The Birthday Ride

 It's 14:00pm on the 31st of July 1995. One Rayisa Vorajee (my mom) has found her way to La Verna Hospital where she is in agonizing pain from the labour of a legend... Fast forward 25 years on and you have me! An Indian South African engineer that decided to teach English in China and get lost on the side of a mountain in an orange plantation! There was a moment where I thought I wasn't going to make it and I literally thought of my mom going through all that pain of giving birth to me all so that I could die alone in a ditch next to an orange plantation that from which I couldn't even get an orange to eat.

I had decided to make a trip to the picturesque Li River Valley. One of the most, pure and pristine rivers I have ever seen. Not only is the water crystal clear and moderately cool, but it also flows through the magnificent Kast mountains. I ended up staying in a small, little village called Xinping. Not only was the village unpopulated, which for China, is a blessing, but it also had a Pakistani shop selling amazing chana and naan. Having eaten noodles every second day for the last three months, naan was heaven, also it cost me R50 for 1 naan, so my stingy, Indian genes made it taste 10x better than it actually did.

Xinping Kast mountains and Li River

After eating a piece of heaven I suddenly realized that not only was it going to be my birthday tomorrow, but Eid as well. I was fortunate enough to make friends with our Pakistani thief (R50 for one naan is crime) and he offered to meet me in a neighbouring town where he would pick me up and we would go to mosque to celebrate Eid together. I then decided that I was going to hire a bicycle and ride to the next town to meet him. So, the evening before, I paid a refundable deposit of R400 and a fee of R20 to hire the bike that I would return by 21:00pm the next day. I was also given a lock-chain and key that needed to be returned with the bike in order to claim my deposit. The strong genes of stinginess in me then found the cheapest accommodation I had ever stayed in: R15 a night : Mistake number 1. The bed was ... well, there wasn't a bed! Instead, it was a hard block of wood with a blanket over, which wasn't new to me: having stayed in Korea for quite a bit, I found many people there liked to sleep on hard surfaces as it was said to help their posture.

The bike

Mistake number 2: The aircon was an additional R20 and you can guess if the Sub-continent ancestors had lead me to take that option... I couldn't sleep! The mosquitos were "finishing" me, I was sopping wet from sweating and to top it all off, some stupid, inconsiderate, invalid, drunk, smeagol of a person came marching into the dorm and and decided to sleep on me! After a quick elbow to his side, he was sleeping on the floor! (fatality)

I never managed to get up in time to make it for Eid prayer, but I decided to go for a ride on my bicycle to the neighbouring town anyway as it was my birthday! Mistake number 3: Using google maps in China is not a good idea as the maps are extremely outdated after china banned google. I was lost, but strangely, found! After months of being in the polluted city, I had found myself cycling on an old school, single speed bike through beautiful, fresh forest along the mountains edges. I had witnessed the curves of the majestic river and even had the chance to see water buffalo crossing the river and eating the grass within. Everything was perfect in that moment, even the reality of being lost within! This feeling soon ended as I realized that I needed to get back to town before 21:00pm in order to get my deposit back. So I decided that since I didn't know where I was, I should just follow the river and I would get back. I started to go downhill toward the river and very soon realized that I had no brakes... I managed to take the first bend sharply and then decided to get off the bike whilst at a reasonable speed before it got too fast. As I was getting off, the bike hit a bump, I lost control, the bike got jammed in an orange tree and I went flying! 

The Li River

After a few minutes of lying on the ground and taking it all in, I got back up, swore the bike and kept on riding toward the river! The road suddenly ended so I thought that I should just make my own path (bundu bash as we say back home) along the side! Mistake number 5. the sides of the river were thick, swampy, marshland. I was almost kneed deep in mud and the bike was bogged. Eventually, I had made it through the marsh and into another orange orchard which curved along a steep bank after which I spotted a little dirt track. I decided to go for it! After about 5 minutes, the orchard seemed to be sloping away from a large cliff. Of course, I could make it.

I'm not going to make it, I thought to myself. I had managed to jam the bike in between two trees and I was holding onto the seat whilst my legs dangled of the side of the cliff. It honestly felt like that orange tree was a sort of symbolic entity in my life. I mean, all the famous stories have a tree somewhere in them: Newton and his tree; Buddha and the Bodhi tree; Adam and Eve and the tree in garden of Eden and my dad's made up story about Tarzan dying by falling from a tree! This orange tree was mine forever! I had never recited prayers that loudly in my life! My mother gave birth to me for this! It was almost as if the chasm below was trying to swallow my up in a sort of antibirth. I managed to muster up some strength to swing my leg up onto the bank and after levering my body, I succeeded in pulling my frame onto the ledge - I had survived! After roughly an hour of climbing between orange trees and pulling the bike through and not even a single orange to eat, I had made it to the dirt road only to be harassed by a very angry Chinese lady!

I had absolutely no idea what she was saying, but her body language suggested a little bit more than what I could see of her eyes! I kept nodding until she paused, indicating that she was probably asking me a question to which I repeated the name of the town I was heading to. She then said, "Xinping" and some other unidentifiable words and pointed whilst in stretch. I think she was telling me that I was far from the destination.  She continued shouting at me so I just got onto the bike and sadly road on. My legs : aching, dignity : broken, integrity : non-existent, existence : questioning! I kept riding slowly until a small car passed me and offered me a rope to hold onto whilst they drove up... There are good people in this world!

With the help of the local car, I had made it to a local, signed highway and I knew that it would be easy going from there. The rest of the journey was quite pleasant and actually very beautiful. In fact, it was one of the best rides I had ever taken. I passed through beautiful tea fields and small villages whilst the golden rays of the Asian sun  pierced the sky through the Kast mountains and set shadows in the valleys below. Eventually, I made it back at 20:50pm and even received my deposit after steeling another bikes lock and chain! (I think mine fell off when I flew into the orange tree) 

This experience truly was a case of the journey being more important than the destination. A realization that there aren't really any permanent guests anywhere. We are all travelers all the time, wherever we are. We visit our experiences and they in turn leave us with memories.