birthday

happy birthday beqi. i love you. i miss you.

three gorgeous!

one of the best things about there being so many people in china is that transport is rarely a problem. in chengdu, i rocked up to the bus station and jumped on the next bus to chongqing - a city 6 hours away - at the drop of a hat. there are buses leaving every 20 minutes. that's more frequent than the bus i used to catch to high school.

chongqing is a world class city, and i fell in love with it immediately. perched on a big rock at the confluence of two massive rivers, it's got some of the steepest city streets in china, airy pedestrian shopping malls lined by designer outlets, the biggest supermarket i've ever been in in my life, and much more. if it wasn't for the fact that they all speak that bloody sichuan dialect, it would be my favourite city to hang around in.

i only stayed half a day, then jumped on a massive 5-story cruise-boat headed down the yangze river through the famous three gorges.

i wanted to see them before they were under-water, but had heard uniformly bad reports of the cruise. in retrospect, i don't know what the people i had talked to were expecting. floating for 3 days and 4 nights on a massive river surrounded by towering lush green peaks and frequent stops at areas of interest for the price of my last pair of jeans? definitely not getting a bad report from this traveller.

i had a second class cabin, which is usually 4 beds, but because we didn't get a window, i shared my cabin with only one other person. i couldn't remember his real name, so i called him 'the moron'. seriously, i have never met a more socially retarded passive aggressive fuckwit in my entire life. we were at each other's throats from the first night and the fun never stopped. he had friends in the neighbouring room, and would come back to our cabin at 3am and deliberately call out in his horrible sichuan dialect "gao an! are you asleep yet? i know you said you were tired, so DID YOU MANAGE TO GET TO SLEEP?". in turn i would try to humiliate him in front of his friends and throw shoes at the wall whilst they were playing mahjong. he moved all his things into the next room, and then left the door unlocked and open whilst i was away, with all my things lying there for people to steal. it's no secret that i actually quite enjoyed it. by the end of the trip we had developed a mutual respect for each other and i decided that we wasn't a bad guy. just too similar to me for us to get on ;)

we made one or two stops each day. on the first day we visited a temple complex known as 'the ghost town', or the 'city of death', but it had been so heavily reconstructed that i didn't know what was original and what was fake. there was a display with replicas of people being killed and tortured in all sorts of interesting ways. my favourite was one guy who was upside down, legs held apart, and was being sawn right down the middle. it was exactly what i felt like the morning after eating that bowl of extra-spicy noodles in zhongdian a couple of weeks ago.

on the second day we visited 'the little three gorges' and even 'the little little three gorges', in which we transferred to successively smaller boats to go up successively smaller rivers and through successively narrower gorges. the water in these parts was green and cool and apart from a few rented circus freaks performing acts on rocky outcroppings, i felt blissed out.

the final part was a tour of the three gorges dam. contrary to what i had thought, this dam is not being built for hydro-electricity, it's being built to prevent flooding that devastates downstream areas about once a decade. it was pouring when we were there, and the dam itself was pretty boring. what fascinated me (in a bad way) was an aquarium next to the dam displaying fish from the river. the tanks were completely featureless - no decorations, plants or sand - stuffed with fish, and surrounded by tourists hammering on the glass. it was like an animal torture chamber, but there were no fish being held apart and sawn. to top it all off, you exit the aquarium by walking through a small supermarket selling...fish. salted, tinned, packaged - whatever. if it was in the tanks below, it was on the shelves above. judging by the feeding frenzy that it provoked in the others, it seemed that i was the only one going through the tanks who hadn't developed an appetite.

the boat was wonderful to be on, and i was on deck at the back of the boat most of the time. at no stage was the horizon completely visible due to smog, and every night i had to wash the - wait for it - soot off my face from the boat's chimney. i met some interesting people, but generally just gazed out at the mountains and the water, which were beautiful. all along the river are markers that show where the water level will be when the dam is completed. the water level has already risen 50m, but it's strange to still see houses, farms, and whole communities that are currently inhabited, but are below the final water level.

unfortunately whilst on the boat, i lost whatever weak impulse control i've had in the past and ate 6 packets of oreo biscuits, a huge bag of lollies, two snickers bars, some pizza shapes and 4 icecreams before developing an all-over body rash that has kept me borderline-psychotic with itch for the last 72 hours.

i'm now in yichang, which is a featureless town with an amazing internet cafe. tonight i'm heading back to beijing by sleeper train. i've got a few things to sort out there before i move on to my next (secret) destination :)

pic 1 - chongqing port at sunset
pic 2, 3, 7 - river shots
pic 4 - houses under the water mark. the final water level will be at 175m, well above the 156.3 you see in the picture.
pic 5 - boat-top posing in the 'little little three gorges'
pic 6 - pondering the plight of the fish infront of the three gorges dam

commentary

before i launch into my final bit, i wanted to mention a few things.

1) health - my hip's getting better for those who are interested. i think i pulled the rectus part of my quad or maybe the lower part of ilio-psoas, or something that attaches to the ilio-pubis and causes flexion of the hip and hurts at the level of the inguinal ligament. if anyone can tell me which tendon is actually involved, they will be granted an immediately effective medical degree from the 'say no to evidence' chinese medical research institute.

2) in china, most old sites have been torn down and replica buildings have been built in their place. people say it's 'traditional but not original'. it's true, and you get a bit of a ripped off feeling when visiting an historical site that's younger than you are, as it may just as well have been built in australia or west papua or burkina faso. i'm not here for the buildings however.

3) i went to a family-run restaurant a while ago and it had already closed. the family were sitting around their own dinner. regardless, all three of them jumped up, re-opened the kitchen, cooked me a meal (the father even rode down the street on a pushbike to get ingredients they were missing) and put me right in front of their TV to watch the movie they had been watching, all the while letting their dinner go cold. if i was a chinese tourist walking into an aussie diner late at night, would the same thing happen?

4) they say that the average westerner consumes 32 times the amount of energy that a person in a developing country does. america and oz didn't ratify the kyoto environment protocol because they believed it would harm their economies, especially because countries like china were not involved. but when i look around at the 1.3 billion people in this country (actually they're all behind me peering over my fucking shoulder to see what i'm writing), it's obvious to me that all people have a right to strive for the highest standard of living (that oil can buy). i know it's not nearly so simple, but surely if we care about the environment, we should not only be signing the damn treaty and investing in alternative energy R+D, but should especially be assisting countries like china to use environmentally friendly methods in their pursuit of higher living standards, and lead by example because we can. what are your thoughts?

5) love - i'm so in love with china i can't believe it. i was explaining to some other foreigners at youth hostel a while ago what i thought of being here. after a few minutes of near hysterical ranting with goosebumps, tears in my eyes, and frightened exchanged glances between members of my audience, one guy turned to me and said 'wow...i've never seen so much...enthusiasm'. I LOVE IT!!! YEAHHHHH!!!!!

pics 1 to 5 - people

panda eyes

i arrived in chengdu with the equivalent of 90 australian cents in my pocket. on arrival, i actually had to climb over a barricade to get into a 24 hour bank for money (figure that one out - i couldn't). this one didn't eat my card and out poured the delicious ren min bi.

apart from a one-night transit in kunming, i hadn't been in a city for over a month. coming into chengdu was a culture shock rush. the blue sky is replaced with brown smog, the mountains and animals are replaced by massive buildings and traffic, and the peacefulness is cut away by the throngs of heathens all clutching at your throat (or your wallet).

but one adapts, doesn't one? almost too quickly. i found myself sitting in a packed public bus at 11pm that night crossing town eating a genetically modified apple thinking about how i had ever survived without a 24 hour supermarket ;) vive la difference!

i went out to the panda breeding centre the following morning. they're all 'cute and cuddly' and all that, but quite frankly they look like they'd kill you as soon as look at you, so i was glad for the barriers. there was a video on how they breed, and i couldn't help feeling that theirs is a genetic line that is on its way (well and truly) out. they've got hideous little babies you just want to throw in the bin and no maternal instincts whatsoever. in one clip (and it was like we were watching one of those dramatisations of crimes that occurred 50 years ago, music and all), they showed this mother spitting the disgusting little baby out of her vaginal canal, and after a moment's shock, throwing it around the cell like a tennis ball. it's almost like their DNA is saying 'let us go...!'

also visited the leshan buddha, which is the largest seated buddha statue in the world. boring as batshit. the highlight/lowlight was an absurd situation where i was barred from leaving a boat on the 'wrong side' of the river. i ended up having to push aside the officials and leap from one boat into another - james bond style - and bolt-hobble away from the convenience police.

apart from that, i just soaked up the city life. kiwis with walking sticks and posters of mao, crowds on buses and roads and paths, drunken escapades in hostel bathrooms- that sort of thing. you know how it is.

pics 1, 2, 3 + 4 - the pandas
pic 5 - the giant buddha at leshan

snow and ice

the scenery on the way down from litang to kanding was even more breathtaking than on the way up, if that's at all possible. it was almost indecent.

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at one stage i glanced at a sign as we were going over a pass. it said '4659m'. i thought: shit - that's higher than annapurna base camp! and so, groggy with fatigue, barely able to walk, sitting in the back of an old bomb surrounded by fields of pregnant horses with a crazy tibetan bus-driver calling the shots, i reached the highest point i've ever been in my life. what sort of a deal is that? i've gotta go climb a >5km peak to get some self-respect back.

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i arrived in the small town of moxi at the base of the hailuogou glacier national park. i was limping through the street in the rain with my backpack and walking stick late at night and i came upon a hostel run by a man with a prosthetic leg and his wife with deformed knees. needless to say, we bonded.

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i got a double room with a private bathroom and hot water for just $3/night. (if you're not sure - that's incredible). in fact the best deal for the best accommodation i've had since leaving australia.

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i crawled to a local buddhist temple the following morning where 5 old ladies took me in and fed me one bowl of noodles after the next. i had to cry out in desperation to make them stop re-filling my bowl. they gave me the best spot around their campfire and played buddhist chanting mantra-type songs on their little hand-held stereos. i felt so...connected. it was a bit of a tear-jerking kindness-type moment. wish i could sell that one on e-bay too.

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that night we had a huge dump of snow, so the following day as i took the cable car to 'number one glacier' (the lowest glacier in asia) on the slopes of gongga shan (7556m), i was surrounded by pine forests all dusted in white powder. a regular 'winter wonderland' type affair. beautiful.

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i had a limp and a walking stick, and crowds of people were pointing and laughing. it didn't bother me personally, as being a tall white guy i'm used to being the walking circus freak, but when i thought about how people with real disabilities are treated in china, it filled me with an explosive rage. i felt like breaking faces and screamed at a number of by-standers, telling them to go and get fucked and all other sorts of nasty things. the anger was irrational, but i just decided to go with it. it felt so good.

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anyway, it was time to get back to civilization.

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pic 1 - looking down glacier number one

pic 2 - looking up glacier number one

pic 3 - the person doing the looking at glacier number one

pic 4 - trees and hills and delicious powdery snow

paradise found

the road from zhongdian to xiangcheng was the roughest i've been on: 7 hours of a dirt track clinging to alpine mountainsides by its fingertips. all around, snow-covered peaks blasting out of the tibetan forests. unbe-fucking-lievable. apart from some issues with a weak bladder, i was pretty much glued to the windows the whole time.

two days after leaving zhongdian i arrived in litang, which is sometimes called 'the highest town in the world'. i'm not sure if that's true, but at 4014m, it left me breathless!

80% of the people there were tibetan, and i had to swap 'ni hao' for 'tashi dele', as many people spoke no mandarin at all. i'm proud to say that i can now read, write, and hold a basic conversation in tibetan!

...just kidding...who do you think i am? as if.

i want to relate three experiences that occured of a morning in litang:

1) the monastery. i went up to the litang monastery just after dawn (with a bunch a kids), and started poking around. before i knew it, 60 (almost mobile-phone free) monks and ondrej were sitting around in the cold morning light of an old tibetan prayer hall chanting mantra, sharing bread and drinking yak-butter tea. no other tourists to the horizon. mind-blowing. later on a naughty little monk (not like that unfortunately) took me on a tour of certain forbidden parts of the complex - onto the roof, special temples, etc. it was a real privelege. the monk experience ended as i was leaving and throngs of the holy men rushed out, surrounded me, and started asking me a million questions...about how to operate their new video camera.

down in front buddha! you're blocking the screen.

2 - the tibetan home. as i was walking home i was invited by an old tibetan man into his home, where he fed me tibetan bread, gave me tea, and also a gift of a buddhist prayer necklace (the equivalent of a rosary). i felt honoured, and out of respect i might sell it on e-bay.

3 - the fields, the bike. i stumbled out onto the fields of the high plateau that litang sits on to get a view of the snow-capped peaks that surround it. it really is gorgeous, and i'm not sure if it's the altitude, but you seem to see clouds from a different, and more beautiful angle than at sea level. i love altitude! before i knew it, i was with two monks sitting on the back of a motor-bike and we were zipping around the field with the wind in our hair.

it's difficult to convey how sublime, and yet how common, these experiences are. they fill my days. the knowledge, the connection, the experience of it all is the reason i travel. these people, and this culture is so different, and yet where-ever i go in the world i'm always struck by how all people are exactly the same. a paradox. it's life affirming.

you know how sometimes you sit back and you think: 'my god...what am i doing with my life...? am i doing the right thing...?'

i don't. but anyway - if i ever did - then sharing a mug of yak butter tea with a tibetan monk, or riding a motorbike at 4000m, or just sitting in the back of a bumpy bus breathless with awe at the scenery would be all it would take to confirm: hello ondrej! yes! the life that you're living is just right!

pic 1 - picture from the bus window from zhongdian to xiangcheng
pics 2 + 3 - people around the monastery

pic 4 - the monastery from behind with the litang plain/plateau in the background
pic 5 - typical tibetan-style house
pic 6 - the litang plain

pic 7 - kids on their way to school

trouble in paradise (paradise lost)

a sleep deprived ondrej is writing to you from yichang, 40km downstream from the three gorges dam...
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but first - let's finish up with zhongdian - that was ages ago.

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basically things went pear-shaped in paradise - 3 nights turned into 6 (which is like 2 years in travel time!) and i spent most of my days in cafes reading because i couldn't walk.

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the night before i was supposed to leave, the bank ate my keycard, and i returned home with a blinding fever that had me wrapped in 5 thermal layers and a sleeping bag (zipped all the way up) shivering uncontrollably. maybe it was a gut thing, because i couldn't stop putting out these evil smells and my room-mates' faces would contort into silent screams as they ran to the other side of the room to throw open the windows at the slightest suggestion of more 'eaud'ondrej'. for me it was a case of giggle and squirt.

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every night in the main square of zhongdian, there is a 2-hour public dancing session, which is really lovely. all these little grannies in traditional costume descend from the hills for their daily exercise, and grab your hand and take you spinning around the square at break-neck (of femur) speed. i did one lap before my own hip gave out. the whole town turns up and there's a really good feeling of community in the air. i wish that sort of stuff happened in australia. c'mon lord mayor so - i kno you ca mae it happ!

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i got my card back (after 2 days and with no money) and my fever settled. you know how sometimes when you're getting better you feel so good that it was almost worth the illness? well it wasn't like that at all.

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i had a major bout of insomnia on the night before i actually did leave, and ended up staring at the ceiling of my room for 6 hours bopping away to a song that wouldn't get out of my head: (to the tune of 'i am the drug that killed river phoenix'): 'i am the clot that killed richard carleton'. you won't be able to get it out of your heads now.

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(this paragraph has been deleted because mum said i was too nasty about richard carleton...man that woman really does check my blog ever 20 seconds...)

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thanks mum :)

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there was a massive monastery (the most important in south west china) in zhongdian filled with over 600 monks perpetually talking on their mobile phones. i didn't have the pressure of needing to change my ring tone, so i slipped into some deserted parts of the monastery and blissed out.

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before i knew it, i was boarding a bus for xiangcheng...

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pics 1 + 2 - women in zhongdian

pic 3 - a crappy shot of the monastery

a perfect world

i have a dream...

...i dream that one day i could live in a world where i am not hassled by children or dogs.

let freedom ring!

what happened after the tiger leaping gorge

BEFORE ZHONGDIAN

from the walnut garden (effectively the last town on the tiger leaping gorge), rene and i set off on an 8-hour power-hike northwards to the 'remoter' village of haba.

despite meeting some really ugly, unfriendly people there, the rule that people who have not been exposed to too much tourism are much friendlier was true to form. on tuesday, as we wandered around the town (and another muslim settlement one kilometre above it), we were invited into people's houses, given food, waited upon and generally spoiled rotten. it was one of those days that affirms one's faith in people.

haba is built on a (glacial?) valley between two mountains, the fields extending from slope to slope, covered in rich crops of wheat, snow-peas and beans. we wandered around these fields soaking it in. some of you may be familiar with the weed that grew rampantly at the edges of all fields

the host of our guesthouse in haba was suprisingly stand-offish when her husband was around, but when he wasn't, she paraded around in newly bought clothing, begged us to stay another night, and even tossed a condom wrapper among our bags on our last morning there (for reasons that were not immediately apparent). we left.

my back went into spasm on tuesday, and on wednesday i awoke in agony, having pulled...my hip. i didn't even know you could pull your hip, but i did. a tibetan boy at my hostel opened my eyes to my bad shape when he was teaching me some stretching exercises yesterday:

"hey gao, just sit with your back and legs straight..."

his eyes gogged as i embarrassedly admitted "...i can't"

walking has actually been excruciating, and with this stupid 'pulled hip', strained back, a goat bite and a bleeding, inflamed pharynx (after an incident with some wheat that i'd rather not talk about) i started to realise that the way i've been treating my body is catching up with me. i'm not super-human any more...not even close...i'm old! :(

we caught a bus back to qiao-tou, where i had left some things, and rene stayed on the bus heading back to lijiang.

i could barely look at him as we parted - sometimes life is so beautiful that it breaks your heart.

ZHONGDIAN

and so i'm in zhongdian - better known to some of you by it's other name: shangri-la

it's a high town with all signs written in chinese and tibetan, dotted with monasteries, buddhist stupas and tibetan farming communities. i'm waiting until i can walk properly again (it's getting there) and then i'm heading into the western sichuan highlands.

LIFE

the trouble with life is that there is only one of it. oh how i ache for 5 more lives so that i could taste just a fraction of all the amazing things that this world has to offer! how can the heart and mind rest - even for one minute - when out there, life is so big?

it's not fair, it's not always nice, and it's certainly not easy, but my god life is amazing.

pic 1, 4 + 5 - farmers in haba

pic 2 - weed

pic 3 - the haba valley

pic 6 + 7 - crazy goats

The Tiger Leaping Gorge

on the morning i was to leave lijiang for the tiger leaping gorge, i was waiting outside the toilet of my little hostel in lijiang (like a gladiator awaiting battle) when the door opened and out came...rene! (for those who forgot - the swiss german guy i'd spent time with in yangshuo). here he was, 500km from where i thought he would be!

as we blunder through life (and believe me i'm blundering) we occasionally chance upon people who are genuine 'diamonds in the rough'. people who are completely comfortable and true to themselves, accepting of everyone and so kind hearted that you feel good just being around them. such was rene for me.

i told him of my plans and he immediately packed his bags and joined me on the bus to the gorge.

the tiger leaping gorge is a sharp valley between two peaks - jade dragon snow mountian (5500m) and haba snow mountain (5396m). the yangzi river flows almost 4km lower than these peaks, resulting in one of the largest stone walls on earth. 4km of almost vertical slate grey cliff face from the river to the snow-capped mountain peak. can you imagine?

at the start of the hike is a place called 'margo's', run by an aussie woman. a belgian guide book actually states 'avoid margo's - she's a bitch', but we went there anyway. suffice to say, the guide book was spot-on, and in addition to being a bitch, she was one of those people who spoke to accented people with a form of pidgin english. you know the type: "you go here, bag there, eat after", "toilet close, busy no-no". it's one of my pet hates in life. as if people learning english need to struggle with a half-wit screaming broken phrases in a silly made-up accent that hampers everyone's understanding of what's going on. for god's sake, if you're speaking english - speak english! for anyone visiting the gorge, please avoid margo's - she's a bitch.

rene and i took the walk easy, breaking from the others after a few hours. instead of my usual power-hiking, we meandered for 2-4 hours a day, slept late and ate slowly, sat in the sun contemplating life and generally enjoyed ourselves.

the hike passed through a number of super-friendly naxi villages and even down a rickety old ladder attached to 20m of cliff-face with sticks and ropes.

on the third night we teamed up with an aussie jehova's witness, a disgusted frenchman and two canadian scientists for an evening of drinking games that left some of us at a complete loss as to how to control what we were saying or doing, and a cluster of empty beer bottles that seemed to stretch to the horizon. i recall falling down a flight of stone stairs wearing size 5 plastic ladies' slippers. not good.

all of sunday was spent staring at the 3.9km wall of rock opposite the guest house. anything else was a bit much.

and so finished the tiger leaping gorge.

pic 1 - naxi girl with suspiciously un-chinese toy animal

pic 2 - the wall of rock

pic 3 + 4 - naxi farmers

pic 5 - the drinking team

pic 6 - menu at guesthouse

lijiang

after my adventures in dali, i needed to have a break, so i headed up to lijiang with the purpose of doing absolutely nothing. an excellent plan.

lijiang is an old town that was almost destroyed by an earthquake 10 years ago. it was rebuilt using an entirely (ersatz) traditional architectural style, and was given the UNESCO stamp of approval for its trouble.

the result is a gorgeous old town with canals filled with goldfish flowing and criss-crossing beside and under all the cobblestoned lanes, which snake randomly through the village. easy and beautiful to get lost in.

after about a day, the beauty wears off, and you realise you're standing in a fake town built for tourists in which no real people actually live, and all the houses are shop-fronts selling souvenirs. shudder. scream.

i was gripped by a most vicious form of diarrhoea whilst there, which had me leaving the toilets thinking 'surely i at least chewed that...?'

i took the opportunity afforded by my near-hypovolaemic shock to sit around in a variety of lovely cafes chatting to who-ever passed by and catch up on some DVD watching. i've never seen a film that betters a book, but having just finished 'heart of darkness' by josef conrad, i decided to risk watching apocalypse now. damn you coppola. the one exciting cow-slaughtering scene certainly didn't justify the 300 minute running time, and the fact that the director went on to include additional footage beggars belief. read the book for a true exploration of man's heart of darkness.

after delaying for some days, i finally bit the bullet and hooked up with an american chick to escape the town and head to the tiger leaping gorge...

pic 1 - rooftops of lijiang old town
pic 2 - lijiang restaurant alley
pic 3 - black dragon pool with yu long xue shan (jade dragon snow mountian) in background

religion

i believe that religious fanatacism (and sensitivity) is directly linked to the amount of loss one sustains in living a 'pious' life.

the average australian christian has habits of drinking, taking drugs, sleeping around (and everything else in life) that are similar (if not identical) to the average australian athiest. the addition or subtraction of a religion does not really affect the lifestyle.

a strict muslim denies himself (i can't be bothered writing him/her) a great deal in order to adhere to the religion - experiences a great deal of 'loss' in order to live a life according to the teachings.

an attack on moderate christians is usually met with little opposition, but an attack on islam is usually met with rage and violence, exactly because undermining that religion undermines the whole way of life of those people, and makes a mockery of all the loss they have sustained. it's not religious, it's personal.

pic 1 - ondrej and mao - 'men, not gods'