Planalto Cycles

In the morning, I woke up too early to have an excuse not to use the 400-meter track outside my window. The last time was at least 48 years ago, and it’s strange to still have such vivid memories that show how short life is overall. Such a useless thing!  I The more I feel we shouldn’t have the worst impact possible each and leave a mess. We’re not worth it, and those condemned to live after us deserve better.

I see some simple improvements in this regard, and for me, one can be connected to Taiwan. At least my first steps inside a building reminded me: You can survive at 25°C, and there’s no point in showing off with freezing temperatures. Michi (“Yunnan-Michi”) had told me about buses in Venezuela where people in summer take winter clothes for a bus ride…

I boarded the ferry to Keelung and looked for a seat, but then someone showed me my cabin—I was torn between embarrassing privilege and feeling imprisoned. Some passengers wanted to see such a cabin, and I wanted to make it clear that I hadn’t chosen it. (I just wanted a seat on board.)

As I was writing, I looked at the clock – 9:54. A little shock ran through me – one minute until the next class and I was ill-prepared. My brain doesn’t need sleep to produce school nightmares.

I was taken to Li’s address, but first I had to meet Yvonne to get the ferry ticket back to Nangan for the 11th. She’s so much like I imagined she would be in person. When Li arrived, Yvonne explained every detail she’d written down, and when she was finished, she started another loop. So Li had to wait quite a while standing next to us, and I tried to stay focused, cooperative, and grateful to avoid an even more elaborate lection. However, I don’t want to diminish Yvonne’s organizational efforts!

Okay, all things come to an end, and Li was able to take me to her home. Glenn, her husband, was having a basketball tournament and meanwhile she invited me to a Japanese/Taiwanese restaurant. On the way back, we briefly looked at the street where her parents and brother lived, where I had stayed in 2015 and 2019. I remember that street well, but my disorientation would have suggested reaching it from the other side.

But the feeling of having arrived back in Taipei anyway prevailed, and Li, Glenn, and I spent a long evening at their home.

The taciturn driver of first evening picked me up, and we drove along a three-lane highway (in both directions!), most of which ran through tunnels. No tunnel in Austria has more than two lanes in each direction, and there’s always—and quite justifiably!—a debate about whether it makes economic sense or is ecologically acceptable. And in this case, I saw no reason for such a monstrous snake beneath these mountains.

There was an elderly Taiwanese bicycle tourist in the queue at the harbour, obviously back from a long journey. And I was 99% sure I knew him from China six years ago! I tried to explain it to him, but he didn’t understand. It’s a shame I didn’t upload the photos to a cloud; maybe I could have found the relevant part of the tour. I might even have a YouTube video, but that wouldn’t show much more than passing him and waving to him.

At the border control, a boy of about six refused to look at the camera. His grandmother became furious, but all the passengers remained quiet and patient. Two officers tried to calm them both down and prevented the grandmother from hitting the boy. They also opened another counter, so I couldn’t see how they finally managed to take a photo.
It’s strange to me, but because of the facial features that are unfamiliar to me I can’t tell if the boy was mentally disabled or simply spoiled.

A guy told me I wasn’t allowed to take any of the fruit I’d bought for my stay in Nangan. So I gave some away and ate a large apple, only to realize I also still had dried meat junk food. . Somewhere in my stomach I found a little space for that, and then the fast ferry, with the help of the rough sea, gave it a good shake. I wouldn’t have needed any waves to feel sick now, but it helped. I also received messages from Jing and Yvonne, but after a while, I gave up reading and replying and just stared at the waves, telling my body that “everything gonna be alright”. After an hour and a half, it was over, but my trembling fingers told me enough was enough.

The struggle with the digital entry card for Taiwan (which is only mandatory from October 1st) was finally worth it, because the official was really happy and proudly showed me the stamp in my passport.

It took a while and three calls from Yvonne before I got the next, the ultimate! – Taiwan ticket (Nangan – Keelung). There were no serious problems, just the ticket not where it was supposed to be, then in a hidden office instead of the counter, and then the wrong departure port (Dongyin instead of Nangan)  – everything could be handled by Yvonne.

I spent the rest of the day writing messages (faster, with my laptop, but still hours just because of the newly arranged trip) and editing here.

In the morning, after several attempts, the VPN magic file Ben had sent me finally worked! My laptop was connected to the internet, and I was editing and posting entries of 3 days. Then I got a message that the ferry will go tomorrow and Jing already had a ticket!

The only other thing worth mentioning was a short walk to the eco-park. On the way back, I had some food—not breathtaking, but at least new things and bought some fruit for the afternoon in Nangan.

The morning was spent exploring the area a bit and finding a hairdresser. The people there had some fun about something, but in the end, one of them did a good job. I could choose between different levels of professionalism, I took mid-level, something with “senior”.

The next few hours were to”wise” and dedicated to a transfer to Turkmenistan. No details…

As far as I knew, Typhoon Ragasa is very strong, but 20 km inland, it’s a “normal” storm with varying amounts of rain. When I wanted something to eat, it was raining too heavily, so I just went to a small nearby restaurant. Out of 40 dishes only noodles or rice were without meat. That’s what I get without Efan’s pre-selection 😊
Around 5:00 p.m., Jing learned that no ferry would be leaving Fuzhou tomorrow either. That same time tomorrow, she would know about the 25th, but I fear that even a functioning ferry doesn’t mean I’ll get a ticket when many people who have been waiting since the 21st want to get on it…

So, finally I also left Kunming.
 I wasn’t so isolated in my capsule and I could hear people leaving, and I was worried I’d miss my train if my alarm hadn’t gone off, but it was only 1:30 a.m. This happened twice more, and it was too much for me to continue sleeping. So I went to the train station even earlier.

I’m not sure what a reasonable and efficient train station is for a city of 10 million people, but modesty and restraint aren’t guidelines for architecture in many countries, and China plays in the top league. Many functional buildings seem too big to me. How much concrete could be saved if only the necessary was built (which anyway is too much because we are so many people in the world!).

The train was the first true high-speed train (295 km/h) for me on this trip. We alternately raced through beautiful (I had only blurred photos!) and apocalyptic landscapes and passed cities with that strange mix of skyscrapers and ordinary buildings that you find in many Chinese cities.

In the meantime, I passed information on via WeChat (Jing, mainland) to WhatsApp (Yvonne, Taiwan). Sometimes we “met” via email, which was quite stressful for someone who isn’t digitally inclined. But finally, we agreed that I would only take the ferry Fuzhou-Nangan (already Taiwan) and then Nangan-Keelung, hopefully arriving in Taiwan by Sunday at the latest, because there are no ferries to Keelung on Monday, and then I would arrive in Taiwan only on Tuesday.
The stay and tours on the three Matsu Islands were to be compressed into one day and shifted to the end of my Taiwan days. This was a compromise, but if I skipped it entirely, I wouldn’t get a refund.

In the morning the next goodbye was with Ludo, besides Efan & Leo only the Austrians were left. We Austrians drove together to the Green Lake. I actually wanted to take the subway (challenge, you know!), but to simplify coordination, I t went with their taxi. If all goes well, it’s quite quick for digital natives or optimistic adopters to get a taxi via Alipay or WeChat, both of which are connected to “Didi”, the equivalent of uber.
It was strange to revisit the places Tony, Leo, Efan, and I had visited on my first, pre-official day in Kunming—a good opportunity to let the melancholy run free.

From home, Efan still held her protective hand over us and guided us to the same restaurant we once had visited, even recommending what and especially how to order, but it was fully booked until 4pm. So, we had much simpler food.

Back at Forest University, Kathi, Reini, and I were the next farewell candidates. Michi would be staying in Yunnan for a few days and leaving China even later than Efan and Leo. Even Efan’s parents came to say goodbye. Ultimately, I managed to get through the situation without escalation and without bursting into tears , but it’s hard to know people you’ll never see again, and it’s also hard to have people you care about scattered across the planet instead of having them around you.

To better orient myself at Kunmingnan (=Kunming South) train station, I visited it after saying goodbye and practiced the route between the station and a nearby hotel.

It may be a capsule hotel, but ultimately it simply offers an indoor tent 2.0 experience, where you can control the light color inside and rely on electricity for exiting and for oxygen supply.

I had two long phone calls with one of two ladies who had properly organized everything for the transfer from Fuzhou (China’s mainland) to three of the Matsu Islands and Taiwan, but due to an approaching typhoon, no ferries are running. So, everything had to be rescheduled by two different agencies before being coordinated by a third in Vienna. It starts with the ferries, of course, but as far as Taiwan is concerned, it’s a step back in the paper world because someone must hand out the tickets on the islands—just as an example of all the details involved. I passed the new information on to Jing (mainland) via WeChat and just wanted to mention that today is Sunday and everything happened between 9:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

In the morning, I tried to find a small surprise gift for Fiona, who had accompanied us for the past few days and was always kind and friendly. She also became a friend to miss, the third friend who had to leave the group earlier. It wasn’t easy to find something when you don’t speak Chinese and most of the shops are closed, but it gave me the opportunity to see Lijiang waking up (or still awake).

Then we took the train back to Kunming, and the next goodbye when we arrival, as Mari directly went to the airport. The rest of the continuously shrinking group had an incredible mushroom dinner with Efan’s parents, where Michi was able to connect to Efan’s father to visit botanical garden with a guide later.

Why we received another gift, this time from Efan’s mother, I can’t explain, the less after this trip that was an overwhelming gift in so many ways.

For us, the dorm was like coming home and at the same time part of the farewell.

We (Reini & Kathi, Ludo, Tony and I) spent our last night in the dormitory at Forest University (Michi would leave a day later). Next farewell: Tony. He would be leaving early in the morning to prepare for his move to Melbourne (to study).

Efan called everyone to wake them up because she’d noticed clear skies promising an incredible sunrise—and we got it!

It was a good replacement for the 30-km monster hike we’d cancelled due to weather uncertainty and some time pressure (getting up very early still wouldn’t have been enough to get back in time to meet up with the relaxed group in Liijang).

But we still had a decision to make: either going down from upper to lower village and back the same way with all the motorcycles, or take an alternative route with the risk of being blocked by a landslide and being forced to return to the upper village and stay on the normal path. The locals didn’t know any more than we did, but in the end, we took the risk and didn’t regret it.

A terrifying four-hour drive brought us back to Lijiang. Not only did our own driver raise our blood pressure, also other drivers followed the idea that some Chinese more or less don’t matter more than gambling when overtaking without sight. Later, Efan told me that some try to evade the speed check by changing lanes, which presents an additional challenge. (In Austria, you can’t outsmart the speed check by changing lanes.)

I’d never seen trucks with light shows like those at an amusement park before. I wondered if that made them more visible or distracted other drivers. (No photos available, a bit like above but animated)

We met the relaxed group playing foosball and billiards at a bar.
There weren’t many non-alcoholic drinks available, and they had disheartening names like “Pussy Foot.”
Then I played pool for the first time—something I’d previously associated with the underworld or so. Three Chinese girls joined us, and they could be an example of my “or so”: Their faces were those of teenagers to me (“early twenties,” Efan corrected me), their spectacular fingernails would a naïve and at the same time suspicious guy like me connect with a profession forbidden in China And then they offered us cigarettes, placing their own as casually as possible in the corner of their mouths, but not lighting them as long as they remained in the room—perhaps out of consideration for a hare’s foot like me?

Between 11:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m., our group retreated bit by bit to the hotel.

No motorbikes this time, but mules, which is more pleasant, but still irritating when you see young people being carried up for their Instagram (etc.) posts and staring at their phones most of the time.

At the highest point, a cow was waiting for all the hikers/tourists, a little too interested in other people’s food, which is anyway unhealthy not only for cows. Michi, Ludo, and Fiona even went down to the lake, while Efan, Leo, and I wanted to rest our knees (we had a long descent ahead of us anyway), conserve our breath, and save our energy. It didn’t seem worth it, but then they showed us photos worth to regret our decision.

We chose a different route back, with a “No Trespassing” sign at the beginning, mainly because of the black bears, who occasionally like to pick up a tourist, but the scariest moment was when two mules made a full speed race downhill. It didn’t look like they were willing or able to react to random hikers.

Finally, we reached the village entrance, where a garden restaurant awaited us. A fantastic atmosphere – the long hike behind us, the incredible view around us, and good food in front of us. And then three ladies in traditional costumes began a dance around a fire. Ludo and Michi immediately joined them, the ice was broken, and a large crowd streamed around. Leo and I stood at a safe distance, pretending that our job was to document the situation. The rain drove us home.

On this trip, I mostly slept briefly and poorly. This is another reason why I think I should give up traveling and instead organize my daily routine to find some inner peace in my (personal!) life that doesn’t justify my permanent stress levels.
Humanity and the impending ruin of everything that could enable a good life for all, on the other hand, justifies any worries. I had experienced perhaps the best of humanity in my life, with the potential for paradise, but a rapid decline of that potential, caused by unscrupulous “leaders,” criminal billionaires, and a mass of people who underestimate their influence, both for the worse and for the worse.

That night was my shortest. Only an hour and then a short nap before I gave up and wrote in my journal. I wondered how long this could go on without collapsing, still hoping my body would choose the gentler option and simply sleep.

On a cold morning, we hoped to experience a sunrise on a beautiful terrace specially created for such events, but it was more for cloud lovers. The active group took a bus to Yubeng for their first hike up to the “lower village.” For us that meant to say good bye to Dannie and Zhouzhou.

It would have been a perfect hike, were it not for the many motorcycles that took tourists up or down, making noise, smelling, and scaring away hikers. It wasn’t easy; the thin air required careful pacing and breathing, but we all made it! A special adventure was the pickup truck ride from the lower village to the “upper village”. I wasn’t allowed to sit on the back of the truck, probably because my legs are too long—it can’t be because of my age, can it? Only Fiona and Ludo had this bone-jarring experience, but even in the car, it was special.

Then:
Good food, good room, good sleep!

oh – no! Not as fast…
First we had to wait for a backbag that should have been delivered from the starting point by a motorcyclist. But he wasn’t just late – he had handed it over to another driver, who also wasn’t just late but had handed it over to a third driver. And this one was late.
Leo guided us through a stretching lection meanwhile.