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
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