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09May09
Woke up very cold out misty foggy 5 degrees C in tent. Hard to get started. Eat apple each with some moldy smelling but not looking chipatis, picked up our muddy tent and bikes and rolled away cold. I wore my bright SeeMe vest Madonna gave to me. (smiley face goes here)
Very wobbly front end this morning. Sometimes it seems more wobbly when I'm not pedaling and sometimes opposite. We thought we could get some food in a village just a few km down the road. We saw a place with tables inside and Chad went over and talked to a man who came out with many pieces of his face missing, from frostbite he thinks - tip of nose parts of cheeks and ears. The man pointed us across the street and down a bit where we could make out some buildings in the thick fog. Went over, Chad looked around and knocked on a door. Noone around. 3 mangy dogs barked, a cow sat nearby in the dirt, and then around the corner came a big pig with a piglet. The piglet sniffed around Chad's bike for a bit as it lay there on the ground.
It made me smile on this bleak cold hungry morning. We rode on down the road not expecting food for ~25 km. We had some yogurt in bags to eat and our bar stash, but he didn't want to have any of that. After about 10 km or so there were sirens behind us and then someone on a loudspeaker was saying a bunch of stuff in Chinese, obviously to us, the only people around. As the military Montero-like cammo car passed us with its lights flashing, the man in the passenger seat turned, leaned out the window, with microphone in hand continued to shout out Chinese nonsense. Following him were huge green military trucks numbered to 35 in numerical order except for 11 and 19 which came last. (19 slowed down, "Hallo", smiling man took our picture) Most of the backs of the covered truck beds had a young man in helmet peering out through the canvas flaps. On some of them though, the canvas flaps were pulled back all the way and we could see many cadets looking out at us as they passed. Some smiled and one threw us a peace sign.
Every settlement we went by we hoped there would be a restaurant there to feed us and warm us with hot green cha (tea). Nothing. We saw a huge billboard ahead with a building next to it and got excited. As we came upon it we saw the extra long billboard, which faced across the street instead of either direction of traffic, showed an Inner Mongolian landscape with some horses and a bunch of Old Mongolian script with Chinese characters below. How strange. Nothing at the building beside it.
Soon we see a sign for the next town 17 km ahead. Okay, we've gone 18 so far, we're halfway, we can do this, we'll probably have to stop and suck down those bags of yogurt at some point. Chad is ahead, on top a hill, stopped. When I pull up beside him I see what he sees: the 35 military trucks are parked in a row on a strip of old road paralleling the main road. "Wow, did you take a picture?" "I don't think taking a picture of the military is a good idea. It might not be anything at all, but if it is, it could be really bad." Okay. We ride on and see three of the military men are nearer to the road and closer to us. Maybe they have some food for us, Chad hopes out loud. As we get closer we see the guy most near the road is holding something in his arms, cradling it like a baby animal. He is walking toward us. "He's holding something," Chad says. "Don't get excited," I say. And then, just as we reach the young man in cammo, he holds out a bag to me, a plastic bag with food in it. Then he hands one to Chad and we are so happy. We are overjoyed and can't believe it. "Shee shee, Shee shee" we gleefully try to say thank you in Chinese. The guy smiles and walks with the other two back to the rest of the troupe.
Inside the bag was a big prepackaged bread roll with some kinda sweetish/savory swirl, 2 processed meat weenies, a little pouch of pickled veggies and a bottle of Wahaha purified drinking water. Wow. I just laughed and laughed as we sat by the side of the road and scarfed our sack lunches that the Chinese military had happily shared with us. (fourteen smiley faces go here)
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madonna
non-member comment
a ha ha
Well, is this what my tales of India sounded like on the receiving end ? Only you are both much more hardcore, and having a one-of-a-kind hard won journey. I am glad you got some food that day, and are breaking down stereotypes as you go. Lots of love, Madonna