Day 31: The chinese Muslim World
The chinese are indeed in love with table tennis. There is a table tennis sports hall right beside where I stayed at and there are always people playing so long as it is open. No wonder they are so good at it.
I left DunHuang in the morning, still riding along the Silk Road and began my ride into the world of the Chinese Muslim. Another place in China which does not seems Chinese to me.
As soon as I left DunHuang, I entered a field with many white stuffs all around. Do you know what are these?
No, these are not pieces of tissue papers lying around. These are cottons.
The first 200km of my ride today was ok. I was riding through places with people. After that, for the next 200km I entered into nomansland again. All that I see was a vast piece of land with nothing in sight.
After entering nomansland for quite sometime, my bike began to react strangely. It began to lose power as if it had ran out of petrol. But that should not be the case as I had topped up full tank before I lefted. So, I dropped from 5th gear into 4th gear and carrying on riding. Ok, things were back to normal and so I up the gear again. The moment I entered 5th gear, the bike began react like it had before and so I had to drop to gear 4th and carried on riding in this gear. Hmmm.. whats wrong? I seriously had no idea. Then after riding for some time, it had the same strange reaction like it had in gear 5 and so I dropped to 3rd gear and things began to be normal. Hmm.... Something is seriously wrong here. I better get it check at the next town. But then the same thing happened again and again until I was down to gear 1. Damn. Gear 1? How am I suspose to get out of nomansland in gear 1? The bike will overheat or the whatever whatever parts will get burn for sure. What should I do? I am now crawling very slowly in nomansland. Wait, crawling slowly is better than not moving at all. At least the bike is still in a way working. I am now praying hard that gear 1 dont die on me too. If not I will be once again trapped.
Just as I was concentrating harding in hoping that the bike will keep moving, I saw some figures at the side of the road in a distant. As I got nearer, I realised that they are actually a group pf bikers. Great. Maybe that can help me out.
Hmmm... It seems like they had a puncture.
I did not know what magical touch that they have but the moment they touch the bike, everything seems to be working just fine. They were kind enough to leave me their contact number and told me to give them a call if there is a need to. As they were all on bikes that can outchase me anytime, they kept telling me to go first and be ahead of them. They will move off once they are done with the changing of the tyre. This where, if my bike really breaksdown, at least they are behind me and I will know that help will be on its way. Nice guys aint they? Glad that I bumped into them in this nomansland and also glad that we were heading the same direction.
I will be in XinJiang today. XinJiang is the last province that I will visit in China. Then, I will carry on my journey along the Silk Road into Central Asia. I am almost 100% sure that I will not be able to get the bike out of China and so I will have to sell it in XinJiang. Sad to say but yes, this is the plan. Since these bikers are from XinJiang, I shall ask them where is the best place for me to sell the bike so that I can fetch a higher price. Hami, they told me. Anywhere else I will be getting a lower price and might even have difficulties selling the bike away. Hami? That's where I will be this evening. Sigh, cant imgaine that today will be my last day of riding. But I dont have a choice do I? I cant get the bike out of China, and I need money to travel. So if Hami is the place, so be it.
Leaving them behind, I am back to riding alone in nomansland.
One hours had passed, then two hours and then three hours. The bike seems to be working prefectly normally. Just as I thought that I will be soon out of nomansland, the same problem surfaced. This time round, it got so much worse. After dropping the gear from 5 gradually to 1, the bike went died and refused to start. Ok, I know that help is behind me but I just dont want to waste time waiting. I am now only 90km away from Hami. And oh, you can tell that this is region of mostly Muslim as you can see signs written in Islamic.
And so while waiting, I kept trying to revive the bike but it just did not work. I did all I can, tried to crank start, tried to push start, checked the fuel line blah blah blah but nothing seems to get it alive. Finally, I got alittle worked up and I gave the bike a light kick followed by cranking the bike again. HEY!! The kick works!! I quickly got onto the bike rode off.
I managed to get to Hami by evening, found a bikeshop and sold my bike away. Sobsob... Although this is not the best bike to use for touring but at least it had brought me across thousands of kilometers so far. Have bike will travel. I feel sad to sell it away. Last look at my bike.
Then I went to the train station to buy a ticket to Turpan. It was chaotic at the ticket counter. Noone queues up. The moment I left a gap of a few centimeters between me and the person in front of me, someone cuts in. It was the last day of the long national day break in China and everyone was trying to get a ticket back home. So, with my backpack on my back, I joined in the war of fighting for a ticket. Managed to get one on the same night and soon after I am on my way to Turpan.
It was a double decker train.
Taking the train was also one hell of an experience. Noone bothers about the sit number. People behaves as if they are the only on the train. On mp3 loud, talk loudly, sing song, etc etc. And it was a night train. So I ended up not getting enough sleep. Well, thats travelling. That was an experience.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
I left DunHuang in the morning, still riding along the Silk Road and began my ride into the world of the Chinese Muslim. Another place in China which does not seems Chinese to me.
As soon as I left DunHuang, I entered a field with many white stuffs all around. Do you know what are these?
No, these are not pieces of tissue papers lying around. These are cottons.
The first 200km of my ride today was ok. I was riding through places with people. After that, for the next 200km I entered into nomansland again. All that I see was a vast piece of land with nothing in sight.
After entering nomansland for quite sometime, my bike began to react strangely. It began to lose power as if it had ran out of petrol. But that should not be the case as I had topped up full tank before I lefted. So, I dropped from 5th gear into 4th gear and carrying on riding. Ok, things were back to normal and so I up the gear again. The moment I entered 5th gear, the bike began react like it had before and so I had to drop to gear 4th and carried on riding in this gear. Hmmm.. whats wrong? I seriously had no idea. Then after riding for some time, it had the same strange reaction like it had in gear 5 and so I dropped to 3rd gear and things began to be normal. Hmm.... Something is seriously wrong here. I better get it check at the next town. But then the same thing happened again and again until I was down to gear 1. Damn. Gear 1? How am I suspose to get out of nomansland in gear 1? The bike will overheat or the whatever whatever parts will get burn for sure. What should I do? I am now crawling very slowly in nomansland. Wait, crawling slowly is better than not moving at all. At least the bike is still in a way working. I am now praying hard that gear 1 dont die on me too. If not I will be once again trapped.
Just as I was concentrating harding in hoping that the bike will keep moving, I saw some figures at the side of the road in a distant. As I got nearer, I realised that they are actually a group pf bikers. Great. Maybe that can help me out.
Hmmm... It seems like they had a puncture.
I did not know what magical touch that they have but the moment they touch the bike, everything seems to be working just fine. They were kind enough to leave me their contact number and told me to give them a call if there is a need to. As they were all on bikes that can outchase me anytime, they kept telling me to go first and be ahead of them. They will move off once they are done with the changing of the tyre. This where, if my bike really breaksdown, at least they are behind me and I will know that help will be on its way. Nice guys aint they? Glad that I bumped into them in this nomansland and also glad that we were heading the same direction.
I will be in XinJiang today. XinJiang is the last province that I will visit in China. Then, I will carry on my journey along the Silk Road into Central Asia. I am almost 100% sure that I will not be able to get the bike out of China and so I will have to sell it in XinJiang. Sad to say but yes, this is the plan. Since these bikers are from XinJiang, I shall ask them where is the best place for me to sell the bike so that I can fetch a higher price. Hami, they told me. Anywhere else I will be getting a lower price and might even have difficulties selling the bike away. Hami? That's where I will be this evening. Sigh, cant imgaine that today will be my last day of riding. But I dont have a choice do I? I cant get the bike out of China, and I need money to travel. So if Hami is the place, so be it.
Leaving them behind, I am back to riding alone in nomansland.
One hours had passed, then two hours and then three hours. The bike seems to be working prefectly normally. Just as I thought that I will be soon out of nomansland, the same problem surfaced. This time round, it got so much worse. After dropping the gear from 5 gradually to 1, the bike went died and refused to start. Ok, I know that help is behind me but I just dont want to waste time waiting. I am now only 90km away from Hami. And oh, you can tell that this is region of mostly Muslim as you can see signs written in Islamic.
And so while waiting, I kept trying to revive the bike but it just did not work. I did all I can, tried to crank start, tried to push start, checked the fuel line blah blah blah but nothing seems to get it alive. Finally, I got alittle worked up and I gave the bike a light kick followed by cranking the bike again. HEY!! The kick works!! I quickly got onto the bike rode off.
I managed to get to Hami by evening, found a bikeshop and sold my bike away. Sobsob... Although this is not the best bike to use for touring but at least it had brought me across thousands of kilometers so far. Have bike will travel. I feel sad to sell it away. Last look at my bike.
Then I went to the train station to buy a ticket to Turpan. It was chaotic at the ticket counter. Noone queues up. The moment I left a gap of a few centimeters between me and the person in front of me, someone cuts in. It was the last day of the long national day break in China and everyone was trying to get a ticket back home. So, with my backpack on my back, I joined in the war of fighting for a ticket. Managed to get one on the same night and soon after I am on my way to Turpan.
It was a double decker train.
Taking the train was also one hell of an experience. Noone bothers about the sit number. People behaves as if they are the only on the train. On mp3 loud, talk loudly, sing song, etc etc. And it was a night train. So I ended up not getting enough sleep. Well, thats travelling. That was an experience.
*Click HERE to return to the Main Page of The Cold Journey.*
posted by ZeeVinCeZ at 6:16 AM
1 Comments:
I think i know why your bike is giving you such problems, bcos, it knows you are selling it away...its throwing it's temper..
=(
Just like human lor...
Goodbye bike...
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