April 19 – 26, 2017

“Tah-shi de-leeeeh!!!” belts out the Tibetan man on his motorcycle, lumbering down the broken, muddy road of a 15k ft mountain pass in the Amdo Region of Eastern Tibet, his wife and child clinging on precariously behind him. “Tah-shi de-leeeeeeeh!!!” I shout back, even more emphatically. Their laughter and cheer inspires me. It is 27F in a stinging, sideways blowing snow and sleet storm.  It is thundering all around.  The family is wrapped completely in yak skin coats with only eye holes cut in their face masks to see. I am cycling toward a summit that is nearing 16k ft and is still more than 1 hour away. This is Eastern Tibet, the land of snows, where the mountains are huge, but pale in comparison to the smiles and kindness of the people. Birds soar. Yak bells clang. Prayer wheels spin. There is a warmth and glow surrounding me. I am not cold, nor am I miserable. This place has magic and I am exactly where I want to be.

To say that “China is different” is even more of an absurd understatement as saying “China is big”. Both statements lack the sort of grandiose description warranted by this unique place. The language barrier here is legit and paralyzingly incarcerating. It is like solitary confinement. For 5 days, I did not hear a single word of English and even my tried and true charades act proved ineffective. After a couple days of slogging over 300 miles through dusty Chinese cities, I once again joined my Swiss friends in the ancient city of Dali. There’s not much ancient about it as most of the city has been rebuilt to satisfy the droves of Chinese tourists that blanket its streets, armed with selfie sticks. It does however provide a very comfortable resting and planning spot before heading north into Eastern Tibet. Seeing that we will be socked in with rain for the next week, we opt instead to take a bus about 200 miles north to another tourist city, Shangri La which has a distinctly Tibetan feel as we have now entered the Amdo region of Eastern Tibet.

Eastern Tibet is not to be confused with the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). In 1950, the People’s Liberation Army invaded and defeated the outmanned Tibetan army. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed, under duress, a 17 point agreement with the Chinese Central People’s Government affirming China’s sovereignty over Tibet and thus the incorporation of Tibet. Under threat of his life from Chinese forces, the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and has been living in exile since. The Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965, thus making Tibet an administrative division that is essentially equivalent in status to a Chinese province. Many Tibetans fled to what historically has been called Eastern Tibet where they enjoy a slightly more relaxed and less regulated traditional Tibetan life.

While strapping our cycles to the top of the bus that would eventually take us to Shangri La, the bus driver became impatient and noticeably irritated with Ivo’s careful attention to securing our cycles. I climbed up on top of the bus and put my hand on the back of the driver, smiled, and gave him the “thumbs up”. In an instant he smiled back and said, “Ok, ok.” A simple smile can be disarming.

I get it dad!!! When I was a kid I was so embarrassed by my dad’s unabashedly outgoing personality, and still am even a bit to this day. He would honk and wave out the window as we drove down the street, any street, in any town. “Hey Tom!” “How you doin’ Frank?” “Lookin’ good Charlie!” I was an awkward, insecure, and gangly boy and would cower in the front seat of his 2-toned Chevy Caprice Classic in complete and utter embarrassment. He was just making up names and being friendly (and probably having fun embarrassing me too), but almost always, the people would see my dad waving at them with a big warm smile and they would instinctively smile and wave back. He has this amazing gift of disarming people with his gregarious personality and charisma and making them feel comfortable. He understood the human experience and the beauty of connection. It is something I am slowly warming to and working to incorporate in myself. I definitely was not always this way.  I am very grateful to him for this and I am truly thriving on this human experience during the journey that I am on. It feeds me and provides daily inspiration. Whatever was causing the bus driver to become impatient with Ivo likely had nothing to do with us. Take a step back, breathe, and just smile. Whenever I am riding through a town, any town, in any country, I try to smile, regardless of how I am feeling, say “hello” in whatever the local language is, and usually that gesture is returned. The same is true when I’m in a dark place. A simple smile can lift me from whatever ditch I have temporarily settled in. Life really is about connection and the human experience.

We left the comforts and cozy heated beds of Shangri La (it is very common in this region for hotels to have electric blankets since the buildings themselves have no heating) and proceeded to go off the grid the for the next 7 days. It was a route that would take us over 4 mountain passes ranging between 13k and 16k feet high. Several of the nights we were forced to camp just below the summit of the passes before the evening storms would roll in. At this altitude, weather happens fast. While setting up our tents on the first night, I looked across the valley. I could see the clouds billowing ominously as the storm was coming. The mountains were blanketed. Two minutes later, I could hear it. One minute more, we felt the wind, and 30 seconds after that it was raining sideways as we secured our gear and dove inside our tents for shelter. A deluge of rain and sleet pounded for about 10 minutes, and then passed. This would be the pattern for the next 5 nights.

As a boy growing up in Michigan and Colorado, my 2 favorite things were riding my bike, fast, down hills and exploring the woods and mountains.  Losing myself in nature. Cycling in Eastern Tibet wakes up the little 10 year boy in me. I am cycling through areas that have seen very few, if any cyclists or really any western tourists. Combine that with the thrill of cycling down a remote dirt road coming over the top of a 16k foot pass, and it is pure childhood euphoria. All around, the mountains surround me, with shark tooth, glacier covered peaks and barren moonscape. The weather is unpredictable, unwelcoming, and sporadic but this is the Tibetan Himalayas and it is everything I want. Thailand was a terrific experience, but this is where my heart soars and my soul sings.

Even in the valleys, I am cycling at nearly 12k ft which is higher than most roads in the United States. Just pushing pedals on flat terrain is a challenge all its own but each day I feel my lungs growing larger. One particular road was so steep that I would hardly consider it forward progress. The true hit was when Brigitte got off her bike and was literally pushing her bike faster than I was pedaling. I refused to push. Women are smarter.  That is the hubris with men and our egos I suppose.

For 5 days, we cycled over towering passes and flew down broken roads and through lush valleys. Tibetan villages, with their white washed buildings, dot the landscape.   Smiles are every place I look. Development is coming as more and more roads are becoming paved. Hopefully this “progress” will not engulf the Tibetan culture. Everyone that I have met has shown me true kindness, warmth, and a fascination with my journey. The mountains and landscape here are amazing, but it is the people that make it breath taking. I get it, dad. I get it…