Was I losing the plot here?: Probably

November 18, 2014

Passing a reservoir caused by the damming of the river

The funny thing about Alex was that he didn't seem to need to eat or drink anything. He told me that he would stop and eat a meal of rice and egg in the middle of the day, and then maybe have a pack of cookies in the evening, but that was all he needed. In fact he berated me for eating too much every time that I stopped and had some snacks. And he only drank 500ml of water each day, despite the heat and humidity that meant that I was drinking three or four litres. Alex inisted that it was because humans just didn't need that much food and water, but I got the impression that his limited diet was largely because the poor fellow had very little money left.

Well, here's a man who knows how to eat properly Alex. And he needed to, as he was walking from the Laos border to the Siberian one. In fact he probably still is, that's a long way!

My suspicions gained support the following morning when we started on a long one thousand metre climb and I joked that we should race to the top, and that the loser would pay for the rice and eggs. At this suggestion Alex disappeared ahead of me like a hungry whippet and that was the last I saw of him. Evidently he was taking the rice competition seriously. Naturally I had to stop a few times and eat and drink water on this long climb, but Alex appeared to be able to do extraordinary things without taking on board any fuel. I'd never seen anything like it, and on such steep roads in tropical heat, it just didn't seem possible. Then, as I struggled away up that climb all alone with no sign of Alex, I began to wonder whether he was actually real, or whether he could, in fact, have been a figment of my imagination. Some hallucination caused by a tropical fever perhaps, or too much cycling, or too many E-numbers. Was I losing the plot here? Tropical hallucinations of Jesus on a bike. No, no, there were photos. And he snored a lot. He was real.

Caught this potted plant making a run for it

Alex waited for me at the summit and we continued on together over further climbs, our reunification coinciding with more heavy rain. "This is your fault," I reminded him, "I think it is going to rain every day that we cycle together." In the town of JiangCheng we stopped to eat the rice and egg that provided Alex with such superhuman powers, although he refused my offer to pay. But even I didn't mind stopping for an hour to eat now, as Laos was definitely within sight. And I don't mean that metaphorically anymore, it was literally within sight - in places the Laos border was only 20 kilometres away from us and we could see many mountain peaks in that country. Unfortunately the only place we could actually cross this border was still a couple of hundred kilometres further south, but even that was finally looking tantalisingly close.

Powered by rice and eggs and distracted by a surprise entrance by the sun? He most definitely is real folks

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 33,836 km (21,012 miles)

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