Archive for the ‘Diary’ category
Protected: 1,000 Splendid Suns
March 16th, 2009Transit Through Torres
March 14th, 2009
14th March 2009
I arrived in Torres at 6am and left at 11:40am to Praia Grande (SC)! so not here long to have a good look around but it isn’t a town as much as a long beach, so I think a few hours will be enough. The views from the cliff are very impressive, especially the steep cliffs, watching surfers, the canyon in the far distance and the sand dunes further south (west). » Read more: Transit Through Torres
On the Nam Ou, Laos
November 6th, 1999Saturday 6th November, 1999
The Lao people in the room next door are loud. I think they may be the boatmen that brought the Austrians up river and celebrating their pay day. So, I was up earlier than I was expecting and bought some lovely fresh ‘French’ baguettes from a clever young boy selling around the hotels. Then strolled through town and saw some lovely barbecued rats for sale on a market stall before ending up again at the pier.
There was the boat to Nong Kiaw – yes! We left at 8:30 and had an excellent journey. It wasn’t a busy boat with just a couple of mothers with children and one fashionable monk wearing his orange costume but adding some ‘street style’ with a stereo, Kojak sunglasses and smoking! Not exactly how I imagined monks to be living! Coolio.
Sat outside the ‘canopy’ roof and lying on a bag of rice, very comfy. Soaking up the sun, watching the country roll by and enjoying the short stops in the tiny little villages clinging to the waters’ edge where they lead a pretty self-sufficient subsistence life. The constant hum of the motor was a bit annoying after a while and it was so idyllic when the motor was switched off in the villages. Then they had trouble turning it back on again and I wouldn’t have minded stopping in one of these little villages for a few hours anyway to try and get closer to the locals – they’re all a bit shy on first approach. It would also have been nice to gently float downstream, really getting back to nature. We passed some amazing hillsides, so wild and steep, really quite beautiful. I had a bit of a snooze lying in the sun and then suddenly we had arrived in Nong Kiaw and said goodbye to my fellow passengers.
I found a guesthouse straight away, just next to the bridge and the supposed ‘port’ and for only 3,000 kip – the cheapest yet. I was surprised at the number of foreigners around me, I thought I had travelled somewhat off the beaten track, but it’s hard to do that these days … there were some pretty stereo-typical Israeli’s (pun) and a European girl who I didn’t have a good start with for some reason (and who would turn out to get on my nerves the next couple of days). There were also a load of Aussie’s including two travelling by bike (James and Ben who I will see again in Luang Prabang). I was surprised at the amount of tourists around who weren’t planning to travel by boat, they’ll miss out on something really special.
It was a very small village which had something nice going for it, but I had seen some much more appealing villages further north and on the boat.
Waiting for the Ferry, Muang Kuah, Laos
November 5th, 1999Friday 5 November 1999 (Guy Fawkes Night back home)
So, got up very early – 6am – and went to the boat stop. In fact where the road ends or at least becomes a ford in the wet season. The 1st signs of the day seemed very promising, lots of activity on the river, two other travellers (but a quiet French couple going in the opposite direction) and the sun was coming out.
Found the market for breakfast, which was a typical open sapce with temporary huts build from bamboo, or else produce lying on the floor. There wasn’t much available and I chose not to eat the ‘rats on sticks’ – skewered, squashed, barbequed rat! They did have French style demi-baguettes though, with lovely pate and plenty of fresh vegetables like, cabbage, cucmber, tomato and all those herbs they put in their noodle soup.
Stopped back at the hotel and paid for my room which I hardly made any use of – except the bed. Then a Korean guy with blond hair and on a bike, who I had seen before with the Swedish Girls in Boten and Nam Tha came. He was also heading to Nong Khiaw. There was no sign of the cargo boat supposedly leaving at 8 or 9 however.
I didn’t mind waiting, the sun was a pleasant change and the daily goings ons were interesting to watch: building a bamboo shack form 2nd hand poles; ferrying people across the river on the junk; young girls coming to do the laundry very expertly at the waters edge (I actually persuaded them to clean one of my tops!). Locals buying / selling or exchanging fruit and other food. Big-bellied pigs wandering the streets. A little child deftly peeling oranges with a huge knife. Little children swimming naked in the Nam Ou river. People, goods and boats coming and going up and downstream – mostly to, or from, ‘up’ and never to where I want to go. 
Nearby, children were canoeing on a calm bend on canoes made very easily out of five strips of bamboo tied together – looks great fun! But after a while all this became quite boring, the time was going by, albeit very slowly, and no boat going to where we want. Eventually gave up at 3pm, more than eight hours ‘sitting on the dock of the bay’ doing nothing except watching, a little reading, eating and washing my jumper in the Nam Ou! Found an hotel for 5,000 kip each (all others were 10,000 kip as it was last night, not bad at all) and sat (some more) on the balcony. Two Austrians came from down river (the ones I had borrowed the Laos LP from in Nam Tha) and we ate noodles together in the same restaurant as last night (didn’t do so badly last night after all) – basically the one place with food in town. We tried to eat on the beach hut restaurant where ‘Sungyo’ ate yesterday but they only had just rice!
Back to hotel very early around 7pm and wrote up some diary. When you do it on the same day you remember so many more details but it lacks some of the inner thoughts that come to you after a while contemplating. [It's bizarre remembering the scene now as I am writing these up nine years later!]
My travel connections had been pretty good but yesterday missing the bus (although the bus to Muang Khau was good timing) and now a day waiting for a non-existent boat has changed by luck. Both since separating from the SG’s – can’t possible be why can it?
But it hasn’t been all bad, the lazy day was a great way to experience the ‘lazy but productive’ daily life of a Lao and it was a gorgeous sunny day! I can think of worse ways and worse places to spend a lay afternoon. And what’s the rush anyway?!
I did accomplish something today as well .. not only did I get my Whistler top washed in the river. but I also semi-repaired my sunnys by replacing the missing screw with a tiny bit of bamboo, just like the locals would have done!
The Two Shans
October 20th, 1999Wednesday 20th October 1999
Such a busy day. Did a lot and finally organised my itinerary for the next few days, or so I thought. Up at 9:30AM and goodbyes to Sophie and Vaughan with email exchange. Returned bike to Paul then took the 11:20AM bus to Leshan.
I didn’t have the ‘death executioners’ seat today on the bus. » Read more: The Two Shans
Panda Foxtrot Oasis
October 19th, 1999Tuesday 19th October, 1999
So, up so early it was still dark and had some breakfast. Then got on my posh red mountain bike which had previously been hanging on the wall of the Oasis and cycled through the rush hour fumes and dust to the Panda Sanctuary. I got ‘15 minutes’ lost but no big problems, I basically didn’t turn off the main road soon enough. I stopped at a petrol station and asked the attendant the way but they akin to some marshans staring at another guy cleaning a van. They didn’t say a word back to me, just stared as if I was the alien, all a very weird experience!
I some how was allowed into the sanctuary for free, although I had to pay ¥1 to lock my bike against the fence. The Panda’s looked kind of cute and cuddly but they were too lethargic to be very interesting or attention grabbing. The park was huge with bamboo growing everywhere (I wonder why!) but there seemed to be no general order about things and I kept walking around in circles and meeting the same groups. There was a Danish family there and the children seemed so excited and an Israeli girl called Lolita Naneenah (or whatever her name was) who was so nice with beautiful long hair but she talked soo much!
I saw seven pandas overall including a ‘Lesser Brown’ fox like Panda and some babies in an incubator which wasn’t so natural and made my stomach turn. I wander if any of them live in the wild any more or if they’ve all been poached.
I thought the cycle ride back would be easier but got a little lost again on the huge and dusty streets coming back into Chengdu but then recognised the bridge over the river. I bought a bike bell for the bike and as a present for Paul, which came in very useful when the roads got busier with stupid cyclists stopping in the middle of the lane for no apparent reason. It’s really strange how they just suddenly hop off their bike and stand there. I got lost even more looking for an email cafe but eventually found one for ¥3 an hour and stayed nearly two hours. I felt very sweaty and dirty cos of the bike ride and needed to change my clothes. Back at the hotel I met Eric, who is Sophie’s friend, who had separated to travel by himself up near Tibet, where Sophie thought it was too cold to go, or something. The three of us had dinner together in a local Chinese place near Oasis, then guess what stopped by Paul’s for a few beers and a some socialising. I changed rooms so Eric and Sophie could share the room together (how thoughtful) but then got so confused in the middle of the night because I thought Jenny was USA Paul who would’ve overslept and missed his flight to Lhasa. Weird.
Account of the day
October 18th, 1999Monday 18th October 1999
Woke up at 9:30AM when the Danish couple came back from extending their visa. Had breakfast and realised what a miserable place Chengdu can be. It was rain, horrible drizzle type rain so did nothing of note until noon. I’m becoming obsessed with my accounts. I first did them at the end of week one at they balanced, now I’m doing them nearly every bloody day but even then they don’t add up! Chill out man. I went to town and found a bank to make a credit card withdrawal (see, I truly am becoming obsessed about money!) there was no ATM machine so did an over the counter transaction with 4% commission (stop it!). Wandered the streets and bought a belt at last so now when I wander the streets I don’t look totally like a tramp. Renmin Park was quite relaxing and spent a while over tea reading the Memoirs of a Geisha book. I get so involved in the book that I begin to think I’m back in Japan, especially with Asian people all around me and sat here drinking green tea. Just can’t find any geisha! I had dinner in a shit and overpriced western cafe with Sophie which altogether was very boring. But luckily a Danish family with three pretty young children were eating on another table and brought some stimulation and excitement to the place. Chinese absolutely adore young children, especially when they have white skin and blond hair. Dropped by Oasis at the end of the day and hired the mountain bike off Paul, sorted. At least organised something today.
Crashed in Chengdu
October 17th, 1999Sunday 17th October 1999
The train arrived in Chengdu at 7:15AM and we shared a taxi to the Traffick Hotel. Understandably spaced out after about 3 minutes sleep with 540 other passengers on the train. When I went to my three bed dorm there was another couple asleep and there bags all over my bed. However when I awoke at 12pm the beds were not only empty but made-up and no bags anywhere. Had I been hallucinating from lack of sleep? Went out for a late breakfast at Paul’s Oasis which is a very chilled and it served a very comfortable English fry up in all. Chatting to an Israeli couple for half an hour and then, “hold on, weren’t you in my room at 7am this morning?” So I wasn’t tripping after all. Wasted the rest of the day at the Oasis and still feeling quite knackered by 7pm but there’s a party going on at the Oasis … of course I went to it with Jenny and Vaughan to celebrate his birthday. It was also another guys birthday and later Sophie turned up too. It was quite a chilled atmosphere in Oasis and I ate a pukka ratatouille with mash potatoes – awesome – followed by birthday apple fritters – cool birthday cake! We took some taxi’s to this weird club which started off as une spectaculaire with break-dancing and fire-eating. We were shown around the whole club by the staff, first sit down here at the front, then upstairs at the back, then ok, here in the middle of the room … purely so they could show every other person in the place that foreigners come to their rocking club too! Half the taxi’s didn’t turn up (they must’ve ended up at another club) but I had a pretty full on chat with Vaughan and understood about half of it. I’m not sure if he was pissed or just massively interested in the subject [9 years later vaguely recollect it was about politics] but he was cool enough. We were having a bit of a dance (in our unfashionable travellers cloths) and then noticed that everyone was copying our every (unfashionable) move so we got a bit silly doing some line dancing type stuff and then made a sharp exit before the fashion police turned up. Another British guy made the other club sound much better so we all piled into taxis to find it, but the twat didn’t even know where it was and as no-one could speak Chinese to converse with the taxi driver we ended up just going home. I would’ve happily stayed longer in the first place but then realised it was already 2:30AM so wasn’t so pissed off. Just pissed.
Hard seat for a hard sleep
October 16th, 1999Saturday 16th October 1999
So we’re all travelling together to Chengdu and we have seats next to each other, but that surely is irrelevant as we’ll upgrade to a hard sleeper, no? No. Why are they impossible to get? So Jenny, Vaughan (whose birthday it is), Sophie and I had 17+ hours on the ancient hard seat hell. This is nothing like anything I’ve experienced in China so far. It’s a very old train, dirty, spittoon all over the floor, smoky, and with depressing noisy passengers squeezed into every available seat and crevice. What a way to spend your birthday! At least Jenny had a spare book and an interesting one at that – ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ for to me read and while away the hours. It would have been truly intolerable otherwise. I can’t believe how packed this train was, you couldn’t even see the floor for people, they were literally everywhere.
Day in Xi'an
October 15th, 1999Friday 15th October, 1999
Up early to go to the train station with Sophie and bought a hard seat ticket to Chengdu without problem, hopefully I’ll be able to get a sleeper upgrade when on the train. I then spent the rest of the day seeing the main sites like a typical tourist. City Wall, History Museum, Big Goose Pagoda. All okay but none thrilling. [Unimaginable at the time that 9 years later I'll be making itineraries for these very same places for others!]. Amazingly bought, wrote and sent postcards all in one day! Sat in the gardens of the Big Goose Pagoda writing to the family back home. Then I went back to the Muslim Quarter to see the Mosque and eat some of their lovely food again, arr, lamb kebab yangrouchou’r – all in a very recommendable area. Took a packed bus #9 back to the hotel and stopped off at ‘Dad’s’ for a beer or four. Some useful travel talk if only I would remember it in the morning! British Paul had some useful ideas for where I’m heading. Night.
