On the Road 在路上

The mid-aged man next door did not sleep for the whole night. When I finally shut down my laptop and ready to rest at two in the morning, he called up a prostitute. One thing you usually suffer from cheap hotels is horrible soundproof. Luckily, he’s a boring person and doesn’t seem to be good in bed. From opening the door for the girl until she left, it was only less than five minutes, peaked with the girl’s moaning, obviously not satisfied, for no more than two. ‘That’s it?’ I literally said it out loud when they finished their business, feeling sorry for the girl. But at the same time, I was happy the battle did not last long so I could quickly get my peace back for sleep. Unlucky for me, apparently something is bothering this poor guy – instead of falling into sleep like every normal man after sex due to the raised hormone levels, he turned on the TV! Jesus… why didn’t you do that five minutes ago? Then he started to make noises, sometimes clearing his throat, sometimes putting down a glass really hard… until morning. 

Therefore, I boarded the train to Golmud with drowsiness. As the altitude is going up, oxygen density is going down, it’s easy to have a really nice long sleep. I magically woke up and didn’t miss the spectacular view when our train passed by Tsinghai Lake. I took some photos and videos then went back to my bunk bed to read <The Future of the Mind>. I’ve been reading this book on and off for a long time already. It is more like a collection of the best snacks in between main meals like <The Selfish Gene> or <The Thought-Reader Revolution>. It’s a crazy book. I mean, the human brain, the technologies around it, and the researches about it are all crazy stuff. I send my greatest gratitude and respect to the scientists who are sacrificing their lives to map out the 86 billion neurons in the human brain. It is unimaginably tedious work. By the time they die, even if the mapping is finished, it is very likely we are not able to make sense of the data they will have produced just yet.

My dear friend Kathleen wrote me a poem from Shanghai, where the heavy rains have filled my wechat moments page several times already this year. I like the poem very much. She has a magnetic field mixing cultures from the east to the west, from 2020 years before Christ to 2020 years after Christ. 

记友人盛夏六月踏程唐古拉

黑云翻墨欲遮楼，白雨跳珠乱入眼。
火车轰鸣驶西去，魂牵梦绕长江源。

I’ll be staying in Golmud for two days to adapt the altitude before transferring to Tanggula Town. Day trip tomorrow to a mysterious natural resort! 

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（以下内容有删减，感兴趣的请参考英文部分）

隔壁的中年男人整夜都没睡。 当我在凌晨两点终于合上笔记本电脑准备休息时，他叫了个妹子。 住在廉价酒店常常要忍受的一件事就是极其糟糕的隔音。 幸运的是，他似乎是一个无聊的人，从他开门让妹子进屋直到她离开，只过了不到五分钟。我很高兴这个夜晚很快恢复了安宁。 然而不幸的是，显然有什么事情正困扰着这个可怜的家伙——他并不打算睡下，而是打开了电视！接着他开始发出各种噪音，一会儿清清嗓子，一会儿重重地放下个玻璃杯……直到早上。

于是我带着倦意登上了去往格尔木的火车。 随着海拔的升高，氧气浓度在下降，很容易就可以睡个长长的觉。 然而在火车经过青海湖时，我竟神奇地醒来，没有错过这一路上最棒的景色。 我拍了些照片和视频，然后回到我的硬卧看《The Future of the Mind》。 这本书我断断续续地吃了很长一段时间。 它更像是正餐（比如《自私的基因》和《阅脑革命》，这两本都强烈推荐哦！）之间的零食，很好吃的一堆零食。 这是一本疯狂的书。 我是说，人类的大脑、围绕它的技术、以及对它的研究都是疯狂的东西。 我对正在奉献自己的生命来绘制人脑中860亿个神经元的科学家表示由衷的感谢和敬意。 真的无法想象这项工作有多无聊。 而在他们将死之时，即使图谱绘制完成，他们贡献出的这个图谱中的数据也未必被真正的理解。

好友Kathleen在大雨刷屏好几次的上海写了一首诗送我， 我很喜欢。 她有一种磁场，混合了从东方到西方、从公元前2020年到公元2020年的各种文化。

记友人盛夏六月踏程唐古拉镇

黑云翻墨欲遮楼，白雨跳珠乱入眼。
火车轰鸣驶西去，魂牵梦绕长江源。

在转车到唐古拉镇之前，我需要在格尔木停留两天适应海拔。 明天去一个神秘的地方拥抱大自然！