Riding Home through Asia

by Alastair Humphreys

  Houses here did not have running water because it would freeze in the pipes. There were no flushing toilets for the same reason, so Kaskil’s toilet was out in the back garden. It was little more than a hole in the ground inside a tiny shed – not a warm, cosy place to go to the loo! Tom once peered down into one of these holes and saw a big pyramid of frozen solid poo. Daily life can be tricky when you don’t have sewers to carry your waste away!

  But Kaskil’s house was deliciously warm inside. Beside the log stove in the kitchen was a barrel of water, melted from the blocks of frozen ice outside. Kaskil pulled a chair close to the stove and motioned for Tom to sit down and warm up. He peeled off some of his enormous fur clothes.

  Tom’s new friend didn’t have a fridge or a freezer. These aren’t necessary when you can just keep your food on a shelf outside the back door. And besides, there was no electricity here to power them. Within minutes, a pan of delicious pancakes was sizzling away on the stove. Tom was very happy. He was warm. He’d ridden on a reindeer sleigh. And he was about to eat pancakes. Life was good!

  Kaskil piled two plates high with pancakes. He heaped berries on top, berries he had gathered from the woods last autumn. On top of all this he blobbed a big pile of cream, made with milk from the cow in the barn next door. Tom and Kaskil could not speak the same language, but everyone knows the language of food. Grinning at each other, the two of them began to eat.

  Riding the Wild Winter Road

  Tom arrived at a branch in the road. He had a difficult decision to make. The left turn was called the Summer Road. The right fork was the Winter Road. Both roads ended up in the same place, but they could only be used for half the year each. The Summer Road took a high route through the hills. In winter it became blocked with snow. If Tom took that route and got stuck, nobody would pass by to help him for six months.

  The Winter Road, on the other hand, stayed low, passing through swamps and across rivers with no bridges. It was impossible to travel that road until the weather was cold enough to freeze everything solid, including the rivers. One of these was the Lena River, the 11th biggest river in the world. It would need to become very cold indeed before the Lena River froze …

  Tom was afraid. Making choices in the wilderness is difficult. There is nobody to help you make a decision. And if you make the wrong one, the consequences can be very, very serious.

  It was almost evening and he was tired. He decided not to make his mind up immediately, but set up his tent at the junction to think about it. What road would you take?

  Tom’s tent was his home. It was a very small home, but it was all he needed as he cycled round the world. The kitchen, bedroom and living room were all in one place. In fact, Tom’s tent was almost better than his real house. He ate his tea straight out of the pan whilst lying in bed (snuggled into his sleeping bag to keep warm). And he did the washing up in bed, too.

  “Washing up” simply meant licking his spoon and pan clean. When he got home he was going to try to persuade his family to lick their plates rather than bothering to wash them up.

  The only problem with living in a tent was the bathroom. If Tom needed the toilet he had to climb out of the tent into the freezing night air – definitely a job to do as fast as possible! Going to the toilet in the freezing cold was not fun, but Tom did enjoy cleaning his teeth outside, searching for shooting stars in the sky as he brushed.

  Tom usually set an alarm to wake himself up in the morning, but if he was buried in a sleeping bag, he couldn’t hear it. So in Siberia, he kept the alarm inside his woolly hat, near his ears, to make sure it woke him up.

  But tonight, no alarm was necessary. Within an hour he woke up, shivering. Ice had built up on the inside of the tent and a thin layer covered his sleeping bag. Tom warmed himself up by wiggling his body as fast as he could. But all this activity made him wide awake. Finally, he fell asleep again, only to be woken up an hour later, cold and shivering once more. This went on and on.

  Despite the disrupted sleep, by morning Tom had made his decision. He was going to ride the Winter Road. He did not want to risk being stranded for six months without seeing another person.

  Getting up was the worst part of Tom’s day. That was true at home too, when his Mum and Dad woke him from a lovely deep sleep and started shouting a thousand things to him at once.

  “Get up! Get dressed! Eat your breakfast! Hurry Up! Clean your teeth! Are you still in bed?! Get up! Get dressed! Clean your breakfast! Eat your teeth! Hurry Up! You’d better not still be in bed …”

  Mornings at home were annoying, noisy whirlwinds. But they were easy compared to mornings in Siberia. It’s true Tom didn’t have his parents shouting. He didn’t have to go to school. He didn’t even need to get dressed: here, Tom slept in his clothes at night. He’d given up changing his pants as he never took his clothes off. If he was cold, he used his spare pants for an extra hat!

  But Tom did have to get out of his sleeping bag. And when the temperature outside was as cold as it is in Siberia, this was horrible! Tom forced his feet into frozen shoes, wishing he were back in his sleeping bag. He even wished he could go to school. At least school was warm.

  Tom sprinted in circles round and round his tent like a daft dog chasing its tail. Then he did star jumps and whirled his arms like a windmill. Anything to get warm.

  Each morning Tom spent an hour melting snow and pouring it into thermos flasks so he could drink it throughout the day. Finally, with numb fingers, he packed away his frozen, stiff tent and jumped on his bike to try to pedal a bit of warmth back into his body.

  The temperature was -40º degrees Celsius.

  Back home, when the weather gets to be about 5ºC – as cold as a fridge – you’ll hear people complaining and dreaming of summer. When the weather drops to freezing (0ºC), fields turn crispy with frost and a skin of ice freezes across puddles.

  Your freezer at home is about -20ºC. Only really cold countries and high mountains regularly have temperatures that drop as low as -20ºC. Hardly anywhere except the North Pole and the South Pole get down to -40ºC.

  And that’s what the temperature was today. -40ºC!

  It’s difficult to imagine just how cold -40ºC is, except that it is colder than living inside your freezer. If you touch metal with bare skin your fingers stick to the metal. When you breathe out you can actually hear your breath freeze and tinkle to the ground. Men with beards get big build-ups of ice in them, and anyone with a runny nose grows disgusting snot icicles that dangle off the end of their nose.

  If you take a cup of boiling water and throw it into the air at -40ºC, the water turns into ice before it hits the ground. Once, one of Tom’s beloved bananas froze so hard that he used it to hammer a nail into wood!

  When you are somewhere really cold you must be sure to wear lots of loose layers of clothes. Layers make it easier to control your body temperature – you can take off a layer or put on another one. It’s really important not to get too cold, of course. But it’s equally important not to get too hot. Your sweat will later cool down and make you dangerously cold.

  Omyakon is the coldest town in the world, with a record temperature of an astonishing -71ºC. It was a small place, and some children had built an igloo in one of the gardens. As soon as Tom cycled into Omyakon, he dived into a café and bought some delicious hot pies. He was more excited about their warmth than their taste. He didn’t want to waste any of that precious heat, so instead of putting the pies into his bags with his other supplies, he tucked them down inside his pants.

  Not many people would want to eat pies that have been carried around inside their pants, but Tom was delighted to be able to enjoy them twice – once to warm himself up and once to savour their delicious taste!

  Tom also bought some ice cream – one of his all-time favourite treats. Siberia was the only place in the world where Tom could carry ice cream around without it melting. Filling
his bags (not his pants) with ice cream, he cycled onwards.

  That night, wearing all his clothes and snuggled deep inside his sleeping bag, Tom licked an ice cream cone and smiled. He unzipped the tent door a little so that he could see the sky. The sky was filled with stars. Sweeping through and amongst the stars were the Northern Lights – swirling waves and curtains of magical-looking green light. The Northern Lights were one of the best things that Tom had ever seen. To enjoy them whilst he ate an ice cream was the perfect ending to a hard, cold day on the road.

  Cycling home from Siberia was tough work. When you’re wearing three pairs of gloves even easy jobs like fixing punctures take ages to do. And when you’re not fixing punctures, you’re skidding and crashing into snowdrifts. But in spite of the difficulties, Tom was making steady progress along the Winter Road.

  Only one thing was worrying him: the Lena River. If he could not cross the river then he could not carry on. His adventure would be over. There was no bridge and – at this time of year – no ferry. Tom desperately willed the weather to get even colder, so that the Lena would freeze. It was horrible, but it was his only hope. He rode nervously on.

  The Lena was the widest river Tom had ever seen – hundreds of metres across. But as he arrived on its banks, the boy breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. His sigh ballooned into a cloud in front of his mouth and fell as ice crystals to the ground. The river was frozen!

  Cars were driving across the river. Just imagine how solid a river has to be before it can hold the weight of a car …

  Tom cycled out onto the Lena. Being on a frozen river is one of the most dangerous things you can ever do. Occasional gaps appeared in the ice as Tom inched forward. Filled with fear, he looked down at the cold black water racing beneath his feet. If he fell into that water he would certainly die. Tom was very careful to cross only on the patches of ice where the cars had been driving. This proved that the ice would be frozen enough for him and his bike.

  With another big sigh of relief, he reached the other side. He had crossed the last big obstacle in Siberia. With as much speed as he could manage, he rode onwards. Siberia was wonderful, but Tom was beginning to dream of somewhere less painful, less frightening, less dangerous, and less cold.

  Tom didn’t have far to go and soon arrived at the coast, where he could catch a boat across the sea to his next country: Japan.

  Steaming through Japan

  Japan was different in every way to Russia. The people and shops looked different. The streets were busy with small, shiny cars. The signs were in Japanese, writing that Tom could not read. Everywhere he looked he saw traffic lights and flashing neon lights. He had not seen a traffic light in the last 3,000 miles of Siberia.

  Because Tom normally cycled slowly from one country to the next one, he usually noticed that many things were the same in the two countries, rather than how different things were. There was little culture shock. But crossing a sea to a new country meant that the differences were greater. And he had never crossed between two countries as different from each other as Russia and Japan. The surprise and novelty were brilliant.

  But Tom had a problem. He stank. He knew that he did – he could smell himself! It had not been enjoyable in the Russian cold to take off his clothes and wash in a river. He’d done it a couple of times but after the rivers froze solid it wasn’t really Tom’s fault that he couldn’t take a bath. So now he stank!

  His first job in Japan was to get clean. Japan is one of the cleanest countries in the world. Every little town has a public bath, an onsen, where you can go to wash and relax in a deep, hot tub. Tom was looking forward to this.

  The onsen Tom cycled to was outdoors. Even though there was still snow on the ground, the water bubbling up from a natural hot spring was steaming hot. It was wonderful. Imagine how great it would feel to sit back and wallow in a hot outdoor bath on a cold, icy day.

  There is a place in Japan where the local monkeys do exactly this. The red-faced monkeys relax in the steaming water, escaping from the cold snowy land that they live in.

  Tom peered out from his big wooden bath and looked out over the wooded river valley. You might have mistaken Tom for a little monkey if you’d seen him grinning away in the hot water, red-faced, scruffy-haired and very happy to have put the cruel Siberian winter behind him.

  Smelling good at last, Tom was ready now to cycle the whole way down Japan. Japan is made up of an incredible 6,852 islands, but nearly everyone lives on four main islands. These are called Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku.

  Hokkaido is the northern island where Tom landed from Russia. Snow lay thick on the ground. Tom was fed up with snow. He was looking forward to the warmer islands further south. The Japanese word for snow is yuki. And after months of the stuff, that was pretty much how Tom was feeling about snow, too.

  As he rode south, Tom cycled into springtime. He was delighted to see green fields again after endless fields of white. The first flowers of springtime smelled beautiful, and the blue sky and bright sunshine warmed his spirit.

  Cherry trees were bursting with pink blossom, like giant clouds of candy floss. Japanese people love the cherry blossom season because it welcomes in the spring and signals the end of winter. Spring is a time for new beginnings, a time for looking forward.

  Tom was also looking forward to a banana sandwich. He had missed bananas. There were plenty available here so he bought a bunch and settled beneath a cherry tree to make a huge sandwich, drooling at the thought.

  As he chomped away happily, an old man approached Tom. He had a long moustache and carried a travel-worn satchel.

  “Konnichiwa!” said the old man, bowing. “Hello!”

  “Konnichiwa!” replied Tom, bowing back.

  The old man sat down next to Tom under the cherry tree.

  “My name is Tom,” said Tom, pointing to himself to explain.

  “Matsuo,” said the man. He touched himself on the nose as he spoke – this is what Japanese people do when they talk about themselves. It looks quite funny.

  Tom offered Matsuo a sandwich. Japanese people are very polite, but even though he said “no thank you”, Tom could tell that Matsuo thought a banana sandwich was a bit disgusting.

  They chatted about Tom’s adventure until he finished eating. As Tom packed up his things and got ready to ride again, Matsuo wrote him a little poem. Short poems like this, called haiku, are popular in Japan:

  On a journey,

  Resting beneath the cherry blossoms,

  I feel myself to be in an old play.

  Tokyo Tower Blocks, Temples and Mount Fuji

  A few years ago Tom had been friends with a Japanese boy at school. Michitaka had since returned to live in Japan, and emailed Tom to invite him to visit his family in Tokyo.

  Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world. It is about three times bigger than London. It took a whole day for Tom to cycle into the city. He grew annoyed with the hundreds of traffic lights that kept interrupting him. Every time the traffic stopped, thousands of people swarmed across the road.

  As he approached the centre of Tokyo, the buildings towered higher and higher above Tom’s head, blotting out the sky. Restaurant signs flashed brightly with words he could not understand. Luckily, many Japanese restaurants have plastic models of their meals as well as menus, so when he stopped to eat Tom could just point to a model that looked particularly tasty.

  After the emptiness of Siberia it was weird to be surrounded by all these man-made things. Tom felt excited but a bit overwhelmed as he rode through Tokyo. Trying to weave through the busy city streets using a street map with Japanese writing was very difficult. He was looking forward to seeing his friend again; Tom only ever met strangers on his journey. This sometimes felt a bit lonely. He was both surprised and pleased with himself when he eventually made it to Michitaka’s address. He rang the bell.

  “Hi, To
m!” said Michitaka , opening the door.

  “Hi, Mitch!”

  “Come in!” Michitaka said, smiling. “You stink!”

  It was good to see his friend again.

  Tom loved staying with Mitch and his family. And also wearing freshly washed clothes. They played computer games and watched football on TV, just like they used to. It was interesting to see what was different in Mitch’s home in Japan compared to Tom’s in England. Tokyo is very crowded so almost everyone lives in tiny flats.

  Mitch showed Tom around. “In Japan, you must always take your shoes off when you come inside. When you go into the bathroom, you have to put on these special toilet slippers. Remember to take them off again when you come out or everyone will think you’re gross!”

  In the bathroom, Mitch pointed at the toilet. He grinned.

  “Japan’s toilets are the best in the world. You’ll like this …”

  He pressed a button on the toilet and music began to play.

  “It’s got a heated seat, too!”

  Tom thought of Kaskil’s freezing outdoor toilet in the forest in Siberia.

  “I love heated toilets!” he said.

  Mitch’s Mum and Dad, Miyako and Katsumi, did not speak English so Mitch translated their chat. Tom was learning to eat with chopsticks and usually made a terrible mess. One morning, Miyako cooked a fried egg for Tom’s breakfast. Eating a fried egg with chopsticks was a complete disaster! The next day, Miyako gave Tom a small present. Everyone laughed as Tom opened a packet containing training chopsticks that Japanese babies use when they are first learning how to hold chopsticks.

  At mealtimes, Mitch’s family knelt on the floor around a low table. Japanese food was different to any food Tom had eaten before. It always looked beautiful, served in tiny portions on small plates. Slurping things like noodle soup meant that you were enjoying the food and, in Japan, is not a rude sound.