TOUGH TIMES IN TIMOR: Emi didn't know how to use
her gears properly and had never really been cycling before. This
was her cycling first trip. She couldn't speak very much English and
I, much less could speak Japanese. Also I didn't know much about the
terrain in Indonesia for where we were headed. The island of Timor
was mountainous and the roads were very steep. The handmade road was
a surface of a thousand of hand pats.
There were people everywhere. Even in the countryside it was hard
to get privacy. The people always came to us many to just stare or
others to practice their English. We had to hide to get some peace.
Even at night in the cheap hotels (Losmans), there would always be
a peephole somewhere. I once heard a noise and upon investigating
a hole in the thin wall I saw an eye looking back at me. So I took
my bidon from my bike and gave the eye at the other side a full squirt
of water. Another night I saw a stick coming through the louver windows
pulling the curtain back. I sneaked outside to catch the guy but he
escaped. The next morning I saw him. He had no remorse.
If I were to leave Emi with the bikes to go to a market or shopping,
I would always return to find Emi in the centre of a large crowd.
[Bali ]
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It always seemed that we would be going uphill when we cycled through
the villages and past the schools because we wanted to escape being
chased by the hundreds of children. It only took one kid to scream out
from the classroom and everyone would race out to see us. It was like
being The Pied Piper leading the children away. One day, with group
of kids around us, one of the kids just stood there and screamed totally
out of control. All of this attention was getting to Emi. The conditions
had been hard for the first time cycling. Not only the road conditions
but also the food wasn't so good, found weevils in biscuits. Often the
markets were empty and the street food very oily.
Despite all this we can't help missing those tough times in Timor.
THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI -THAILAND: At Kanchanaburi
was where the famous Bridge Over The River Kwai stood. Crossing it
now, the railway that cost so many lives during WW2 takes tourists
on their Qantas package tours or the many Japanese tourists on their
"Round the World in Seven Days" tours. They always seemed
in a hurry. So now we put down in history we cycled across the Bridge
Over The River Kwai.
Most interesting was the run down museum. For Emi it was a shock to
see what had happened during the war. In Japan during the time Emi
grew up, not a lot was spoken about the war. At the monuments to the
dead, side-by-side Australians and Japanese laid wreaths in tribute.
[ Thai road sign]
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The road we took northwards ran along
the Thai & Burmese border. There, a different war was going on.
A guerrilla, civil war against the military government of Burma. The
Karen people lived in this area. There were refugee camps all along
the way. While we stayed in a town on the border we heard over the
low walls of our room a discussion about smuggling some Burmese students
into Bangkok. In this town we met a lot of foreigners trying to help
the struggle of the Karen people against their oppressive government.
Further north we were off the bus route, therefore off the tourist
route too. The road became mountainous and the countryside poor dry
forest that had been slashed and burnt over and over.
On the weekend of the Buddhist New Year, there was a water festival,
meaning everyone had "licence" for a good water fight. Unfortunately
Emi had misunderstood and upon the first water being thrown at her
she took offence and slapped the boy. He just stood there stunned.
I tried to warn her but I was too late. For the whole weekend in the
40C heat we had water fights. Trucks with oil drums of water went
by with people throwing water. On the sides of the road people stood
throwing water through open windows of passing buses. We watched a
mother teaching her 3-year-old daughter how to throw water at passers-by
but when we came by she was so shy she didn't know what to do.
In the countryside we sometimes came across musicians doing an impromptu
performance or one day in a temple, we watched a classic Thai play
being rehearsed. The people were always friendly and at the play the
people gave us some fruit to eat.
The end of the 5000 km ride across SE Asia brought us to the lovely
green northern city of Chiang Mai. A great place to rest and enjoy
the good food available. From here due to the political situation
we couldn't cross the borders of Laos or China so we had to take a
plane to Japan.
SPRING IN THE JAPANESE ALPS: We awoke in the Japanese
temple that in fact, was also the youth hostel situated in a narrow
deep valley. Over night it had snowed and the steep forested mountains
that surrounded us were white. The tree line was about 2000 metres.
We were cycling from Osaka to Tokyo via the Japanese Alps. Here there
was much less traffic and we passed through the older and much more
traditional Japan. In some villages people peered secretly around
the corners of the buildings to catch a glimpse of me, the foreigner.
Ahead of us on the narrow asphalt road, a sign warned of the pass
being closed. We had already come so far that to turn back now meant
an alternative route through an extra 50km of heavy traffic. We decided
to go for the pass. We were on our way to Alaska and I thought the
experience of pushing through snow might be useful. After 9km of climbing
the steep narrow road we came to a wall of snow 2 metres high and
there were some road workers using tractors to clear the road. They
were stunned when we suggested we were going to continue over the
pass. They said it was impossible. I took a look on foot to see what
the conditions ahead were like. I found areas where the road was almost
clear of snow. There was deep snow mostly on the sheltered sides of
the twisting mountain road. To console the bewildered workers we said
were just going to camp for the night. They gave us a hand to get
started. It was extremely difficult those first steps.
[ Spring in the Japanese Alps]
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It wasn't long
before it was getting dark so on a bare patch of road we set up our
tent. We saw a wild boar and had already seen a lot of animal tracks
like rabbit, deer and possibly bear. There were still wild bears about
and at this time of the year coming out of hibernation. The next day
was a difficult push; there were long sections of deep snow. Soon
we found spring in the Japanese alps that if I pushed through in front,
Emi would have less trouble pushing from behind if she followed in
my tracks. Still we
often had to push together one bike at a time. One thing about the
snow; it did clean our bikes very well. It was a relief to reach the
top of the pass. We rested at some buildings that normally would be
selling souvenirs to the tourists that flocked to this place. It was
one of the most famous passes in Japan. "No Muge Toge" was
its name,
infamous for the death of many women and children who were on a forced
winter trek due to famine 100 years before. In those times their footwear
was a sandal made of reeds. Our feet were suffering though we had
strong cycling shoes. We resorted to putting plastic bags over our
wet socks. At least this would keep our feet from more doses of cold
snow. The downhill run provided some fun. A couple of times we slid
with the bikes down steep banks making a shortcut around the hairpin
bends. By the end of the day we came to a closed barrier and crawled
under it. Some people who saw us coming out seemed surprised that
we had come from that direction. We had made it through and we celebrated
with a hot coffee from an isolated roadside vending machine.
[ Japanese village shop]
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