16 days before our cycling adventure in China, my random thoughts:
This morning outside my window, the weather has gone insane...... it is sunny, yet rainy and windy and warm and cold.... It feels like the day has not yet settled its mind on what to be...
Luckily.........we went cycling yesterday.
The misty weather gave way to a beautiful sunny and warm day, and after fiddling with our cycling speedometers, (it will be best to buy a cycling GPS), we hit the open road.... Aha... The pleasure of cycling on the road....
Cycling is a very SLOW and very MINDFUL process.
When you are driving in a car, you zip by the landscape and you are only aware of what catches your eye....and maybe also things like rain, the light condition, or the general scenery...
When you are cycling at a normal speed, (not while you are going fast down hills,) you are truly INSIDE the landscape.......
You become aware of every wild rose bush, every scent, and every fruiting tree...... every bird.... As well as all the discarded bits of trash by the road...
Cycling as a method of touring, is so slow, that after doing it for a few days, and getting over our tendency to rush about, our inner system start to slow down....
It suddenly makes no sense to rush at all....
You know that you will get there eventually, and you are reminded of the fact that it is ALL about the JOURNEY and not about the destination.
It is about the joys of the day, and NOT about accomplishing a goal or making the distance....
Getting to your destination, becomes double rewarding....
By the end of a long cycling day, there may be a lovely inn, or a country hotel...
The village may have seriously yummy food.......
And there may be a night market which is opened late... And offer local music and food...
Cycling as a method of traveling, adds another dimension to the sight seeing journey.
I am aware that in two months of driving a car around China, spending only a day here and there, we could see MORE of the country....while on bike, we will only be able to see a small portion of the Silk Road region.... But we will see every market and be able to speak and laugh with the people who live along that ancient route...
People interact with cyclists in a whole different way, than they do if you get there by car,....... (even more so, if you are in area which requires you to hire a driver...)
When you are on a bike, people immediately gather around you.
They examine your bike,..... ask how far you've come.... And where are you going....
They look absolutely stunned, when you tell them the names of the towns you visited...and they declare out loud, that it is impossible!... Just impossible that you have cycled this long....
When you show up in a car, rural people may feel suspicious..... You may be from the government.......or some kind of a secret police....... or an official.....
But when you show up on a bike, they immediately assume that you are a tourist,... And most likely a poor and adventurous soul.
After all, (they think,) if you were not poor, you would be able to hire a car... Which is the ONLY way to travel....
As it is much, much more convenient, and makes traveling much more enjoyable and easy, keeping you protected from the weather....
These were the thoughts that were on my mind, as we cycled around 30 Km, up and down the hills that surrounds our village...
On our way back to the village, we met a neighbor who is a very friendly soul.
We asked him what's up?
He said he is out looking for road -kill (a possum or a small rabbit which had been killed by a car), so he can feed the hawks...
We asked what hawks?... We did not know you had hawks...
He said he does not 'have them', but if he brings road kill to feed them, they circle around his place and come to feed on his property, and he is then able to get great photos of them...
It sounded so cool...
He invited us, as we reached his property, to see his new pond, which he created as a huge swimming pool..... With an amazing jetty to sunbath or to jump into the water.
We had a great time admiring his place, his mature trees and surrounding forest and his homestead land, filled with fruit trees, a veg garden and all the things needed to live in harmony with the land.....
We left with huge orange color lemons from his tree, which are the sweet breed kind, that I tasted only in NZ....
Report card:
Butt pain from sitting on the bikes- no
Legs- perfect shape
Lungs- did excellent on the big hill, where I needed to gear down to the lowest first gear.
Ready to cycle 2 months in Tibet and China?- AYFKM
(are you fucking kidding me?)
Luckily.........we went cycling yesterday.
The misty weather gave way to a beautiful sunny and warm day, and after fiddling with our cycling speedometers, (it will be best to buy a cycling GPS), we hit the open road.... Aha... The pleasure of cycling on the road....
Cycling is a very SLOW and very MINDFUL process.
When you are driving in a car, you zip by the landscape and you are only aware of what catches your eye....and maybe also things like rain, the light condition, or the general scenery...
When you are cycling at a normal speed, (not while you are going fast down hills,) you are truly INSIDE the landscape.......
You become aware of every wild rose bush, every scent, and every fruiting tree...... every bird.... As well as all the discarded bits of trash by the road...
Cycling as a method of touring, is so slow, that after doing it for a few days, and getting over our tendency to rush about, our inner system start to slow down....
It suddenly makes no sense to rush at all....
You know that you will get there eventually, and you are reminded of the fact that it is ALL about the JOURNEY and not about the destination.
It is about the joys of the day, and NOT about accomplishing a goal or making the distance....
Getting to your destination, becomes double rewarding....
By the end of a long cycling day, there may be a lovely inn, or a country hotel...
The village may have seriously yummy food.......
And there may be a night market which is opened late... And offer local music and food...
Cycling as a method of traveling, adds another dimension to the sight seeing journey.
I am aware that in two months of driving a car around China, spending only a day here and there, we could see MORE of the country....while on bike, we will only be able to see a small portion of the Silk Road region.... But we will see every market and be able to speak and laugh with the people who live along that ancient route...
People interact with cyclists in a whole different way, than they do if you get there by car,....... (even more so, if you are in area which requires you to hire a driver...)
When you are on a bike, people immediately gather around you.
They examine your bike,..... ask how far you've come.... And where are you going....
They look absolutely stunned, when you tell them the names of the towns you visited...and they declare out loud, that it is impossible!... Just impossible that you have cycled this long....
When you show up in a car, rural people may feel suspicious..... You may be from the government.......or some kind of a secret police....... or an official.....
But when you show up on a bike, they immediately assume that you are a tourist,... And most likely a poor and adventurous soul.
After all, (they think,) if you were not poor, you would be able to hire a car... Which is the ONLY way to travel....
As it is much, much more convenient, and makes traveling much more enjoyable and easy, keeping you protected from the weather....
These were the thoughts that were on my mind, as we cycled around 30 Km, up and down the hills that surrounds our village...
On our way back to the village, we met a neighbor who is a very friendly soul.
We asked him what's up?
He said he is out looking for road -kill (a possum or a small rabbit which had been killed by a car), so he can feed the hawks...
We asked what hawks?... We did not know you had hawks...
He said he does not 'have them', but if he brings road kill to feed them, they circle around his place and come to feed on his property, and he is then able to get great photos of them...
It sounded so cool...
He invited us, as we reached his property, to see his new pond, which he created as a huge swimming pool..... With an amazing jetty to sunbath or to jump into the water.
We had a great time admiring his place, his mature trees and surrounding forest and his homestead land, filled with fruit trees, a veg garden and all the things needed to live in harmony with the land.....
We left with huge orange color lemons from his tree, which are the sweet breed kind, that I tasted only in NZ....
Report card:
Butt pain from sitting on the bikes- no
Legs- perfect shape
Lungs- did excellent on the big hill, where I needed to gear down to the lowest first gear.
Ready to cycle 2 months in Tibet and China?- AYFKM
(are you fucking kidding me?)
