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.
One Girl, One Guitar, One Hell of a Journey
Monday 31 January 2011
Part 17 - Chinese Christmas
ok so china... ive been putting off writing this one as it feels like too much to even begin, but the longer i put it off the more there is to write about and i know how tedious an epic email can be. i will try to keep it as short as i can, but you know me i like to write ;)
ok so first stop in China was Tienjin. A port town just south of Beijing and home to a guy i met in the Canteen back in Bristol called Ryan. I spent about 4 days staying with him and his flat mate Phil and during this time experienced massages and dumplings as well as listening to the boys both moan about and compliment the chinese lives they were living. Its a funny workd the world of expat communities. in some ways its a great place to fall into for a bit of home comfort, english speaking company and general laughs but theres some element of tired out pessamism that i seem to find in a lot of english and americans working abroad. Both in Japan and China. However everyone was kind and welcoming and a lot of fun was had. Christmas Eve was a particuarly nice time as a local cafe called The Spot owned by an American guy had an evening of live music and christmassy yummys. I played a little accoustic set and then after me a wild bunch of animated musicians
came on playing a mix of covers and originals followed by an international band of musicians. I spent the night sat on a western couch watching live accoustic music drinking hot apple juice, i almost felt like i was back home. in Brighton or Bristol.
Christmas morning came and as Ryan and Phil's friends arrived and started on the Gin and Tonic I settled down to open my two christmas gifties i had been carrying around with me. One from Manami, one from Mike., Manamis gift was a perfectly wonderfully wrapped little box (so japanese) which when i opened it contained a deep purple amathyst rock cluster shaped like a heart. beautiful. Mikes gift was also wonderfuly well wrapped when it arrived (him being such a fan of well presented things) but unfortunatly after being in my rucksack for a month it was merely a shaddow of its former glory. However this didnt bother me and on openning it i found a lovely colloection of photos (including ones of mike, amy, and kev!! :D) two CDs (one avalon roots one and one collection of christmas tunes) and a little jasmine tea bomb which im still yet to use. Im waiting for the perfect moment. Needless to say the christmas CD went straight on the player and it wasnt long
before we were all getting ready to head to Hanks for an American Style Christmas Dinner in China. Aside from the lack of roast potatos it was a pretty good meal, though to be honest not much can compare to the christmas feast Maggie provides back home.
That night after a post slpurge sleep we boarded a high speed rocket...sorry train to Beijing. the old journey of 3 hours now cut down to 30 minutes on this white bullet beast. The evening was spent with a group of Ryans student friends at their flat watching rom coms and attempting to sing rounds and harmony songs.
The Hostel we had booked into was wikkid and quite a beijing highlight for me. To be honest what makes a place for me is the nature and the people, so a city where i know no one is usually quite a dull place for me. however Heyuan Youth Hostal was like entering into a family. After Goodbyes were said to Ryan i got straight onto the case of making friends and it wasnt long before i felt like i didnt want to leave (so actually i booked myself in for an extra 2 nights, at about 4.50 a night it was pretty cheap in comparrison to european hostels and the japanese hostels).
Beijing is a Modern yet dirty city where the sun is barely an orange smudge in the sky from the layer of pollution (which has given me a consistant nose ache since i arrived) and the winds bitting frosty kiss pentrates my clothes.. Traffic follows no rules, pedestrians ignore traffic, bicycles line the road side with carts selling oily fried goods, sweet potatoes, and fruit. The Hostel Family were great. MM and Tanya, two Hong Kong girls sight seeing in Beijing. They addopted me for a day and after exploring the Forbidden City for many hours, we went for a strole down a buisy food street. Here the laine was lines with souvoniers and snack shops selling a range of cullinary delights from kebbab meat and corn on the cob to skewered scorpions and sea horses, whole baby birds cooked to a brown shriveller perfection, sea urchins, crabs, baozer, sweets and sugared fruits. The croud drifted along under the hanging red lanterns and swallows these bizzar delights
with hungry eyes. I settled for a simple and over cooked corn on the coband then Tanya, MM and I went to a slightly safer place for veggie dumplings. I say safer because dumplings dont sting or bite and those skorpions, though skewered, were still waving their legs about trying to escape their inevitable doom.
MM and Tanya were probably by a long way the cutest girls i have met so far. Funny and playfull but not in the over bubbly way of the japanese girls. More grounded and easier for me to relate to and not afraid to voice their oppinions on how dirty and rude they found main land china to be... comming from the far more civalised and cultured Honk Kong. :p Every night they recorded a video diary in the hostel and picked a challenge out of a christmas stocking for the next day before switching the camera off and enciting some form of fun and games to the room around them.
Another Hostel buddy was Christos the Greek who was in Beijing waiting for Greece to send him a new passport after his old one had been stolen. He had the Greek charm and the sparkling brown eyes of the mediteranian men. He was barely ever serious and insisted to me that he was dating Athena the Goddess of Athens .. our interactions were that of the annoying brother and sister full of playfull banter, insaults, poking, jabbing and laughing. He even escorted me across town to get my jabs done.
...ah the jabs... a big moral rock and hard place. too much to go into on hows and whys but eventually i settled for hep (a and B) and the tetnes, diptheria and pertussis. i didnt get malaria pills as the doctor said for me to take them for so long could make me very sick and told me not to have them....so i guess i will just be extra careful agains mozzy bites.
anyway alogside those was rod the long termer, dry faced englishman with a soft spot for beer, Rex the receptionist who lives and works at the hostel and is learning to play guitar.(he began to teach me a chinese song) One night i mentioned the abandoned PA system to Rex and he said "you want to play?" and set it all up, we had a great night, after i played a little set Rex also did soe songs and then the night digenerated into Chinese karaoke which was ammusing to watch.
My last night in beijing was spent with Christos and Shue (a friend of Rob's) standing on a frozen river whilst in the minus 0 winds modeling jumpers for a photo shoot for Shue's shop. Cold but fun.
As i headed for my Taxi to the bus station with Christos i felt a twinge of "oh is that it?" as i hugged him goodbye. I could easily have spent many ore days at the hostel with these people.. there lay a community spirit i was missing. But my visa for china is short and i have a lot of land to cover to get to Laos, and as is often the way with hostels, if i stayed it wouldnt be long before the others left.
The Taxi driver took a shine to me even though i couldnt talk to him. i saw his eyes sparkle as i said goodbye to christos (or parhaps it was because he knew it was a long ride and a good fare for him) Either way he left me with a kind smile and a bottle of water.
to follow was a long night of sleeper bus ahead. The joys of the all coughing, all spitting, all smoking habbits of China on my way to my next adventure...Xi'an, the end/begining of the silk road... and the New Year... what will 2011 bring?
Love and blessings to you all.
sory it was a long one..i have more to do but im breaking it up for easier digestion.
Fleassy xox
ok so first stop in China was Tienjin. A port town just south of Beijing and home to a guy i met in the Canteen back in Bristol called Ryan. I spent about 4 days staying with him and his flat mate Phil and during this time experienced massages and dumplings as well as listening to the boys both moan about and compliment the chinese lives they were living. Its a funny workd the world of expat communities. in some ways its a great place to fall into for a bit of home comfort, english speaking company and general laughs but theres some element of tired out pessamism that i seem to find in a lot of english and americans working abroad. Both in Japan and China. However everyone was kind and welcoming and a lot of fun was had. Christmas Eve was a particuarly nice time as a local cafe called The Spot owned by an American guy had an evening of live music and christmassy yummys. I played a little accoustic set and then after me a wild bunch of animated musicians
came on playing a mix of covers and originals followed by an international band of musicians. I spent the night sat on a western couch watching live accoustic music drinking hot apple juice, i almost felt like i was back home. in Brighton or Bristol.
Christmas morning came and as Ryan and Phil's friends arrived and started on the Gin and Tonic I settled down to open my two christmas gifties i had been carrying around with me. One from Manami, one from Mike., Manamis gift was a perfectly wonderfully wrapped little box (so japanese) which when i opened it contained a deep purple amathyst rock cluster shaped like a heart. beautiful. Mikes gift was also wonderfuly well wrapped when it arrived (him being such a fan of well presented things) but unfortunatly after being in my rucksack for a month it was merely a shaddow of its former glory. However this didnt bother me and on openning it i found a lovely colloection of photos (including ones of mike, amy, and kev!! :D) two CDs (one avalon roots one and one collection of christmas tunes) and a little jasmine tea bomb which im still yet to use. Im waiting for the perfect moment. Needless to say the christmas CD went straight on the player and it wasnt long
before we were all getting ready to head to Hanks for an American Style Christmas Dinner in China. Aside from the lack of roast potatos it was a pretty good meal, though to be honest not much can compare to the christmas feast Maggie provides back home.
That night after a post slpurge sleep we boarded a high speed rocket...sorry train to Beijing. the old journey of 3 hours now cut down to 30 minutes on this white bullet beast. The evening was spent with a group of Ryans student friends at their flat watching rom coms and attempting to sing rounds and harmony songs.
The Hostel we had booked into was wikkid and quite a beijing highlight for me. To be honest what makes a place for me is the nature and the people, so a city where i know no one is usually quite a dull place for me. however Heyuan Youth Hostal was like entering into a family. After Goodbyes were said to Ryan i got straight onto the case of making friends and it wasnt long before i felt like i didnt want to leave (so actually i booked myself in for an extra 2 nights, at about 4.50 a night it was pretty cheap in comparrison to european hostels and the japanese hostels).
Beijing is a Modern yet dirty city where the sun is barely an orange smudge in the sky from the layer of pollution (which has given me a consistant nose ache since i arrived) and the winds bitting frosty kiss pentrates my clothes.. Traffic follows no rules, pedestrians ignore traffic, bicycles line the road side with carts selling oily fried goods, sweet potatoes, and fruit. The Hostel Family were great. MM and Tanya, two Hong Kong girls sight seeing in Beijing. They addopted me for a day and after exploring the Forbidden City for many hours, we went for a strole down a buisy food street. Here the laine was lines with souvoniers and snack shops selling a range of cullinary delights from kebbab meat and corn on the cob to skewered scorpions and sea horses, whole baby birds cooked to a brown shriveller perfection, sea urchins, crabs, baozer, sweets and sugared fruits. The croud drifted along under the hanging red lanterns and swallows these bizzar delights
with hungry eyes. I settled for a simple and over cooked corn on the coband then Tanya, MM and I went to a slightly safer place for veggie dumplings. I say safer because dumplings dont sting or bite and those skorpions, though skewered, were still waving their legs about trying to escape their inevitable doom.
MM and Tanya were probably by a long way the cutest girls i have met so far. Funny and playfull but not in the over bubbly way of the japanese girls. More grounded and easier for me to relate to and not afraid to voice their oppinions on how dirty and rude they found main land china to be... comming from the far more civalised and cultured Honk Kong. :p Every night they recorded a video diary in the hostel and picked a challenge out of a christmas stocking for the next day before switching the camera off and enciting some form of fun and games to the room around them.
Another Hostel buddy was Christos the Greek who was in Beijing waiting for Greece to send him a new passport after his old one had been stolen. He had the Greek charm and the sparkling brown eyes of the mediteranian men. He was barely ever serious and insisted to me that he was dating Athena the Goddess of Athens .. our interactions were that of the annoying brother and sister full of playfull banter, insaults, poking, jabbing and laughing. He even escorted me across town to get my jabs done.
...ah the jabs... a big moral rock and hard place. too much to go into on hows and whys but eventually i settled for hep (a and B) and the tetnes, diptheria and pertussis. i didnt get malaria pills as the doctor said for me to take them for so long could make me very sick and told me not to have them....so i guess i will just be extra careful agains mozzy bites.
anyway alogside those was rod the long termer, dry faced englishman with a soft spot for beer, Rex the receptionist who lives and works at the hostel and is learning to play guitar.(he began to teach me a chinese song) One night i mentioned the abandoned PA system to Rex and he said "you want to play?" and set it all up, we had a great night, after i played a little set Rex also did soe songs and then the night digenerated into Chinese karaoke which was ammusing to watch.
My last night in beijing was spent with Christos and Shue (a friend of Rob's) standing on a frozen river whilst in the minus 0 winds modeling jumpers for a photo shoot for Shue's shop. Cold but fun.
As i headed for my Taxi to the bus station with Christos i felt a twinge of "oh is that it?" as i hugged him goodbye. I could easily have spent many ore days at the hostel with these people.. there lay a community spirit i was missing. But my visa for china is short and i have a lot of land to cover to get to Laos, and as is often the way with hostels, if i stayed it wouldnt be long before the others left.
The Taxi driver took a shine to me even though i couldnt talk to him. i saw his eyes sparkle as i said goodbye to christos (or parhaps it was because he knew it was a long ride and a good fare for him) Either way he left me with a kind smile and a bottle of water.
to follow was a long night of sleeper bus ahead. The joys of the all coughing, all spitting, all smoking habbits of China on my way to my next adventure...Xi'an, the end/begining of the silk road... and the New Year... what will 2011 bring?
Love and blessings to you all.
sory it was a long one..i have more to do but im breaking it up for easier digestion.
Fleassy xox
part 16 - Getting to China
So ..china... here I am. I sit in a western owned cafe listening to Blues music while the sky between the concrete blocks is a warped yellow blue from the pollution in the air. China is already a bizzare world to me.
Leaving Manami feels like forever ago already. Obachan and Her took me to the bus station and I sat with Manami eating Advocado Sarnies waiting for the bus. Our goodbye was dusted with tears and we promised to see each other soon in Thai Land..or somewhere... I hope thats true. “im not good at goodbyes” she said as tears rolled down her cute japanese cheeks... a tear brimmed up in me and for some reason I pulled it back in as I smiled at her and I though “perhaps im too good at goobyes...or perhaps im so bad at them that I can not stay present in them” ... it reflected to me the goodbye 4 months ago to Mike in Grenobles in France..as he was declaring his love to me and saying goodbye my mind kept drifting to he bus and if it would go without me...and when I finally got on it and looked out the window I cracked....i cried and cried and ralised what I fool I was for not staying presant with him in those last few moments... but I see now its an automatic thing... maybe a way of protecting myself...or maybe a resault of being overly afraid of missing buses haha.
As I left Manami handed me a bag saying “dont open the little box until christmas day but the rest you can open on the bus” ..i thanked her and waved goodbye. Beautiful Evergiving and kind hearted Manami... I wish I have given more to her than I did. I know at times I became impatient with her when I shouldnt have just because spending hours and hours alone I got so used to just my own mind so interacting with a second one became difficult.... patience.. I must master the art of patience, especially with those who deserve it so much.
The bus was like a luxery jet or something, all the chares were serpeated with an aisle in between them and they went almost flat back into a bed. I had a curtain to block of the world, a blanket and pillow... luxury. We rolled away from Saitama into the night towards Kobe where I would spend one last night in Japan before getting on the boat to China. I held Manamis bag in my hands, I opened it and a smile spread through me. Snacks, Roiboss tea, sushi.. even organic chocolate...the perfect Bus Ride Hamper. Then wrapped in a green cloth was an extra gift, a beautiful card and my mystery christmas box. I untied the strong and opened the cloth...wow.... There in my hand was a palm sized Thumb Piano hand made by manami herself, hooked onto a yellow string with a Cowry Shell on the end... A little tear came out and I sent thanks back to Manami and Thought about my friend in Kyoto Id met 3 weeks earlier.
The night rolled by with music in my ears and my thumb piano hung round my neck.
The next morning I arrived in Kobe and went off to find my hostel. Kobe Dears Backpackers house, a friendly place run by a man from Leeds. Here I met a woman from Germany who was in Japan doing some research for a masters...or docterate..or some other high grade qualification that she was doing. Her subject was a particuarly interesting one to me. The Travel Journals of Female Japanese people from late 19th and early 20th century. What a great thing to study.
Kobe was a world of city with an area of european designed houses..like a euro-land full of tourists.
Heading to the Ship Port. I was doing it. It dawned on me that morning the immense journey I had already undertaken and its epic scale...and the immensity of it as it grows... This is the first time it has really hit me. Waiting to go through customs I met another Traveller by the name of Osugi (big tree) He too was traveling without an aeroplane and was planning to head down the chinese coast and get to Vietnam within the next month. I was the only Westerner on the whole ship unsuprisingly and there was only about 30 passangers on the boat. The Ship its self was a shoddy shaddow of its former glory. Parhaps 20 years ago it was a swishy new luxury crossing but now the once fashionble seats were covered with a remade seat cover hiding the decay, the walls, toilets and ceilings were edged with mould and grime and a strange smell hovered around the taps. However she was a sturdy vessel and crossed the seas well. During the second night the seas got a bit rougher and being prone to sea sickness I spent most of the evening and all night on my back holding in my need to pee and trying to sleep through the rocking. At meal times I got an interesting insight into 80's China through Karaoke videos played on a bad quality flat screen in the canteen. It had never occurred to me that china had had an 80's...let alone one as terrifically cheesy and over the top as that of America and the UK.... but there it was in all its 80s glory, perms, leather jackets and over the shoulder poses.... just in chinese. This was the highlight of my trip.
Finally amost 3 days after getting on the ship we ported in China... Osugi and I had been ship buddies and planned to get into Tienjin together before parting ways. Customs was problemless and as we exited the building we were pounced on by Taxi drivers insisting there was no bus and they would take up to tienjin central station. Of course we ignored them and after finding a Scruffy Japanese Traveller heading home we found out the route to the bus and how to get into town. The 2 hour bus ride was an experience in its self... “why..why china?!” I kept saying out loud as I watched the dirt caked landscape slip by. Osugi laughed and nodded in agreement. The traffic was irratic and the bus driver honked his horn every minute or so at some other irrational driver. Outside the window delapidated buildings peeked through the layers of pollution as old chinese women muttered about in head scarfs. In the distance the high rises of the swishy city centre came closer. China felt like Japan and India had hit each other at full speed and this was the aftermath. However as we crossed the border of suburbs and city centre the world shifted and suddenly KFC and TESCOs were on every corner. As we pulled into the bus station darkness had desended and we decided to get some food before going our sepperate ways. Here I had my first expereience of lonely planet phrase book “point at the phrase and let them read it” communication... bizzar but it worked and I got my vegetarian meal and tucked in. yummy.
When we got to the Taxi port (as I had no map of tienjin and just the Kanji of an address for Ryans house) I showed the man directing people to the Taxi's my address and he shoved it in the direction of someone else probably saying something along the lines of “what!? I cant read this!?” the lady traslated my scrawled chinese symbols over to him and suddenly I was being piled into a taxi without a moment to say thank ou or goodbye to osugi... and worryingly there seemed to be some discrepency over what the address actually was and the poor taxi driver was in dispare to find out I didnt have a telephone number for where we were going. (turns out my chinese symbols were written right its just Ryan had written the address wrong) But I put trust in the world a knew I would get there..and if all failed I had the address of a hostel that Osugi was going to. We reached the vague area and after a lot of cufuffle and asking strangers (crouds of people trying ot be helpful but probably just being nosey seem quite common here) he stopped and I paid and got out. Luckily for me I have a quite a bit of common sence and it wasn't long before I found the building and ringing the buzzer I was met with a familiar “hello” and “yeeaaa! Congratulations, you made it!”
Relief.
That night Ryan treated me by taking me out to a local place to get a full body massage. Nice.
Ive been here a few days now and plans for christmas day are forming. Christmas buffet with expats and them beijing in the evening...and hopefully a boxing day strole along the great wall... :) exciting.
Im too brain fried now to write anyhing about China World more.. but I think I like it... however once I leave the security blanket of ryans house and head south who knows what I might think :) one things for sure...i dont understand a bloody word!!
Happy Solstice everyone!
Leaving Manami feels like forever ago already. Obachan and Her took me to the bus station and I sat with Manami eating Advocado Sarnies waiting for the bus. Our goodbye was dusted with tears and we promised to see each other soon in Thai Land..or somewhere... I hope thats true. “im not good at goodbyes” she said as tears rolled down her cute japanese cheeks... a tear brimmed up in me and for some reason I pulled it back in as I smiled at her and I though “perhaps im too good at goobyes...or perhaps im so bad at them that I can not stay present in them” ... it reflected to me the goodbye 4 months ago to Mike in Grenobles in France..as he was declaring his love to me and saying goodbye my mind kept drifting to he bus and if it would go without me...and when I finally got on it and looked out the window I cracked....i cried and cried and ralised what I fool I was for not staying presant with him in those last few moments... but I see now its an automatic thing... maybe a way of protecting myself...or maybe a resault of being overly afraid of missing buses haha.
As I left Manami handed me a bag saying “dont open the little box until christmas day but the rest you can open on the bus” ..i thanked her and waved goodbye. Beautiful Evergiving and kind hearted Manami... I wish I have given more to her than I did. I know at times I became impatient with her when I shouldnt have just because spending hours and hours alone I got so used to just my own mind so interacting with a second one became difficult.... patience.. I must master the art of patience, especially with those who deserve it so much.
The bus was like a luxery jet or something, all the chares were serpeated with an aisle in between them and they went almost flat back into a bed. I had a curtain to block of the world, a blanket and pillow... luxury. We rolled away from Saitama into the night towards Kobe where I would spend one last night in Japan before getting on the boat to China. I held Manamis bag in my hands, I opened it and a smile spread through me. Snacks, Roiboss tea, sushi.. even organic chocolate...the perfect Bus Ride Hamper. Then wrapped in a green cloth was an extra gift, a beautiful card and my mystery christmas box. I untied the strong and opened the cloth...wow.... There in my hand was a palm sized Thumb Piano hand made by manami herself, hooked onto a yellow string with a Cowry Shell on the end... A little tear came out and I sent thanks back to Manami and Thought about my friend in Kyoto Id met 3 weeks earlier.
The night rolled by with music in my ears and my thumb piano hung round my neck.
The next morning I arrived in Kobe and went off to find my hostel. Kobe Dears Backpackers house, a friendly place run by a man from Leeds. Here I met a woman from Germany who was in Japan doing some research for a masters...or docterate..or some other high grade qualification that she was doing. Her subject was a particuarly interesting one to me. The Travel Journals of Female Japanese people from late 19th and early 20th century. What a great thing to study.
Kobe was a world of city with an area of european designed houses..like a euro-land full of tourists.
Heading to the Ship Port. I was doing it. It dawned on me that morning the immense journey I had already undertaken and its epic scale...and the immensity of it as it grows... This is the first time it has really hit me. Waiting to go through customs I met another Traveller by the name of Osugi (big tree) He too was traveling without an aeroplane and was planning to head down the chinese coast and get to Vietnam within the next month. I was the only Westerner on the whole ship unsuprisingly and there was only about 30 passangers on the boat. The Ship its self was a shoddy shaddow of its former glory. Parhaps 20 years ago it was a swishy new luxury crossing but now the once fashionble seats were covered with a remade seat cover hiding the decay, the walls, toilets and ceilings were edged with mould and grime and a strange smell hovered around the taps. However she was a sturdy vessel and crossed the seas well. During the second night the seas got a bit rougher and being prone to sea sickness I spent most of the evening and all night on my back holding in my need to pee and trying to sleep through the rocking. At meal times I got an interesting insight into 80's China through Karaoke videos played on a bad quality flat screen in the canteen. It had never occurred to me that china had had an 80's...let alone one as terrifically cheesy and over the top as that of America and the UK.... but there it was in all its 80s glory, perms, leather jackets and over the shoulder poses.... just in chinese. This was the highlight of my trip.
Finally amost 3 days after getting on the ship we ported in China... Osugi and I had been ship buddies and planned to get into Tienjin together before parting ways. Customs was problemless and as we exited the building we were pounced on by Taxi drivers insisting there was no bus and they would take up to tienjin central station. Of course we ignored them and after finding a Scruffy Japanese Traveller heading home we found out the route to the bus and how to get into town. The 2 hour bus ride was an experience in its self... “why..why china?!” I kept saying out loud as I watched the dirt caked landscape slip by. Osugi laughed and nodded in agreement. The traffic was irratic and the bus driver honked his horn every minute or so at some other irrational driver. Outside the window delapidated buildings peeked through the layers of pollution as old chinese women muttered about in head scarfs. In the distance the high rises of the swishy city centre came closer. China felt like Japan and India had hit each other at full speed and this was the aftermath. However as we crossed the border of suburbs and city centre the world shifted and suddenly KFC and TESCOs were on every corner. As we pulled into the bus station darkness had desended and we decided to get some food before going our sepperate ways. Here I had my first expereience of lonely planet phrase book “point at the phrase and let them read it” communication... bizzar but it worked and I got my vegetarian meal and tucked in. yummy.
When we got to the Taxi port (as I had no map of tienjin and just the Kanji of an address for Ryans house) I showed the man directing people to the Taxi's my address and he shoved it in the direction of someone else probably saying something along the lines of “what!? I cant read this!?” the lady traslated my scrawled chinese symbols over to him and suddenly I was being piled into a taxi without a moment to say thank ou or goodbye to osugi... and worryingly there seemed to be some discrepency over what the address actually was and the poor taxi driver was in dispare to find out I didnt have a telephone number for where we were going. (turns out my chinese symbols were written right its just Ryan had written the address wrong) But I put trust in the world a knew I would get there..and if all failed I had the address of a hostel that Osugi was going to. We reached the vague area and after a lot of cufuffle and asking strangers (crouds of people trying ot be helpful but probably just being nosey seem quite common here) he stopped and I paid and got out. Luckily for me I have a quite a bit of common sence and it wasn't long before I found the building and ringing the buzzer I was met with a familiar “hello” and “yeeaaa! Congratulations, you made it!”
Relief.
That night Ryan treated me by taking me out to a local place to get a full body massage. Nice.
Ive been here a few days now and plans for christmas day are forming. Christmas buffet with expats and them beijing in the evening...and hopefully a boxing day strole along the great wall... :) exciting.
Im too brain fried now to write anyhing about China World more.. but I think I like it... however once I leave the security blanket of ryans house and head south who knows what I might think :) one things for sure...i dont understand a bloody word!!
Happy Solstice everyone!
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