Unfortunately the gates have been closed and I had to wait in front of the border. A huge crowd, around 70-80 people were gathered already. Suddenly this very big human appeared beside me. Type Persian Wrestler. Bold and of Bear-like statur. Compulsory dislocated joints and half-torn ears appeared in my mind. One of those people, that cause with their appeareance, that you listen. And you gonna try to show unquestioning understanding for everything, what this person has to say. Even if you don‘t understand a word of it.

My „leave-me-alone-with-your-stupid-parcel“ attitude changed. I would do my best to give a favour to the local folks. I couldn‘t wait to take this, whatever it was, across the border, if that would also make this person dissapear without harming me. I even would have taken the damn thing without any money.

They gave me my parcel and my new friend sqeezed me into the crowd. People realised that I was into the smuggling business now and they startet to yell and jeer as if a popstar would have arrived. Hello there. I was a bit more in front in the crowd and the gates opened to start the madness. Young men climbed over the rails and jumped into the crowd as if they would stage dive a RATM concert. Only to make a few spots within the queue. Pogo riot at the border to Iran.

Of course I did not participate in that and lined up, civilized, duteously and German-like, after climbing the first rail, to leave at least some kids and old ones behind me. And so I had to wait there. With this suspicious parcel. Btw. what was this parcel? Heroin? Weapons? I was responsible for it now and had to transport it safely into Iran. The whole situation was a bit ominous. But everyone had such a parcel in his/her hands. So it seemed okay for me. And they explained me, that I was carrying sandales.

Beside us was the womans queue on the bright side of life. The bright, blazing, hot sunshine side. One woman became unconcious during the wait. I shared my water with her, because I was the only one, who had water. Of course I would have shared my water as well, if I would not have been the only one. The border control definitely took its time. At some point we approached the first building, I was identified as foreigner, waved through the rest of the crowd and examined by the friendly border police. Leaving Azerbaijan. No problem. Then I was about to enter the Iranian side with my suspicious parcel.

First I caused amusement and shaking-heads at the Iranian border police. A little like: „Oh, now they even made this stupid tourist to carry one of those parcels to the other side.“ I just kept on smiling, naivly and dumb how I always deal with authorities and got with the „not-my-fault-isn‘t-it?“-shrug to the other side. I made it into Iran. Then the business part started, which I could not have cared less about.

I had some companion, who also had a parcel and wanted to care about my reward. I mean, I would have thrown that stupid thing into the trash or leave it in the x-ray. But he insisted to help me getting my much deserved money. My negotiating skills were taken out by missing business sense and survival instinct. But people are honest and especially the Persians are business people to the core. I got my money. Around one Dollar. And after all this incarnate mass murder has shaken my hand before, which meant the contract was achieved. And the Iranians, I would learn that soon, are world-class in shaking hands.

Der Beitrag Smuggling parcels into Iran erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

The little girl was 3 years old and sleepy all the time. The road turned into a bunch of potholes. Constantly curving around the worst of them, left, ride, left, got shaken in the car, not driving faster than 20km/h. And the little girl was sleeping. Really amazing how kids are able to sleep in every condition. And she wasn’t sleeping anywhere but in my arms. That was my job as responsible co-driver. Keeping the child safe. New experience for me. But I really liked it.

After this ride we arrived in a small village. It was already 03:00 in the night and a car full of drunk-as-fuck Kazakh boys gave me a ride to the end of the town. And there I positioned myself. To wait. Long waiting. All fucking night long. Dawn already started. After two hours the first car came, stopped and took me into the next village. 15km. There I watched the sunrise. The road was so empty. One of my driver told me something about bad road and problem the night before. Now I started to understand. Still 250 km to go from here. Shouldn’t be so difficult. The day before I did around 2100 km in 31 hours. One of my best runs ever. But I knew that this was over now. Entering difficult technical roads.

The road was still empty. Empty roads are kind of magical for me. A certain beauty filled the moment. The sun was rising. Slowly the village woke up. Cocks where welcoming the day accompanied from the sound of animal bells. The farmers drove their sheeps and cow herds towards the fields. Suddenly an old Russian truck appeared out of the nowhere and passed me slowly. Not my direction. I wasn’t in the mood for any kind of communication and ignored the vehicle. It drove 20m and then stopped. Nothing happened for 5 minutes. Then the motor started again. Reverse gear, going the other direction and then passing me again. Full stop. The doors opened and two boys are getting out of the truck. They were three, but the third was sleeping.

They smelled really badly of alcohol and drove with a deflated jumping castle on their roof through one of the worst roads, that I passed in my life. It was also the only traffic I saw this morning. Kind of ironic. We started to talk and I got invited for vodka and slaughtering a sheep in the next village. The three boys seemed to be the Kazakh version of American surfer boys, but drunk instead of stoned. At least they cheered up my lonesome morning.

After hours finally a car came into my direction and passed by. Why? Why does the only car that comes passes by? It was like a kick in the nuts for me. I started walking. After another hour of walk I just lay down on the street to sleep a little. Nothing was going on anyway. Still no traffic. There were exactly two cars in the last seven hours. And one passed by. Still couldn’t believe it. I was in the steppe, without shadow, without water resting on the ground. Beside me was a depot for construction materials and I saw some people being there before. What goes in should come out at some point, or not? I think it was pure hitchhiking instinct driving me in this situation. Of course I lay down behind the exit road of the depot, to not miss any outcoming traffic. Nothing passed by, but suddenly I heard a truck rolling. I jumped up immediately and run up the hill to have a better overview. There was a goddamn truck coming out of the depot, going into my direction. It was not using my road, but a bypass on the other side of the hill. Shiiiiiit. I grabbed my backpack and run as fast as possible to get that ride. I mustn’t miss that. I reached the street where it would come out, but unfortunately the truck was full with three people already. But still they picked me up. 30Km into my direction. Better than nothing.

My journey continued at a very lonesome junction. Around me were cows and horses doing their day, eating a lot of stuff and running around without and guidance. And the street…well. Cancer. Pure beton cancer. If this really exist, then I was directly in the general assembly of tumor diseases. The road was so bad, that people rather used a self made dirt track beside the main road, than going through this torture track. This is something unique I only experience in the former Soviet Union countries, that roads can be in a condition, that they make your movement more difficult, instead of easier.

Back at the junction. A truck passes by. Already four people in the cockpit. They didn’t stop for me. Second car that passed by today without stopping. But I couldn’t really complain. In generally my hitchhiking was close to perfect in the last 24 hours. Not many cars that I did not flag down. Just the route was a bit more difficult.

After some hours I managed to get out of this shit. Catching some small rides to a village that finally had a normal road connected with the bigger Kazakh highway network. My last ride was a WAZ truck. Russian destroyer. A kind of bus which will probably never break down and you only find them in the former Soviet countries. Typical Russian design, just putting steel together. Last time I was sitting in a car like that was with Ralf in Moldova. The inside is a bit more wide than a German Volkswagen bus. They have a great grip and shoot through the dirt road like a hovercraft over the moon. I really liked it. And while sitting inside, I had to realise to myself: „Stefan, you have to buy this kind of bus!“ I will. Get. That. Bus. Usually I sympathized with an old Mercedes bus which was used by the German police. But honestly, those Russian WAZ are the shit!

With this ride I was back in civilization and found myself on a paved road which was around 900 km in front of my destination. Finally. From here I was able to catch a direct ride to Aktau. It was 19:00 already and I had to take some food before entering my last passage. Food and hitchhiking is not going very well together. Eating is important, because you might lose too much energy if you don’t care about it. But I try to eat as efficiently as possible during my tours. When I have to walk through a town or city and there will be not much hitchhiking, I buy something greasy in the supermarket and eat it on the way. Always the cheap homemade stuff with the most energy. Bananas. Pastries. In Germany it would be some rolls with sausage. A bottle of water with it and juice or coke for the sugar. Optionally some ice-cream. All that I stuff into my body within 2-3 minutes while walking to the other end of the city. Otherwise you just lose too much time. Makes sense to me.

After my second banana a taxi stopped and gave me a ride to the border of the town. It took less than 2 minutes that a truck picked me up, which was on its way to Aktau. Direct ride! As expected. Unfortunately my luck lacked a bit and around 01:00 in the night we stopped, had dinner and the two truckers offered me to sleep in the hotel with them. But I refused. They would sleep for 5 hours and then continue to Aktau. Too much time. I knew I was in a very good position and it would not be worth to take that break now and go to sleep. I wanted to finish that tour. So I took my stuff and started hitchhiking again in the darkness. 20 minutes later I was sitting in a car to Aktau. Night-Hitchhiking in Kazakhstan, cmon! Easy going!

And then something happened, that I did the last time in Canada. In the truck before I took some rest and although I did hardly sleep since three days, I felt really good in that moment. But my driver was really really tired. I offered him, that I could drive a bit. After a short conversation he agreed and so I found myself back behind the wheel. Very good feeling. Unfortunately the road was really bad and difficult to drive on. I had to be constantly alert, to not hit the countless beton bubbles on the road. Sometimes the paved road stopped and you had to drive slalom around the potholes. Anyway in general I like driving by myself more, because I trust myself more than I trust the driver. Especially if they are tired. Close to sunrise we switched again and he was driving the last part during daylight. I arrived in Aktau after 68 hours and 59 minutes. For 3781 km including a border hop and 400 km Anti-Road. Was a good run for this route! And I had a lot of fun in Kazakhstan!

Der Beitrag Three days awake – Hitchhiking through Kazakhstan (2) erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

When I started in Almaty I caught a transporter relatively fast which took me almost 500 km to Tazar. First lift of the first day and a wonderful opening for one of the fastest hitchhiking passages I ever did. Already at the beginning I had a very good feeling about this route and I wouldn’t face disappointment. In Tazar I had to do a little detour off my track, because I needed to enter Kyrgyzstan to renew my Kazakh visa. Border hop. I had only 10 days left and did not know how long it would take me, to get on the mysterious container ship to Azerbaijan. So better to take fresh 15 days visa with me.

It was close to sunset and I was a bit annoyed by doing this detour, which would cost me in total three hours of my precious time. The last 15 km to the border I had a ride with some Muslim, who got me into the car in front of a fish market. It was Ramadan, which means: No food or drinks as long as the sun is up. My driver was about to buy food for dinner at the fish market. It was an extremely hot day and I could hardly imagine how he can stand not to drink all the time. Amazing. But Ramadan also means, that every guest is seen as a gift of god. I knew from Syria and Turkey already, that Muslim people are very hospitable. This time as well. My driver drove me 15 km to the border, although he wasn’t supposed to go there. He seemed so happy to help me and I don’t want to offend anyone. In the end he gave me 5000 Tenghe (around 18$) and said I should buy some food for myself. I really don’t like if people give me money. So I decline usually, but if the drivers insists I will take it. Anyway I think people who give benefit much more from that process than you do as a taker. So taking money is kind of doing a favour to someone else in my eyes.

At the border I only wanted to exit and entrance Kazakhstan as fast as possible. First time in my life that I did a border hop. While leaving Kazakhstan they asked me at the immigration where I want to go? I was honest. Renew my visa. The officer was just shaking her head, whereupon I meant: „Well, maybe not renew my visa but visit Kyrgyzstan?“. Sunshine smile, so that we both could save face. In Kyrgyzstan I had a rigorous check-up. Weapons? Terrorist? All those questions. Or did they just need a reason to watch pictures on my camera for about 15 minutes? The shitting-on-the-street-boy of my China article was indeed a good laugher for everyone.

After entering Kyrgyzstan I walked ones around the building and queued again in direction Kazakhstan. Leaving Kyrgyzstan was without any big problems. Just the immigration officer fucked up the stamp and had to do a second one in my passport. On the Kazakh side I was welcomed by a very friendly and over motivated person. First I thought it would be a hustle to get back into the country but it was not at all like that. When I gave my passport he was so happy to see someone from Germany. He asked me a lot of questions and the border of excitement and obligation once again became indistinct. The whole process took a little bit longer than expected. Behind me gathered already around 15 people. Kind of this situation, when you watch a soccer match with all your friends, have a nice booze, and finally is half time and everyone I looking forward to void their bladders before finding out, that there is only one toilet. Unisex. And you saw this foreigner with the bright yellow suit entering the room and obviously he is taking a huge and long shit there, while everyone else gets more and more impatient. Unseen from the rest, is sitting this immigration officer, totally intrigued, asking thousands of questions and being very happy. I think he also wanted to practice his English. “Very nice to see you! Hope we meet again! Have a nice trip! Enjoy Kazakhstan!”, he wasn’t stopping the farewell. Finally at some point I was out and did a runner before the mob would lynch me.

It was already dark when I got out of this detour. City crossing. Annoying, but I had to do that somehow to get back on the track. Again someone gave me money. Finally bought my first food during that day and took a little break after all day hitchhiking and border trouble. In front of the shop I found a transporter. He had no chance to not take me, as the driver was cleaning the windows when I showed up. He drove 200 km into the night. Next city. On the run. And then my way was free. No border, no detour. I started rolling.

In general hitchhiking in Kazakhstan is very comfortable. You immediately feel that you are in a former Soviet Union country. Hitchhiking is a common thing, everywhere people stand at the side of the road and try to catch a ride. Cars stop super easily and people know the difference between „Avtostop“ and the normal ride sharing, where you give a small amount of money. Of course I am foreigner and it is different for me, but I am very clear to the drivers, that I do not give money for Avtostop, when they stop. Most of the time they wave me in anyway. Hitchhiking in the night is another glorious quality on Kazakhstan. There is basically no difference. Cars stop as fast and reliable as during the day. I experienced that in no other country before and it made Kazakhstan become my favorite country for hitchhiking in the night.

At some point during this night I ended up at a police control, which works very well for catching rides. This should give me an important advantage during that night. At the checkpoint were a lot of trucks waiting, mostly from Kyrgyzstan. Beside that was a bunch of Taxi drivers, ready to bring the truckers to the next hotel, in case they get pulled out of the traffic for longer. Taxi drivers and policemen seemed to know each other well and life in an oddish symbioses of parasite living forms. No need to tell, that I run into a photo session. The selfie culture in Kazakhstan is a bit different from the one in China. In Kazakhstan people push me to take a photo with THEM and not the other way around. Because they think it is important for me to have their face in my photo album. Very funny.

The night went really well and till dawn I did already more than 1000 km. The street started to get more and more empty and I slowly understood, that I am entering the Kazakh steppes. It remembered me of Argentina, with the slight difference that there was really NOTHING in Kazakhstan, whereas in Argentina you could find civilization almost everywhere. However, this morning I was lucky. First car that came stopped and took me 400 km north. Same in my next position. First car stopped. Where they go? „Aktau.“ „Aktau?“ I was totally confused. That was my destination. But it was 2200 km to go. And so I was sitting in my direct ride!

I hitchhiked a lot and experienced enough to know, that you can never be sure, when having those kind of “super rides”. My both drivers had neat skinheads, buffalo humps, sunglasses and did not talk at all but drove with 130 km/h through the countryside. I did not know, if I would really stay in this car. First stop at a gas station. Short conversation, then we had lunch together. The atmosphere was really good, both very friendly and I felt safe with the ride afterwards. Then I felt asleep. We took different route from the one Google maps showed me. It is okay, I thought. Maybe the other road is just shitty. Around 200 km detour. No problem. At 18:00 what I expected became true. They ask me to leave the car. Without any reason. We were somewhere in the middle of the detour road, where I did not wanted to hitchhike through anyway. There was no time to discuss, so I took my bag and observed my drivers taking off in my direction. Usually I would get really angry after situations like that but since I experienced that before and I set my mind for it, it was okay. Restart. Behaving professional and trying to get the next ride ASAP. The near police control forced me once again to take a photo. The policemen was full of cocaine. Jesus! Totally hyperactive and constantly snuffling.

Der Beitrag Three days awake – Hitchhiking through Kazakhstan (1) erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.

I arrived in Leipzig. At the same place, where I left Herr Anton 22 months ago. He is not here anymore. But I am here again. And nobody knows, what I did in the past 2 years. I also appear in front of the door, with my long beard, typical skinny figure of a wanderer and a lot of experience with me. I will keep that experience all my life with me, but I can not transfer it to anyone else.

Getting home after such a trip was not how I expected it to be. Home sickness was my accompanying me for a a long time. But in the last two weeks it stepped back a little and wanderlust appeared again, looking melancholic with the certainty that this expedition will be over soon and that the past two years have been a fucking awesome time which I would like to prolong a little. My inner self is pretty busy these days. Therefore, when arriving in Leipzig at the endpoint of my expedition, I had very mixed feelings. Happiness and sadness, amazement and incredulity. And while I was smiling about being back home, once in a while tears were coming to my eyes.

Being on a expedition for 22 months is very exhausting. Especially if you keep on moving all the time. Sometimes I had to think back of my time in China and realize, that it is just 3 months ago. Feels like 3 years. Or when I felt in love in Uruguay 1,5 years ago. Feels like another life to me. You develop a strange sense of time about a trip like this. As if I would have lived many many lives at once and now I am starting a new one.

I crossed 58 countries. In some I stopped and spend a month or more, others I was just observing, while passing through. But even short times are enough to get an impression. Are enough to connect a smell, a landscape, a feeling and real people with the impression I have about this particular place. Experiential knowledge that you can not get from any picture or article. I developed a feeling about how small our planet is, after crossing whole continents overland by hitchhiking. I can estimate distances much better now. And there is a complete cartographic picture of our planets surface in my head now. Deserts, mountains, forests and the oceans. The interplay of landscapes. Choreography of my expedition.

I had the idea to hitchhike around the world. Doing a circumnavigation. Not a normal globetrotter trip, because tourism was just a by-product. The main purpose was to hitchhike around the world. I did not went to China, because I wanted to see China, but because my route was leading through this place. I mean, sure, I lived a month in New York or Hong-Kong, strolled 6 weeks through Japan and visited people I love in different countries. But what for I really shed tears, spilt blood and went through hardships were my long distance hitchhiking trips. My routes. Movement on roads. That was the core of my expedition. And it is important for me, that you understand this.

My expedition covers a total length of 108.895 km. It is more then 2,5 times of the circumference of the earth. I sailed across the Atlantic, got myself a junk bicycle to suffer in the Colombian Cordilleras, I overcame the Darien Gap on a cargo ship, hopped freight in the US, got a ride in a small aircraft, hitchhiked through the „mild“ Alaskan winter at -35°, waited at 50° in the Iranian desert and walked far more than 100 km in between. Those 108.895 km are tied to so much stress and suffering, but also to happiness and ecstasy. My way. My meaning. Hard to put it in words. It is more than a simple number for me. It was my life for the last two years. And this life is over now.

What to say? People asked me, what I have learnt? Not really anything. I could receive some much more important things than knowledge: Experience. No need to learn something you can just live. I could experience how small distances are on our planet and that I can reach almost every place, if I want to. Something which is not open for everyone among us and what I am very thankful for. I could develop serenity, because I know now, that I don’t need much to survive. Even my basic needs (home, food and sleep) I could flog to death and exhaust myself to limits, I never would have expected. In the end I know, that a night without sleep or a day without food is not a big problem to stand. You get used to it. And I could witness that hospitality is a universal quality of our human nature. I really feel like sharing my time and my resources with others. It is not only the taker but also the giver who benefits from that.

There is another aspect of my trip, the search to make a sense in my life. Or say the search for something, however you want to call it. I did not succeed finding this particular thing. This never ending circle of facing a life crisis and trying to find a solution. I start to believe, that it is impossible to find that and in the end not very important anyway. Our existence is totally random. We all try to achieve a certain thing in life. A destination. Maybe there is none. Maybe we should just do what Alan Watts said and not wait for the end of the composition, but dance with the music, as long as it is playing.

My blog will continue, I can assure. I have too much fun with writing to just drop that. Also I have content for about another year, that I would like to tell. Road trip through Kazakhstan will be published soon and I have a fine trilogy about „Traveling and Alcohol“ in the pipeline. I won’t publish every week, because I want to work a bit more on my translations. Writing bilingual takes so much time, which I did not had during my trip and so I was not very satisfied with my recent translations. And if I want to have fun blogging, I need to produce articles which I am satisfied with.

Also I try to sort my 50gb picture stack and start giving lectures about my trip. To share all the crazy stories in real life with you, written down or not. I am really looking forward to this new project. We will start with the first lecture in Leipzig.

All this is accompanied by a fundamental change in my life. My next projects will be executed from a base. With a home. Not as a homeless vagabond, like I did in the past two years. Because this is what I missed the most. To have a home. And when this is set, I will start again playing and dancing through this wonderful life. And if there are new adventures to tell about, I will let you take part in it. Because sharing is caring.

With this in mind,

Warm Roads

Afterword
To my countless friends and stranger who shared their home with me. To my 1156 drivers. To all the people who did something good to me, be that a melon, description, smile or hug. To all my friends who lent during dark times a listening ear to me. To all the people who send me this lovely messages and followed my stories. To my family.

Thank you, you are awesome!

Hitchhiking family!

Post Script
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost

Der Beitrag Hitchhiking around the world 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.

My bike collapses

I exited the city at the place I wanted and still had to pedal uphill for some time. There was a 10km tunnel I was approaching with the bike. Everybody was telling me that I couldn’t go through there but still I was riding on. I had my bike repaired (again) in Medellin. The rear rack had been welded and was finally sturdy and stable. Problem solved in my eyes. When I was one km from the tunnel entrance, climbing on the road and thinking about how passing the mountain through the tunnel must feel like when uddenly I heard a metallically sound. Was it the bike? Everything was looking good. I drove on. 15 meters after that my rear rack was askew after a screw had decided to loosen and quit. I had to weld it for 1,50€ and the mechanic didn’t even manage to tighten the screw right. Fucking shit. So I removed a screw from my selfmade packs to fix the rack temporarily. But for sure I would need a proper repair. That was about to happen in the next village. Before that I had a very steep descent to finish. And long, steep descents mean a lot of adrenaline for me, when Iḿ threatened, that my bike will collapse at any moment.

And I wasn’t through this unpassable tunnel yet. Next obstacle. When coming closer a security was already nervously running towards the road who thought I must have missed the “cycling prohibited” sign. No possible passage here. So I had to switch back to hitchhiking, with a truck. Worked well. I also survived the descent. More or less. My improvised bike packs had been fastened on the rack with hangers (Model Double-Hanger). Two hangers for each box. One had already broken and the second side I lost on this descent. Me, again, improvising. A string will do it. The motorcycle workshop fixed the lost screw for free. Well equipped to continue. The broken packing box was to be dealt with later. Is there anything working on this bike? I couldn’t care less, had to move on.

Sweltering heat, I had again arrived in the jungle. Antiquia, provincial capital. As I exited the town I considered buying something to drink. I was thirsty. But to much on edge to stop. I decided to continue first and get something to drink on one of the many shops alongside the road. There were so many shops in the past everywhere, should not be a problem.

Dying of thirst

The problem was I had no proper map. The one I carried had no elevation lines. Otherwhise I would have figured that in front of me was one of the worst ascents of my whole route waiting for me. I climbed up the mountain for some time. It was hot, and strangely there was nothing here. Plain nothing. Usually each mountain had some shops or something, but here – nothing. At some point I was done driving and continued by pushing my bike. I was quite fast like that to be honest. I am not the specialist for ascents, especially with this shitty bike and 20kg of stuff on my rear end.

Even pushing started to be quite exhausting after some time and I had to stop for a break. All over with sweat, completely overheated in the middle of the dead-zone. Where the hell is that beverage kiosk?!? I felt like cold ice tea and started fantasizing about all the awesome, cold drinks I could have. But that didn’t help and I had to continue to push. My mouth was getting dry, my spit failed to materialize. My head had to be purple by now. Since about two hours pushing and even after the next curve no sign of civilisation of consumerism. Everywhere next to the road I was seeing empty cups and bottles. Carelessly thrown out and I really considered stopping and sipping the rest of one of those bottles. That was the level of my thirst. Had I only bought something in the city. Going back was no option. Not two times that same road. I rather die of thirst.

At some point I passed a door with a Moto-Taxi in front of it. Behind it a path led into nowhere. I couldn’t recognise anything, no house, no doorbell. But the moto-taxi was open. I saw my chance, checked the cabin and there I saw it: A transparent plastic bottle. Not sure whats inside. Opening, checking the smell… chloride … well, water smells like chloride in Colombia, that could be it. A first sip, yes, it was water. Lukewarm water. I drank 4/5th of the bottle and put it back. My salvation. I was so glad and greedy drinking that I swallowed up and had t spit some water out again, while coughing. At least some water. It improved my overall situation. After that my suffering continued, the mountain seemed without end.

Darkness was approaching and I decided to stop a car to get out of that area. Didn’t take long and I had my pick up. Funny, here in Colombia hitchhiking with a bike seemed to be easier than without. We continued for another 10 km uphill, I was so happy not to be walking there on that continuing ascent but to be inside that car. He dropped me in the next village. Lightening covered the sky and a thunderstorm approached. I got me some bottles to drink, yeah lots of bottles with different, cold delicious liquids and then I checked in at the next hotel. Camping with that weather was not amusing and after being crushed by that day so much I was longing for some calmness.

Dear Colombia, you don’t only break me, but my bike as well

The next day started with light ascents on the high plains until I reached another descent two hours later. The broken bike pack had been provisionally fixed at the hotel. They didn’t even have a screwdriver so I had to tighten the screws by hand. It was quite ok since I was using locknuts. Pity that the condition of the road was getting worse. Gravel track. That was all I needed. I was more slow going down then going up because I had to be extremely careful not to drop into road holes or kill my rims on the sharp stones. I heard that 2 people from Chile were cycling the same path one day behind me. Maybe we will meet.

At some point going downhill as the road was better again a truck passed me and again I heard that strange, metallic sound. Was it me? Soon I realized: Yes, it was me. Of course. The second hanger of the already damaged box had left the team. Again improvising. I carried that sailing rope and with that I tied the box to the bike on both sides. A little unstable but good for now. I had no idea on how to really fix that. I finally went until Turbo like that. Looked like shit but was sturdy. Like running a marathon with a broken leg and only one shoe, but still making it through the finishing line.

It was 4 pm and I stopped to enjoy a malt drink. It was all over Colombia, called “Malta”. Some kind of malt beer. Lot’s of sugar, good energy. The high mountains were behind me and I was riding along a river for quite some time now. Short chit-chat in the next village on how to continue? Will it will stay flat? Nah, nah, only small hills, but pretty much a flat road. 40km to the next village. One of the younger ones tried to articulate that it would rise a little in between and then down to the village. Steep rising? No, no, the granny at the shop assured me. Plano, plano ‘till the next village. No problem with the bike. So I was calm since steep ascents were the last thing that I wanted to fight that day. I started bikng biking.

Marco Pantani Memorial Event

And so they dismissed me towards the steepest ascent that you will find between Medellin and Turbo. 2200 meters I had to climb, straight over a mountain pass as I was about to figure out. Not only the last day climbing was still aching in my bones but it was getting late and I was tired. Luckily not knowing what was in front of me. That’s always better. So I rolled, the road left the riverbed and the altitude slowly rising.

Actually this was the moment when I really learned how to climb steep roads with the bike. The strategy is very simple. Reduce speed a little in between, to take rest while climbing, but always stay in the seat. 15-20km I was pedaling, without a break, straight through. I entered the clouds at some point and it started to rain. It was moist. On the pass the road was winding on the same level for some kilometers before the long descent started. It was marvellous to stand on the highest point. I knew it would nly go down from here. And I made it without pushing half of the way! Beast mode! I was proud of myself.

Those exertions were rewarded with a hotel, at half the price of the one the day before. About 5 €. The nights in the hotels were terrible. Somehow, the South American hotels are frequented 24/7 by people what I conceive as very exhausting. Chatter all the time, doorbell amidst the night, people enter and exit and the TVs of my neighbours are constantly on maximum volume. TVs became my number one enemy. Shows only shit and is always noisy. But there was an internet connection. Where I checked the upcoming route and figured that the following day would have two terrible high mountains waiting for me. I had been nowhere near through the Cordillera, as i hoped to be after those two days of suffering.

What rainforest feels like

But then relieve! Ha! The website that I had used was flawed. The next day was hilly but the last mountain I had definitely crested the day before. My constantly present companion would from now on be the rain. And it’s not called rainforest for nothing. It was no real rain but constant drizzle. Relentless drizzle. From that day on I was constantly wet. Not wet enough for the moisture to go through my backpack but enough to evaporate steam during the water breaks. Still it was a rather relaxed day with an early evening approaching at the end as I was about to enter a thunderstorm that was in front of me.

I decided to eat out at a fancy restaurant and pitch my tent. I was happy to find a wooden structure with roof. The whole night was full of thunderstorm and rain and the shelter very much appreciated. On the next day there were only 100km left to Turbo. Mostly flat. No ascents. Wonderful. I really enjoyed cycling there. Although it was raining all the time. The first 40 km I had covered in about 2 hours. Breakfast. Destiny put me in a restaurant where the Tour de France was streamed on TV, the final 40km steep ascent. They were twice as fast as I had been and they cycled through the Pyrenees, full of super-steep ascents and dangerous downhill roads. When the winner was clear I saddled my bike again. Here I come world! Touring through Colombia.

The last kilometers to Turbo had the potential to make up for a lot that had happened on that tour. But no, of course not. About 25km before the city several huge construction works had decided to hang around on the road and together with the rain it created a lot of mud. A feast of mud. And trucks rushing past me throwing mud in all directions. My bike and I received a covering of mud. Mud madness. Thank you Colombia. Always up for some pleasure. I also really enjoyed cicyling with you!

But still I had made it. What came later you might already know. Cleaning the bike, selling the bike. Trading my Colombia Bike Outfit for a boat ride. Going towards Panama. Cycling is definitely off my “ToDo”-List. And next time I will use a more stable bike, better equipment and easier gears. I would cycle relaxed alongside a river instead fighting through the colombian mountain ranges. It was donkey work but epic! Been there, done that. Checkmark. Get up from the puddle of mud and continue.

Der Beitrag By bicycle through Colombia (3) – Last stage to Turbo erschien zuerst auf Warm Roads.