Friday 21 January 2011

Just Passing Through



This is Fei and Yuan-Yuan, and they've been cycling almost all the way from Nepal. Apparently, the 2 girls are friends who first met a couple of months ago in Kathmandu. Yuan was already 3 months into her cycling trip, travelling all the way from Shanghai to Kathmandu with her husband. Fei was hitch hiking when she met the couple in Kathmandu and decided to join them, buying a bicycle immediately. Together, they rode through Nepal, and then parts of India like Delhi, Varanasi and Rajasthan (spending New Years in the desert) before they split up and the ladies caught a bus and train to Mumbai (they prefer cycling though, and would have cycled all the way if they had the time), where I met them.

Their original plan was to ride through Pakistan and Iran too, but only Yuan's husband could go, since the two ladies had visa problems which no amount of haggling at the embassy could fix. And so they parted ways, with the 2 girls proceeding to Mumbai, where they spent their first night on the streets, before looking for a place to stay. They were unsuccessful at the first bungalow they inquired, and got lucky the second time around, on Monday, Jan 10, when they dropped by my friend ZP's place.

My friend ZP has a SV-road-facing bungalow in Jogeshwari. Imagine his surprise when, while cooking at home in the afternoon, 2 Chinese girls he'd never seen before showed up at his place, greeted him with folded hands and a namaste, and asked, using sign language and broken English, if they could pitch their tent there. He let them stay for 3 nights, till they left the city.

They had a DSLR, and I got to see all their travel pics - Nepal, the mountains, the snow, then Varanasi, Jaisalmer, the palaces, camels & desert. It must have been cold. Occasionally, they got to meet other cyclists, but were mostly by themselves. They spent a lot of nights camping in schools. They said they enjoyed their time in India and that they'd be leaving for Kenya on Thursday, the 13th, where they would continue cycling for at least a few more months. On their travels, they met a lady who lent them some money and offered them work in her restaurant in Tanzania, which they plan to take up. After they finish travelling, Fei wants to go to the U.S to study, while Yuan-Yuan plans on going back home to her husband. They both want to improve their English first.

I wish them all the best.


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2 comments:

zubin patel said...

ya it was quiet strange when i saw them on my terrace, while i was heating my food in the kitchen. apparently they had opened their tent at juhu beach, and the cops ask them to move away. but the cops helped them by letting them sleep safely inbetween the naka bandi barricades near the juhu police station(beach side). After the first night at my place, they left early morning to filmistan studio as someone had told them its possible to make a quick buck out there as an extra in a movie or something, but they were only shooowed away by the watchman. Fei was very talented, she portraited some beautiful traditional chinese dance, which was very graceful and she was also an excellent musseuse.

Unknown said...

Wow, what an interesting story! Life is full of surprises.

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