pert 18- tv interview, tibetan monks, theft and tiger leaping gorge

Well its been a week of interesting adventures. From TV interviews to being robbed, via a few trains and buses and a Tibetan Monk.



I landed in Xian in the morning with the address of my couch surfer in my hand, and realising at this late stage that i forgot to write her phone number down, i had to find my own way to her house. Outside the bus station was a hord of motorbike tuk-tuk style taxi’s and buses.. I went to flag down a taxi on the road thinking that a taxi with a meter would be more trust worthy only to find when i showed the driver the address he waved his hands in a clear “no!” and drove off. Damn. I returned to the bus station and a kind security man saw my confusion and after looking at the address told me the bus i needed to catch. 1 Yuan (10p) and i was squished standing on a mini bus with the locals and their huge bin bags full of stuff waiting for the ticket seller to tell me when to get off. All too soon i was sitting in an old mans watch room by his little burner waiting for Ma Rui to come back to her appartment after more help from a lady working in a local Hotel. The feeling of reaching a desitination alone in a foreign country via local transport is a great one, empowerment and confidence in my ability to do anything.



MaRui lives with her mum who is a character all in herself. Perfectly permed hair and the height of stylish fashion. When wanting to get my attention she would bark “Hello!” as if it was my name flapping her hand in my direction and then gesture for me to do something (move over, play my guitar, eat something). She was bossy in one of those endeering and funny ways and never failed to end each comand with a sudden shining smile.

Before i came to China i knew little about it, one of the things i had heard of was The Terracotta Army, another was the supposed existance of Pyramids, both happen to lie within bus distance from Xi’an and it was my plan to experience both of them whilst i was here. However i arrived on new years eve and after an excited chatter with MaRui about the things we had in common and our life style choices we decided to do some new years eve sight seeing before an early night, we stroled the muslim quarter with the bustling street food stalls and the Han/Muslim population of the city bargaining, buying and selling. However our plan for an early night was sorely foiled as we found ourselves at a buddhist temple back stage for the live TV Xi’an New Years ceremony.



It all started with an innocent stroll to the Big Goose Pagode to see the Fountain Show which they put on every night. This is parhaps one of the campest things i have seen in china, over the top and completely pointless, huge spurts of water leaping into the air synchronised to different pieces of very dramatic classical (and not so classical) music. However it drew in quite a crowd. As we headed past the disney land attraction and round the back of the pagoda MaRui was intruiged by police tape and TV crews. After a quick chat up of a police officer we ducked under the tape and walked over to the pagoda entrance, huge wooden gates. Here we asked a rather rude and rich monk what was happening though he wasn’t much help. We decided we would get in one way or another, MaRui started with her jounralism skills of talking to important looking people and telling them i was studying buddhism and we needed to be allowed in for free to the event, there was a fair chance of this working but no one seemed to know who had the aurthority to let us in... just as she was trying to convince another person of my studious nature the rude monk walked past me followed by a woman in a fur coat with curly hair. She looked right into my eyes as they headed towards the ticket collectors and gave me a huge smile. “theres our angel” i thought grabbing Ma Rui and following the rude monk as if we had the right to be there. Through the huffle and fuffle of pretty women entering the pagoda we went un noticed and found ourselves backstage at a TV ceremony for the count down to new year. Here we were interviewed by TV cameras asking me to say “happy new year. I love you” in chinese (which i did wrong about 3 times) and then explain what people in england would be doing. I rambled something about fireworks and beer and then acted out the kissing of anyone near by at midnight and breaking into Auld Lang Syne muttering 90% of the words you don’t know. (admit it we’ve all had at least one new year like that). The ceremony was very over the top, red carpets and hundreds of performers doing traditional and not so traditional dances and songs. Apparently there were a few famouse Chinese Actors there too but this was pretty over my head. At midnight there was no countdown (to my dissapointment) but some monks rang a big bell (though i think they were a bit late.) After the glitz and glam of the showbiz world we crawled into a taxi and went home to bed.



So that was my new year. Very different to what i would have asked for (probably involving hippys playing reggae) but an experience to write home about none the less.



As for Xian, it seemed to be, like many big chinese cities, half way into complete western modernisation however it did have some beautiful architectural treats and Ma Rui was great fun to be around. On the day i decided to go to the Pyramids i awoke to find the city was covered in snow and sitting in a snow cloud. I must explain here that the chinese don’t call them pyramids, they are Tombs of old emperors. However they are deffinatly pyramids in the diffining factor of shape, some of them larger at the square base than the great Pyramids of Egypt and flattened at the top like those of mexico . These are made of packed earth and one particular one is said to house the first emperor, however it can not be excavated as it also holds “rivers of mercury” and other highly toxic substances making it impossible to safely open up. I also heared rumours that the cap stone of the pyramid was incrusted with diamonds mapping out an exact map of the stars, but no one knows for sure as the designers of the tomb were burried alive within it to keep the secrets secret. Anyway this Emperor was a confident fellow and believed his rule would continue long after his death and as an expression of this confidence he had a full arm of terracotta warriors built and burried in vaults in attack formation not far from his tomb. These were discovered only about 30 years ago by some “peasants” who were digging a well. Looking for water, find and army of life sized terracotta men, one step up from a Roman coin that’s for sure. I went and visited the Army which was quite interesting, each of them having a completely unique face and the craftsmanship obviously fantastic. However the vission was so poor due to the snow cloud that i could barely see 50 meters away let alone a bloody huge pyramid tomb. The one i wanted to visit was actually in the other direction and far easier to see the pyramid shape but im glad i didnt take the money and time to go there as i wouldn’t have been able to see it any way. (this one is called the mao ling mausoleum if your interested in seeing a chinese pyramid on google).



On the same day, my last day in town; Ma Rui and i headed to a local Tibeten Lama Temple , apparently the only one in the area. The whole place was covered in snow and monks wondered about with stick brooms brushing the snow aside. Here Ma Rui’s jounralistic skills (and Googley Swans “monk hunting” skills) got us into the private room of one of the Monks where he sat and disscused Tibetan Buddhism with Ma Rui (in chinese) he then took us into the temple where most people don’t normally go and i got to see some of Buddahs Bones! The architecture of the place was beautiful and from looking at his eyes (him being a mongolian tibetan monk) i could see finally why the tibetan buddahs all have beautiful wobbley eyes.. its not stylised, its truth.



Right so, that evening i headed to the train station to catch my 36 hour train to south of china, Kunming in the Yunnan provence . I stood with my ticket in my hand and decided to buy some instant noodles for the journey as after the warriors and monks i hadn’t had time to prepare food. By the time id finished paying for them i had lost my ticket! I searched every pocket and it wasn’t long before i had a crowd of “helpful” Chinese men and policemen watching me. One man in a beige jacket stared me right in the eyes and said “have patience with yourself and you will find it” i paused for a second and looked back at him then continued scrabbling about wondering which of these men was about to try and sell me my own ticket back. However it wasn’t so and Beige finally offered to buy me a new ticket as the train was soon to leave. My heart burst as he said this, “wow thank you” and soon Beige and another man; Black, and I were on the train and Beige was handing me my new ticket. “don’t loose it” he said and wrote his email adress for me with “a chinese friend” next to it, “whats your name?” i said to him after he refused to let me post money to him in the future “that’s not important” he said and with a smile he walked away and i never saw him again.



I settled into my bunk, took off my coat and as i was relaxing i thought “whats that up my sleeve?” and a feeling of dread came over me, yup, there was my missing ticket.



The train journey was un eventfull and i shared it with a Uighur Muslim family. Occasionally Black would come and sit with me and express his confusion as to why i wanted to go to Laos as “ China is much better”, and he only felt a desire to travel to England , Australia , America etc. He told me over and over about how kind and giving and helpful Chinese people are but on the last time i saw him he handed me his phone slyly with a message saying “don’t trust people in china, be careful” which reflects to me the confusion within the chinese people about who they are now. From the honorable days of the ancient sages to the money centred greed world of modern Communist China.



In Kunming i waited for 20 minutes in the city for a bus that never came so i went to look for what would come. I walked to the train station and saw my first western lady in 4 or 5 days. She was speaking to a man trying to ask him a question, and he was trying to sell her a map, it didn’t seem like the most flowing of communications so i stepped up asking if she needed any help... not that i knew much myself. Her name was Annie, she’s a writer from England living in Vietnam and she reminds me of my mum in many many ways. An hour later i had deicded to join her on a journey to Tiger Leaping Gorge the next day. Kunming passed pretty un eventfully and then next afternoon we boarded a sleeper bus to the Mountains. Tiger Leaping Gorge is near Shangri La which is the closest city to the Tibeten Plateu that you can go without going into Tibet i believe. So here i am just East of the Tibeten Plateu in the mountains. The bus ride was a long night with little sleep and i started to get a bit of a dicky belly. At 5.30 am we were dropped off in a little town expecting the bus driver to contact Sean from the Guest House to come pick us up. Sean’s Phone was off and as the bus driver drove away leaving us in the dark under a million stars (“oh hello, i almost forgot you existed”) i realised my ipod was no longer in my pocket. In a glimmer of faith i hoped i had left it on the bus and there might be a chance to get it back. However my heart was low, the ipod in itself wasn’t important but on it was hundreds of photos from previous trips and recordings form this one, one off recordings of mike and i jamming (including our last ever jam before i left which was amazing) as well as the music of all my friends. This music is what has kept me saine and alive in my darkest and loneliest moments on my trip. The thought of not having it anymore suddenly made the distance between me and home a million fold more. Mike felt so far from my heart as it was his music that would remind me of his voice and his soul. To make matters worse, before i lifet england my computer died taking all other music and photos in my life with it.



We found an early rising restraunt owner steaming dumplings and she let us sit in her place while we waited for the sun to rise. Finally we contacted Sean and he sent a driver for us at 9. When i went to pay for the driver however i unzipped my purse to find all my money was gone. About 60 pounds worth of Yuan....so i hadnt left my ipod, i had been robbed. Luckily they left my bank card and didn’t take anything else however the thought of someone stooping over me in my sick stomach sleep and taking my pockets (which were under the covers and next to me and up against the wall) unzipping them and being able to remove my stuff and re zip up my purse and replace it without either me or Annie noticing made me sad. But worse was the knowledge of the music now being in the hands of someone who would never appreciate the sound of my lovers laughter, or the sound of my friends soulfull singing. To them it was just a money maker, to me it played the role as the resussitator of my soul in sad times. Part of my spark which had been so alight for so long now died.



Sean himself is a character, in a not so positive way, A Tibetan with a small arm and a rude and abrupt manner. When i said to him upon my moment of realisation “ive been robbed, all my money is gone” he simply replied “it ok, there is ATM then you can pay me” and this basically sums him up from my interactions with him since. Greedy, rude and uncaring. We will stay here in his guest house (where it turns out hes charging us double what the other guest house charges and that’s AFTER we cut his price down by almost half; however Annie in her kindness has offered to pay for our room this night) till tomorrow and then head to Dali. Tomorrow is Annies Birthday, she will be 56 and i fell bad for her that her image of roaming the Gorge has been tainted but such a welcome.



The gorge however is stunning and after a nap we walked up the trail a little way to some local village houses and explored. The wind played in the long grasses making movemtns as if creatures were running under the thick green blankets. Cows, chickens and baby goats cling to the steep landscape as old men walk along with huge bundles of hay tied to their backs. The rocky cliffs tower around and consume the sky, although it is beautiful here, these are not the piney, tree covered mountains of my heart, Europian forrests call me, France beckons me to return, but onwards i go. South. Unfortunatly i do not have time to do the 3 days hike along the whole gorge as i have arranged to meet a friend in a village in Laos on the 16th and i still need to sort my head around Laos, and money and the such and such.



So here I am, emotionally slightly sore, missing Mike and wondering if i will ever see him again. Missing my music and wondering how i will cope with days and days on trains and buses from now on. Feeling a whole lot lighter in the pocket due to my jabs setting me back nearly 200 pounds (and i still need to buy a booster shot) and the theft costing me another 60 pounds (not to mention how much the ipod was worth) .. slowly i watch my very small budget get even smaller, yet i know there are so many more adventures yet to come. Hopefuly more positive ones.



If you made it to the end if this long one, i congratulate you, thanks for sticking with me and i hope you still enjoy reading.