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Andy

Andy

Visit Andy's website here for more photos and additional information: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bikepacker/

Secret Policeman Say - "It's for your own Protection"!

Day 183, 30th November
Runan - Zhengyang - Luoshan - Mangyang

The morning began with a full on battle. It was total war! Fireworks were flying everywhere around the tents. We used our catapults to full effect and the locals who heard the commotion ventured to investigate what the strange foreign types were doing in their storm drain. After we ran out of fireworks, we packed up, made our excuses, and left.

The first small town we came to we found a roadside stall cooking food and sat down to eat breakfast. An immense crowd gathered just to watch us, the biggest yet. Rory decided that it would be a good time to take a picture and in his monkey-like way, he climbed onto the roof of the shack to get a good picture. The crowd were in for a treat, though. As soon as he took the photo the roof gave way and Rory went crashing through it and into the wok! After all the calamity, Rory agreed with the stall owner over compensation, money was exchanged, and once again this morning we made our excuses, and left!

On and on we cycled down refreshingly quiet roads with a good tailwind. It was colder though, and there was a frost on the tents this morning. I really have the feeling that many of the people we pass have never seen a westerner before. Beyond the city of Luoshan we entered a village called Mangyang, I think, and were besieged in a small café by hoards of children and English students from the local school. The English teacher turned up and after our meal took us to a nice hotel, Y10 each, good value. We were unpacking our stuff when the police turned up and drew the party line. Through the teacher as an interpreter, we were told in no uncertain terms that this hotel was “Not Good” and that we had to go to a better one. It would be “secure” and “for our protection”, as everything later would be. The police, we were told, were there to - “Make our stay comfortable - we will protect you, we are your friends”.

In our new and somewhat grimmer hotel, or policeman friend made us feel comfortable by interrogating us and meticulously taking down all our details. After relaxing with a cup of coffee the English teacher returned with Mrs Wong, the police sergeant, who also made us feel “more comfortable” by making us fill out a myriad of forms and scrutinizing our passports. We had not gone un-noticed today as we had previously!

The Goldfish Experience
It's like being an exotic animal in a zoo or something. This "Being Watched" business can be a bit too much at times.

The teacher came around again and invited us to give a talk at his school tomorrow. Time to polish the portraits of Mao at the school I guess and to get out the red flags…

Total Miles: 8934.72 Todays Miles: 63.45 Average speed: 11.8 Time on bike: 5:22

Day 184, 1st December 2001
Mangyang - Zhoudang Fan - Xianhondian

Awoke at seven and went to the loo, passing the secret policeman who had been posted in the corridor on the way. Our teacher was already waiting for us. He informed us that two policeman had slept the night in the room below us, for “our protection”. It had worked too, as all of us had miraculously managed to survive the night!

Kissing Babies too?
It's going a bit far when women thrust their babies in your face. I had my nose tweaked by one small child!

At eight, we went off with our packed bikes to the school and given a good breakfast with the teachers. It was then that we were told the we had to each talk to a class separately, not as a group. However, Nick accompanied me for moral support and kind of pretended he’d done the full distance. It would have just confused matters if he tried to explain that he joined us in Bejing as a drunken whim one night. We entertained the class of cheering kids, drawing maps on the blackboards, singing “Happy Birthday”, and answering their questions. Not questions like “Do you have a girlfriend”? which we heard in Russian schools, but questions like;

“What do you feel about the international community’s position over Tibet”?

“Do you think that Taiwan should continue on the path towards self-determination”?

And these questions from ten-year-olds! There were a few strange faces in the crowd, I mean, not kids. Probably secret police taking down names of worthy students. One very young girl came up to me and sang a song in the voice of an angel, a song “Welcoming the foreign guests”. Later on, in the teacher’s staff room, we were told that only the English teacher had ever met a foreigner before and no-one else! On the wall we noticed the portrait of Mao, flanked by other Chinese leaders, Lenin, Marx, Engels, and even a portrait of that mass-murderer, Stalin!

Toby and I.
Both of us looking a little worse for wear. Tell me, is it a bad thing to drink beer in front of kids?

Afterwards, we were taken to another school to give another talk to one more class before being treated to lunch. The food affected me in a bad way and I had to do the 60-second-dash to the bog to do some serious pebble-dashing! Now I needed to tell Mrs Wong that I was not “feeling comfortable”.

We said our goodbyes and left the village after midday and were soon into more hillier country. It felt warmer and we saw our first tropical looking plant, a banana tree I think? The people looked different too, more darker skinned, and all wearing pointy straw hats. The road was being built or renewed and was very bumpy which cracked my saddle weld again. We crossed over into Hubei province and shortly afterwards found a nice place to camp on a terrace overlooking paddy-fields.

NOTE: I would just like to remind readers once again that this is a Memorablog. The trip took place 5 years ago to the day before blogging appeared. I hope this doesn’t disappoint any of you, like the traveler who emailed me yesterday wanting to meet up in Wuhan. Sorry dude, I’m sitting at a computer somewhere in a non-English speaking European country right now, not in China where I’d prefer to be.

Spot the secret policeman....
You're not honestly going to tell me the guy dead-centre, second row, is a schoolkid are you?

Total Miles: 8965.30 Todays Miles: 30.58 Average speed: 8.8 Time on bike: 3:28

Look at those books!
"Okay kids. Tomorrow the big-noses are coming so bring all your books, your parents books, your grannys books...etc...

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Continued here...

Visit Andy's website here for more photos and additional information:http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bikepacker/

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