Good Morning! Time to go, again!
…nice effect from a steamed lens and an orange tent fly.
Photos of Eleanor
Near Korla, Xinjiang
Strange and excellent cavernous landscape. Xinjiang is not disappointing and it’s getting better and better the further South I go.
Aiding Hu
-162 Meters.
I have now visited the highest (and in the world) and lowest salt water lakes of China.
For the past 4 days I’ve been camping under the G30 and getting over mountains with a headwind. My face is so chapped and windburned – bad.
LOOK MA! I’m not an icicle anymore…look at the exposed fingertips!!!!!
I’m writing this from under the G30, 20km shy of Turpan.
FINALLY!!! Although I was blasted with side and head winds all day. Gotta keep this short…but, damn, it feels good to be a gangsta!
What would YOU do at the “Center of Asia”?
I made yellow snow…well, not on the center…about a meter away. When nature calls…and well, there is an opportunity to say, “I pee’d at the Center of Asia!” – how can you resist?!
Both cameras are non-functioning in the cold. I was able to warm up the Nikon D700 to get a couple of shots and the point and shoot wouldn’t let me use the timer. Every time I would turn it off, and then back on, it would be reset.
Couldn’t help but think of my artist pal, Stephen Talasnik.
It was a ride down (then a climb) to the “Center” and even saw a frozen tear on my eyelash. No, I wasn’t that moved by where I was going…the wind was being mean to me.
I’ve been riding UP for the past two days, along the 216.
Yesterday was rough, I realized how out of shape I was.
Today, well…um.
So, after visiting the Center of Asia I continue South and I know I need to cut off to get off this route. There is no way I’m going to live through a 4000m pass in the middle of February. I am pretty sure I would freeze to death. My cameras can’t even handle this cold.
I got in close to 60km today and a hearty lunch and I’m looking desperately for the turn off. Something is very strange. There should be signs but I see nothing.
After a couple of baby climbs today, and then watching a crazy ass looking dog run a kilometer down the mountain to come eat my face off, I pulled over to the police checkpoint.
I gave in. The sun was setting an my options were bleak. I saw nothing ahead…except one or two dump trucks with coal. Not even locals.
“Excuse me, I need to find some accommodation tonight. Ahead or behind and how many kilometers.”
“Ahead, you can’t go, the road is very very bad. It’s not safe. You should go back.”
“How many km behind.”
“40”
Quick math…shit, that’s taking me back where I slept LAST NIGHT!
I can’t freeze to death…I don’t know if I could make it through the night.
“Okay, thank you.” Now, if I wasn’t freezing I would of gone on and said screw it…but this is my life I’m talking about.
As I begin to turn around.
“If you wait a moment, you can put your bike in the back of the pickup truck and we can give you a ride.”
Oh hell yes!
The bike gets thrown over some frozen vomit and I pile in with an officer and his two adorable children. Something is different about their appearance. The boy has brown hair. His name is Jerry and he is 6…Alice is 10. Their English pronunciation is fantastic and Jerry starts chatting in English from the beginning. Dad is giving Alice a speech in Chinese about how she needs to practice and she says she can’t and he repeats, very gently and even loving…”yes, you can do it yourself…you can.”
It turns out he is Hazu (Kazakh minority) and his wife, their mother, is Russian! Beautiful children.
We pass the road I should of taken to cut over and he tells me the road is bad. Still mountains and the roads are not paved. These are the roads I LOVE when the weather is warm and the locals spend their free time sitting about.
In winter…no one is around, no one to ask for directions, no one to sit with and have a picnic with. Right now, my mission is to get out of this cold. Especially when my camera is malfunctioning.
He gets me to last nights town and he offers to take me back to Urumqi…as the other route is “fangbian”.
It takes me 2 minutes to “cut my loss” and I say, “okay, lets go!”
So, here I am, on the Southern tip of Urumqi…where I’ve lived for the past 2 months.
I’ve been thinking all day if I should just cut my losses and turn back and do it. From the maps, it was showing no towns of any kind. Little villages along the way but not even restaurants.
I HATE backtracking…it’s probably my #1 of stuff I DON’T DO. But…I guess, we can say it takes more guts to cut my losses and realize I could die if I were to continue on that insane road up and over the Tianshan mountains.
Shepherd. He was looking at me strangely so I flash my big ol’smile and give him a nice American “Hello”. He returns the smile and “Hello” from his amazing 5 o’clock shadow.
I thought boys on bikes made me weak in the knees…Uyghur cowboys are a whole other story. I’ve told some people I can’t buy my naan from handsome men because I blush too much. Yeah, I need to get a hold on that one.
This is where I should of turned off to head East…this was across the road.
And, see, I told you “zhusu” walls are the best. This was next to my head. I’m trying to figure out if it’s homegrown porn and then what’s the deal with the foot print like 1 meter from the ground? Click on the photo for a larger image.
Maybe they were stomping the Hepatitis out!
December 6, 2011 – SanTai Zhen to Fukang
Morning…nice and warm room, don’t want to leave.
Who ever can give the best “What am I thinking?” title to this photo wins…um, I don’t know what…but you win. (Message privately, as some of you do, or leave in the comments.
During the ride I noticed that I’m putting in a lot of power and not feeling a lot of progress. Doh! I have a massive fender icicle. There is minuscule clearance and it’s only getting colder and colder. It’s a big black nasty block of ice.
I had ridden through a lot of open air coal earlier in the day. There were mounds on both sides of me, steam rising into the air. I’m now wondering if this is what triggered the funk in my eye.
It’s still light out upon my arrival to Fukang, and it’s a legit city. So I begin the hunt for a home on the outskirts to find the cheapest place.
Ah-ha! A total hole next to a police station, that’s perfect for a solo babe. And…the 2 flights of stairs are near 2 meter wide…I swoOOoooOOOOosh right up those with my loaded bike.
15rmb and private room…but then the whole police hassle begins.
Laoban takes my copies of Passport/Visa to the station. I have to go to the station with the real ones. Then from there we have to drive over to the main government building. I’m sitting in the back seat trying to count all the times I’ve sat in police vehicles in the past 6 months. Too much police interaction out here.
Then when all that is taken care of they tell me I can catch a taxi back. Um…I don’t think so…you are taking me back.
Home sweet home and there is a about 3 liters of black water under my bike. Ooops, sorry laobanniang.
“奶茶”
Milk tea “was” a little pup that was living here. Last week, his owner came to retrieve him. Last month, though, they offered him to me to take along with me on my ride. Seriously, I debated it for a hot minute, or rather a few days…ok, maybe weeks.
If I weren’t crossing borders or it was warmer weather, I would of taken him. He could of kept me company in my tent and I would of made a little basket for him to rest in when he just couldn’t keep up.
再见 奶茶！！！！
December 2nd 2011 – Mario Bros to Mori
I woke up to a quite cold and dimly lit room. Still, complete silence except for the faint sound of ice cracking in the trees in the back.
Without getting out of bed to look out the window, I can make a weather assessment. Being raised in the Blue Ridge/Appalachia Mountains, I can already tell what it’s like outside by the light coming through the window and the silence with the faint “crack”.
I pack up, eat the remainder of the bread, and drink the last bit of hot water (“kai shui”) in my instant sugar coffee. Again, it’s great staying in places like this because it’s super fast and easy to pack up in the am.
I vow to not take anymore photos with my point and shoot (quit being lazy) unless they are snapshots of me suffering in the elements or I have no option because of situation (i.e. police). Only for video, from now on, Jan 20, 2011.
It’s going to be a very white and cold ride today.
As I exit the building, I see Mario and Luigi taking care of the daily chores. Cow feeding and milking. Yep, I think Mario and Luigi may be a couple. This, I find, AWESOME. They get extra thanks and smiles from me…world love, dudes.
It’s about 10 am’ish. It’s foggy – frozen fog. Not too bad with a few kilometer visibility ahead. Once I get going, I’ll warm up and it won’t be too much of a problem.
10:42 am
The trees all have silver icicles on the tips of their limbs. I am doing okay at this point and enjoy passing the lone cowboy on his horse and my eyes dashing around the landscape. There still seems to be a bit of an incline, or my eyes are just giving me that “false” appearance. (I hate it when I have a false flat and barely pushing 15km, way to make me feel like a baby.)
Little girl’s potty break, although I didn’t use the structure for privacy. I nearly didn’t make it off the saddle in time. (Nothing like wet cycling shorts and an additional odor to add the lovely potpourri I wear around). You can gawk at this if you want, but any one that rides, especially women…one second off the saddle and that’s when it hits with full force.
When there is no traffic, I really just take care of business anywhere. Ladies, don’t be shy when nature calls. Tuck the head down and keep your face from traffic to keep the attention off of the fact that you aren’t “physically” a man. I really have lost any sense of shame. What happened? I guess, you just quit giving a damn and morphed into a true womanimal.
12:30, losing visibility. It only gets worse and worse from this moment on.
Boys get ice beards girls get ice braids. (How fitting for the nickname I picked up years ago, “Ice Princess”)
The balaclava got used after this, and I’m not posting a photo of that because I look like a monster.
I eventually end the day on about 3 meter visibility. Turning on my red blinky because of the fear of getting taken out by a car.
It’s an early day to Mori.
I finally have my gear loaded on my bike so if I take the back rack bag off, I can carry the bike fully loaded up stairs. Yes, I’m a g.d. beast. Well, beastly skills up 3 EXTREMELY LONG and narrow flight of stairs, nearly breaks my neck. I regained my balance before taking an awesome tumble down steps with bike in hands. (Mental note: save beast skills for at least a meter wide staircase, without white sheets covering the carpet, and a larger landings…and just not so many.) Christ! Laziness and short cuts are going to be the death of me. There was a naughty influence with me this summer and some bad habits have stuck.
(The beastly womanimal needs some sleep as I had a delightful 4 hours last night. Jan. 23, 2011)
Dinner, my only meal that day, in U-Tsang, Tibet (near Nima, September 2011)
It was a long day, but every day in Tibet was a glorious long day – and this would prove to be a very long night.
When I finally found an area where I could get some wind shelter, I pushed the bike off road and up towards some rocks jutting from the ground. Taking notice of the Yak foot prints, I was aware I could have some friendly visitors in the morning. I’m not worried, I’ve woken a few times with the clomping and the heavy breathing less than a meter from my tent. Hell, I’ve had a dozen of dogs howling and barking next to my tent. No, I’m not hardcore – I’m stupid.
Anyhow, I push the bike towards the wall of stone and begin to clear some stones out of the most level area of the ground. I hate slipping through the night, but I can tell I’m going to be rolling down…a little.
I haven’t eat at all. I’m now camping at +4900m, highest camp so far, and I’ve lost my appetite. I’ve been at high altitude for over 2 weeks now and I’m noticing some things changing. My ears are ringing, my feet and hands are beginning to take on a purplish hue, and inability to sleep.
Before I set up camp, I try to figure out how and what I’m going to eat. I have no alcohol for my stove. I’ve got chilled water and I know that if I let my instant noodles (pangmian) soak long enough, it will be close to noodle soup. I also dig out my can of “fried sardines with black beans”. This can was meant to be split, as they are super salty.
Wedging the bag in a Pipa (the rodent that lives in Tibet) hole, I pour my water in to let soak while setting up camp.
This is the night my tent pole splinters. Yep. Again, not a peep from my mouth except in my mind I “say” – “oh shit”. The wind can get crazy up here at night and I just pray it doesn’t blow down.
I nestle into my home for the night and begin my meal fit for Kings.
The fish is too salty. I can only take half the can before I walk a half a km down the hill and chuck it far enough in hopes to keep any wild animals away. (I’m constantly warned of wolves from people, but have yet to have an encounter.)
I fall in and out of sleep throughout the night. As soon as the wind picks up, I listen for more cracking of the pole. Luckily, it is still standing in the morning. Needless to say, at this point, the tent is holding up a lot better than I.
9am blazing sun
Tibetan Hostesses, Kham (NW.Sichuan) Summer 2011
The girl on the left could speak fairly good English. She met Brandon and I at the restaurant her brother cousin owned. The two older girls in the photo are sisters. Their family had lived in these Tibetan mountains for generations. When we walked up to the temple, as they bought Brandon and I each a beer, she explained how the city had grown since her childhood.
There were about 2 dozen small Tibetan homes now, and a large area of homes and a dormitory for the monks.
These girls were half Tibetan half Han. Their mother, Han, had passed away near her birth.
The house we are in here is new, because her father had sold the older and bigger home. Since his daughters were growing up, and one in college.
I slept in her bed and Brandon got the floor. In the morning he gets up first and runs back into the room and tells me to get my lazy a$$ up because it’s 11am! “Oh sh*t!? REALLY???!!”
“No, it’s 9:30”.
Even though we left early in the day, we didn’t make a lot of progress because we kept getting stopped for tea and tsampa. We weren’t riding road or tarmac either. The road eventually broke into a cow path through some of the most beautiful valleys I have ever seen in my life. This route continued for a couple of days and over a pass.
I’ll never forget when we got out of the mountain valley and finally hit tarmac, a Tibetan invites us in for some frozen Yak meat. Yes…raw frozen Yak…Brandon and I especially enjoyed the cookies.