November 30, 2014
Another relaxing and easy day: Life was good!
I was a little on the dazed and confused side when I woke in the morning, and my head was stinging, which gave me the sense that I was unwell, or perhaps hungover. Two beautiful blue eyes were staring into mine with a mixture of pity and affection. Things between Dea and myself had been going really well, and it seemed not even my drunken escapades had managed to spoil it. Was I really chasing baby chicks? When I looked at this angelic face I had two trains of thought, the first being how it was possible for anyone to look so good first thing in the morning and the second was wondering just what business this beautiful and intelligent girl had with a filthy urchin like me. But trying to solve a conundrum like this one in my state just made my head hurt all the more, and so I decided that I'd better just appreciate it, and I rolled over and went back to sleep.
It was a nice, sunny day and eventually we all managed to get up and climb onto our bikes for what would be a very pleasant cycle. Not a lot happened during the course of the day but once my hangover subsided I was able to fully appreciate the company that I now kept. Often times during my long solo journey across China I had fantasized about catching up to Suzy and Dino, with them being just a couple of weeks ahead of me, so that I should not have to suffer alone. Of course making up that kind of distance when they themselves were riding a hundred kilometres a day was impossible, but I hoped that we would be reunited once they slowed down in South East Asia. Now my hopes had been realised and, although Dea's unexpected arrival had already emphatically ridden me of any loneliness, it was nevertheless wonderful to have their company again. With Dino being the most laid-back person ever and Suzy not so very far behind, our little peloton had a stress-free and easy dynamic. Life was good.
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The only slightly interesting and unusual thing that happened during this day was when I found myself, not for the first time ever, a bit behind the others, and I noticed a praying mantis in the road. I couldn't say as I'd ever seen a praying mantis before and I was consequently fascinated to see this interesting creature. It was a little in from the right side of the road, right in line with where most of the tyres would go and it was a mystery to me as to just how all of my companions could have missed the cheeky little chappy. Naturally I felt an urge to help this animated leaf and so I stuck out my foot next to him and he must have understood my intentions, because his long legs moved slowly forward and he climbed on board the top of my shoe. I then shuffled him across and flicked him off back into the safety of the roadside greenery where, truth be told, he fitted in much better. "Be gone Mr Mantis! Enjoy your freedom, but do please steer clear of the road in future!"
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It was another relaxing and easy day, or at least it was until dusk, at which point we noticed that we hadn't seen a guesthouse for a while and there was nowhere to camp. With such limited sleeping options we were forced to continue cycling as the sky turned from blue to purple to black. Night riding, always an adventure, was something that Dea said she would quite like to try, so it wasn't all bad, although she had no back light and so I stayed close behind her as we continued to desperately search for somewhere to rest our weary heads. For the previous couple of hours locals had continually told us we would find a guesthouse before too long. "Five kilometres" one said. "Four kilometres" the next told us. "Two kilometres" said another. "Ten kilometres" "Two kilometres" "Four kilometres" "Eight kilometres" and so on until finally after twenty kilometres we gave up, and decided that we needed to camp. Ironically the place where we decided to ask to camp just so happened to be a guesthouse.
It wasn't advertised as a guesthouse and we only stopped because there was a nice patch of grass next to it, but when we made sleeping gestures we were shown inside. Alas we soon saw why it was not advertised as a guesthouse, being as it was more akin to a row of police holding cells. The walls were bare concrete, there was no running water and the bedsheets look like they hadn't been changed since before any of us last saw England. Certainly we preferred our tents and, after a very long and difficult attempt at conversation with the owners, during which we all agreed that the previous day we should have really asked Nuan how to say "Can we put our tent here please?" instead of the far-less-practical "How many people in your family," we finally got what we wanted when an English-speaker was found by telephone. I asked him to translate our desire to camp on the patch of grass, which he did. The phone came back to me; "The owner says you can camp on the grass for free, but she says that she won't cook dinner for you." Deal.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 34,378 km (21,349 miles)
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