018 睡前英文｜川藏骑行中相遇的调兵老男孩 by Yuan #西藏

川藏骑行中相遇的调兵老男孩 D-Town Boys Cycling in Tibet by Yuan

文章链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IWWkSM9Nwf9KQ55pl_R7Zw

背景音乐 Priscilla Ahn - I Don't Have Time To Be In Love, Luke Faulkner - Life and loss, 昨夜派对（L.N Party)- Love Is The Key, 罗布桑珠,巴金旺甲 - 珠峰天使

Riddle Apple Podcast https://apple.co/3tl9UBf  

Riddle 喜马拉雅 https://bit.ly/riddleximalaya 

Riddle Wechat Blogs https://bit.ly/riddlewechat

Riddle Instagram https://bit.ly/riddleinsta 

Patreon Page https://www.patreon.com/yuanriddle 

"You, son? From Diaobingshan as well? No way!!" 

“大侄儿你也是调兵山的？真滴吗！！” 

I grew up in a very small town called Diaobingshan in the Northeastern part of China. If you have a hard time picturing where that is, then you're not alone. Well, to make your geology mind at peace, I'm going to point you in a general direction of where my hometown is: it's not far from the border of North Korea. 

我童年在调兵山——一个东北小镇长大。如果你不知道这个地方在哪，其他人也不知道。得嘞，为了让你们的大脑少受点地理题的刺激，我来简单的指一个大方向吧：我的家乡省份离中朝边境不算远。

Now, back to the conversation at the beginning of the story. It was the summer of 2019. My daredevil buddies Xunxun, Xiaomao and the less daredevil-minded yet strong-minded I embarked on one of the most physically challenging trips in our lives: riding a bicycle through the Tibetan Plateau to our "mecca"--Potala Palace in Lhasa. Yes, you heard it right and it sounds just as crazily challenging as it was in reality, if not even more. En route to Lhasa, we had to bike for 2100 km and climb 13 mountains, all of which are over 4,000 meters high. 

那么我们回到一开始的对白。那是2019年的夏天。我热衷于冒险的挚友寻迅和小猫拉着不太擅长冒险、但却意志力十足的我开始了我们人生中最有挑战的一次旅行：骑自行车穿越青藏高原，到达我们的圣地——拉萨的布达拉宫。对，你没听错。这听起来和现实中的骑行一样的疯狂和挑战，这么说甚至似乎有点保守了。在去拉萨的路上，我们要骑行2100公里，爬13座山，这13座山的海拔都超过了4000米。

It was Day 13 and we had “merely” 900 km to go. Admittedly, the sceneries alongside the 318 Route were out of this world. However, the trip was starting to take a toll on me: sour thighs and a numb mind were just the appetizers of this entire 13-mountain-course meal (I can't speak for Xiaomao as he rode past me every day with a smug face). 

那一天是第十三天，我们的前方仍有900公里的“路漫漫其修远兮”。不得不承认的是，318国道沿途的景色美不胜收。可这次骑行开始有点让我吃不消了，酸痛的大腿和麻木的神经只是我们的漫长旅程的前菜（这话可不能代表小猫，因为猫哥每天超越我时都带着一脸的轻松和得意）。

Xunxun, Shiulai--another riding buddy, and I were trudging up Dongda Mountain in Qamdo, the highest mountain we'd faced thus far, 5103 m. When I say "trudging up", I meant we moved like snails with a "whopping" speed of 5 k/h with intermittent breaks of catching our breaths. 10% of our breaths were taken away by the humbling view of the Tibetan Plateau, the other 90% by the altitude sickness. 

寻迅、另外一个骑行伙伴小赖和我一步一个胎印儿的爬着位于左贡的东达山，我们迄今为止要面对最高的山峰，5103米。我这儿的“一步一个胎印儿”指的是我们骑行的速度像蜗牛一样，速度达到了惊人的5公里/小时，中间还时不时的得停下来休息，喘口气儿。青藏高原让人谦卑的景色夺走了我们10%的气息，其他90%被高原反应给拿走了。

"Great. It's gonna be a looooonnnng day and my souring ass would be so 'relieved'." My taciturn sarcasm came out of nowhere. I shared a look with Xunxun and Shiulai and was pretty sure they were telling themselves the very same thing. 

“真不错。今天又是漫长的一天，我屁股酸的不亦乐乎的。”我沉默的挖苦细胞突然冒了出来。我看了看寻迅和小赖，很确信，他们心里也是这么想的。

So we rode for 20 minutes and rested for 10. Rode for another 20 and rested for another 10. The routine just stuck around. Yet, the zenith of Dongda mountain still seemed unrealistically far away. We couldn't even see it as it was hidden behind the zigzagging road and the mountain ridges. Our last visual hope was even bereft.

所以我们骑20分钟，休息10分钟，再骑20分钟，再休息10分钟。就这么形成了一个套路。但是东达山的垭口看起来还是那么的遥不可及。我们甚至连看都看不到垭口，因为它藏在曲折的盘山路和山脊后。我们最后的“视觉”上的希望也被剥夺了。

As we were probably taking the 10-minute break for the 20th time, two uncles who looked like in their 50s rode past us like a breeze (it couldn't be "ride past us like a wind" as the uphill was still pretty steep for human beings). "If I were half as fit as they are now when I am 50, I'd be over the moon," I told myself. 

大概在我们休息的第20次，两个看起来50岁左右的大叔像微风一样超越了我们（这里说是“微风”是因为上坡路对于普通人类来说还是很陡峭的，所以是“像微风一样”，而不是“像风一样超越了我们”）。“我50岁的时候要是身体有他们一半好，我得乐不得了，”我自言自语道。

Suddenly, three Chinese characters on their cycling pants, the characters I'm so familiar with, caught my stunned eyes. It was "Diao Bing Shan", the name of my hometown! In fact, over my short 30-odd-year life, I've never stumbled upon another D town homie outside my hometown. And the first time was in Tibet?! I'm not kidding, but it feels like the universe puts us 3 D town boys there to inject hope in my exhausting mind and souring muscles. 

突然，他们骑行裤上面的三个字儿，三个让我再熟悉不过的字儿，让我惊诧不已。上面写着“调兵山”，我家乡的名字！事实上，在我短短的30岁生命里，我从来没有在外乡遇到过调兵老乡。第一次居然是在西藏？！我没开玩笑，但是感觉就是老天把我们三个调兵老男孩安排在骑行路上见面，给予了我疲惫的大脑和酸痛的肌肉一丝希望。

I ran up as fast as I could to catch up with them while yelling in my rusty hometown dialect, "Uncs! Me from Diaobingshan as well!" They stopped, looked surprised at me, then gave me the response at the beginning of the story with an equally surprising yet amicable tone.

我赶紧跑过去，追上了他们，用我已经不太熟络的东北方言喊着，“大爷，我也调兵滴。”他们停下了蹬踏的脚步，惊讶的看着我，然后就有了故事一开始的对白，他们的乡音听起来是那么的充满惊喜和亲切。

We talked for a while and took a selfie. And they took off again like a breeze. I later found out on social media that these uncles were the rock stars in the biking community. Both of them are retired miners and they ride around 10,000 km across China every year. When I'm writing this story, they're still on the road, riding their experienced bicycles to see the world. 

我们聊了一会儿，拍了张自拍。然后他们就又像微风一样骑走了。后来，我在骑行的社交软件上发现这两位大爷是骑行圈里的大牛。他们两个从煤矿退休后每年都会在全国骑行1万公里左右。当我写这篇文章时，他们仍在路上，骑着他们心爱的、见过大场面的自行车去看世界。

So there you go. A strangers' story where three Diaobingshan boys met in Tibet. And I dedicate this story to those two uncles and all the cyclists out there for their physical grit and their beautiful minds.

所以，这个故事分享给你。一个三个调兵陌生老男孩相聚在西藏的故事。这个故事也谨献给这两位大爷以及所以在路上的骑行者，献给他们的不屈的体魄和美丽的心灵。