Riding Home through Asia by Alastair Humphreys

Author:Alastair Humphreys
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eye Books
Published: 2015-09-21T18:44:41+00:00

Tom’s other trick for putting off making difficult decisions was to take a nap. So he rested his head on a rock that looked like a pillow even if it didn’t feel like one, and drifted off to sleep to dream about bridges and bananas.

Some time later he woke to the sound of a spluttering engine. It sounded like one of the millions of smelly little motorbikes that zoom all around Asia. But for once this was not a motorbike. It was an engine on a barge. A barge, on the river. A barge heading his way.

Tom couldn’t believe it. As quick as a flash he jumped to his feet. He leaped up and down and yelled as loudly as he could. Luckily the man steering the boat spotted him. With a surprised look, he turned the boat towards the riverbank and headed for the deranged, dirty boy who was jumping up and down.

The barge came gently alongside the riverbank. Tom was saved! The man on the barge beckoned for him and his bike to climb aboard. Tom didn’t need asking twice. He didn’t care where the barge was going so long as he didn’t have to cycle back all the way he had just come.

With hand gestures and a bit of pointing, Tom managed to explain that he wanted to cross the Yellow River. The man smiled, turned the barge towards the opposite bank and puttered slowly across the river. The little engine was too weak for the big barge and the current was swift. So they drifted downstream as they crossed.

Soon the barge bumped gently onto the opposite bank. Tom jumped down onto the riverbank. He smiled and shouted “xie xie! Thank you!” The man waved goodbye and motored down the famous river.

The boy had no idea where the boat had come from, nor where it was going. He was always grateful but no longer surprised by the kindness of strangers on this adventure. It was weird how often funny little things like this happened to help him when he was stuck.

Tom scrambled up the muddy riverbank and heaved his bike up through the fields on the other side of the valley. It was exhausting work. By the time he reached the lip of the valley it was late afternoon. He was dripping with sweat and filthy with mud.

He was definitely not expecting the view that greeted him when he looked over the rim of the valley: a gigantic city, with huge power station chimneys belching black fumes into the sky.

The city was not on Tom’s map. He had expected wilderness. This was a brand new city that had been built since his map was made. New cities like this, in the middle of nowhere, are springing up all over China. This explained the road that Tom had had all to himself: it was a road to this city. But the city was so new that the bridge to link the city with the road hadn’t been built yet.

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