The little girl was so excited to find out I could speak Chinese so we were able to communicate. She’s 13 and her older sister is 16, who can also speak.
There were 3 languages being spoken in the home last night…my head was spinning as I can only follow two closely.
The older brother, next to the girl with the hat has a disability and he is listening to an electronic device that reads the Koran.
Alim, is sitting to his left, next to his father, showing me his English study materials and a photo of when he was studying English in Urumqi.
The older sister is preparing noodles for “la mian” – pulled/beaten noodles.
Mother doesn’t like her photo to be taken but you can see her for a moment adding to the fire.
I tell them to talk in Mandarin. They begin in Uyghur but it changes to Mandarin. Their Mandarin is a little different from mine so it takes a minute to catch on to the questions.
We are discussing what we like to eat and if America has naan and lamb to eat.
Family at Dinner Time March 16th, 2012WanderCyclist
We were in Amdo/Kham Tibet. Nearly 4 days of cycling to see one of the three Tibetan Holy Mountains: Amnemachen.
Arriving in the town the night before and not finding a cheap place to stay, Brandon and I opted to sleep in an open field. No tents and under the open stars. Our favorite way. During the night we could hear a man praying into the early hours.
We had just hit tarmac after a very long journey through the mountains. Beat. I was pretty relieved to hear when Brandon admitted to this, because I thought maybe I was just being a baby. He at 22,000km let me know that the stretch we traveled together had been the most difficult in his life – in my opinion – probably both of our favorites.
I never accepted free rides or tried to hitch in China, but with Brandon’s Visa, we had to get to a PSB every 30 days. With his inability of speaking Chinese, communicating with drivers was left up to me. Sometimes I’d do dances on the side of the road, or lie down kicking my legs up in the air. Hell, who doesn’t want a crazy fun American passenger. Brandon pulled his weight, he was a work horse at getting our loaded bikes on trucks – and I felt safer having his short fuse around.
We spent nearly the entire day on the edge of town trying to hitch a ride. There was a little boy that spent it with us.
Earlier in the day, he had been throwing rocks at the road sign. There were probably 3 dozen stones in the road, trucks running over them.
Then Brandon helped him with a new game of lining up our empty beer bottles and throwing rocks at them. Thanks Guy, you’re such a great influence on the kids.
Needless to say, we went through a fair amount of beers, snacks, and cigarettes (as our nasty new habit from boredom and hangin with locals).
The little boy worked on keeping his snot in his nose, but that poor kid…haha…oh man. Then he brought me a bag of cookies and I could see the dried snot all over his hands and arms. Tibetan kids are notorious for this.
At one point he rides his bike out and Brandon and I cheer him on. We spent the entire day with this kid, with random visits from monks and local Tibetans. Of course the street sweeper, who was REALLY REALLY stoked to be cleaning up the BOYS mess!
We did get a ride, eventually, that took 18 hours because we got held up by a landslide on the mountains. Yes…for about 5 hours…rocks tumbling into a deep abyss. The pass was more than 5000m and the driver had this mix tape with about 6 song and one was the Cardigans “love me” and this other one that’s about a baby bottle or something. Brandon and I could hear it in our head’s for days after.
These are the moments, the days, that still make me laugh and remind myself how wonderful touring is.
August 2011 – Touring is sometimes all fun and games! January 12th, 2012WanderCyclist
This will be the most boring touring footage ever. Imagine this for days. It really wouldn’t have been that bad if you remove the headwind, add somewhere to get water, and a friend. There is no way I would want to ride this in the summer…HELL NO.
November 28 – the end of riding the Gobi…almost out. January 12th, 2012WanderCyclist
