Stats

Hitchhiked distance: 4555 kilometer

Number of lifts: 57

Average waiting time: 11 minutes 56 seconds

Waiting time total: 11 hours 20 minutes

You can download the log here. But be careful, it contains as well a short stage to Bishkek, that I did.

My Route

I hitchhiked from the chinese border to Amlata and did a little trip do Kirgistan, before coming back to Almata and going the long way towards Aktau at the Caspian Sea. Check out the route here.

People

It is a bit difficult to describe the typical Kazakhztan. The country is a cultural melting pot. The native Kasach person has blond hair and blue eyes, as I was told. And some day Dschinghis-Khan came along and made everyone become Asian. Or somehow like that it happened. If you walk through Almata it is impossible to see, if that person ahead of you is Kazakh, Chinese, German, Russian, or even a Turk. People look so different. I loved that.

People in Kazakhztan are kinda chummy and warm. Not as rough as the Russians. Kazakh‘s are like the Colombians of the UDSSR. Many of them speak some German, even if it is just a few words. And every second person is driving an (old) German car. You will get invitations for drinking fairly easy and people seem honestly interested in you.

What I recognized as well is, that you can have a quiet and relaxed time in Kazakhztan. Because everyone is looking so different, nobody seems to be alien and you can assimilate yourself pretty good. Very pleasent.

One thing I should mention and which regards mostly the woman who are going to hitchhike through Kazakhztan. Kazakhan men are very macho.like and I heard an above average number of stories about tried rape and sexual harrasment from my female hitchhiking friends. I can not really evaluate this, because I am a man and I was not molested by myself. And I don‘t want to put all Kazachans in one pot or create unneccessary fear. But Kazachztan follows some kind of reputation in this regard and I want you to be aware of that. It does not mean you will be in any kind of trouble or in the need to go nuts, if you visit Kazachztan. There are lots of wonderful people to meet. I just want you to take care of yourself guys.

Roads

The roads. Thats a very special topic in post sovjet countries. First I should say, that you will find big and well maintained roads between the major cities and moving around here should be not a problem at all. But i wouldn‘t say that about every region in Kazakhztan.

When I came from the chinese border to Almata I already crossed one of those wrecked roads, which can be a bit tough to deal with sometimes. But what I encountered in the center of the country was even for me a new level of apocalypse. Allthough I hitchhiked on the worst roads of our planet before. I mean, streets are there to make movement easier and open up new territories. In Kazakhztan they more seem to be an additional obstacle with a special feature which is: They are make your life a living hell and you might be faster walking or taking the dirt-road which wriggles aside the main road. Something I only discovered in post sovjet countries, btw.

I had a very interesting hitchhiking tour from Qyandiyaghasch to Makat. Three cars in eight hours and directly through the Kazakhan Steppe. People prefer to do a 1000 km detour instead of going this 400 km long stretch. For a reason, how I had to find out. This road is probably the worst I ever encountered in my hitchhiking life. But beautiful! Worth it! In its very special way.

Besides be aware of the fact, that Kazakhztan is mostly Steppe, just little mountans but mostly wide wastelands. Until the horizon. A little bit like Argentina but with less people. I really liked blasting through this. Because hitchhiking was super easy.

Tactics

Right in the beginning I gotta break a lance for Kazakhztan. I had so much fun there while hitchhiking. Fuck yeah. People just know whats going on. Basically every car is a taxi here, which is a bit problematic for your movement. But if you are clear from the beginning and tell them right away, that you won‘t pay/have no money, then most of the time they gonna take you anyway. But a clear communication is very important and so to know some basics in Russian. Also mention, that you do Autostop and most people will get what you do. It is definitely a different story than in Japan where everyone thinks you are absolutely lost and need help. In Kazakhztan you will get more of this „Ah another hitchhiker!“-feeling.

Another point I really enjoyed: You can hitchhike basically everywhere along the road. Sometimes you need to walk a bit to find a better spot, but positioning is straight forward and uncomplicated. You will also find good onramps at the bigger junctions and roundabouts in the cities. I would not recommend to position yourself at bus-stops, because people will think you wait for the bus. Also because the locals are hitchhiking here and they usually pay. Don‘t get into that sharktank.

Thir point about Kazakhztan is night-hitchhiking, which works fantastically. There is no difference between day and night-time. Cars stop equally fast. Very comfortable. But I guess my hitchhiking suit and the reflectors did a good amount of work here.

Kazakhztan is a super easy and straight forward hitchhiking country. Just use the bypass roads, when going through bigger cities. They are existing almost every time and you don‘t want to end up inside the cities. Because there is Moloch time.

Impressions

Specifics

I told already that Kazakhztan is pretty flat but at the border with Kirgistan you will find some nice mountains and in Almata you have a nice view on them. Almata is a beautiful city anyway, if you like grey Sovjet prefab estates, which I do very much. But mostly because of the people. I thought the Kazachan people are really friendly and nice and I definitely gonna head back one day and visit some friends there.

Culinarily I could connect very well to Kazakhztan as well. Beside the good old Plow (rice dish) and the omnipresent Samsa (filled pasties) we also made a very delicious summer soup with potatoes, chives, eggs, some kind of yoghurt drink and sparkling water. Sounds strange but tastes terrific. Also you got some Kwas, which is some kind of a light beer, made of fermented bred and the good old Kumis (rotten horse milk). Not made for everyone but people in this region seem do like a sour taste.

If you head towards Kazakhztan you will either cross Russia or through Central Asia. In the latter case it could get a little complicated, because getting visas in countries like Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan can be quite a hustle. I by myself took the cargo boat through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan. Was a funny tour that I can only recommend. If you need more infos about this passage you should check in with Caravanistan.com, which is btw. by far the best ressource for informations, if you wanna travel Central Asia.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in… (20) Kazakhztan erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

First ride in the morning from Wuhan

My nightlride to Urumqi. Bread and onions and visiting the mosque in the morning.

He picked me up afterwards

Policemen who thought I am a famous football playerPolicemen who rescued me from the terrible service area near Yinchuan

Policemen who rescued me from the terrible service area near Datong

And he let me stay in his service area overnight

Just a random guy who wanted to take a photo with me

He as well

Friendly truck driver who took me after my Bundesliga night and brought me to this nice trucker breakfast place

Family in Yunnan, one of my first rides in China!

Tibetan trucker

This nice lady brought me some food. Probably lung.

Here I was very tired

My most favourite Tourguides!

First ride off from the service area in Datong

Ride from Harbin. He was on the road all night long and we started the ride with a two hour nap, before we drove off

Nightride Chengde

Pork feet and pork ear right before the chinese wall

Ice and she spoke very good english

With him I go the soy bean cut and probably the most shining smile of Xingjian

And this lovely people gave me a chinese talisman

It is a great gift, that I received so much hospitality and I want to thank all this wonderful people, regardless if they are on those pictures or not. This will stay in my heart and shows once again, how beautiful people in this world are. Just: Thank you!

Der Beitrag My deepest gratitude to chinese people erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

If you go hitchhiking your speed is all about your technique. In day-time the advanced and not-advanced hitchhiker might move with more or less the same speed. But with the right equipment and technique you can also move through the night without any problem. There is less traffic, but therefore the cars will go further. More experienced hitchhikers use the night for their movement as well as the day.

On my „Royal Stage“ from New York to Alaska I achieved a very good time while rushing through Canada. I had one of my best runs going from Thousand Islands border USA/Canada to Otter Falls/Haines Junction in Yukon Territory. I did 6071 km in 107h 8m; Ø56 km/h. I think this is faster than driving by yourself. And since this tour had a acceptable length, I would like to call it my personal best time.

In the Russian hitchhiking school you calculate an average speed of 50km/h during summer-time and 40 km/h during wintertime. This counts for most of the developed countries like Iran, USA, Kanada, Russia, Germany, Argentina, etc. The calculation has to be adapted if you move through mountainous territory with serpentines. In general the road is getting slower the higher it is. In technically more difficult regions your covered distance can drop down to 200-300km per day. I experienced that, when I hitchhiker through the Bolivian high plateaus.

The longer your tour is, the harder it is to keep up the speed. If I would have traveled only 3 km/h less on my Canada crossing, that would have meant in the end 321 km less distance. 3 km/h less sounds not much, but it really makes the difference in the end.

When I started hitchhiking we always calculated with twice of the normal driving time (if you drive by yourself, including rest and sleeping breaks). For beginners this is a good landmark, which is easy to achieve. If you fail this, you do something wrong. But in my covered routes through Asia, as South and North America, you can see, that the Russian calculation is realistic, especially if you move a longer distance.

If you hitchhike alone you will always be slightly faster than going as a couple. With three person your average speed will drop significantly. Border crossings are always different, but you can calculate an average delay of one our, when getting into a new territory. Crossing cities is a big issue and you should calculate around two hours more, than the normal driving time, especially if you need to fight your way through a Moloch like La Paz or Panama City. With or without public transport. Crossing cities is one of the hardest things to do and you can lose much more time here, if you are an unexperienced hitchhiker.

The more experienced the hitchhiker is, the less will be the difference in the movement speed between each other. And this is independent from age or gender. Who argues, that you hitchhike faster with a woman, just because she is a woman, has not enough own experience to convince drivers to stop. And if one of my female hitchhiking comrades is hitchhiking faster than me, then it is about her advanced technique and not about her pussy.

In general I want to show with this article, that hitchhiking is able to be scheduled and your speed is most dependent on your skill. This includes body language, clothing, attitude, gesture, facial expression, how good your communication is and how charming you can make cars to stop. Also your positioning is very important and that you avoid tactical mistakes like, letting the driver decide where to put you or taking rides that won’t bring you any advantage. All that are parameters which affect your speed and they are much more important than pure luck. Who argues that hitchhiking is about luck might not know how to hitchhike properly.

Der Beitrag Personal best – How to calculate your hitchhiking speed erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

Stats

Hitchhiked distance: 15.032 kilometer

Number of lifts: 89

Average waiting time: 19 minutes 15 seconds

Waiting time total: 28 hours 33 minutes

Log you can find here.

My Route

I started in Hong-Kong, made a short detour through the Yunnan region in the South and stayed three days in Dali. Afterwards I took a route along the Tibetan border to Chengdu and Wuhan. I continued in direction Bejing into Heilongjiang at the Mongolian border.
The last part lead me all the way from the north-east corner to Kaxgar in the far south-west. From here you can enter the highest road in the world, but I had to turn around and continue into Kazachztan. I hitchhiked more than 15.000 km in less than three weeks.
Route nach Kashgar 12.915km

Kashgar – Horgos 2117km

People

Everyone told me, that the Chinese would be so different. And they are indeed. But I did not experience those differences as drastically as expected. First it should be said, that China is hardly possible to realize, with its 1,35 Billion inhabitants and as the most populated country in the world. The cities are unbelievable big and you will find lots of tower block complexes,, like it should be in a god socialistic country. Also you gather a lot different ethnic groups in one country. The Han Chinese make the biggest group. In the South-West you will find a lot of Tibetans, in the North the people look more like Mongols and in the very west are mostly Uyghurs, which are more Turks/Central Asian than classical Chinese. I definitely learnt that China is not the same like China.

Also I mostly had to do with the new Chinese middle class, because they are the ones who move on the highways and my time in China I spend mostly along highways. I think the different between them and people in Europe is not very big. They also want to consume, drive the newest cars, have smartphones, are interested in travelling and used Google Translate to communicate with me. Not much different than in other countries.

In general the Chinese are very polite, but not like the Japanese who do a bit too much for you. While in Japan some people do a three hour long detour, because they think it is necessarily, this won’t happen in China, which I find very pleasant. But anyway, if you sit in a car during lunch, breakfast or dinner time, you most likely will be invited to eat with the people in your car. Also regularly people bought me food and gave it to me as a present for my upcoming way. Chinese people care about you, what lead to the decision to travel without any money. It was just not necessary here.

A point that I did not like very much was, that sometimes the Chinese people miss to leave yourself some prvacy and they stare at you, as if you would have eight noses. Or they make a video, or foto, or selfie, which happened almost every time, when I was picked up. Sometimes they even gather in groups to look at the stranger. A bit like in a zoo. Maybe as an explanation I think, that China went through a period of incredibly fast changes and foreigners still have a kind of exotic status. People are just very excited about you travelling through their wonderful country. I guess we need to get used to this while hitchhiking. And they don’t want anything bad from you, just miss a little bit of decency. If you don’t like selfies, you better stay out of China.

Btw. Driving is another thing. Chinese can’t drive very well. Unexpected movement, stopping in the middle of the highway without reason, driving slowly on the very left lane or totally ignoring of any road marking are daily observations in the Chinese traffic.
Roads
China has a perfect Highway network, which is a main indicator for the raise of this country. Not before 1988 they opened the first 17 km long highway section, which is now part of the ringroad of Shanghai. It took then 23 years till they had 74.000 km highway and overtook the Interstate-Network in the USA to become the worlds biggest highway network. Nowadays (2016) they have 123.000 km highway. 11.000 km of that only build in 2015. I just write this numbers, to make you understand HOW fast China is growing to overcome the development gap. The higway network is the most important project towards this process.

Even more impressing it will be to actually drive on this highways. There are service areas, like in Germany, which provide a perfect infrastructure for hitchhiking. The highways are in a very good shape and even in more rural corner, like on the Russian-Mongolian border in the North, you have consequently paved highways, which make it very comfortable to travel up and forth through China. If you consider how big this country is, this is a respectable achievement.

The highways in China are toll roads, which might cause that they are mostly used by a new, rich Chinese middle-class and you won’t find any wrecked cars there. The toll stations are a good position for hitchhiking, which gives an additional plus point for China. And what I absolutely enjoyed was, that the capacities of the infrastructures are far from being fully in use, which cause that in more rural areas you have a combination of very very little traffic, new roads and huge service areas. I liked that. But I am also a bit nostalgic and have pictures of the empty American and German highways from the 50s in my head. Todays roads are often so full with cars. In China you can smell pioneer atmosphere which is very intriguing in my eyes.

Another point about the traffic infrastructure, which has not directly to do with the highways. China has another impressive way of transportation: trains. It makes totally sense to invest in higspeed-trains, because the country is so big. There is a as well a huge train network, which are mostly build on high-tracks. The Chinese trains remember me on the German Inter-City-Express and they furthermore seem not to be less fast. Another indicator for the catching up process with the western countries.

Tactics

Before we start talking about hitchhiking, you should understand first: China has a huge highway system with a perfect infrastructure for hitchhiking: the service areas. Signs along the highway are usually with Chinese and Latin sings. Orientation is not as difficult as you might think and you can travel easily throughout the whole country.

The biggest challenge might be the communication problem, but here are some tips, how you can get around that and hitchhike through China like a boss.

Google Translate
Thanks to offline language packages and with offline speech recognition you got a wonderful tool to communicate with the people, even if you don’t have internet. Also if you get out your phone, most Chinese people will follow your example and use their translators as well. I made a couple of conversations like this and it worked really nicely.

WeChat
Better than translate might be to get yourself a WeChat account. This si something like a chinese WhatsApp and everyone is using that. You will recognize their surprising looks, when you show them your WeChat ID and ask them to scan it with their phone. But why WeChat? Because it has a automatic translator build-in. Only working with internet, but really reliable and the people are so happy about it. Also you can make them sending the selfies they did with you. Very practical.

The precious letter
I got a pre-written letter with me, which I got from a hitchiking buddy before. And honestly, I don’t really know what exactly was written on it. Something like „Hello I am Stefan from Germany, I am here to travel your beautiful country. Usually I move by hitchhiking (explaining hitchhiking) please don’t bring me to a bus or train station. I like to travel that way….etcpp.“ When people were reading that piece of paper I always could observe a big smile getting into their face. Beautiful. My secret weapon. I passed the letter to another friend who is hitchhiking through China. From hitchhiker to hitchhiker. Here is a photo of this letter.

List of Chinese number plates
Chinese number plates are as precise as in Germany. The first sign stands for the province and next comes a letter, which stands for the city/region. The capitals of the provinces often have the letter „A“. For a more precise determination you can download the full list of Chinese number plates from Wikipedia. Very helpful if you want to approach people directly at the gas station or make yourself a sign.

Service areas and overview signs
In almost every bigger city or highway intersection, you will find a service area. The people will usually know where. And if you want to keep control about you movement, there are some overview signs on the highway, where usually the next three service stations are shown. Very helpful if you plan your route. Just keep your eyes open.

Service areas have often a gas station, a restaurant and sometimes even free Wifi. Doors are always open in China and you can sneak on the roofs of the buildings to find a nice sleeping place. Just be careful which door you open, sometimes there might be someone sleeping behind already. Several times I ended up in peoples private rooms.

Hitchhiking in China can be executed in several ways. It works perfectly if you just stand at the end of a service area and stick your thumb out. Signs make sense but with the number plates it might be easier to find a ride by yourself, than making the ride find you.
Another good strategy is as followed. You get on the highway and go to the toilet or drink some water. Usually it will not take long, till someone approaches you and starts talking. You won’t understand anything. Let the person talk for 30 seconds and then then take out your letter. While he is reading a big smile will occure on his face. They might say „Germany!“, if they are at the part of your origin and laugh. After reading the contact person will start to search car for you and include other people in the process, which stand around you meanwhile and watch the scenery. Then everything will go its way and work automatically.

I have to add, that the Chinese culture is very much focussed on the collective. Socialistic. It is somehow the collective responsibility to care about you as a tourist. I had the situation very often, that I wanted to get out of a car and the driver insisted to find the next ride for me. Then we talked across the parking area and when he found a car there was a strange conversation occurring. I did not understood, but it was like „Are you driving to Beijing?“ „Yes.“ „Oh, very good, because this person needs to go to Beijing!“ And then they already put my backpack into the car. I never had the feeling that they would actually „ask“ if they want to take me. This part was kind of self-understanding.

Of course it will not always be that easy to hitchhike through China. But most of the time it will work by itself. Alternatively you got very good options for positioning, like exits of service areas. But also toll stations are good. Police controls make sure that you will meet slow traffic, but you should be careful, that the police is not hitchhiking for you, which might take ages. In the end you can also take position directly on the highway intersections, which is illegal, but since there is a lack of traffic police in China, hardly anyone will molest you there. Also those intersections are perfectly made to get around cities.

China is a great country to hitchhike long distances and life on the highway.

Impressions

Specifics

Almost every male Chinese person is smoking. Smoking is part of the Chinese culture, like beer of the German one. If they are lightening themselves a cigarette, they are usually getting two out of the package and offering you one. I had owners of bars, who came to our table and offered cigarettes as a welcoming gesture. Some people smoke tobacco bongs before lunch. I mean, i saw a lot of countries, where they smoke a lot, but China is definitely world champion in this discipline.

Who still thinks China is a development country might have missed the last 15 years of life. This country is blooming and you can see a new player in worlds power game uprising. Not even the perfect highway networks and the new middle class, but also the cities are growing massively. Sky high living blocks shoot out of the ground like mushrooms. Big shopping centres for consumers needs are set, which are far from everything I know in Germany. China is rolling as unstoppable as a mud-avalanche.

In case of food China was the most interesting country I have ever travelled through. I guess I never ate anything twice. Chinese kitchen is so divers and really really good. I tasted some new things, like pork feet, lung, pickled intesticals, duck neck or other things, that sound disgusting but are actually really good! And you should consider, that I just came out of food paradise Japan and it was even harder to impress me. But Chinese kitchen did so, definitely!

The Chinese wall was very beautiful and if you want to be alone, you can just wander in one of the sections that are closed for tourists. Most of the people visit the renovated parts, which does not mean, that the other ones are not accessible. A little bit adventurous to get there but the view pays definitely off!

The Yunnan region in south, near the border to Myanmar is one of the most beautiful areas I have travelled to so far. People are mostly Tibetans and the foot of the Himalayas gives a stunning scenery. People, scenery and food are especially good here and I can recommend to visit there.

Xinjang is the biggest province, which consists mostly of desert. But in the north there is also water and agriculture, which surprised me. There should grow the best peaches of China and also you will find lots of Muslim people in this area. China is not like China here anymore, but more like Central Asia. Completely different to the East of the country.

Internet is not really working well in China, as Google, Facebook and several other services are blocked. You should use a VPN. I by myself had also a Hong-Kong Data package, which made me being able to access all services!

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking in… (18) China erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

The policemen asks me into the police station to have a look at my passport. Not that they would be interested in checking my identity. No. They just want to have a look at the German passport. Afterwards photosession.

Flashlight thunderstorm this morning near Yinchuan. As German representative it is also my job to meet Chinese officials, show my passport stamps and shake hands.

Seriously there were five people in a line taking photos if this scene. Like on a press conference. I think Chinese police is super friendly. Always curious and very young fellows.

I’m approaching the big deserty west of China at the moment. After two difficult days with only 1200km in total, it smells like a good hitchhiking day is upcoming.

10:24

Nothing stops here. To avoid further complications I sneak out of the highway, walk through the backlands to get directly to the intersections. Hopefully nobody saw me.

After 14 minutes I should have a ride. They give me 2kg of pickled, ready to eat, soy bean stuff for my proviant bag.

11:49

Some truck picks me up, which I saw at the gas station before. Terrible ride. Really creepy guy. Wants money from me. And there is a Co-Driver who is the same. Both are talking to me, want to see my notebook. I pretend that I don’t understand anything. Then they want to see my passport. The two most precious things I have. Not for you guys. These are the kind of people I would suspect to rape me, if I would be a girl.

He is still bothering me. Pretending he would leave the highway on the next exit. I tell him, that I want to go out. He says no. Pulling over and in the last moment getting back on the highway. Don’t know what pissed me off more, that he is kidnapping me, or that I would move into the wrong direction. Definitely strange humor of this guy. I don’t get it.

In the end he gives me a can of coffee as farewell and let me go out at the place where I wanted to go.

13:05

Woman who picks me up speaks English and they buy me ice-cream. Something different!

16:04

My eating situation gets a bit worser those days. I have only that 2kg of pickled soy beans left and beside that only very few supplies. No real meal since two days, beside cookies and those little cakes that taste like gasoil. Even water is running short.

19:38

1400 km ride. Four guys in a van. We are getting into another cultural sphere. They offer me bread and onions. We open a WeĆhat group chat, so that we can communicate with each other.

21.05.2016, 04:38

Strange scenes at the toll station. We pass three policemen, which where standing in front of the little house, where you pay. Suddenly screaming in my car. We accelerate. The policemen scream as well. We break hard. Full stop. Our „boss“ looks out of the window, waving with our card and saying something like: „We were just looking for the card. Everything alright.“

Just when the same happened again, i realized what was going on. The guys tried to get through the toll station, without paying. If you pass through close enough with the car in front of you, you can get through the gare as well. Second time we manage to do, by the way.

06:00

No clue why we left the highway and driving through this city now. I ask whats going on and they tell me I should wait 15 minutes in the car. I think they go praying. Sunrise is near.

Finally I can have a short sleep in the back of the car. All night long there was a lot going on. Three times they will move the car, while I am sleeping in the back. Don’t know what is going on here. However, then is breakfast time. Noodle soup. My first real meal since two days.

I also will smoke three cigarettes during this ride. The first out of politeness. The third because I want to. Little exception.

19:35, near Urumqi

Several lifts push me forward. Then a bus stops. Same kind of driver than this trucker that picked me up the day before. Same game, not believing, that I don’t have money. At the end he drops me at the next police control. Not too bad to be honest.

19:45

Policemen is very friendly. Thinks I am a professional football player, because of my Alex Meier picture in my passport. Photosession.

20:01

Now the whole police station is there. In general thos control points are not that bad, but they can mean boon and ban at the same time. Often the policemen are a bit slow and unable to find the next ride. Especially if they don’t believe in the power of hitchhiking. Here are two candidates who doubt very strongly, say I would never get a ride without money. Because it is not working. Bullshit.

20:30

And who is at the control, talking to the cars to find myself a ride? Yes, the skeptical minds. I need to take action. This will last forever otherwise. But it is so difficult to get a ride, if you have people around, that produce such a negative aura. I could have had a ride three times already…..

21:30

They told me to sit and wait. I get some bread and water. Okay. Can’t do anything about it now. I need to wait. Like in Venezuela. There they put me into a bus later.

22.05.2016, 00:58

And again today. What a nice bus. Even bed in it. They are a little too short for me, but who cares. The bus will go 16 hours for the next 800 km. Pretty slow. I would have been definitely faster with hitchhiking.

But you know, that is the dilemma in those situations. I had to say, that i do not have any money, because I am hitchhiking. Every explanation is too difficult and confusing. Well and then it creates a certain dynamic where you can’t get out in the end. And then you gotta take what you get, even if it means that neither you, nor the people who pick you up, want this.

10:28

Lying in the bus. I am hungry. I decide that I will use some money again, when I arrive in Kaxgar. This travelling-without-money is nothing for me.

15:08

Arrived in Kaxgar. I think I am at the bus station near the city border. I did not wanted to enter the city, as it is so difficult to hitchhike out. Now I am going to charge my batteries. Smartphone and Laptop. Updating my China report. A little bit like airport here. Going to brush my teeth, take a breath and stock up my supplies, before I head back towards Kazachztan.

Good run anyway. 6 days and 16 hours for more than 5500 km and in between climbed onto and fall off the chinese wall.

19:00

And there we go, back on the track. On my way out of the bus station I bought fr around 4€ as much food as I can carry. Also I had some local specialty. Rotten camel milk. Tasted a bit strange, but refreshing as well. Short talk with the vendors and then I was back hitchhiking.

21:35

Very good run out of the city. Made the first 200 km already. Smoked another politeness-cigarette in the sunset. Smells like a good night is upcoming.

22:32

Walking three kilometers to the next service area. Almost no traffic here. A bus is passing by, but I ignore this.

22:45

Same bus at the service area. Five man are waving me towards them. Where I am going? Ah, they drive to Urumqi as well. I tell them, that i won’t pay. 400? No, no money. 200? No, sorry. 100?!? Nada amigos. They can’t believe. I have my principles. In the end we joke around a little bit and they drive off, while I approach a group of truckers, which have no space for me.

22:47

Coming back from the truckers. The bus stopped. Five arms are stick out of the door and wave me towards the bus again. I can come. 1250 km night lift to Urumqi. Again a bed for me. The drive will take around 22 hours. The only concern now: What if I get in the same police control like yesterday evening. How will they react, if they see me again, without money, sitting in a bus into the other direction?

23:50

Everywhere are children lying on the ground. To get out of the bus seems like a obstacle run. Aggressive mother animals try to prevent you from passing through. Others climb cautiously over the shitfaces. We are laughing about everyone who has to pass through.

03:34

My supply bag is exploding. Feels like EVERYONE in this bus gave me some food or some drinks already. Heartly welcome.

23.05.2016, 14:04

Break. I am looking for some coffee and my neighbor forces me to sit down and have some pasta with him. And tee. What a fabulous tea. Tastes so delicious. I try to find out, what kind of tea that was. They say it was called chai. Ah. Of course. Chai. Really delicious.

18:47

And then again a police control. The Chinese try to control their minorities. All smartphones get confiscated. I can keep mine.

20:38

In Urumqi. Only 600km to the border. I get a lift with some Kazakh Chinese guy.

23:01

Service area. They have Internet here. Two hours to the relegation match of the German Bundesliga Nürnberg against Frankfurt. I can not risk to be on the road during this game. Better wait and configure my computer to get around the Chinese firewall. Priorities.

23:50

I was wondering why the game already started. Listening since 15 minutes to the football radio and getting really upset, because we caught already the first goal. Then realizing that it i just the replay of the first match.

24.05.2016, 00:30

Only me here at the gas station, sitting at a table in front of the toilets. Stream is not working but the radio is. FORZA SGE!

04:20

We remain in the first league. I am done for tonight. My nerves. Let’s go back hitchhiking.

04:22

One car, one ride. My hitchhiking is as first class as my team.

06:08

I mean, those are things you really need to become conscious about. Standing at a random service area in western China and singing the hymn of your favorite football club. Alone. Passioned. Happy.

07:15

Super nice trucker picked me up. We had breakfast in one of those little sheds at the side of the road. A bit dirty, but I love those localities. Always the best food there.

12:00

BMW stops. I get into the car and tell him „No money, okay?“. Shortly after I feel a bit stupid, cause this guy has probably more money than my whole family together. But no money, okay?

15:16

Finally Kazakhstan. What a fight. First i did not find the border checkpoint, because on the chinese side everything is a mix of shopping center and immigration control. Then the Chinese didn’t wanted me to cross by walking. I was not allowed to ask a truck driver as well. How stupid is that. In the end I talked to some passengers of the only bus which was there. They said I should ask the boss. He agreed to take me. It came out that it is a huge wedding party. A whole family rented this bus to go to Kazakhstan, having a wedding. Two weeks celebration. One week with the bride, the other week with the groom. Very funny. I do not want to know, how much Kazakh relatives will attend to the party.

As I came to the Kazakh side there where eight buses waiting. Everything was very slow. I think they would not pass the border before midnight with their bus. I tried to slip through and walk the 15m from the immigration control to the gate. Not allowed. So I had to get into the first bus there and could get in that way. What a stupid border. Even Canada seems easier to enter.

15:40

In Kazachztan. Feels immediately 28° warmer here, although I am just 1km away from China. On my way to the last control a guy waves me towards him and says he can take me. For free? Autostop! Really? Without money? Yes! So I got my first ride in Kazachztan, without even hitchhiking. Liked that country from the beginning!

16:00

My driver is a taxi driver. He does not want any money, but tries to ripp me off while changing money in the end. Thank you and goodbye. I have to go on.

16:20

My ride just takes me to the end of the town but holds me a long lecture about why I should believe in Allah and stop to believe in Jesus. Again those kind of people who think they have to missionary. But the Catholics in Brazil have been more annoying.

16:59

Audi, Audi, everywhere Audi. And 3rd generation Golf. They drive the same here like the Russian-german immigrants in Germany. So funny. A truck takes me three hours forwards, makes a phone call and we go another 3,5 hours towards Almaty. My next destination. Nice ride!

25.06.2016; 00:28

Secured parking area. A lot of nice Kamas trucks here. A crowd of truckers and security is approaching us: „Ah Karl Marx!“, they welcome me. The boys are super friendly. Know a little German. Just the important stuff: „Komm Kamerad! Schnaps! Schnaps!“ I ask if I can sleep there and they agree. Next morning we have breakfast in a freight container of the back of a Kamas. Truckers living room. Very stylish.

When I came to Almaty a guy approached me. „Welcome to Kasachstan! Autostop?“ How could he know? He is poitning on my uniform. People know my hitchhiking uniform here. Awesome. I feel like home immediately. Running 15 000 km through China and then being welcomed like this!

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking 15 000 km through China (5/5); Nightbusses and Bundesliga erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

Tactical mistake. Again one of those situations where I could get upset about for hours. I am on the main track towards Bejing, just need to stay on the highway. Pretty easy. Good day so far and I am on a run. Then miscommunication. My driver leaves the highway 7 km before the service area. No problem for me, I can walk this 7 km in the worst case. So I am about to leave the car, but he does not want me to leave. Calls a friend who speaks English. Long Discussion. Several good options to solve this and in the end I come to this stupid gas station, right next to a city I never wanted to go and with no traffic in my direction. What the fuck. Coming from a very good situation into a very bad one. This mustn’t happen to me just out of politeness. Next time I should just leave the fucking car. I should have done that with the taxi already. This is exactly what ruins your run.

14.05.2016, 19:10

The two funny three. They seem to be business man. Driving not into my direction, but who cares. Just off this fucking gas station and fighting my way back on the track. I am planning an altrnative route already.

23:40, vor Bejing

I did not make it far, but I am on the right highway at least. Also we had dinner. We ate long and copiously. And they had hard liquor. Seems to be common in China that everyone gets drunk during the big meals. Except the driver of course. They had some kind of vodka, maybe it was gin, I can not say for sure. I don’t like hard liquor at all. I drunk one glas and then I had to admit, that I am not drinking. Only two of them left to kill the rest of the bottle. I felt like on a dinner with the triads. Seperate room, the very good liquor, the sumptuous laid table, this Asian men who get more and more drunk and cover their baldness with some side-hair. Beautiful evening indeed! I really liked it.

15.05.2016, 05:46, Bejing

I faught my way through Bejing all night long. Five rides I needed to get to the first service area behind the city. Did it. The old man at the toilet got some sweets as a present. I needed to lighten my supply bag and he seemed not too proud to reject my present. Now I found a 1000 km ride. Karma.

10:15, Somewhere

After that service area I felt asleep for four hours straight. Now awake again. Sitting in a Mercedes Jeep. Got a coffee and some rolls. In the radio Paganini is playing. Welcome to my hitchhikers life.

22:49, Harbin

In the last 16 hours I did around 1200 km. Pretty cold up here in the north. I still have 1000 km to go to my last checkpoint. But I am very tired. I think I will sleep here now and turn around to go towards the Pakistani border tomorrow. I feel the strong need for a hostel, which I had in South America the last time. And if I feel like a hostel, it means that I am really exhausted. I probably need another 7-8 days to my next checkpoint. 5500 km to go.

By the way I am in the laundry room of this gas station. Chinese doors, always open. And most of the time someone is sleeping behind then. I am more cautious meanwhile, which door I open to find a sleeping place, after I woke up several people withing the last days. Yesterday this man who managed to sleep on two chairs, till I entered the room. Felt a bit pity about this. Okay let’s sleep, I have the feeling I will get waken up early here tomorrow. So I just sleep in my hitchhiking suite. My second skin.

16.05.2016, 05:24

First ride. Not into my direction, but I take it anyway. My driver slept all night long and wants to have a ten minute break, before we start.

08:32

Just a little tiny nap. Both of us are well now. Let’s go.

12:12

Obligatory lunch. In return I give him this 3kg heavy pack of random sweets, that someone else gave to me before. Lighter luggage, here I come.

14:08

An old couple picks me up. I get a purple potato for eating. Delicious. After that they bring some dumplings which are filled with onions and meat. For farewell three bottles of water and an apple. My bag is filling up again.

18:16

Truck taking me to the next service area.

18:20

No wrong. Found a car that is going 800 km fahr. Nightlift to Chengde. BÄM!!!

17.05.2016, 07:48

My driver buys me a big bag of food, with four breads, three bottles of water and sausage. Well seems to me, that I have my proviant for the tour to great the Chinese wall.

12:00

Chinese travel buddies pick me up. They approached me at the service area. And of course took me to lunch. Finally someone is translating, what we are eating. Pig ear and pig feet. New tastes. Yummie!

After that follows my climb up the great Chinese wall, which I already wrote an article about. Next morning I was back on the road.

18.05.2016, 09:38

My first ride after the accident was a little moto with some loading area in the back. I could seat there. Wind was blowing through my hair in the cold morning. I just realized how much I love this kind of rides. As refreshing as a cold shower. Wonderful!

12:33

My driver speaks a little English. If I am hungry? Well…..I did not eat all day, but still I feel strange about answering this question with „Yes.“…..“A little“, I say. For farewell I get a bag full of food, a bottle of water, a can of coffee, soup, tea and some cookies made out of green tea.

15:00

Finally make it to escape from the Bejing urban area. I am on the wrong highway, but anyway. Three bottles of water, again. My supply bag is full.

15:20

A lot of traffic but nothing in my direction. Fuck. I decide to go to the next service area and come out at a point with very little traffic. Difficult.

16:34

Some guys from the gas station try to make contact with me. For welcoming they give me two bottles of water.

18:10

Now I am very desperate and take this ride. Once again wrong direction. Can’t find anything towards South. Take an alternative north route. If you have 4500 km to go, it does not matter if you will have a 100 km detour.

19:55

We miss my service area. One moment not attentive. Now I came from the right to the wrong highway. I need to get out here. Those tactical mistakes really make me angry.

20:15

At the service area. The woman comes back and seems to feel pity for me. She asks if she should introduce me to the people. Please not! I just want to take my time. Already sitting in front of the laptop and writing the story about the Chinese wall.

20:18

Three Chinese service area employees are standing directly behind me now and starring on my computer screen. Since five minutes. Now a cautious hand is passing my shoulder and touching my notebook, which is on the table.

20:22

And now the whole service area is here and looking at me. Some take pictures. I am smiling. Staying polite. Deep inside myself I run riot.

22:00

A guy with a smartphone camera enters the scenery and takes place 2m in front of me. Is this guy doing a video? I am getting crazy. Then a police approaching my table. „Do you recognize me?“ Am I fucking stupid or on drugs? What is going on here? I give him my explanation paper. He asks where I am from. He not even read the first sentence. Sigh. The other guy still filming. I got to keep myself together, so that it is not escalating soon here.

22:05

Okay this police men is actually very friendly. He speaks English, is pretty young and curious about traveling, as most of the Chinese police men. Behind him still the whole service area is waiting. And still filming. Like in a zoo.

22:30

Agreement. The police will give me a ride to the next service area and bring me into a better position. At least something positive after this shit hitchhiking day. When I get into the police car, they offer me a cigarette.

22:50

Parking car. Police control. Some instructions through the megaphone. „Stefan you stay in the car, it is dangerous!“ Of course I do!

23:03

The girlfriend of the policemen is calling. Five times, till he finally picks up. She never gives up. videochat. „Look here, this is Stefan.“ „Hello.“ „Hello.“ „And here Peter is sitting.“ „Hello Peter!“ „Hello, how are you?“ They talk a little. Then we get into another control. She is still on the phone. „I really have to go now. Yes. I have to work. Yes. I really have to go.“ Funny scenery.

23:30

The police instructs me to sleep inside a restaurant of the service area.

19.05.2016, 04:23

Woman with the loud organ here again. Can’t sleep. Why are they working all night long. No costumers here. Probably they are preparing food.

06:50

Let’s get up. The owner of the place is first offering me some breakfast, then a cigarette. I add him in WeChat, so that we can communicate.

19:15

Arrived near Yinchuan. My driver said something about being careful and that the people here are not as friendly. Indeed the people here are a little different. But well, who cares, I am just traveling through.

19:40

Okay this seems to get a bit difficult here. I am already pretty annoyed. Everyone wants to be an expert and telling me how to hitchhike, that I need to go in another direction. Some want money. But the worst is the guy who cleans the parking area. Totally over motivated and always there, when I approach a driver, starting a long conversation by himself. I really don’t know what they have to talk so much. Just looking for a ride.

20:03

Okay, now it happened. They put me into a random car and I was just like: Get the fuck outa here. Can’t be wrong. I mean, there is a intersection 10km ahead of me and whatever way they take, I can get out there. So I thought. Till they left the highway at the next exit and went into the village. Man, this is really annoying. Now turning around and heading back to the service area.

20:30

I am back. Now sleeping. Of course on the roof. Business as usual. But I am done with this people here for today.

20.05.2016, 09:00, near Yingchuan

Wake up! First saying hello to my buddies and tell them, not to send me with a car into the next village. That sucks. A new very helpful guy is there today. Taxi driver. Always there, when i approach people. I give up and go into the gas station. There are three young Chinese guys working. We communicate via Google Translate.

09:20

Finally out of this service area hell. Some policemen brought me to the toll station. There was even a fucking toll station before the crossing. Really, every fucking car would have helped me, except the ones that are going into the next village…..terrible.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking 15 000 km through China (4/5); The hardest part of my expedition erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

I am heating up and the incidents are overturning. I need to make a break and write this down. So this morning at 6 I woke up like announced. Around 6:45 my drivers were ready as well. We had a delicious soup for breakfast and drove 4,5 hours. The service areas on this part of the highway have been kind of dead, so they decided to drop me at a toll station of the city they went to. They refused to go until they found a new car for me. How nice they are, those Chinese people. Unfortunately we did not took the best tactic and I was not allowed to intervene in the hitchhiking. Too dangerous. Of course. I told them several times, that it is totally okay to let me be by myself. After 45 minutes they accepted this and went off. Finally I could hitchhike.

Or not. 5 minutes later the whole police station showed up around me and pulled me off the road, to make some photos with me and bring me food. I was not hungry, but also hadn’t anything better to do than eating. And if you are without money and you don’t know when the next meal will be there, you better eat what you get. I think one of the dishes they brought me was lung. Not sure about it, but it was a bit like cabbage and I had very aromatic burps afterwards.

At some point my old driver came back, to look how I am doing. He found me surrounded by the police, sitting at the side of the road and eating my food. He agreed to bring me back on the highway to the next service area. For farewell I got some sweets for my supply bag.

And hellya, this was probably the most lively service area I have ever been. So much hurly-burly that I decided to hitchhike directly on the highway. That worked very well. Second car stopped. Two times in a row. The second time my driver just decided very late to pick me up and brought his car approx. 5 km behind me to stand. Usually I am very good in walking and when a car stops I always run towards it. But not this time. I almost died on my way. Was jogging and had to stop three times because I was so exhausted to reach this car. Anyway he took me 100km and I was happy to make the move.

When I got out of the car he gave me 200 Yen (around 40€) „for the way“. New money. I took it with appreciation, because where this 200 Yen came from, has been a lot more money. He had a bunch of notes in his hand and I guess it was at least 1000€ he had in his pockets. Happens.

Well and then the disaster started. I was thumbing at a toll station of some city and caused a traffic chaos, because immediately three cars stopped in the middle of the road. You definitely can not say the Chinese people wouldn’t be willed to pick someone up. Well and then the communication problems started. First driver did not understand. He was driving a mini bus. I walk to the next car. Try to explain. He follows me and says I should get into the bus. As I went in i saw that there are a lot of old people in the van and it looked like a taxi. I said „no money“ when getting in and thought that would be fine.

I had a guilty conscience, when we arrived at the service station. I thought a thank-you gift would not be the worst. I tried to give him some sweets. I had more than enough. Delicious cookies! He refused. He wanted money. I told him, that I don’t have any money. You know, I just got some money as a present from this other driver, but for sure I would not give that this greedy taxi driver. It is about the hitchhiking and this is not the first time, that I am in a situation like this. Well and then it escalated. We discussed, I told him that i really do not have money and even showed all my pockets. When he saw my smartphone he tried to crab it. By now it became clear that we won’t come to an mutual agreement in this case. He wants my mobile for a few kilometer on the highway, that he would have done anyway? Idiot.

At some point I was about to leave the van, he hold me back, I sit down, he locked the doors and just drove off. I was trapped. He kidnapped me. To the police. No clue what his agenda was. But this brought me into a scrape. You know, if you once start lying, it is hard to get out of it. And I had this 200 Yen in my passport. They would see it, if the check my identity. And this would be hard to explain. Also I never registered in China so far, which we where supposed to do after 2-4 days. Shit situation for me. I already saw the end of my trip in front of me. Would they deport me? Would I need to pay a fine? Would they put me into jail? First of all I ate a cookie and pretended that I am not giving a fuck.

I explained the police that I was hitchhiking, that i don’t have any money and that he told me, I should come into the car (I mean he saw me talking with the other cars). And to avoid further escalation I went to the toilet. I had to really urgently…..take the money out of my passport and put it into the battery shelf of my camera. Once I came back the policemen immediately asked for my passport. Then it took time. And time. And time. I had some more cookies and observed the scenery. The people from the taxi smoked, like good Chinese people do and the driver….no clue about this guy.

In general he was quite upset, but I also could recognize in his face a slight hint of insecurity. Those moments where you know, he is not sure if this shit actions was right or not. Those moments when he starts laughing for a moment out of embarrassment . I had no sympathies left for this guy and found it totally okay, that he made all this effort, for his passengers, me, the police and slowly started to feel stupid about this. At some point the boss of the police station arrived. My punishment came near. And he made a short procedure.

He talked to the taxi driver. Explanation. I could not understand anything, but the police officer asked him at some point: „Why did you pick him up?“ followed by a short finger pointing to the door. Get the fuck out of here. I was left behind alone. Will they put me in jail now? „Where are you going?“, the younger police man asked me with Google Translate. I told them my direction. „Do you need any help?“ Help? Me? No. Why should I need help. It became clear that I would not spend a night in a comfortable cell with free food. I offered to walk back to the highway by myself and they gladly agreed to this. And now I am back here at the service station. I will have some cookies now and try to relax after all this hustle. Then continue.

14.05.2016, 08:44, Wuhan

Had a good night. First catched a ride with a truck that was on it’s way to a ferry. I could have joined and go down the Yangtze River for two days. Pretty cool thing, but I had no time for this. I was on big rivers before and I need to make progress. So I decided against it and it was a good decision. Caught a mini van directly after, with four men who were driving 1400 km to Shanghai. Nightride. I arrived at the Siduhe Bridge checkpoint and got even 700 km further to Wuhan.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking 15 000 km through China (3/5); Police Intervention erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

I started to hitchhike into the mountains this morning. My day was a bit confusing. I have a headache because of the altitude. Meanwhile I am above 3500m but can’t say how high exactly. I try to summarize what happened.

I got a ride directly to the place I wanted to go. Shangr-La. From there you access the mountains. I was with a truck. Fucking slow. This was because the road became one laned at a certain point and we had to go together with other trucks, which where much slower than we have been. But the main reason was my driver, who was a bit unable to change gears. At some point during the last mountain we heared a fizzling from the back and the truck broke down. Actually I was quite happy about this, so I could find another car.

Two Chinese ladies took me into Shangri-La. Nice city, i have to admit. At least the part, that did not burn down 2014 during the big fire. I met some Czech guy in the streets and as it is between people with backpacks, we started to have a short conversation about the trip and so on. Meanwhile his hostel landlord arrived and offered me, impressed by my journey, to camp for free in the Buddhist monastery behind the hostel. I wasn’t ready for this. There was still daylight, I was at the wrong end of the city and wanted to proceed into the mountains. So went for a walk. Stroll through the town with my 12kg backpack. It took me around two hours till I reached the other end, where the mountain road into the Himalayas began, so that I could start the next morning. My personal sightseeing experience.

On the way I encountered a really really sweet child with brown beady eyes in a traditional Tibetan dress. Unfortunately I could not manage to take out my camera and keep this moment. Sometimes I am a bit irked, that I miss those pictures. But you got to learn from your mistakes. Therefore I, of course, took a picture of this sweet boy, who was shitting right on the street, a bit later on my walk.

My sleeping plan was as followed: Either Buddhist temple, police or tent. No more temple crossed my way, that I can tell already. It was dark and I started hitchhiking in the night to get into the mountains. My first ride have been two men with hats who dropped me somewhere in the middle of nowhere. My problem was, that I haven’t eaten much all day and the altitude really fucked me up. I even wrote with Google translate, that I am looking for a place to camp and something to eat. I was so desperate, usually I never communicate those things. And then they drop me at this abandoned junction with this „Bye bye then, have fun!“ attitude and I found myself in total darkness.

Somewhere in the Himalayas and no lights on the horizon. I was in a very bad condition, I even would have approached a house. Tent was anyway not my first option, as there would have been around 5° outside and this was way to cold for my summer sleeping bag. No police. Yeah, what can I do. So I started walking and continued hitchhiking.

Shortly after and lucky me, a truck stopped and took me. The driver even invited me to his home for sleeping. Everything perfect. Very nicely looking truck. The driver was Tibetan and decorated his driver’s cab colorful. As we just changed from the main road into the bumpy dirt road towards his village, another episode of I-can-understand-this-but-I-don’t-have-to started. Some cars came from the other side. We stopped. Short chat, I got dragged out of the truck and put into the trunk of a car, driving back towards the main road.

No clue what happened there, but anyway. This „sleeping at peoples places“ never was my thing, when I am on the road. In the village we knocked at the door of the police. My last hope for a warm sleeping place. But nobody opened the door, although there was light. Last option: Tent. I just came back from some small food place, where I bought some rice for 2€. I think I gave them too much money. They tried to offer me more food after I finished the plate, but I had to go back, as I abandoned my backpack in the darkness on some hayfield. Now I have exactly 1€ left in my pocket.

Tent then. What can I do. My strategy to not freeze to death tonight is as followed: Down-Jacket, long sleeve and undershirt for my body. Jogging trousers and two pair of socks for my legs. Also I have a scarf, Should be fine. My calculation also includes, that it will be slightly warmer in the tent than outside. And over all that I will wear my miserable sleeping bag. It s gonna be cold here above 3500 m tonight. End now. I have a strong headache. The altitude. Also my eyes hurt from starring at this screen and I really need some rest. Good night!

11.5.2016, 06:26

Fucking cold it was. Maybe also because I rather used my wintersocks as pillow, than on my feet. Once again I was dreaming about warm blankets and was freezing miserably in my dreams. But I know this state already from other cold nights during my travel.

Beside that I can hear the owl, which makes me happy. I like owls. Far away a cock is welcoming the day. I am in a kind of valley here, so there is a lot of hall. Good morning Himalayas. The fox and the rabbit say each other goodnight here, how we used to say in my hometown. I think this is going to be a fun tour today. I should get up and hope that some car is passing by and picking me up The night was cold, but the sun will come up soon. There is little frost on my tent.

11.05.2016, 19:57

My hitchhiking day: Getting up and going for a two hour walk. Business as usual. There was not a lot of traffic and the low traffic that passed by contained mostly taxis or buses (means one bus/taxi per hour). I was lucky and catched a Toyota Jeep at one point who took me for more than five hours. Lunch included. I did 70% of this difficult part in half a day. Not bad. Others needed four days and told me, that it would be impossible to make this route in less than two days (!). But we have been quite fast. The road was perfect gravel pit road with a wonderful scenery. Really, I almost got a boner, when we drove down the serpentines. So beautiful. These are the roads I am looking for. Warm roads. Definitely a highlight of my past 80.000 km.

There was no way to continue. They brought me into their village and I was put in a kind of meeting point of the villagers, got a young and charming young lady by my side, who gave me a tour through the place. I had to follow. Afterwards we had dinner and they brought me to a hotel. Originally I thought they let me sleep in one of the houses in the village. I don’t like, that they pay a hotel for me, but at least I could arrange to get the cheapest room.

It was a beautiful day.

I got five new WeChat friends (kind of a chinese WhatsApp), made new business contacts to trade German truck parts, saw a Tibetian house from inside (they have a buddha shrine in every house) and drove this amazing road. What else you want? Now I make myself fresh, take a meditation and then I am ready for tomorrow. Since I had so much leisure time the last week, I really need to make some progress now, to stay in my schedule. 4500Km till the northend of China. Should be possible to hitchhike within five days.

12.05.2016, 11:17, somewhere in China

Shit. Hotel again. In the corner of my room lies a cigarette end. Welcome to China.

My hitchhiking day started really nicely. I could hardly take position, when a group of people waved me towards the gas station. First ride. Eight hours drive and one of them could speak English very well. The road continued to be awesome as fuck. So scenic. I loved it. We drove somewhere between 3000-5000m altitude through the Himalayas. At some point I even was sick of all those serpentines. But the landscape was so divers and entertaining. The road showed its most beautiful face. Just like the day before. What an amazing route between Deqen, Litang and Garze. I did around 100.000 photos, till my camera died.

In between we stopped at around 4000m on the top of a pass. They put kind of a monument there and people could take pictures. My attention was caught by a Yak which was standing in the grass nearby and there where two Chinese people already, who took pictures with it. I definitely wanted to have a picture with this beautiful animal as well. He was looking very skeptical, when I cam near. I stand around 2m away from it and recognized how enormous big and terribly sharp those horns have been. The Yak was not very interested in my company. He swinged his head two times, as if he wants to drive off some insects or optional impale my guts. I had to jump back and was pretty scared by it. Beautiful animal anyways.

During the end of this ride wa encountered a one hour traffic jam. A really stupid accident. I mean, it was not very bad accident, all vehicles still have been working, but the people. The people wanted to wait for the police, so they took another truck and put it on the road, so that it was completely blocked and nobody could pass through. In Germany you would get a ticket for that. And here the police has to drive 30km serpentine road, to get to the spot. Takes time….

By the way: I don’t carry any money with me. Only 1€ left in my pockets. No ATM nearby and don’t know where to find one. In the past 8 days I spend around 25€ in total. It also works quite well without money at the moment and I don’t want to waste time finding an ATM. My last ride gave me a bag full of sweets. My supplies. And around four bottles of water. So I will hardly die of thirst but maybe get a sugar rush.

Later that day I got a ride with three guys who where on their way through the mountains towards the highway. Really really nice ride. Dinner inclusive. That is part of the hitchhiking in China. I did not eat anything proper all day long anyway, except cookies, chocolate and bonbons. And so I finally ended up in this hotel with this cigarette end in the corner. Mysterious circumstances brought us here. Another happening, that just doesn’t made sense. We have driven through this small village in the night and suddenly the road was blocked by the police. Seemed to take longer. My drivers talked to a guy at the side of the road, then he left to his car, we followed him and he took us to this hotel.

I got a double bed room but I gotta say you: I need to start a run soon. My average 500-600 km hitchhiking a day are not enough. I made around 3000 km now. Can’t do a proper calculation at this time. But the time runs. 3,5 weeks left and still 13000 km to go. That is why I don’t like to be in a hotel the second night in a row. I rather would like to stay awake and hitchhike all night long. But what can I do?

At least here is a shower, I can load my batteries and meditate again. The sleep. Tomorrow morning at 6 o’clock we are going to wake up and start again. Feels like a holiday trip with my family. I hope it will still be dark, when we hit the road. And hopefully we won’t spend too much time with breakfast. But I am pretty sure, there will be a breakfast for sure. At least I am going to hit the highway tomorrow! Good night.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking 15 000 km through China (2/5); Tibetan Mountain Roads erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

What a strange feeling, when I was sitting in the train towards the border today. As if I would leave my familiar environment. Going to China. Do I have everything? There is no way back, once I entered. Single entry. I felt like going into prison.

After crossing the border, I had to recognize, that I had no orientation anymore. Gmaps i shit in China. And so I got lost immediately. Also I was terribly hungry, cause I haven’t eaten during the day. What a start. I looted the the first fruit stand and got myself some bananas and peach. If you are hungry everything tastes so much better.

After this I finally found the gas station, where they had some Chips and other sweet snacks. Then I was ready to hitchhike. At 10 o’lock in the night. I have to admit, that I am always a bit cocky, when I start a big trip like this. I often start very late and most of the time the first day is kind of fucked up. Nighthhitchhiking is very possible, but I think you gotta be on the road already, to make a good run possible. If i started late out of a big city, I was not very successful most of the time.

Maybe another reason for this is, that I am often very tired when I start. So today. And sick. And suffering from countless mosquito-, flea-, and bug bites. Hong-Kong was not treating me very pleasently. Everything was itchy. My body was close to have an allergic reaction. Also the reason why I started so late. The decision, that I would enter China, came spontaneously during the day. I didn’t want to camp another night in the jungle. And so I am here now.

It took me 20 minutes to catch the first ride 70km north. At the moment I am on one of those rest areas and I kind of like it here in China so far. Everything a bit more easy than in Hong-Kong. Not so well organized. The restaurant at the gast station had three floors and the top one was almost empty. Big rooms, partly without windows, every door open, if existing. You can do what you want here.

In the end I found this beautiful ladder going up the roof. I had to escape after several people threatened me with their help. Pretty nice those chinese people. But I am fine alone. Still need to figue out the hitchhiking a little bit. My prewritten letter works quite well so far and seems to become my secret weapon. Beside that I don’t understand anything here. Maybe I should work out a better strategie. Allthough the letter explains everything what I am doing. But it seems not to be helpful, to tell the people, that I am going into this town which is 2000 km away. Too confusing.

However, now is sleeping time. Tomorrow I am going to be fresh as fuck and continue. I have to leave mosquito land, to catch up some urgently missing sleep from the last 7 days. At least I have the sound of a highway in the back again. So familiar. I am back on the road! Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me!

06.05.2016, 01:09 Uhr

Conclusion of my first hitchhiking day in China: 900 km done, my rides gave me three bottles of water, ate a 20 cent „hope-this-was-meat“-sausage, got invited to a exurberant dinner and feeded with little cakes that tasted like in turpentine dipped milk rolls.

Beside that the hitchhiking in China is for me as followed. I arrive at one of the service areas, maybe I make it unobserved to the toilet but at the latest after washing my hands someone is approaching me. One minute of understanding nothing what he is saying to me, then I hand over my letter, tell where I have to go and all what you gotta do then is…waiting. They will care. At the moment a police man is walking aross the service area and tries to find a ride for me. Very relaxing.

The chinese peope are in general very generous and friendly and definitely not as rude as I expected them to be. Also the culture shock is still missing. It is pleasent not to find this western style capitalism here. The shops are much more empty. At the gas stations you have only one sort of chocolate bar, if there is chocolate bar at all. But this also mean less decisions for your unconcious mind. My mobile data package from Hong-Kong works perfectly, not even a VN needed. All services are fine. Facebook, Google, etc. Also the first time in my life, that I have Internet while being moving. You know, only got a smartphone since San Francisco. To be online is very annoying. Constant distraction.

Last comment for today. Chinese highways are not a very good place for epileptics. Everywhere are colorful, blinking lights. Someone in the ministery of transport seems to have a favor for LED’s here. Also there are strange flashing rails all along the highway. First time we went through, I thought we had been to fast. After the third time I realized, that there must be another reason. Don’t know whats going on here. Probably they are just there to keep you awake.

So. The night begins. Does not look like sleeping so far. I have 500 km in front of me, to reach the footage of the Himalayas. Maybe I will be lucky tonight. Also depends how motivated this policeman is.

06.05.2016, 23:16 Uhr

Day three is representatively for the leisure nature of my trip. Around 21:40 I arrived here at this gas station behind Kumming. Perfect position to catch a night ride and finally get into the mountains. Usually this would be a normal process for me. But instead I took an hour meditation and getting ready for bed now. Tomorrow I will do the last 300 km to Dali and then stay there for 1-2 nights in an artiost community. Sleeping in a bed instead in the streets. Super relaxing.

The day was glorious as well. Two times I got invited for food. My first ride was a very sweet Tibetian familiy. I was communicating with the daughter through Google Translate on my phone. The father drunk a cup of liquor and ripped a tabak bong during lunch, to fall asleep in the back of the car afterwards. Also they feasted me with fruits and vegetables and asked in the end, if I want to come home with them. I declined. Of course. Can not leave the road. Some traveller might find that unjustifiable, but for me this was enough love of this wonderful peope. I need to keep on going.

The Chinese are getting more and more friendy. Much more pleasent than expected. Now I am the third time in a row on a roof of a servies are building. Doors are always open in China. The mountains are watching the city and we have a starry sky. Beside me is the atmospheric noise of the highway. Sometimes I hear some trucks arriving at the parking lot, which sound like they would implode, when they rush over the speed bumps. In the backround is the train station. Chinese trains are not as romantic as the American ones. When they whistel it not sound as majestic, but like lung cancer in the final stage. And I also have the feeling they don’t have any signal lights, but only signal riot, to regultate the traffic.

Day two is over. 1500 km behind me without working much. The letter strategy proved its value once again today, allthough I catched two of my three rides with my thumb. Works as well. Average wating time tends towards zero. But one ride I had to leave, because it was too slow. The driver brought up some mini bananas to jolly me along, but there was already the next service area upcoming. He looked a bit disappointed and I felt pity about it, but if I would have continued with him, I would only arrive late after midnight to Kumming. Also the bananas have been slightly mouldy.

08.05.2016, 09:49 Uhr Dali

Just as I begin to write the chinese syrinx starts to play from downstairs. Beautiful.

There is not much to say compared to my crazy travel reports in South America. China is relatively quiet so far. Yesterday i woke up, waited 10 minutes and catched my ride ins 300 km distant Dali. So far my hitchhiking day.

Now I am here in this artis community. Found that on tristroots.org. In sout-west China re so many great hosts. Fuck couchsurfing. Nobody needs that shit. I might even stop in Chengdu aswell, because there is some guy runnng a nomad base and he looks so sympathic, that i might want to visit him. Here in Dali I will chill till tomorrow. Yesterday I ate duck neck the first time and pickled duck intestine. Not that bad I have to admit.

In the evening we went to a lake and had a barbecue. This is working a bit differently than in Germany here. In general everyone is sitting with his sticks around the grill and picking whatever he wants. The roast everything. Meat, vegetables and hopefully-meat-products. When we arrived at seven in the evening the grill was already full of stuff and this did not stop till 11 in the night. Everyone who came brought something different. What a feast. Culinary the Chinese are absolutely next level. Even an old man passed by and left four ready-to-eat fishes for us. I found that really cool. Not as boring as a German barbecue, where you prepare all the meat in one run and then eat.

Also the had, to my suprise, Jägermeister. I stopped drinking, and never liked that stuff. But out of politeness and necessity I had to make an exception yesterday. A fishbone stucked in my throat and I saw myself dieing already. One of the guys pour me some homemade hard liquor and I had to drink it. Afterwards I also allowed myself a small beer and a cigarette. Yes it feels strange to mention this, but I am very serious with my tox-free lifestyle. This needs to remain an exception.

In general China is a hard smoking country. If they want to have a cigarette, they always take out two and offer you one. It is someohow like in Russia, where you are not allowed to drink alone. In China it seem unusual to smoke alone. For me as former party smoker, this would have been the dream. But I am also a bit concerned about the young Chinese. Because the smoke really a lot. I thought the Turks would be bad, but China is definitely the world champion in smoking.

I will stop that boring talk now. We wanna get back to hitchhiking soon. Meanwhile I am above 1900 m. My next chekpoint Deqin is at 3550m. From there I will leave the highway and enter a gravel pit road into the mountains along the tibetian border. This road is not even mentioned in Google Maps. I expect very little traffic, but nice road. Sounds familiar.

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking 15 000 km Through China (1/5); Into the unkown land erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

I arrived in this little chinese mountain village. My driver raised his eyebrows, when he realized, where this place was. But that was already after he assured, to bring me there. Now it there was nió way back. In the village I had to leave the car, because there was a gate and it was not possible to pass by car. Also there was a little ticket house, where you could buy an entrance ticket for about 4€. I just walked through and nobody seemed to bother. Anyway I did not plan to pay.

It was a very nice village. All of the inhabitants were farmers, which made some extra money with tourism. But I did not see tourists at all. My first objective was, to have a shower. After days on the road it can be difficult to have a proper shower. I found one of those „private hotels“, asked the lady if I could shower here and she agreed. Not even wanted money for it. Very friendly.

It was a wonderful, sunny summer’s evening. Blue sky and I was fresh as fuck to start the two hour climb up to the wall, which I could already see on the back of the mountain. If I go straight I might do it till sunset. At the end of the village an old grandpa was sitting in the field. I asked him which way I should go and he told me to follow the arrows. He was the last person I would see for a while. I approached a very wild and abandoned part of the wall. Along the path there were several signs which said, that this part of the wall is not open for tourists. Probably the reason, why I did not meet anyone in the village. I couldn’t care less and started hiking.

The path was really difficult to follow. There were no arrows. Just two at the very beginning. I had to turn around after 10 Minutes, because I walked the wrong direction. It was very warm and a swarm of flying insects was having a massive mosh pit around my head. I tried to get rid of the, using my hand or my basecap. Unsuccessfully. So I started walking faster.

I found another path which seemed to go straight uphill. If I have the choice, I always take the steeper way. Eventually you will reach the top faster. I followed this path. At some point the ground changed. A lot of leaves. More leaves. Followed by ankle-deep foliage. But I saw some trash, so it should not be completely wrong. So I continued. I had no clue where I had to go, but straight uphill shouldn’t be too wrong in my eyes. The path turned steeper and steeper. At some point I realized, that I might follow the course of a river.

I was to lazy to turn around. The normal path was way behind me. I was in the open field. I went on, always straight up. It became steeper and steeper. I had my 12kg backpack and a full tote bag of food with me. The ascension took all my energy. Again and again I had to pull myself up with the ehelp of trees. Some broke, when I crabed them. Hard work. More climbing than hiking. And one of those moments, where I profit from the fact, that I climbed that much, before I left Germany. The terrain I was moving in was far from being accessable by „just walking“. I brachiate through this abyss from tree to tree, always uphill. The plan was so simple.

In between I had moments, where I turned around and realized how steep it was. It must haven been around 80-85°. I felt a bit scared, hen looking behind me. The problem is, that ging up is always easier than going down. And it looked very dangerous behind me. I would definitely not turn around. So there was only one direction left. I could see the sun in the trees already. A safe sign, that I would get closer to the end of the mountain. Somteimes it was really hard to get through with my backpack. I had to crouch between branches, then pull myself up again, find a safe point to stand stabile and then do the next step. Slowly and controlled I climbed towards the top.

As I was already quite far up, a rock face appeared in front of me. Trees turned into bushes, the ascent became overhang. It was impossible to continue here with my backpack and without some proper climbing gear. I was already at the wall and touchgin for some holds when I decided not to approach this part. Much to dangerous. No way up. But I was climbing for around 45 minutes already and according to this the area behind me was looking like. What to do? I observed my surrounding area.

Right of me, at least it looked like, was the cliff not as abrupt and maybe here I would find another way up. In between was a 3m long transition, probably the steepest part of the hill, without any trees to stabilize yourself on it. Seems like here creek would shoot down into the valley, when he carries water. I had to to at least two, if not three steps, to get across this to the next hold point.It was necessary to stand in the abyss freely, to get to the other side. Difficult mission.

I looked back. It was so steep going down, that I hardly could imagine to take this direction. The ground was very earthy, if I only would dig my feet deep enough into it, I might find hold here to get to the other side. First step. Still I could hold at the tree I was standing at. Earth trickled down. Somehow I found hold. My foot stood stable. Second step, I still hold on the tree. Feet one was still stable in the earth. With a proper jump I should be able to reach the other side and grab the next tree. Then I let go of the tree to stood freely without any security.

I immediately lost footing and felt down. After that I am not sure what exactly happened. I picked up speed pretty fast, in the beginning I tried to press myself onto the slope. At some point I overturned, lost orientation. I felt around 10m downwards. And this was just the beginning of a long, long slope. As if by a miracle a tree stopped my crash, which I thunk into with my chest. The impact was so strong, that all my air was pressed out of my lunges. In the moment of the impact my glasses slipped of my face and dissapeared in the abyss, covvered by earth and rubble on the way downwards.

I could get hold with one hand but still had my backpack on me and my food supplies in the other hand. Somehow I hung at this abyss. It was not over yet. After the tree there was the next part, going down 20-30m, maybe more. And there were no more trees that would stop my drop.I couldn’t pull myself up, cause my food supplies somehow stucked between me and the tree. I thought about dropping them. But what would I do without food? I could hardly imagine to get back to it, once I drop it. Pulling, stabilizing, swing around the tree, somehow I managed after a while to get behind the tree and sit on the abyss to take a rest for a moment.

I was shocked. First of all I send a voice message, because I had internet connection here. Then, isntead of going down, I continued sidewards along the abyss, to get into less steep terrain. Actually I just wanted to get back into the village and close this whole mission. Enough of this shit. Well and while I was progressing sidewards, I suddenly found the real path. You could see it. It was marked by plastic bottles they pulled over the tree branches. Well even after this, I was already on top, so why not continue then? So I did. The new path was not less dangerous than the part I was on before. Same steep sections, same climbing shit. I got lost as well. It took me another 15 minutes to reach the „real“ hiking path, where it was actually possible to walk normally without climbing in between trees and rocks. I reached the Great Chinese Wall before sunrise.

I was very lucky. A sprained finger, hermatome at the leg, lost glasses and a dirty hitchhiking suite. My left foot was a bit numb, which was because of the crash on my solar plexus. I could life with that. Lost my glasses already two times, when I had my heavy car accident and when I crashed with a Paraglyder before. Just my semi-annual near-death-experience. Hope this was the last for the rest of my trip.

But I reaced the wall. Accidently I arrived at the most scenic spot of the world heritage, watched the sunset and afterwards I made a bond-fire and camped on op of the wall. No humans here, just the eagle owl singing in the night. After the crash I was so agitated, that I could hardly sleep this night. Also being alone in this middle age stone construction was kinda scary. I had slightly anxiety states. At 04:30 I woke up to watch the sunrise.

Afterwards I hiked three hours along the wall. In the morning sun. It was quiet and peaceful. I hiked all the way down to the valley on the other side, crossing the more wild and abandonde parts of the wall. At some point I reached an „Continue forbidden“-sign and entered the restored, touristic part of the wall. Completely alone. There was no one else. All morning long I was alone. The wall was empty. Usually this experience is only for US-Presidents, for whom the whole wall gets closed, when they walk it. I got it for free. What a beautiful walk. And I was happy being able to experience this.

Here some impressions:

Der Beitrag How I felt down the chinese wall erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.