Blog

Precisely one day after I arrived in China, 0708.fueledbyrice.org and the site of our server provider both became impossible to access. It seems more likely at this point that it is not our site specifically that has been blocked, but all sites hosted by our server, Hostmonster.com. In any case, it is difficult to access our website in China, and nearly impossible to modify it. Hence the lack of updates or new photos or anything at all happening.

For those with technical knowledge, it is actually quite easy to defeat Chinese internet censorship. You can use one of many free systems that “anonymize” your IP address. This means most importantly that your physical location cannot be traced by someone electronically eavesdropping on your surfing. It also gets you past the f*rew*lls and censors that normally decide who can look at what sites in China. The only problem is that most secure logins (like the ones needed to login to this blog and our website) do not allow anonymous IPs for security reasons.

The only way I’m able to post this is that I have a trial version of an anonymizer that is specially set up to allow users to login to secure accounts. We now have to decide to do one of two things. We can buy the services of this anonymizer, which for a small fee allows us to modify our site with anonymous IPs, but still leaves the site blocked for most folks in China. On the other hand, because the problem is with our server and not with our site (we think) we can simply transfer our site to another company, one who’s servers aren’t blocked in China. This is easy to do, only slightly more expensive than buying the secure anonymizer, and would allow everyone in China to look at our site. We’ll see. The good news for anyone checking this site and hoping for more frequent updates is that either of these options will hopefully be in place by later today, and all of us will be able to once again be able to post blogs and pics.

Here we are. Three short weeks away from taking off and still lists and lists of undone tasks litter my house, desk, work, and dreams. No matter how simple the task, it seems that it must needs complicate itself according to those inscrutable principles known as Murphy’s laws. Did he ever develop any bike-trip specific theories? I’d probably just as soon not know. Wheels take longer than promised to be made and are weaker than the ones I ordered. Seats and seat posts are stolen. Finding seat posts requires multiple trips to different bike shops and then somehow I choose one that’s too long. Taking a bike on a plane as extra luggage costs as much as buying a cheap domestic ticket. The visa company gives us sixty instead of ninety day visas. Brakes don’t. Web sites fail to cooperate. And we haven’t even started yet!

But, I have a bike. I have a ticket. I have a visa. I’m going to China. I can’t wait to dispense with the worrying, the scurrying, the errand running and sand blast all of those lists out of my head with a healthy dose of Chinese road dust. My previous bike trip in China offered a similar planning experience. Everything is extremely hectic until you leave, and then you’re out on the road and the only thing you have to worry about is the burning in your legs and the numbness in other places. Give me numbness over visa woes any day. Well, almost any day.

Last week, we took a 3 day test ride from Beijing to Tianjin, a city about 120km southeast of Beijing. Let’s see, with a baozi breakfast on plastic chairs outside on a dusty sidewalk, we left Wudaoko at about 8:30am and reached our destination by 8:00pm. My muscles weren’t crying, they were shrieking obsenities at me, and i was in turn shrieking obsenities at Drew and Peter for riding like speed demons with no rest. I am no athlete. I like lipsticks and high heels. Skaterboys and garage dance clubs. So this, being my first taste of what is to come on my one year bike trip around the world (never rush into anything), was the first realistic glimpse of what its going to be like. I could feel myself breaking down emotionally as i wondered when and where the end was, then pushing myself to go faster and then getting a little ahead of Drew and Peter (the real athletes on the trip) and then feeling a rush from my body’s accomplishment and riding that rush like a new muscle.

Apart from the physical strife, other aspects of the trip felt like breaking muscle fiber as well. The second lu dian (inn? minimalistic motel in rural China? use your imagination) we stayed at had a shower equipped with a large bin for rain water and a dirt floor. After riding in the loose city dust and being licked by China’s strange sulfur oxidic tongue for 4 hours, i scrubbed my heart out.  

But this was also after riding through Tianjin’s markets varnished by the rain that fell as we rode into the city that morning. The light from beneath the tarp awnings of the baozi and bing stalls dimmed and glazed beneath the fuzz of the rain, umbrellas became walking lamps, old european buildings split open by weeping willows crawling up through them became secret gardens with doors that framed pictures of daily life, the fish in 4 inch tall square tanks had to swim sideways to breathe, a small lady sitting in the middle of the street next to her vegetables touched my arm lightly, and smiled as if to bring my awe down to earth. touch. intimate. like a pinch.

i guess in pushing my body and my comfort zone to extremes, im definitely more aware of myself. I’m feeling my muscles, im feeling my exhaustion, my senses overloaded as i smell market food, my emotions oscillating between intense disappointment and anger and then exhilirating pride.  i’m present. i have to be, or I’ll get run over by a bus.

你好！我的英文名字叫 “Ｊｉｍ”, 原来的中文名字叫狼．狼有点太奇怪的，所以我变化我的中文名字，现在是彭敖．怎么样，还是太奇怪的吗？

好像这不是文章，但是我不知道在博客上写的东西怎么说。这个情况肯定会发生很多次，原因是我的中文写得这么不好。请容忍！

现在我住在美国的明呢苏达州，从中国回来了一年了．美国好是好但是有天我想中国．美国没有中国的有意思，我在路上的时候，美国人没有中国人的友谊。在美国我不能在路上往我不认识的人走开始讨论，这些人肯定会对我很奇怪。但是在中国我想跟谁说话我就跟他们说话。可能这个情况只是因为我是外国人。无论原因是什么我都会喜欢跟很多人说话。

现在我在美国的生活有一个不好玩的地方：修这个网页！修网页我不太熟悉，所以有的修网页的事情要很多时间办。我昨天刚差不多修完了我们的网页。现在我只要翻译几个页。翻译不是麻烦的事，因为提高我的汉语不会不好玩。

但是回中国去的时候，开始自行车的旅行，只会在这儿写激动的事情，不用关于没有意思的事花时间。有机会回中国去我越来越激动的．

Preparation continues here in Minnesota for the journey.  Things being taken care of include obtaining visas, purchasing (and making) gear, planning routes, bicycle training, language study,  and website development (mostly thanks to Jim)  The summer has been great here but I’m anxious for fall to roll around and head out on our trip.  I hope to keep this updated periodically before we leave then more frequently once we begin our trip.

Adam

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