Time to change one broken tyre…
Posted by Claudio on September 6th, 2005
You don’t imagine how the human beeing feel at this altitude. I got a huge terrible headache.
We want our bikes back!!! It’s a torture to be on a bus. China has forbidden cyclists to cross the border to Pakistan, so we are forced to sit for some 200km on the bus. At this point we realize how much nicer is to travel by bike. On a bicycle you are part of the environment, on a bus you just are watching it from your window.You can stop anytime, talk to locals, be invited for a tea in their houses. With a bicycle you move very slow and you can feel the world around you in a much more relaxed way: sounds, noise, smells, wind, temperature, condition of the road. It’s a totally different experience.
Unfortunately the chinese army obliged us to get on a bus in order to reach Pakistan. As you can see our bikes are crying on the roof and we are not happy at all. We argued with the driver but according to the chinese flexibility was not possible to unload the bikes …
All the morning went in passport/bags/whatever checks and loading the bus. We had to rise the level of our voice a bit to make those guys to load our bikes on the top of the bus, but at the end they did without saying a word and for free (some travellers had to pay even 50€ to get it done… ridiculous because the price of the bus ticket is about 25€).