sleep walking and border crossing

The second stop of the bus was in the heart of a factory area of china, the night was still, the air was thick with pollution, in the short time we stopped, a coating of film lined the inside of my throat and mouth, impermeable to water, i returned to my bunk and let the quiet in and laid upon the swaying top bunk with my thoughts, a long 10 hour drive through the china night, it felt as if we were driving on rock and logs and it was a miracle that no flat tires obstructed us,.....the sun peaked out in my delirium and we arrived at the border town to Macau, we were sent off the bus confused and uncertain we had even arrived in the proper place, which we had not, from the station we waved a cab and tried to communicate our destination, unsuccessfully at first we all just kept yelling Macau as we drove around in search of translators, finally a hotel clerk sent us in the cab to a pier where we were allowed entry to Macau, though not the normal spot for travellers we entered after waiting for them to open alongside all the chinese migrant workers heading over for the work day, after passing through several gates we arrived on the Macau side, flagged a taxi and headed for our meeting spot with chris whom was to arrive in hong kong the night before for visa issues and ferry down to macau to meet us, we had a few hours to kill and found a coffee shop to sit and fight off the sleep and growing hunger, after passing the meeting time we decided to call chris only to discover he was having hold ups in hong kong and would have to see us the next day, using our guidebook we stumbled over to the cheapest place listed in the area and obtained the well needed hotel, i sank quickly into deep sleep as day turned to night over the former Portuguese colony and it sparkling casinos and city sounds eased my resting............

of bungess and bicycles

Wednesday night I looked through the crack of the curtain separating the interior of the sleeper bus from the dull dark outside of industrial China as it's night slipped by in glimpses of green factory light or headlights of a passing car lighting the leaves on the surrounding trees. I was top bunk sardined in my bed spilling out over the edges of the tiny cot. Techno music blared off the speakers directly above which was an actual relief from the Chinese movie which had been playing previously. I assumed I would sleep after the day Wednesday had become, very tiring and exciting all the same. As a closer to our stay in Yangzhou, I rented a bicycle from the sister of a woman I had met practising her english and rode out into the country side for the first time. I was unsure which way to go and had denied many offers for a guide for now I was seeking solitude as I peddled my way through small villages untouched by time, pictures into another era of humanity, rice farmers and chicken herders, villagers leading cattle through small trails would stand aside for me to pass. On occasion someone would pull out a Coke or some product to remind you the century. The landscape was absolutely amazing, a river cutting through the Karst mountain scenes and I was admiring it contently when my wheels came to a crashing halt almost sending me over the handle bars as I skidded out on the trail. A bungee cord (I had purchased in Georgia after some contemplation in Target as it came with a whole bunch of cords I didn't want and finally bought for I though the little sucker may come in handy) which had been holding my camera bag to the bike frame had now weaved it's way into and among the chain and gears of my cheap ride. How such a weave could have been produced was beyond any human skill and was a product of the chaos theory or simply my bad luck for the bike was rendered motionless far from one of the villages I had passed. A symphony of bad language rolled off my tongue as I contemplating my next move thinking of the approaching meeting time with Hop to catch the sleeper bus some miles away now. Just then a woman on her bike approached. She was a minority woman from a nearby village with dark skin, pretty features, missing teeth but a nice smile all the same. She did not speak a word of English of coarse and my Chinese isn't exacty understandable, but we communicated our way through the predicament and with only a lighter and our hands pulled and burned the bungee from the gears. We were now both covered in grease and sweat was pouring off my hair into little puddles around the bungee pieces and the bike was broken. It would roll now but the peddles were useless. I was lost and pissed. Through another series of sign language we determined she was to guide me to a nearby town to a repair shop. I agreed picturing Hopper watching the bus leave and wandering where the hell I was. (Hop was actually lost on a scooter nearby, but I would not know that till later)
The villager and I walked through the countryside unable to communicate but we enjoyed each others company pointing at things we thought were nice. I imagined the humor one from home would find watching from afar. We made it into town and she translated the problem to the local repairman who was able to rig it enough to give me one gear to work with. I paid the woman more than she asked and it was a good day for her, payed the repairman and hauled ass on the bike now down the highway being passed by all sorts of crazy vehicles for another few miles with just the easy gear and least productive and I made it back to Yangzhou and in time for the bus.
Alas could not sleep, the bus pulled over a few times for piss breaks which were experiences all in themselves. The first bathroom made me question humanity. It was all I could do to even walk into the place. Men squatted around little holes and others just went where ever and the scene and the reek was nearly unbearable. Outside the bathroom was actually some kind of restaurant and people were really cooking and eating alongside this filth.

TO be COntinued......

the dead snake venom rice wine monster

whiskey monster aint got nothing on the snake venom monster.....
Night 4 in yangszhou, a small town in China, touristy, backpacker friendly, beautiful scenery and nice people, this is vacation time, taking it easy, sleeping late and closing down monkey janes rooftop bar at night, getting to know some fellow travellers and some locals, in some circles i am the stalker for walking two ladies home at night to ensure their safety, unknowingly being stalky, ironically enough i now have a stalker as well, Mei, chases us down at night, getting kinda creepy......otherwise we have taken a small river trip, walked around the city, and basically taking it easy, we played songs to an eager crowd of travellers at monkey janes saturday night, one of those moments i'll never forget if only i could remember, we had a runin with the giant vat of fermented rice wine hosting the bodies of 3 venomous snakes, it is a rough brew to say the least, we played chris and i passing the guitar back and forth realising that we take it for granted in the states, these people were so eager to listen and so thankful for the experience and very complimentary, move over again blue flashing light, ......
the food here sucks,...for the first three days i may have had the total intake of one meal, the fired river fish i was enthusiastically ordered turned out to be fried whole minnows, the fried shrimp was whole fried sea monkey style, veggies and noodles was ill described as well for it was actually blue rotten egg and cabbage, i had tofu veggie clay pot that was the spiciest thing i've ever endured (twice),
overall love this town, we decided to go three places on this trip, here, beijing, and macoa/hong kong....we head out weds. for macao on an overnight sleeper bus,
3 weeks is only a cruel tease coming here, most people we meet are here for 3-6 months, a lesson relearned,

sipping lightly on a tsingdao

a line as far as you could see of tightly packed carts powered by bicycles filed single file along the alleys awaiting the beginning of the night market, the drivers waited patiently and muttered words to each other, probably phrases like good luck, but it all was chinese to me as we perused the backstreets of guilin sipping lightly on a tsingdao and drawing awkward stares from each set of eyes we passed, some curious, some protective and scared, giggling ladies took second glances while street vendors shouted broken english selling various food products pushing the spicy aromas into the exhaust filled warm more tropical air....later a dance club pounded out drum and bass while local hipsters sang along almost karaoke style and sometimes in good english, green lasers shot through the smoke machine fog revealling the entire walls of neon, people danced and let us sit quietly in the corner and observe...
i currently sit at a net bar, popular Internet cafes, this one is huge and filled with chinese playing a wide array of video games, warcraft and dance games, all ages and types of people competing with other gamers for the prize of victory as i pluck away at the keys, tired, freshly fever broken, reflecting on countless misadventures from the previous night, not awake enough to reminisce properly, and gearing up to take a bus to the neighboring mountain and river town of yangzhou, typing a few more words while the boys ready themselves for the weekends just getting started

moving on

slow moving getting out of beijing, for one as i mentioned chris and i have been sick, really nasty cough,...otherwise being somewhat indecisive and honestly just not in a big hurry, however tomorrow we leave for the karst mountain terrain around the city guilin, it is the region you sometimes picture when thinking of southern china, we fly out of beijing as it is a 24 hour train ride, chris will be with us for the weekend and may meet us further along on the trip, alas hop and i will be forced to breach the language barrier, a challenge i'm looking forward to...
so tonight we say goodbye to beijing and the folks we have met, and finally start really travelling through this country, and hopefully get some fresh air and some good ole guilin style snake soup with snake bile wine and river rat, emmmmmmmmmmmmmm

well if you made it this far, then welcome to the great wall

we are still alive, feels like from blind chance we have been spared, by dumb luck we weaved thru trucks and bikes, cars and wagon, motorcycles and minivans, on laneless mountain roads surrounded by the worst drivers i have seen so far, the two lane road leading to a more remote part of the great wall is a chinese driving free for all death defying experience, we were passengers in a car piloted by chris's friend angela, friend of his girl jenny (thier english names)

angela has never driven that far outside beijing in her life and essentially should never try it again, at first i felt like this is just the way people drive here, but when chris started freakin out i though we were doomed for sure, on our way out we stopped for some country style food, a giant fish butchered outside the window and served in three coarses, a soup with the tail, garlic sauce boney chunks with the middle, and the head broiled- staring coldly at you as you devour the hind parts, we also had cornbread and tofu soup, quite the meal, our last i assumed later...

but we made it, the chinese beleive you are not a real man until you have climbed the wall, i say you are not a real man until you survive the car ride leading to the wall, either way, i now am a man, we took a sky car part of the way, hiked up the rest, the fresh air was great, for chris and i are now sick, (feeling a whole lot better today, nobody needs to be around a sick evans) and the wall was breath taking, just the small portion we saw was such a massive creation and it stretches the horizon up and down jagged peaks as far as the eye can see, we were followed to the top by 3 women determined to sell us tourist junk, they were regional farmers, darker skin, very nice, and absolutely hell bent on selling me some chopsticks and hopper some postcards, i gave in after relentless bargaining, i was determined to experience at least a part of the wall without being surrounded by these hawkers.....we walked all the way back and were relieved to see chris behind the wheel, (though at night the road is even scarier, chris did a good job surviving us back to beijing) alas we rewarded ourselves with hotpot- a sichuan style food that is incredible, two boiling pots of water in the middle of the table, one spicy one with other flavors, you order all types of food to throw into the broth, cook and dip into a variety of sauces, you are waited on hand and foot, a young man tosses fresh noodles around like a cowboy doing lasso tricks and eventually tosses it into your hotpot, we came home and slept like babies....what will today bring......i'll have to write later on previous events unspoken of so far.....hopper and i's 1 1/2 hour massage, and playing blues at a chinese bar with the owner on piano, (i may be on youtube as i was being filmed, but let's hope not)

not a caddy anymore

where to begin, in love with travelling again, we are still in beijing and have no solid plan yet what we will do next, either..boat rides in the karst mountain near guilin, hiking amongst the monkeys and monks outside chengdu, enjoying the shainghai nightlife, or renting motorcycles with sidecars and riding into mongolia, everything sounds good to me, we enjoyed night three until the sun rose over the city last night, not as crazy as it sounds considering i am on no particular sleep schedule, a few hours here and there, completely jetlagged, my body does not distinguish night from day, let's start with the food

people here put emphasis on food as a necessity but also a social event, as americans and foreigners gather in bars, the chinese gather at restaurants to eat and it is easy to see why, the food is incredible, apparently different here than the rest of china, it is easy enough so far to find vegetarian options and certainly alot of seafood, my favorite and already regular spot is the lily, a vegetarian restaurant that is a few blocks from the Buddhist temple here, were at one table, monks across the room eating, everything is made with meat substitutes, so you order broiled duck or chicken beef etc. and it is all veggie and delicious, prices range in restaurants but overall is cheap, a huge meal for three with beers and waters, teas and desserts is usually under 30 bucks, i have seen some weird food but not much so far, i am sure that is going to change..

beer, we are addicted to tseingdao, the 22 oz beauties range from 50cents (3 yuan) to a buck fifty at some places, we seem to always have one in hand or nearby, you can spoil yourself here coming over with american dollars, you can live like a king, we have gone to local watering holes as well as the expat bars( basically where the foreigners hangout), last night was a place in the old neighborhoods that was primarily a french bar that brewed banana rum and was filled with speaking sounds of chinese, english, and french, everyone has been nice, no bar brawls yet



there is too much to speak of in one entry here so i'll mention something that is affecting me currently, the pollution here in beijing is staggering, this also is the best time year round for it and the olympics cleared things up somewhat, as i plane was landing we saw endless trashfires and factory smokestacks just pumping waste into the air, we landed into a haze of smog, the second day was the worst, we were hiking throughout the city along neighborhoods and parks, every breath felt like the sensation of walking past a running schoolbus and getting a lungfull of exhaust, in between the breathes of smog are the waves of sewage stink which can come randomly or almost always as you pass a public bathroom (there are many in the old neighborhoods where the people have no personal bathrooms they all use the public ones which some are unbearable to enter they are so vile) as we walked my nose became completely clogged and lungs felt heavy, i have been lightly sick now since we have been here, later the second day it rained which helped the situation greatly, the next day and today have cleared into beautiful breezy days and it is much more bearable, peak time for pollution here is mid summer, i can't imagine and don't ever want to experience it, i see why some athletes refused to participate in th olympics



too much to say here, so i'll leave it at this, we are learning everyday, from all that we see, hear, try to say and do, from each person we meet, and each set of eyes we pass, the chinese here have been great thus far, no one has asked for money or given me bad treatment as a foreigner, and on a positive note, i accidentally left my atm card in the machine open to my account after a withdrawal, a chinese guy chased me down and returned it to me, saved my ass



i will try to write more today, there are several ridiculous stories to share, but i need some coffee, my mind is moving slow, as hopper said in reaction to being put on the spot to order in chinese, (a complete communication breakdown followed) "my mind is not a cadillac anymore, i'm rolling around in an old jalopy up here"