Shanghai to Greystones cycle

July 30th,2009

Author: Feargal O'Nuallain
Final Year: 1999
Biography: Last November, Simon Evans and Fearghal O'Nuallain (1999) began the first Irish circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle and boat. Their unsupported expedition will cover over 30,000km, passing through 30 countries and some of the highest, lowest, driest, coldest, warmest and loneliest places on earth. In doing so, they will be promoting the positive contribution that cycling can make to mental health and the environment, raising €100,000 for Aware and highlighting climate change.
URL: http://revolutioncycle.ie/

China-Shanghai Fearghal

After two days in transit, two days spent in non-places- Departures, Arrivals and that airborne metal transport tube with wings, I’ve arrived in China. Confusingly, I left Bogota on Thursday evening travelled for 24 hours and arrived 2 days later a bit spaced and very confused about what time it should be.
After working so hard to cover 10,000km on the bike for the last few months, stepping on board an aircraft and arriving on literally the other side of the world two days later with out breaking a sweat is a bit jarring. Long Haul, really drives home the beauty of cycling- a reminder of how nice it is to see the world unfold gently at the speed of life. Sitting in transit for so long, I couldn’t help thinking about the nature of air travel (setting aside the effect of air travel on nature which I assume most readers of this blog are all too aware).
The two flights we’ve taken since leaving Greystones last November provide stark contrast to life on the road; cycling’s a mode of travelling from A to B, with intimate and unfiltered contact with the world along the way. Flying on the other hand is form of transport. Transport, that is in the star trek, “beam me up Scotty” sense of the word, a way of getting from one place to another with little thought for geography or distance. On my way from Bogota to Shanghai, I came within 10 km of the plains of the American prairie, Ice caps of the Artic ocean, and the forests of Far Eastern Siberia. But in sensory terms I was preoccupied by ”Transformers” and “The Shaw Shank Redemption” on the TV screen in front of me. As we flew over Siberia I did feel a chill, but that was due to the over active AC rather than any ambient environmental effect of being at such a high latitude.
I’m really glad that we’re now back on the world island, and that we can travel west all the way to the coast of France under our own steam with our feet, or at least tyres, firmly on the ground.

Simon: Shanghai - China
So I’ve just arrived in Shanghai after 2 weeks at home in Ireland to celebrate my brothers wedding. It was a surreal time for me, coming from the hustle and bustle of Colombia to the chilled out town of Greystones where I live, and seeing all my family and friends again.
As I settled into my old bedroom, I opened my wardrobe to change my clothes and was completely shocked by the sheer quantity of t-shirts, shoes, and shirts I have. Not that I am a clothes hoarder or fashion guru, it’s just that after only having 1 pair of casual trousers, 1 decent(ish) t-shirt and 1 pair of all purpose shoes, it’s weird to have a choice of what to wear. After being in countries where many people have pretty much only the clothes on their back, I realised the absolute luxury that we live in.
Cooking for my family was another great but slightly odd experience. Tucking into a big plate of bangers, mash and red onion gravy was something that I literally dreamed about for many many miles. I’d imagine the taste of the sweet gravy, the soft buttery mash and sausages made of real pork and black pepper (a la Cumberland). But having a selection of gas hobs, electric oven and clean running water seemed so many worlds away from the remote towns of Peru and Bolivia where many still cook on wood fires, and have to walk miles to get gungy, brown water.
My time at home was busy to say the least, firstly I had to sort out our visas for China which turned out to be much more complicated than expected. But after 2 visits to the embassy, many hours making phone calls and sending emails, we are now in possession of our visas for China.
Visa in hand, I turned my mind on to wedding matters, writing a best man speech with my co-best-man; my brother Rob. Having not seen my family for 8 months, it took a while to get those stupid childhood stories about the groom back into my mind, but I think we succeeded in telling some appropriately foolish tales. Getting dressed in a clean white shirt, linen suit, leather shoes and wearing aftershave was again, worlds away from the past 8 months, I well and truly felt like a king. As I stood in the reception, all prim and proper, I wondered how difficult it was going to be to revert to the smelly and dirty expedition regime.
The rest of my time was spent eating, chilling out with my family and friends, eating, swimming in the sea, eating, going cycling, eating, going for walks, eating…….
Between all the eating and stuff, I also set my mind to getting more music onto my iPod. Music has the power to lift your spirits if you’re feeling a bit low, or send you over the edge into an incredible high if all the factors are right. Most of my back-tingling highs, the ones that make the discomfort, pain, and boredom worthwhile, have been while I’ve been listening my tunes. So I’ve been going to peoples houses, grabbing their CD’s and ripping them onto me ‘Pod. Albums that seemed like dark holes in my collection such as Pink Floyds-Dark Side of the Moon and Daft Punk’s live “Alive” album are now sitting safely in my little black box.
I had a very long flight to get to Shanghai. Since for our circumnavigation I need to cross all 24 time zones, I had to fly back west, stopping in Toronto, Vancouver, then on to Shanghai. When the plane arrived in Shanghai, all the passengers had to stay in their seats until the plane was boarded by a group of Chinese health officials checking for Swine flu. They wore paper plumbers suits, masks and big plastic goggles; and used laser scanners on our foreheads to take our temperature. I felt like a box of corn flakes getting scanned at a checkout!! Definitely a surreal experience to end a surreal few weeks.