Through the world on a Bicycle-Part2

The humidity was too high and the temperature now was unbearable. I allowed my perspiring body to be shrouded in smoke and Masa looked up at the sky. He stood up slowly and gently pushed back the chair, one hand still holding the kittens he strode toward the part of the courtyard under the awning. He put down the kittens, close to the mother,  and returned to occupy the chair. I wanted him to tell me more but he didn’t say much and he looked hooked on some reminiscences. The noisy city and its people now were under the gloomy sky and the gloom unleashed its power. Idling people alike the busy ones now rushed to find shelter. We withdrew from the table and stood under the awning. The kittens played at our feet.

The torrential downpour over the awning subdued our voices. We stood underneath the awning looking into the lashing rain which had now seized the city and its besieged people were seen in the doorways, at the windows and under awnings.

One could never have believed that what had appeared so threatening could ebb.

When the rain stopped I suggested we leave the hotel to have a cup of tea. We walked among the people and among the ever-honking vehicles. 

There were no signs of ladies toilets but there was a place for men to pee so many men squatted and peed in public. They spat into their own urine and wandered off. At the tea-stall, which looked like a niche hewn into a thick wall, under a colourless awning a man sat cross-legged on a wooden plank behind a buzzing kerosene stove. The small stall was flanked by two charcoal stoves and placed on the stoves were two big cauldrons boiling water for tea.

We sat on a wooden plank placed on stacked up bricks. The gutter below the plank was washed down with disinfectant liquid and the smell was so strong that it went straight into our nostrils.

Small motorbikes and cars competing in ear-piercing with horns honked through the alley which divided the wooden plank and the tea-stall. Sometimes the alley was choked up with vehicles and carts, and sometimes hand-pulled carts’ wheels scratched the sides of mini-cars rendering the motorists to shout taunts while the frail looking cart pullers carried on without saying anything back. Hadn’t the place been packed with more vehicles and carts, the taunts would have continued and it could have turned into nasty physical engagement.

Masa and I looked at the vibrancy around us of men and machines. In a mocking tone I said “ it’s an interesting drama, isn’t it? Dramas are offered to you everywhere.” After we had finished the tea from earthen cups I asked him if he could let me ask him about his journey. Surprisingly he agreed to answer my queries and my curiosity was finally quenched.

One could have drowned, anyone there could have been subdued, and the exhausted me could have been battered and pushed down, then the realisation that I was with a man who had been riding through countries on his own on a bicycle checked my senses and thus the internal messenger was quick in poking one's instinct. 

After the tea in earthen cups and some icy bottled water we returned to the cavernous hotel in Sudder Street. The old Japanese man in lungi was seen behind a beer bottle and looking from a distance his face was clearly visible as the bidi smoke rose and lingered a veil for a while.

He said he had been trying to reflect on his stay in India, Kolkata in particular. Seeing me and Masa he adjusted his position in the plastic chair. There were more beer beer. I was offered, and I didn't think I could resist some chilled beer in such a humid place. The lungi man disappeared for a while before I could finish my first bottle and re-appeared with a large plastic bag with bottles inside. 

A while after, a horde of American and European tourists gathered with their large rucksacks, few of them held copies of Lonely Planet guide book looking and asking each other to ascertain their destination. The place was virtually deserted after they had left. 

The lungi man happened to share my desire to hear Masa's stories. He agreed. 

There was nothing interesting going on then in my life and the path that my peers followed didn’t interest me, so, my mind dwelled on doing something adventurous. Then I ran into some Japanese cyclists and learned about cycling. After some times I went to work at a bicycle shop where I spend months understanding bicycles. There I was able to save some money. Honestly speaking I had nothing grand in my mind except for the curiosity of the world and the fear of being trapped in one place. I was quite determined that if I traveled I didn’t want to do the ordinary traveling most people embark on.

The first country he had ridden through was China. The diversity that I had heard of and the ongoing things there aroused my curiosity further.

What a country! Everything about China is so imposing, the size, the diversities and the magnificent things the economic development, like the transformation of Shanghai and other major cities. It took me one year to ride through the vast country. It was July 2007 I was in Shanghai. I felt like I was in any other cosmopolitan cities in the world. When I rode out of the city the China is another diverse place in term of economic development, meaning the cities are much advanced while the other provinces are far behind. I didn’t go into the central part of the country, so I skirted around and got to Laotian border. When I crossed the border I still had the feeling that I wasn’t entirely done with China. With the conviction that I would come I left the country for South-East Asia.

Perhaps I was seeking for something different. There is no denying of the religious interest. You look at Japanese society most people have nothing to hold onto. I think, that’s the main reason why people, who have lost faith in themselves, don’t understand the value of their existence. As I had imagined what I discovered in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand struck me. The simplicity of their life and the manner in which they cling onto Buddhism and how hopeless life would be without it, something, probably, most Japanese need these days. 

These two countries, Laos and Cambodia, where people still manage to have hold over their lives which are pretty much stained by the bloody and chaotic past. Traveling through those countries with little money I always had to seek help from the locals, so I turned to the temples there. I was welcomed there but I had to follow their routine. Early in the morning I would leave the temples with monks in saffron rode. I followed them carrying a big satchel or two to carry the alms. When you got back to the temple you would have to wait till the monks had finished eating and what was left was yours.

 The desire to go back didn’t subside and I rode back to Laos after having met up my parents in Bangkok who had flown from Japan. I rode up to the North-Eastern part of Thailand, Nongkhai province, and entered Laos and in January 2008 I arrived in China. My intention when I got to Yunan province was to be around for few weeks then to ride to Sichuan province but it was a bad time. A devastating earthquake had shaken the country and there were protests so outsiders weren’t allowed to enter Sichuan. I stayed put in Yunan for several months doing some voluntary work. The gate to Sichuan was eventually opened and I had the opportunity to paddle through the province of gorgeous ladies, spicy food, pandas and freshwater lakes. I heard many Chinese people say that the Sichuan girls are spectacular because of its multi-ethnic population and the spicy food they eat.

I was a victim of the turmoil in China, even though I had already heard a lot I craved for more especially the political China. So, it was the smouldering Sichuan I was concerned about.

  I heard about the conflicts and I could also feel the tension. Many people around me were very absorbed, but I was just riding through to interact with the people, the people most people hardly know.

It was Tibet, what a place and the uniqueness of the place is still very clear in my mind. The place is barren and the nights are extremely cold. I couldn’t sleep inside the tent because of the extreme temperature. Everything freezes there. At night I had to hug the water bottles to keep them warm and I would stay awake the whole night waiting for sunrise so that I could catch some sleep.

The distance between one village and another is immeasurable so sometimes I spent riding all day long without seeing anyone. How lonely I felt when riding the whole day without seeing anyone. I can understand why one feels threatened in everlasting solitude. Seeing the indescribable landscape and wishing I had someone with who I could share the feeling. When you are in that situation you could feel the dreadful weakness of mankind, the weakness of man to fear the grand side of nature.

I saw Tibetan herdsmen behind yaks headed towards their village. I went into a village where the curious eyes surrounded me and some people led me to their house where I was given shelter and food. They stared at me and each stare was accompanied by a warm smile. Inside the warm house wrapped by chilling cold there was plenty of smiles, however, there was no verbal communication as many Tibetans don’t go to schools, where everything is taught is Chinese.

Riding up to Lasa to the Potala palace and then towards the Nepal border. My eyes had been accustomed to the barren land of Tibetan plateau and I didn’t expect a sudden change in landscape. Only when I rode downward from the Tibetan plateau toward Nepal border, on well-constructed Chinese roads, to transport Chinese products, I was startled by the greenery around me at the end of the slope. The yellow flowers and the trees, they all were so distinctly different from the barrens of Tibet. Then I saw a river running through the green area. It was just spectacular.

How wonderful life would be if we didn’t need money. I had spent almost half the money during my prolonged stay in Yunnan. I became more worried about my financial situation, the fear that I would be forced to call off my journey half way. How terrible it would be and that notion of losing in the battle of life forced me to think up of some idea. The idea of making money.

It must have been luck, I ran into some people in Katmandu. Employing my engineering skills with them I stitched jeans there. But again, you know, there are so many suppliers so in that already congested market to promote what we had made would be a fruitless struggle given that I wasn’t going to be there for long. E-mails were sent asking people in Japan who had been reading my travel blogs and also my closed ones, they agreed to buy the jeans I had stitched in Nepal. After the jeans were shipped to Japan I knew I had enough money to start paddling through, I packed up my stuff but the journey wouldn’t begin without meeting my parents who had flown to Nepal to see how I had been traveling.   

 Into Bangladesh I was stopped by curious many. While sitting in a tea shop to get something to eat, I was surrounded by villagers. There was an old man among them who could speak a bit of English. He approached me and asked “ What country?” How old?” “ Father’s name?” The old man instantly translated whatever he had asked to his fellow villagers with pride. What I desired at that moment was some food and being all by myself. But the old man with tens of villagers repeatedly asked the same queries he had already asked. In the end I only smiled and they withdrew to examine my bags-laden bicycle.

Talking to them and feeding their curiosity the whole day was spent and it was impossible for me to ride further, so I asked the people there if I could camp in an open area. A young man among them walked up to tell me I could stay with his family. That was the kind of thing I always seek when I go traveling. Avoiding touristy places and going into far-flung areas to find out how people live there and how they make life sustainable there.

So, in a small house I stayed with the boy’s family. The treatment and the caring were too generous. In the following days he took me to his relatives’ places to show who his new friend was. Although it was interesting to meet those people I felt that I was overwhelmed with people, perhaps too overwhelmed. What I consider very striking is the generous hospitality and the genuine happiness they all possess.

When I crossed Indo-Bangladesh border there was a big change in people’s behaviour. People on the Indian side only would show me a thumbs-up or would say “ keep it up” no one swarmed around me.”

When I arrived here I ran into many Japanese people and I was very excited that I got to speak to people who speak the same language and people who understand even your body language. Sometimes you run away from the what you are accustomed to thinking what you see and hear all the time are unnecessary, but the taste and the comfort in it always linger. After a long time I’m enjoying the privilege of talking to someone in Japanese.

 I have heard a lot about Mother Teresa’s house here and I have decided to work as a volunteer for sometimes. Now I have signed up there and from tomorrow onward I’ll be with a group working at some slum. I’m looking forward to it. When I’m done here I’ll start my journey through North India and my way to Wagah Border. I already got my Pakistan visa.

I inquired if he was not worried about riding through Pakistan considering the country’s situation. There was no fear in his face and instead he laid out the journey he would soon be making beyond Pakistan and beyond Asia.

I have heard a lot about the problem, the political one there, and I must be careful in trying to avoid the dangerous areas and somehow will have to find my way to Iran. A large part of me says I have no interest in what’s going on there even though I’m concern about the affected people. My intention is to pass through and to get a taste of the local culture and tradition where ever I go. I’m just a curious young rider and my aim is to ride through Iran, Turkey and call off the journey in Portugal. Again it depends on the money that I’ll have then whether I can get to Germany and the neighboring countries.

 Two years is what I have in my mind. It’s a long time and now I m increasingly becoming worried whether I can make it or not to Europe considering the financial conditions. At the same time I’m determined and one can do anything with a determined mind.

He said he had an idea what he would do after the journey ended.

The first thing that I’ll embark on is to speak to the children at the school that I went to. You know, to set up a tent and park the bicycle just to give them an idea of how things are. I could also go around my country to talk about the things that I have seen. The messages…when I was in Japan the world around me was such a big place and I always thought I would remain a caged bird. But with determination one can live the any life and get anything one wishes to achieve. It’s possible and it’s in the mind.