Day 27: Lanzhou - 108 Days Across Eurasia by Martins Ate

After spent night at the train where I could not resist willing to sleep and knocked out for a few hours under the bench on the floor, I'm finally in Lanzhou.


(my jumper on a Chinese princess)

It feels like the real reason population growth fast in China is because of trains. :) Everybody at the end is so friendly as close as the canned fishes.:) everybody is sleeping on each other shoulder, sharing food, clothes and even siting places goes around the clock in a line so everyone at the end get's at least half hour of a seat.


I was not alone who was sleeping under the bench. My idea seemed to be good for Chinese princess who joined me at around 3 am under the same bench. We talked before already I just did not expected that she might get with me under the bench.. :) we shared same bag as a pillow and warmed up each other by laying side-by-side. It was quite romantic experience, but I was knocking out as I was not sleeping last night, too. So we just where laying side by side until the morning when she prepared a breakfast for me, too, from the food she had with her in a train. I think in longer journeys it's easy to find a Chinese wife and get married straight on a train!:D

Train stopped at Lanzhou. Intuitively I got the point of the city even without stepping out of the train - similarity with Russian Chita is obvious - lot of hustlers and youngsters looking for they daily pray - tourists.




I wiped away bad thoughts by chanting mantras and as soon as I left a train station I noticed a Budhist monk in front of me who was wondering around the same way I would do if I wouldn't met him. I came to him and after failure of getting conversation in English I told him straight: "Lhasa?". He smiled and I followed him towards ticket boxes.


He was going to Lhasa as well. With assistance off dictionary I explained that I need a help of buying a ticket to Lhasa as I'm driving there without a travel permit which is required for getting a ticket. My friend in Tianjin explained that the only way of getting a ticket to Lhasa from here is by asking someone. I felt so lucky that the one I'm asking to buy a ticket for me to Lhasa is nothing else than a monk from Lhasa. That felt right!:)


Train for today was already gone and we got a ticket for tomorrow - I just followed my new guide and we went to the hotel as there was more than 20 hours till next train. We both moved into one room for approximately 10 Eur for both, made some tea and dinner, I took a shower in a toilet (I mean it literally !) :)


I got up because of the pulsing Adrenalin in my blood as I'm so stressed out about Tibet and how will I manage to get pass all the check-points unnoticed. I just can't sleep even if in last 48 hours I've slept maybe 4 to 5 hours in a train under the bench with a princess by my side.



I waked up the monk and we both went for a night-out in Lanzhou...:) we just walked across the city without talking as we can not understand each other and I was wondering all the time about how he walks. As we where walking together the same road it seemed like he never got bothered by such obstacles as other people on a road moving slower than we did; barriers on a road - it seemed like he was just flying by them unnoticeable, with ease, never slowing down the same time I needed to slow down or change my track to overcame them. And he was moving much beyond the average walking speed.



It was interesting for me and I started observing him to find out his secret. :) I noticed that he is not even looking around and once I even stopped him just before it looked like one of the cars would hit him. We went to some outdoor cafe where we had a ice-tea and moved back to our hotel room.

On our way back I tried to catch his mind vibrations to try to get into that state when nothing is an obstacle. And I felt his mind turned towards something which is beyond streets, cars, people around, lights and advertisements. It felt like he overflies each second spent outside by guiding himself to some higher source instead of one's eyes can see. When I finally somehow made myself turn away from the flashy streets and put myself into the state that I'm walking through the streets not because I'm interested in it but because I need to get back to the hotel to rest and gain powers to move forward next day and instead of advertisements and prostitutes on the streets I started seeing My Mission of this whole trip and My Vision - it started happening to me as well and I felt like I learned a lesson. I stopped noticing crowded streets and never again had to stop or slow down my walking speed. I felt like I'm not there. I felt in a moment which is not interesting for me so by this detachment to it it detached from me and stopped bothering me at all. Even if there where people walking they where the ones who gave me a road, where stopping or walking aside.


So it reminded me how important is to "Just Do It" style of acting. Of course this is a small thing; but as the small electrons and protons are running around in the atoms; same way planets are running around in the solar system and around the all stars. My point is that same rules governs each second and it does not matter how big things are. Compering to the whole Universe our Solar system is as small as comparing to the table and chairs atom is. It's just our limited mind who puts our imagination in boundaries "big" or "small" so we could live more easily.

Today I learned to overfly the crowd. Tomorrow I can overfly checkpoints!, if the lesson is learned, I thought to myself. There are no people who get's on our way accidentally - I'm sure that it is not coincidence that I met this monk today. And it is not coincidence that I decided to leave Tianjin on the day I did; and it is definitely not a coincidence what he by coincidence showed me today. 

Everything and everybody is bonded together that there is no even a second of coincidence. Never. Everything happens for a reason even if at the end everything is generally pointless. It's just the experience to gain, willing lesson to learn and move further towards our own wishes. So if there is anything that matters - it's our wishes which are meaningful to us and generally pointless..


Even this trip matters as much as it matters to me, but generally it's pointless as I just fulfill my wish to do this for a reason that matters to me. But as from each dead-end are at least two exists there must be at least two other ways to fulfill my reason for willing to do this trip. And by living through the situation in mind it's possible to get rid of the reasons which puts us into an action to get fulfilled and so get rid of all the time ongoing wishes. By-flying people on the streets > situations > wishes > actions; and taking only one thing from whole life experience - the thing that makes us grow and be capable of getting to the Truth and The Beginning of All Things. To be "back home", happy; to be as we where meant to be.

Maybe just sometimes it's just more easily to live through the wishes and situations by physically living them through. Like now my trip I'm doing - for me it is easier to get the desired results by taking this trip, but I'm sure same result I will get at the end might be achieved in other ways. And if it is so - this trip generally does not matter at all or it does matter as long as I'm willing to do it or achieve something becouse of it which can be achieved in at least two other ways. It's just my choice. But it doesn't mean nothing. And it is not pointless as long as I'm not willing to do it in any other way. Reason - for any action it is only one: to be happy > fulfilled > whole > in the true state of being - as a man was made to be.

So all the pointless things matters only as long as we give them a matter becouse of our will which we can not control and more or less never know what we want and are searching for it by wishing more of everything in a hope it will fulfill us and make us happy.



Actually all we need is a true knowledge about what we actually need to be happy. And True Knowledge can be gained only from the Truth and One who created the Truth. Need to be "on a line" with the Creator of the Truth to get The Truth.

I guess that's what yoga is about.



... :) (a bit of a philosophy) (: ...

Nothing and Everything is the same.

It depends on our wishes if it's nothing that is everything or it is everything that is nothing.

And our wishes depends on our consciousness. 

And our consciousness depends on how are we - as a human beings - doing our human being The Only True Duty - searching for the Truth.

As every animal can eat, sleep, fuck and produce babies but only human is capable to reach for the Truth it is that what human should do. So that's what should be on our mind before taking any wish into an action. Are we doing that what we where born for, are we doing our duty for gaining Understanding of things not Knowledge about them. 

What did we did today that could bring our minds closer to the level where if it wishes something - action towards it - will produce a long term happiness not just a short-term satisfaction.

And when will we understand these things so we could get a power to act according to our true wish - to be happy and make others surrounding us happy!

Happiness will come as a reward of doing a Duty of being a Human.

Search the Truth within The Creator! That's the only Truth waiting for us to be found. That's the only happiness for a human being.


We went sleep till next day to start a forbidden part of a trip - after 250 from here is a Tibetan border where for the first time I will be asked for a permission to enter and I have not got any ideas of which lies I should use to get till Lhasa and will they help anyway...