetians tents.
Tibetians at work.
Can you see that something is flowing out from his nose? HAHA. Thats the reason why I took this photo.
Met some cyclists who are riding into Tibet. This route that I am taking is very popular with cyclists for getting into Tibet.
Watch out!! Sheep!!
Getting free water from the stream.
Another Tibetian rider. It is easy to tell that he is tibetian from what he is wearing. Take a look at his mirror. I noticed that all the bikes here have mirrors fixed in this way. I wonder why.
Saw a truck that sells this snack from TianJing. You just need to get his attention and he will stop and sell it to you. They drive from province to province. A mobile business.
More beautiful views.
Hey, its him again.
I finally ran into a group of bikers after so many days of riding. They are from a motorcycle club in ChongQing. They too are riding into Tibet. (Am I missing out something? Everyone seems to be going in the opposite direction as me. But I had no choice. They are all Chinese, I am Singaporean. They are permitted to do so, I am forbidden.)
More of Tibetians.
I thought I had seen the worse roads in China but I am so wrong. This is the worse so far.
What happens when tarmac suddenly turns into wet, soft and sticky mud? It becomes difficult to handle. My tyres sank into the mud and got stuck many times. I had a hard time trying to get it up and out. There were also many heavy vehicles on this same road on both directions which made it worse. Then my bike had difficult to start. One by one, all the bad things start to occur. I had my first fall in China.
I was not the only one with difficulties on this road. Many heavy vehicles got stuck too. This cause a massive jam. Excavators were used to rectify the problem.
The road was so bad that I only managed to do less than 50km in 5 hours. It was a painful 5 hours. Stuck, Push, Start, Go, Stuck, Push, Start, Go. I cannot remember the number of times I repeated this cycle. One thing for sure, it was tiring and I am now muddy and dirty all over. And when I am finally done with the bad road, I am now facing another problem. I still have to cross over one mountain before I get to the next town but nightfall is coming soon. I still have alot of distance to cover. This is bad. I am getting worried.
Crossing a mountain means that I will have to go upslope. Climbing a mountain on this bike is S.L.O.W. The speed is no different from that of a tortoise. So as expected, I ended up in the dark which means that I will have to go even slower as riding in pitch dark in the mountains is extremely dangerous. I cannot even see my own hands if not for the headlight of my bike. As much as I tried to avoid getting into this kind of situation, I am now in it.
Just look at how dark it is.
I really dont like riding in the dark especially in the mountains. It just feels dangerous to me. So as soon as I saw some villages, I went ahead to knock on the door. I wanted to ask if they are willing to let me stay at their place for the night. This tibetian opened the door and came forward. He was very funny. He asked where am I from and when he heard Singapore, he said, "Singapore, WAH!! Never see a Singaporean before, must shake hand." And then he gathered everyone to shake hand with me. HAHA... So funny.
I do not know why but something had stopped me from asking for a place to stay. Instead, I asked how far am I away from the next town. "Less than 50km, you just have to cross this mountain," he replied and so I rode on.
Getting stuck in the mud and trying to get out of it had already consumed much of the petrol. Now, going up slope means riding in low gear and high drag. This comsumes even more petrol. So if you do your maths right you will know what happens next. Yes, I AM OUT OF PETROL!!!!!! Bad things just keep coming...... Oh no... Dark, cold, alone, in the mountains, foreign place, no petrol, haven had lunch and dinner, no place to sleep.... What could be worse?
The only thing to do now is to keep moving. So I got off my bike, kept my headlights on and began pushing the bike. After pushing upslope for quite awhile, the road started to decline. Thanks God. So I got on the bike, and let it roll.... and roll.... and roll.... I kept rolling and rolling but it never seems to end. And if you are a seasoned biker or driver, you will have guess what is going to happen next. The headlight starts to get dimmer and dimmer and soon, GONE!!! Thats it. My battery went flat. I am now in total darkness. Sigh.... My bad things list is getting longer. What else can happen next? What should I do next? Can someone please tell me?
Got off my bike, took a look at the surrounding and saw some lights just hundreds of meters away. Slowly and carefully I pushed my bike over. Asked if there is a place for me to stay and the answer was yes. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Now at least I have a roof over my head for the night. I felt so blessed.
This is my bed. Tibetian style.
Left the bike at the doorstep. Dont know what should I do with the bike and I dont wish to think about it too much. I take things very easy and I take one step at a time. I am already done for today so let's just leave the rest for tomorrow. No point dwelling on it. It will not help to solve the problem. What has already happened, had happened. There is no point crying over spilled milk. What will happen, will happen. No point thinking too much. So, without lunch and dinner, and with dirt and mud all over me, I lied on this unfamiliar tibetian bed and went into dreamland.
Day 18
Look at what my bike had become.
The thought of just dumping my bike here and to carry on my trip without a bike did come across my mind but come to think of it, I am not ready to give up this motorcycle trip yet. This is an adventure ride and no adventure is completed without obstacles. I am not going to give up. I will push on. And so I got myself mentally prepared and began my morning exercise. A good way to keep myself warm in this cold temperature. It is only 10 degree.
It was no joke to push a bike with a 30kg backpack on it on this mountain terrian. Pushing it upslope was hell and I had to stop every 10-20m to rest. Soon my arms became tired and each of my rest time became longer than before. But I still had to push and so I did. After pushing for quite some time, I saw an oil tanker stopped at the side of the road. Hope had arrived I thought and so I went forward and asked if they could sell me some petrol.
To my disappointment, this is a tank filled with desiel. No luck. (Sidetrack abit.) Even with the highly flammable sign painted on the tanker, the driver was smoking right next to it. Thats dangerous.
Now that I still have no petrol, I can only carry on pushing. And so I push and push and push. I cant believe that I am actually sweating even though it was 10 degree. Tough, it was really tough. Everytime I stopped, I was very relactant to start pushing again. I almost wanted to give up, I really did. Looking ahead at the road infront of me, I dont know how far more I can go. I am getting really exhasted.
I suddenly had flashbacks of all those tough times that I had gone through when I was still a trainee. It was also tough back then but I did not give up, and so I also should not give up now. Although physically I am weak but I must be mentally strong. Mind over matter, If I dont mind, then it does not matter. Nothing is impossible, even the word itself says I-M-Possible. The only easy day was yesterday isn't it? And so I removed my scarf from my neck and tied it around the handlebar.
The scarf serves as a reminder that I can do it and to motivate myself even further, I decided to sing. And so I began pushing my bike and singing the following song to myself:
"
When the whistle blows, slient everywhere,
And the flag goes up, in the battalion square.
Soliders all around, never let you down,
Cause we are the best, in the SAF.
*
Oh echo... oh echo out loud
Commando is on its way now.
Oh echo... oh echo out loud
Commando is the best around.
Looking high above, Charlie flies by,
And the parachute blooms, like a flower in the sky.
I wanna be, Commando,
Just like the others, in the battalion square.
REPEAT *
"
Time seems to pass easier when I had the right mindset and then after sometime I finally see the town from a distant.
Took a break and saw another cyclist. He is also heading to Tibet.
Snow mountain in the rear also cheered me up.
Then finally, A PETROL STATION!!!
So happy that I finally made it to a petrol station. Filled up and moved on. Now, I think luck is on my side, it is all downslope after the petrol station. And so I made used of it to try and start my bike. On the ignition switch, clutch in, kick in to gear 1, clutch in again, let the bike roll and when the bike gained enough speed, I threw the clutch and open the throttle. Out came the roaring sound of the engine though the exhast pipe. What a successful push start!!! YEAH!!!!
So I rode to the town and decided that I want to rest for the day. Decided to take a break for one day. It was only after I got to the town that I realised that I had lost the right side cover of the bike. Now my battery is exposed.
Nevermind that. I haven had yesterday's lunch and dinner and today's breakfast. So I washed up (I came here with dirt and mud all over, remember?) and went to satisfy my tummy first. Sichun Food, Hot and Spicy. Yum Yum.
We all know about the earthquake that had happened in Sichun earlier this year. This is a noticeboard that has updates for the people.
Went around the town after lunch, had a very negative encounter with one of the countergirl in the post office. All the poeple I met so far are very nice and good, she was the only excepttion.
ME: Can I take a look at that? (refering to a closed book of olympic stamps)
SHE: Do you want to buy? If not cannot see.
ME: Can I have a look first?
SHE: Stamps. What is there to see? Dont tell me you have never see stamps before?
ME: I know it is stamps. But I want to see the designs.
SHE: Cannot see if not buying.
ME: If I dont see, then how do I know if I like it?
SHE: Nothing much to see. What do you want to see?
(then she relactantly took out the book, did not even pass it to me, flipped through it in 1-2 sec and she placed it back.)
SHE: ok, so do you want to buy?
ME: No thank you.
(and I walked off)
What an attitude!! I would had sack her if I am her boss. Very poor service. Anyway, I did not let her spoilt my day. Oh ya, people always say that the girls from Sichun are the prettiest in China and I think I know why they say so. It is because they are all very fair, at least that's what I see. I think thats the reason.
Then I went back to my guesthouse. Was surprised that everyone seems to know that I came here on a motorcycle. Chatted with them and then dinner. Yes, food again. I am so hungry you know.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
posted by ZeeVinCeZ at 9:16 PM
2 Comments:
hey! I'm kai ting's friend. been reading your blog and it is interesting. muahhaha.. keep up your spirit. =)
anyway why did you decide not to ask for a place to stay at that tibet person who asked to shake your hands when he knew you are from Singapore? cause he looks dangerous or something?
not sure y but i just change my mind
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