Successfully hitchhike from irkutsk to olkhon island within 2 days
For people who is afraid of hitchhiking
storybackground: im from taiwan, a nomad in russia now, planning to hitchhike from irkutsk city center to olkhon island.
why olkhon island?
for me its not necessary to have a targeted/ fixed destination, so olkhon island is just a place that sooo many russian people recommend me to go, so i just wanan find out how “cool” the place is, and if i could really hitchhiked to the far targeted place that i intended to.
from the very beginning(city center) to the middle of nowhere(federal road)
my partner(soul mate from couchsurfing),drive me to the boarder of irkutsk (easier to hitchhike when i stand/wait at the place when theres only road but nothing in front) .even though i know my host already but i consider this as a hitchhike because, i am not using money, but rather humanship(relationship/friendship).
he gave me soooo many food, grab any thing he could from his home, noodles, and bread, he even buy me two more tasty bread and a chocolate bar before i left him.
after 1.5 hours of waiting one driver stopped next by me, she was curious about what i am doing, then i seized the chance to ask her if she could drive me, she told me that i am standing in a suck position, thats why no body stopped. further she drive me 10 minutes more to a more “distinguisable federal road” rather than so many diversion.
holly molly because of her help, after just 20 minutes i get on a super big fat truck, and the driver is super super friendly!
not even his friendliness make me happy, whats make me even more happy is because he gave me a icecream( JKINGG he did give me ice cream but this is not the reason that i was super happy), is that he is a christian!
3rd observer: “christian so what, so many people is christian”
me: “i agree, but i found a surprising fact that most of the people who gave me food or let me sleep at their home are christian, since every time i seized the chance people who had helped me if they are religious or not.”
finally he drove me to here(picture below)
from middle of nowhere to a small village called “бугульдейка” — waiting process
i waited for 20 minutes still no one stopped their car, then a worker in this “The Colosseum like constuction” yelled (picture attached below)
“ kiddo! dog is eating your stuff!!”
at first i didnt know what he was shouting, i thought he was a closeminded person who was trying to prohibit me from hitchhiking. but then i checked my backpack again(100m away from me, i was strolling)
my mind was screaming “holly fuck there is really a dog biting my bread!”
SOOOO COOOOOLLL!!
i meant it! i felt so amazed by this view, dog could really smell my bread in my bag and bite it away, and when i approach the dog, he quickly run away(i was expecting him to stop).
then i saw the worker was laughing, then i wisely yelled
“jesus christ now i lost my favorite bread”( in russian)
then i asked and yelled
“may i visit your house? your house is so cool!”
he said YES!
i further asked him some questions about his working experience then i kept hitchhiking” i would have stayed longer to ask him more questions but my russian is still bad enough to listen to unclear russian pronunciation.
i left then i kept waiting for drivers to stop. i was rapping “professional rapper” ,listening to naruto sadsoundtrack, and doing instagram live.
although theres only 5 people watching my live but i feel so fucking happy that technology is soo advanced in this regard, during instagram live, i dont feel lonely anymore which is very strange to me.
because i am very used to be a person alone, well actually not really, at this point i realize i like to talk to people way more than average people. but what i am “alone” about is that i like to make my own decision usually unusual compare to my surrounding, being active about my own plan. but started from 1 hour ago waiting drivers at the middle of nowhere, loneliness started to emerge, started to lose focus on the cool surprise i will have in the future trip.
i believe this is the reason why i started to do instagram live lately, i dont really wanna share something cool, i think there is nothing to share about “cool/beautiful scene” but why i want to do live is because i felt lonely from my surrounding and i want to find things to compensate my feeling
HOWEVER
i know this is not the most healthy way, the most healthy way is to calm the fuck down and be self-sufficient, focusing more on my plan, and why i am doing this. why i want to leave my family, why dont i want to use my money to travel. what am i looking for…
from middle of nowhere to a small village called “бугульдейка” — sitting in car
after a long wait 2 hours under hot sun wearing snow pants and long sleeves, finally one driver willing to drive me!! i was planning to hitchhike to “баряндай” but this driver is going back to visit his parent in this бугульдейка village.
i asked him, is бугульдейка closer to olhon island or баряндай closer , he said his village is closer, then i was like “fuck yes thats go to your village”
i cant believe there are so many wild cows, horses, even sheep here.
i feel like a orgasm, but its different from sex ofcourse, its like the kind of orgasm would make me smile for so long, but sex orgasm would only make me tired, and smile doesnt last long.
im so surprised in 2020, i could still see so many wild animal, in my country, taiwan, theres no such wild/natural horse/sheep/cow. when i was 19, i keep thinking, one of the disadvantage of Gen Z people like me is that we cannot experience living with wild animal, but today all my prediction/guess were wrong!
eric’s wisdom: sometimes we really need to do it to know the true result! there are still wild animal in 2020!
no need to worry so much in life — sleep in driver’s house
i dont have tent with me, i really hope i could sleep at driver’s house. but i dont want to make it too active/obvious to scare drivers, so i usually goes with this sleepover line/script
me: “may you help me to find the cheapest hostel?? my budget is 400 rubles”
stranger/driver:”woah 400 rubles, im afraid its very hard, do you have tents with you?”
me: “no:(( may i stay at your house if you feel comfortable? im super healthy and friendly”
stranger/driver: “i will ask my parent/wife, if they say yes”
and here we are, he arranged bed for me, with fantastic healthy dinner, cuz usually i eat bread and instant noodles if i am alone.
After I wake up, I asked driver’dad if he could drive me to the federal main big road for me to further hitchhike. He said “yes”! i was super surprised because i wasnt expected he would answer me yes within 5 seconds, and drive me within 5 minutes!
“maybe the philosophy about dont expect too much its beneficial”
Life is super diverse with no purpose
While he was driving me,we saw a old man standing at a middle of nowhere, waving at us. My driver stopped and carry him. I wasn’t so surprised about we carry this old guy, but I’m surprised that this old guy carry nothing with him.
Further, driver dropped us. He instead of hitchhike with me he walked away. I was wondering where the fuck he was going, it’s the middle of nowhere.
After 1.5 hours I successfully hitchhiked, rain started to pour big, then I saw this scene I would never forget
This old guy is still walking under the rain at the middle of nowhere!
At this exact moment I’m writing, I feel so ashamed, I should have requested the driver to stop even though the rain was so heavy. I mean this guy could die because of this rain, it’s literally at the middle of nowhere, way far away from any village. But I suddenly realized something.
Maybe he doesn’t have plan, maybe he just purely want to walk, focus at the present by only using fluid cognition. Maybe he could feel he is about to die, but instead of using a “scared/afraid “ attitude he used, ignorant and curious.
He would be one of my wisdom in my life- the more capacity we have doesn’t mean we are any better than any other creatures. nothing really matters if I see life as a bigger picture.
From small village “бугульдейка” to Olkhon island
drivers ask me if i am hungry or not,i lied to them that i haven’t been eating for 1 day. i usually justify this “ lying” act by telling myself
“they would be happier if they help people with more difficulties, haven’t eat for 1 days is more pitiful than 10hours” but i am practicing how to say more truth
i started to use my typical script again, sharing my goal, my dream, my concept about “ friendalize people “ to the driver. but they ain’t so focus on what i said, because most of the time they just reply me “ nice”
then i just requested “ may i take a rest for awhile ? my eye is hurting” . my philosophy is that, well if now is not the occasion to make friends then i will rest and prepare energy for the next chance.
NOW ONE OF THe mSOT MIRACULous THINgS HAPPEN noW
driver told me that she couldnt drive me to olkhon island since there is still far away from our location, im happy with that, honestly every driver who has drived me no matter is 5km or 150km, i am very thankful.
all of a sudden while i was sleeping in the car, driver suddenly appear outside far away from the car, yelling
driver:“eric, quick! leave the car”
i was like what the fuck is going on
driver: “i found a bus driver willing to drive you for free! be quick be quick!”
i was like holly fuck and quickly grab my three bags,then driver from the bus shouted
“be quick be quick”
i was scared:(( i understand driver might not want to waste other passengers time, but i aint walking slowly! i encountered not only once in my life, my family, classmate, strangers just keep rushing things that i clearly know rushing things wouldnt be beneficial to humanship/relationship, and if humanship/relationship is what we value the most, then, you know what should you do now?
anyways, i get on this bus, i was sad because i was having good conversation with her daughter,in retrospect, i should not be sad, “there are always chances within my physical ability, as long as i cherish it”, the last thing that my hitchhike driver did is to give me a bread, and apologize.
hitchhike driver: “im sorry eric, we couldnt drive you to olkhon”
this sentence touched my heart because she was just sooo kind, i regretted that i didnt left my instagram and youtube to her.
im thinking right now
“whats the point of leaving instagram to stranger that literally have no meaningful interaction with me, but not to share my youtube the platform of me saving the world progress to the person who helped me so freaking much?”
after 1 hours i arrive in olkhon island by boat
i didnt celebrate this monumental moment of me successfully challenge difficult hitchhike route.
in retrospect,i should not feel scared about where i am going to sleep on this island, theres literally no one one the street, there is even no street in most of the places.
shouldnt i focus more on how amazing life is, by retrospecting instantly?
please criticize me, i hope you could help me to gain more perspective, i hope you could share you thoughts in the comments i would love to read it, it would be fucking fantasticc
202006eric
