A poetic trip from Litang Dec. 26th

In a dry narrow boulder filled valley we stopped for a bathroom break. Our driver a Tibetan man clad in earthen tones and sporting a cowboy hat with a feather in it walked down the road. All of the plants are crispy and dry. I ran down to the the partially frozen creek that the small winding road follows to rinse my hands, and was refreshingly surprised by the temperature of the clear creek water. I spashed my face and felt sooo nice.

Blinkmiss

under thin layers of ice,
reflecting brilliant sun,
Fresh Creek water flows,
gurgling, whispering ecstacies
of a myterious world,
to the thoughtful ear only.

The breathtaking winding bus trips from Chengdu to Kanding

Chengdu
While we were in Chengdu Anna and I stayed at a really nice hostel and met this super nice guy named Keith who's from New Zealand. We were going to go and check out the pandas but we ended up sleeping in. Chengdu is a really nice city and I think that I'm going to go back there and work in January and February to save up some money so that I can spend March in Nepal and Tibet. It'll be hard to find work, but I'm going to do it, i know I will. The reason it'll be hard is that many schools only want white teachers from Briton or North America. Anna helped me buy a SIM card for my cell phone which I unfortunately needed to buy in order to find work and a guy at the hostel helped me change my cell from chinese to english.



Luding
Our bus trip out to Luding was only 5 hrs long instead of the anticipated 8hrs. The drive right out of Chengdu gave us views of steep farmland divided into small squares of vibrant green and darker greens. The next leg of the trip we found ourselves in a lush green jungle canyon. There were huge rock faces musky-orange in colour and fresh mountain water running down in small streams beneath us. Luding itself is very small just like all of the places we've been visiting lately. It reminds of me towns on the drive up to the interior of British-Colombia, like the trips that our family would take on the way to Quesnel. It's at the bottom of a valley, wedged in by mountains and beside a small river which reminds me of a smaller Fraser River.




Moxi
From Luding we went to Moxi, a small village that hosts China's biggest Glacier. Anna was really excited to see her first Glacier and after an hour hike through the Chinese forest, passing by small partially frozen creeks and slipping on the snow covered trail(being followed by men carrying chair like stretchers incase we decided that we were actually the Fat Westerners too lazy to carry our own body weight up the fairly easy hour hike that they thought we were) we reached the base of the Glacier. Anna, having never been on a Glacier before was very shy in her first attempts to climb up onto the jagged snow covered ice but, by the end of our few hours spent navigating this land of white mysteries she was sliding down and climbing up, exploring like a true pioneer expert. I've only been on one Glacier before, the comox Glacier, a little baby compared to this more complicated and massive piece of ancient ice. The old man that owned the hostel, Xin Fei in Moxi was incredibly kind and very enthusiastic in his game of communicative charades. Anna and I enjoyed looking in many of the jewelley stores and I took my time choosing some colourful jewellery(one of my weaknesses). We walked by a gathering and took a closer look, only to see that they were roasting two goats on rotating sticks. I like the way that the locals sing so freely, the music here is different than in the rest of China, it sounds almost arabic, indian. I really had to go pee, and so I walked down this dark alleyway following a store owner, then a dog started to bark echoing in the hallway and making me jump. Then he turned on the light, and to my surprise and maybe horror, there, where I had to squat down there were four HUge pig nostrils leaning in through a weakly barricated fence. When I was doing mything, the 2 PIgs disgusting noses were inches away from my right thigh. I ran out and grabbed Anna so tht she could experience the scariest toilet to this point of my trip.


Kanding
From Moxi we travelled West to Kanding. I was excited to be here because it is the first town that had Tibetan script, which looks like arabic writing. We had some butter tea, which tastes absolutely delicious and is made with goat milk. Our hostel had swinging seats which I thouroughly enjoyed. We walked around town, looking in shops as per usual. Anna's ankle was hurting and there was a wonderful hike up a steep mountain that passed by many temples and so we parted. There was an hour of daylight left and I figured I had time to go up and down as our hostess said it would take minimum 1 hr if hiked quickly. Unfortunately 1/4 of the way up I recalled what I had read in my Lonely PLanet Guide, which said that a German traveller had been killed on this hike. I was determined to finish the hike and so I picked up a sharp rock, and started sprinting up the mountain, sweating nervously, my head throbbing from the high altitude, on my toes ready for an attack. I though halfway through, 'Holly! You need to caml down!' , but it didn't stop me from looking around at every snap of a twig. I finally reached the top, there wasn't much of a view because then sun had set. I took a few victory pictures of my sweaty anxious face beside some of the Lions that were at the top and then left my weapon at the top and tried to calmly descend. This of course did not last long, and I found myself sprinting down the mountain, and then looking for Anna.


next post: Christmas in Litang, a true border town of Tibet.
... Here are some pictures from Litang. We spent an amazing Christmas together in a magical place. Christmas morning we watched a sky-burial...

Now bring us some figgy pudding...

I'm in Chengdu right now in the Sichuan Province. It is the gateway to Tibet. I want to come back here and work later in January so that I can save up for Tibet and Nepal in late March and April. Anna and I met a dude named Keith who's from New Zealand and he reminds me of Trevor O. and my friend Hourann who I met in Beijing. Really cool fella.

Anna and I are going to Luding today a small little place west of here. We're then going to Moxi where Anna wants to see her first Glacier. We'll spend Christmas in Litang which is a small border village with Tibet. We'll be on our way South after that heading to Lijiang in Yunnan province, Dali, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Kunming and then to Laos for the 3rd of January.

After Pingyao, we went to Xian. We saw the Terracotta soldiers there and stayed with some of Anna's friends that she met in Shanghai.Chelsea who's from Regina Sask., and Ryan who's from South Africa. We met Jo who's from New Zealand, another one of their friends and had a good time going out to restaurants and pubs together. Ryan is gay and can dance like no one's business. Anna and I were to tired when we were in Xian that we stayed in Ryan and Chelsea's flat watching as much of Queer as Folk as we possibly could. I love that show!!!

Anna and I have been getting a along really well. I can be completely open with her and I can be my bush woman self with her.

I was supposed to get off where? Oh no...

I have been on trains for the past few days. I slept through my stop on my third train which was from Beijing to Datong and ended up in Inner Mongolia again 200km west of Datong and in an entirely different Province. Some Chinese helped me to buy a ticket to Pingyao. I skipped Datong because I was pissed off. I have been taking hard-seater train trips which really suck and are uncomfortable and squished. 9-12 hours on a train seems like such a short trip to me now. Last train trip I caught myself leaning on a stanger's shoulder in my sleep and possibly drooling.

I'm in Pingyao now and it's Beautiful! It's a slow paced town that has ancient walls surrounding it. The streets are all cobble stone and the buildings' roofs have been put together by putting mud and shit on the top and then laying down tiles. I have been relaxing here and I met a girl named Anna from England. She's funny, the same
age as me and we're headed in the same direction and so we decided to travel together. Apparently the north east of China is not very popular with travellers and so I didn't meet anyone new in the past few days, or anyone at all. Tonight we're headed to Xi'an and we'll stay with one of her friends and then check out the Terracotta soldiers and move on. We'll spend Christmas together and head down to Laos eventually. I am sooo Happy to have some company for the long train trips, and we really hit it off. She's very independant, smart, outspoken and incredibly good with money and so she can help me not splurge and to be more of a budget mongler.

I met an old man from Sweden who is really into photography and adventuring. His dream is to do photography for natural geographic and his work is amazing. When he was younger he did a lot of ice climbing and rock climbing, sports that I want to get into. It has been really inspirational meeting him, because when I was 15 I wanted to work for the national geographic as well, and he said that he started his photography when he was 18 and is basically self-taught. He's lead an interesting life and many of his friends from his early years are dead because they fell from rock climbing and ice climbing which is why he stopped. He said too many good people die from the sports.

NILS SJOSTROM
www.brilliantpic.spaces.live.com

At this point in my trip I really miss you, my friends and family from Canada. I miss our beautiful country as well. As Christmas nears, I wish that we could be together:(.

To Russia I shall go?

Haerbin, Heilongjiang Province

I've spent the past couple of days in Haerbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang the most Eastern Province in China. Most of the city is not much different than anywhere else in North Eastern China, somewhat nondescript.

I did get the chance however to visit a Siberian tiger reserve that was located about 15km out of town. I didn't realize that tigers were such big animals! Three times, I had tigers run at me but I was inside a bus the first time and the others i was in a caged walkway. The times in the walkway I think they were just playing but the time on the bus I think it was hungry. we had just seen a bigger tiger walk up and take away it's dead bird no dispute, it was his to take. I found a food stall at the bottom of Zhongyang Dajie(street) a beautiful pedestrian street that sold the best frozen fruit I've had in China. It's usual to see vendors selling cold fruit on a stick covered in sweet sauce, kind of like candy apples back home. At this particular stall there was a huge variety of different fruit (most of which is available only in China) And a plus, the fruit had sesame seeds on the outside. MM it was sooo good. Also, they sold other food which was cooked in a typical Chinese street vendor fashion. Pieces of tofu, meat balls, bunches of noodles, greens, and other things unrecognizable are put on sticks and boiled in spicy water. You are given a plate and then you pick the sticks of food that you want and there is ground sesame sauce(looks like juicy peanut butter) and hot sauce that you can put on your plate to dip your food into. There was also my favorite; pieces of beef (or possibly it was dog who will ever really know?) on sticks that they will BBQ over a box of coals on the spot along with a type of round spicy garlic bread which this particular vendor sprinkled sugar onto as well. MM it was a delicious and incredibly cheap with all of dinner costing 12 yuan in total = 12/7.5... Zhongyang Street is beautiful because of its' coble stones and the old Russian architecture. There used to be a big Russian community that lived here in Haerbin and so any of the buildings here are done in that style. I had some coffee at a charming Russian coffee house, that was decorated with all types of ornaments and black and white photos of old Russian Haerbin. I enjoyed the cafe but the coffee didn't agree with my system and everything went right through me. Right now I have some time to wait until I take a train to Manzhouli a border city with Russia in the Inner Mongolia province of China. I want to go to this city because my handy 'ol Lonely Planet book says that it has more of a Russian feel to it than anything, and I didn't apply for a Russian visa. I think that it will be about -30 here so I hope that I don't die. Going to this town is about 26 hours out of my way because there is no link to the West (where I'm put putting back to) except back to Haerbin but I really wanted to check it out so here we go! Plus, I haven't seen snow since I accidently went to Jilin city before Changchun. It's not fair that I'm across the world looking for snow and CR and VAn just had a dumpload!

A map of Haerbin

Cities are alive, constantly changing,
When I look at this map I see streets full of people,
Bumping into each other on their way,
Moving quickly to their destinations.
Half a dot on the map has 10 bikes,
2 buses, 30 cars, 1 truck and 4 vans.

China
The Fun,The Weird and The Ridiculous.
1. Spitting.
Everyone spits but you hear it before you see it. Men will make the most disgusting ' I've got mucous stuck in my nose and throat and probably my left toe, and have to get it out' sound then spit their globs anywhere they please. I've only seen a few women spit and they don't make the noise just spit.
2. Sports
The Chinese LOVE Basketball and soccer even though internationally they're not good at either. Ping Pong or table tenis and badminton are their national sports.
3. Foreigners
Most of the Chinese are very curious about foreigners and are friendly. When I get lost I ask for directions and yesterday I had 30 men surrounding me trying to see what was going on. You'd think they'd never heard a native english speaker before...well I think that this was the case.
4. Bait
Also, as a foreigner you're bait for the awaiting sales prey. Many, not all of the Chinese will take complete advantage of you if you let your guard down. Today, a stall located next to the toilet tried to charge me for going pee but when the Chinese went in they didn't charge them. I told them I wasn't paying. I used the toilet and left, but not before they yelled at me and even the people at the next stalls were involved. Yesterday I bought 2 AA batteries for 5 Yuan. When they died I went to buy more and a girl about my age tried to charge me 20Yuan for 2. I Said NO! I took the batteries gave her 8 Yuan and left, she had a sly look on her face but knew that it was fair. I had to be aggressive , but by now I am not afraid to be aggressive or rude.
5. Trains
I meet a lot of people on the trains because of being a foreigner. If I speak to anyone on the train for any length of time it's not long before a large number of people in my car come over to listen and see what's going on. It's pretty funny.
6. Vehicles
There are so many different types of vehicles here! None of which look much like anything used back in Canada except for the city buses and few expensive cars.
a)There are mini-cars that only have 3 wheels and I'm pretty sure that they run by burning coal.
b)mini-vans that many residents use. They're shaped like boxes.
c)Big trucks for carrying goods that are like semi-trucks except they don't have roofs, instead they have a huge tarp over the back, and so it seems like things will topple over at any moment.
d)carts pulled by donkeys. carts pulled by people both walking and on bikes.
e)bikes of all sorts. It's not unusual to look out the bus window and to see 2 pedalbikers beside you at anytime. Then there's so many varieties of motorbikes which sweep out of everywhere at once.
7. Wo/man Power
I carry around my big travel bag on my back. Many Chinese carry huge bags that look like they might have rice in them on their shoulders. It never ceases to amaze me the amount that they can carry, or tow. On their carts there can be up to 30 bags (of rice?) loaded on and maybe they're towing it or sometimes taking it with motorized bikes.

A week in Changchun, Jilin province

Learning
This past week I've been hanging out with Mark and some of his students who I befriended.
I've been learning from Mark how to become an English teacher, something which will be an asset once my funds get lower. ark let me stay at his place for a week which was really great, but his Chinese girlfriend was very jelous since she isn' allowed to stay at his house, and so last night I stayed in a hostel. Mark and I usually started our day out by watching a movie and then went shopping or else to school. After work we would watch another movie which I loved because I haven't had a chance to watch many films on the trip so far.

Bright
Last night I went out to dinner with this cute boy named Bright or Helongfe which means flying dragon. I kind of asked him on a date, but was really surprised when at dinner he said that he was in his last year of high school,since I met him at an adult night school. Ahhhh. I asked a youngin out. He's very handsome though, tall and a square jaw type thing you know. Well, later on I learned that he's actually 20, but in China when you're born you are 1 and when you've lived for a year you're 2 years old and so he's 19. After dinner Bright, his best guy friend and I went roller skating at this indoor place. The skates were so tall and the boys were falling all over the place it was hilarious!! Bright helped me to find a hostel and I gave him a smooch on the cheek.

Snowboarding!
Today I went snowboarding! A few days ago I was hanging out with this Chinese girl named Echo and found a burton snowboard shop. The owner said that they have a group of people who go snowboarding on the weekends and invited me to come. It cost $20 CAd to go, which is pretty reasonable since I had to rent everything and he gave us a ride out there. It was Freeeeezing and I didn't have the proper clothes to wear but I had a great time. I spent the time with a girl named Crystal. She told me that most Chinese spend all their time studying but she has a problem with her liver...and so she had extra time to come and snowboard lol. Didn't make much sense to me. Also, she said that school hours are from 7AM until 8PM and then after school there is homework to do until 12AM, plus they go to school 6 days a week!!!! Monday-SAt.

Tonight, Bright and I are going to hang out again and I'm quite excited to see where things go. hehehe.

What to do?
I'm in the midst of trying to decide where to go next. I keep on changing my mind. I think that while I'm up north I may as well go through inner Mongolia on my way back West. I think that I want to spend my Christmas in Thailand or Laos and so I need to make my way West and South. I don't know if I want to go to Xian where the teracotta soldiers are because I heard it's not much of a city and the soldiers aren't all that. Well we'll see what happens. I think I'll stay in Changchun 1 or 2 more days. I had some business cards made up calling myself an 'English Consultant'. I think I want to set up either in Yunnan or Sichuan province and find myself some clientele after Christmas. Maybe tomorrow I'll make some Posters too.