318.8 km in one day…it was hard but nice feeling at the end.

I was back again to Beijing where I should wait for a letter to receive from Japan. as I wrote before luckily I had a nice place to stay with a lovely family. They were taking care of me so good. I was actually feeling embarrassed after they were doing a lot for me, but in the other hand as a person who is always away from family, friends and his family life, it is lovely to have sometimes people who take care of him that way.
It was like while staying at home and my mum would offer me foods which I like the most and she cooks twice a day just to treat me. so I tried just to enjoy and appreciate the lovely atmosphere I was living and save my energy for the coming days. Also I was again about to have a big change, to go to a new country where still I have no idea about and also I had no one there and I should find some people and organize things before I get there.
I began to work on it, sending emails through warmshower, finding people with the same interest, contacting them and after few days I already had my place to stay, school to visit, a collage to visit and a big bike festival to attend..so I was ready to leave and go for my new destination. as always after staying in a place and getting to know people, culture, life style, food and etc..
it is time to move and leave for a new adventure, for a new discovering a part of world and also a dark part of myself too. S This journey is partly a journey within myself too and one of the biggest and most important part of it, just to know myself and to learn and having lots f change helps me to go through many different circumstances. This helps me to react in different ways, so in any of these circumstances I try to study myself and observe my reactions and find out from which part of my soul is coming and then I go through that part to study it.
This is the best way I found to study human’s nature. I spent most of the days at home doing my work, chatting with friends and I didn’t go out very often. It was too polluted those days and also I am not a tourist. I should know that I need to spend lots of energy on bicycle, organizing classes and other things, so when I have a chance to rest and stay at home then I would appreciate it, just few times I went out to visit some part of Beijing like Hutons but I was not that interested on touristic spots where I see too many people with camera. I rather prefer to stay alone or be in the nature listening to a bird or a tree. They speak directly to my soul while I hear people are screaming, moaning, crying and have lots of pain while putting all those beautiful breaks one top of another. I see how people are suffering and their boss standing there with slashes pushing them doing that hard job just to feed them.
They are beautiful, impressing and nice but ! I get that vibration of pain too. When I look at a break and a beautiful curve of wall, before I see its beauty I see a man standing there tired after he carried lots of break on his back, I see dust on his face mixed with a deep pain. All these beautiful monuments are standing on their shoulders. I don’t get a positive vibration except in some few holy places where people were working with their own demands.
All those lovely places don’t attract my attention while I more often go through small streets to see people, their lives and their smile after they see a stranger. That’s beautiful and lovely. I was planning to stay in Beijing 2 days, then I would have 3 days and 300km to cycle to a city called Qinhuangdao where I could take a ferry to Incheon in S Korea on Wednesday October 9. It was just a perfect plan and I could do 300km in 3 days which so easy and also go through a little road which is emptier than the main ones. But my letter was still not there and a week of holidays was also a reason which I wouldn’t expect it to arrive. My time was over and I had to leave but I should get my letter. I called my friend Helen who I gave her address and she said still no news.
I said to myself it is ok and I wait another day and I can make it in 2 days 300km. the nest day was the first day of working and I still waited and I lst 2 days, so it was getting a bit hard to do 300km in one day, so I changed my plan and I decided to take a ferry from another city on Thursday and I could wait another day too. I called the Chinese guy who I met in mountain to invite him to have a coffee and he just showed up in the afternoon. We had a lovely chat and I asked him to call the ferry terminal in Tianjin which was alternative for ferry. next day he called me back and informed that they no longer operate ferry to Incheon!! So I was like a lityle cat in the corner and I had no way to escape!! 300km and one day left! ohh NO! I have done it twice before and I knew how hard it will be but no way and train does not take bicycle inside, so it was the only option before me.
I was talking to Saeed ( my host ) and told him that I need to gather my mind, so I slept that day during the day just to relax and clean my mind. In the afternoon I went to a café nearby to sit, have a coffee and relax. My Chinese friend Ly called again to inform that he already reserved a room in ferry and I just need to be there before 10am on Wednesday. There was a reason which I was quite happy to that hard job and it was because I didn’t keep being patient and I lost my trust a day before. I was quite pieced off and I needed to recover myself, I needed also to punish myself to stay alert and conscious all the time. Sometimes I lose my trust and then I need to think and recover it again and it was time.
Riding 24 hours is not that easy but also so hard and it helps a lot to clean my soul and think while riding, going through my mistakes and evaluate my limits mentally and also physically. I began to ride at 8:30 and for the first 100km I didn’t push myself at all. I knew that I need my energy till the last minute, so I should calm down a bit. after it got dark the ride also got hard as well. It was main road which was the shortest way and to many trucks were on the road and dust everywhere. I was too dirty and full of dust all over my body, bicycle and bags. at night I kept hope that the road would be a bit more calm from midnight, but I was not that lucky!! The road was under construction for a long distance and I had to go through lots of whole, mud, dusty road and of course very slow. In 3 hours I could cycle just 25km which was a very bad result.
first I was thinking to arrive to the city 2 hours in advance, so I could find somewhere to wash my bisysle and clean, get some foods and eat but I found myself in rush. I calculated that if I cycle a bit faster, then I can be there at least one hour in advance. It was 5:30 in the morning and I was too tired and sleepy. 2 times I just went off from the road and it was likely falling. I was a bit scared as it could be quite dangerous if I move unconsciously to the middle of the road while too many trucks are passing by.
So I decided to stop and ask someone if I can take my bike in their truck for the last 70km. I stopped to ask a mini truck and finally after playing with all my body I could understood him what I need and he also did the same to let me know he does not travel far!! I was a bit awake after that conversation and I continued to ride again. after 2-3 km I stopped to wash my face and do my morning pray.
I was fine again and back to the road but suddenly I felt something is wrong!! the road does not seemed the right one !! I was thinking if I have done a mistake or not but as far as I could remember I was in the right road and all sign boards were right, I was following the road G102 all the time. I saw a little stone where they write the road number and distance but it was in Chinese and it meant that it is not the main road !! I looked at the map and I did not found anything. So I stopped to ask someone and I showed the map to the guy . the answer was not fun at all!!!
I just was in the wrong road and I had to continue it to get to another main road ( G205) which also goes to Qinhuangdao but it meant I had to cycle more 18kms. I stopped for a moment to digest the fact!! I had more than 50 km and just 3 hours left. It meant that I had to cycle 18km each hour and it is like I cycle in a normal road when I am fresh not after 270km of cycling. It was hard to decide what to do? I knew if I don’t hurry up then I may lose the ferry and it means lots of difficulties. I began to push myself. That’s me…when it gets harder I have more courage, I have more power and I am more determined. I kept cycling hard and all the time I was also thinking that this part is the part which will heal my soul and will clean my mistake, this part is washing dark ashes from my soul and I have to do it.
just 10 % left ( means 30km )and I kept counting percentages!! Now 8 % and later 5 %..just 2 % and I was there in Qinhuangdao at 9:30. Then I had to find the address and a guy draw a map for me and it showed that I can be there on time. I followed the map but I went through a wrong junction as I didn’t know exactly how he was counting junctions!! I stopped by a car and asked an old Chinese man and he and her wife began to call some places to find out where I should go! They knew it would be hard to explain it to me, so simply they told asked me to follow them and they began to drive.
I was there in ferry company office just 10 min late after I cycled 318.8km. while riding behind their car I was thinking how nice they are, how life is beautiful to see people like them around. How helpful they are. They spent 15min to show me the place and they drove some streets off from their destination just to show me! this is something which fascinate me more than all those beautiful monuments in Beijing.
This is China for me and if later someone asks me about China, I have no stories about monuments but so many about its lovely people, about their kindness, their helps and their hospitality. my passport was stamped and I was already out of the country. I was in front of ferry and I had to climb so many steps with that big bike!! Again a Chinese guy just ran to me and helped to take the bike up stairs without even asking for help.
I was too tired, 24 hours, 21 hours riding and no sleep. Last two times which I did long distance, I had a very warm bed, shower and good rest after I finished but this time I had many thing to organize after I was done, but finally after I carried my bags in several times to my room, I could sit, take a shower and sleep. in 20 min I was just dead… and now sitting in the library of ferry I enjoy the sea, peace, rest and writing this story and also quite excited to enter a new country.
10 October 2013