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!
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