10 Short Stories

We are all in this world but not in this world

There will not be a more appropriate line than the most famous from the movie "Casablanca";

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine"

to describe my encounter with Daniel Woodley, except that we are both of the same sex and straight. Whenever the cycling got boring, we would start to talk silly and on one particular instance, nostalgia overcame us and we started a pact which would require us to watch together, movies like "Police Academy I", "Jaws I" and "ET". However, very sadly, we were not able to realize it.

June 2003. Sultanahmet, Istanbul TURKEY.

I had just cycled from London and was resting at the Paris Hotel, a name that bore no resemblance to the chic city in whatsoever way. One morning, after having my buffet breakfast at the Hotel's restaurant that had a selection consistent with the room rate (15 million Liras) I was paying. I saw Mr. Daniel Woodley sitting by the lobby area, but for the cycling shoes he was wearing, I would not have known that he too was on a bike.

After a chat, we found out that we had both started from England and were headed for Oceania except that Dan had been alone. At that point in time, my very first partner, a Kiwi, had just gone back to New Zealand and I had been hoping to get one. Meeting Dan was just like the scene from Casablanca. That encounter was to start a blossom of many fond memories encapsulated in Turkey, Iran and later Australia.

As I was making plans with Dan to cycle together, concurrently, I was also asking Jo, a Singaporean friend of mine to join me in Istanbul. The 3 of us subsequently cycled across the Bosporus Bridge, the transcontinental bridge that links continental Europe to Asia, to begin our ride along the northern coastline of Turkey.

Our journey started to get hilarious on the very first days of our ride. Once, Dan's shoe cleat came off and got stuck in the pedal. Prying free the two took me and Jo a tremendous amount of effort. If you had tried to break free a pack of deep frozen chicken wings, you would appreciate the agony we had to go through.

On the very first morning after we started out together, at our campsite near the beach of Sile, I remember waking up seeing, much bewildered and amused, at the sight of an Englishman tickling my feet; I had been tired after the hard day and had slept a little longer. I have since related this incident to Emma, Dan's wife.

Terrain wise, the northern coastline of Turkey was rough with loads of hills to climb but then we had wanted to see the Black Sea, which had been pleasant in the summer month of July. One evening, on this public beach where we were about to camp, a local wanted to charge us several million Liras for it. Feeling that it was not right to pay for a "public good" Dan articulately convinced the local that we should be allowed to camp for free!

Many afternoons, it got so hot we would just stop at the many teahouses along the road for an hour or two sipping cay (tea- pronounced as chai), eating melons and playing backgammon, the game that was to start much laughter and (funny) arguments.

As the locals served their teas in tiny little cups, we very soon learned to order our teas in bigger sizes while the many sets of backgammon carried on. As the locals love the game, the play set was usually available in all teahouses.

The beach town of Sinop will always be unforgettable. We had met a local, or rather the Director of Tourism of a popular tourist resort, who hosted us to teas. As long distance cycling can really get monotonous, Dan and I were having 2 competitions to keep our minds alert. One was the ongoing backgammon championship and the other being a farting challenge, which was not too difficult as we were both conscious of our protein intake.

A special clause to the challenge was the award of a double point if it was done in public or in the presence of a third party. I am not sure here, as it had been quite some time already, if we were also awarding a triple point to a display in public that had the presence of a third party. Maybe Dan can help me on this.

During the tea reception with the Director, Dan scored a really loud one that embarrassed the entire table as our conversation was clearly and rudely interrupted. Dan, later told the table that he was having a bad stomach.

The expression of Mr. Director was clearly controversial. He did not seem amused.

Clearly jealous of Dan's excellent score, my system seemed to have understood my mind and I too, couple of minutes later, did it! Moreover, it was as loud as Dan's! I won't say it was louder as that would definitely draw remarks from Dan.

Mr. Director, Dan, Jo, and I looked at each other. Time stood still for a while. We all froze. The atmosphere was as intense and as static as the moment before a footballer delivered his penalty kick. The conversation at the table was again disrespectfully suspended.

Everybody then looked at me. I must have been out of words and uncreatively said that I was having a bad stomach too.

I was not sure if Mr. Director was offended by the behavior of the rude English and Singaporean. We later had a good laugh after Mr. Director left. Until today, some 3 years later, Dan and I still recall this funny episode we shared.

We camped a lot in Turkey, on beaches, by rivers, in the hills and once slept in a jail as the only hotel was not on our budget.

One of the most memorable would be 9 August 2003 where the 3 of us camped in a cave. It was to be a very sacred day for the Singaporeans and all Singaporeans but it had turned out to be all shitty for the 2 Singaporeans who had camped with Dan in the cave. The 3 of us ate almost the same food and from the same source but some how Dan was the unlucky one down with a bad diarrhea. As we did not have enough food, Jo and I had to leave the cave to get some from a small town some half an hour of ride away. We later cooked and served Dan. Since Dan had been a good friend, we felt that it was our duty to take care him. As Dan was very much weakened by the bad diarrhea, he was not able to choose the right places to discharge himself.

It then turned out that the woodcutters' trial behind our cave got rather dirty. I did tell Dan that the woodcutters would be unlucky if they had come near us on 9 August 2003!

(To be fair to Dan, I too had been a little rude with my toilet etiquettes, as I had once in the beach hotel where we were staying in Sinop dirtied the toilet bowl as my discharge had exited together with a fart! It became very messy! Dan was to use the toilet after me and my bad stomach clearly offended him. On the same note, our beach hotel was to cost 50million Lira per person but Dan managed to bring to down to10million! An USD was about 1.4million then.)

Sep 2003. Esfahan, Iran.

At the Turkey-Iran border, we had to part ways as we had different validities on our visas. Like a miracle, weeks later, as Jo and I rode into Esfahan, Iran, we met Dan again at the guesthouse we were going to check in!

As Dan had been in Esfahan for a while, he had to start riding the day after while Jo and I explored this beautiful city.

From time to time, Dan would send us notes on the road he took giving us precious information on food and lodging. As there were only that many main roads through Iran, we cycled the same road Dan took, just a dozen days after him.

Jul 2004. Darwin, Australia.

Our third encounter was to take place in Darwin, Australia. Dan had been picking melons here for a while already to save for his ride. He played host when Jo and I arrived, cooked splendid meals for us, and brought us around. Dan's rented apartment was strangely above a bottle shop on Mitchell Street. I was not sure if the proximity did mess up his plans to save up.

Dan had bought a van for AUD500 while in Darwin but the machine would not come alive. He subsequently rented a small car and brought us to Litchfield National Park for a day outing.

Dan and I had a common remark that we would often use when we were out of words: "we are all in this world but not in this world". I truly enjoyed the companionship of Dan but doubt that we will get to cycle together anytime soon as he is now the father of 2 kids.