Joe Reifer

Joe Reifer

China - Wednesday 13th May - Yangshuo Lingers

I’ve got a fair bit of black ink on my fingers this morning as I’ve just returned from a lesson in calligraphy which was fantastic. Our tutor collected us from the hostel and led us through the streets to an underground workshop where a row of newspaper covered trestle tables were arranged. We all sat as the tutor poured black ink into a number of small dishes on the table in front of us. On the tables were large A3 sized pieces of very thin tissue paper (almost like crepe) which had feint red grids on.

One by one the guide went to each of us and wrote the number 1 to 10 and 0 in English. We copied these familiar numbers using long elegant strokes from bulbous brushes which ended in a fine point. It took a little while to get used to handling the brush, it was tricky to gauge the amount of pressure I could apply as the paper would soak up a huge amount before dispersing it through he thin layers, creating a blob mess. Lines that started neat and sharp took on a fuzzy smudged appearance. Perseverance led to me mastering this hurdle fairly quickly and I was absorbed in this fine art, I think I actually had my tongue sticking out the side of my mouth for most of the time.

We learnt to write in Chinese characters meaning ‘sun, ‘moon’ and ‘stream’ in addition to writing our names which appears to be based on tonal syllables rather than any obvious literal meaning. I’m unclear what my name meant but the tutor stuck up his thumb saying, ‘its goooooood!’

The rest of the morning I spent visiting the large park in the centre of Yangshuo, sitting by the river watching touts drum up business from other tourists. Later I had a couple of terrible games of pool with Victor, it was so hot and humid the cue wouldn’t slide properly through my hand. Prior to this I had told Victor that I was pretty good at pool but he surprised me by being a demon at the game, turns out he has a great skill in many things including sleight of hand card tricks, impressive!

We grabbed our kit from the hostel and filed into a privately booked coach to leave this wonderful place. Our next leg of the journey was another overnight train, 14 hours of bunking it. The coach ride was extremely cheap, I recall it worked out o £15 to take all 16 of us for a 2 hour ride.

I’m currently sat in Guilin train station; our train is delayed for 1.5 hours. The huge waiting room is crammed full of travellers, some sat like us on rows of metal seats, sleeping or generally milling around. The atmosphere is noisy but heightened, everybody seems to be in good spirits and it reminds me of the waiting room at Heathrow at the start of this trip, such a contrast – everyone is happy to be travelling somewhere.

Many people are stocking up on noodle pots prior to boarding the train, seems to be the staple diet in China when you’re on the move.

The noodle cart awaits

Earlier we visited the market to buy provisions as we wouldn’t be able to source breakfast or dinner whilst on the train – apart from small trolley which occasionally passed us in the corridors. I had bought a whole heap of junk food – the shop had a huge amount of brightly coloured, ghastly looking foodstuffs, none of which appeared to hold too much nutritional value. I too bought noodles in a pot, shrimp flavour in addition to some coffee flavoured milk tea and honey injected dates (they removed the stones and replaced with honey – genius idea!)

I almost forgot to mention the Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant in Yangshuo – simply the best meal I’ve had on the whole China trip, delicious veggie dishes beautifully presented and using ingredients in an imaginative way in amazing traditional restaurant settings – dirt cheap too. I recall some veggie meatball style delights, taro and sweet potato, gorgeous marinated tofu and a very delicious bottle of Heineken lager.

Kermit amongst

Giant bunny.

The Sculpture Park of Veijo R�nkk�nen | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

The Sculpture Park of Veijo R�nkk�nen | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

The Sculpture Park of Veijo, Finland

YouTube - Junip - Black Refuge

Errors - A Rumour In Africa

China - Tuesday May 12th - Yangshuo, Heaven on Earth

I awoke with a bit of a fuzzy head but otherwise well rested and thankful to b able to catch up on some sleep after the long train journey. After breakfast  (full English – bit of toast, 10 beans and 1 egg) we all met in the hostel lobby to venture into town to collect bikes for a days worth of cycling.

The air was still, heavy and slightly spitting with rain but the mist it created allowed for some fantastic scenery, shrouding the peaks of the limestone hills.

We set off, first through the town which was absolutely manic! I had happily witnessed the apparent random driving from the relative safety of inside a bus prior to this but now we were al vulnerable, exposed to the onslaught of Chinese traffic. Each side of the road acted as a rough guide for the direction the traffic should attempt to follow. Everyone owns some form of horn in their vehicle and use it like it’s attached to the accelerator. They honk if they’re coming up behind you, honk when they pass, and honk when they come towards you, honk when they pass, and honk if they are nowhere near you. It’s not just the motorised traffic either, Victor, our guide, was constantly ringing his bell frantically whilst navigating through the seemingly bewildered pedestrians who would step off at random in front of you. It was great fun ducking in and out of traffic whilst keeping your head spinning 360 degrees looking for bikes, mopeds, trucks, coaches and animals.

We eventually veered off into a side street, a great line of westerners which caused great amusement amongst the residents, some of which took photographs of us. Cycling along we headed to the rice plantations and instantly the traffic calmed with only a handful of fellow cyclists to navigate through.

We stopped for one of many photo opportunities looking through the immense valley landscape. Every inch of flat land has been used for producing a wide range of food stuffs – citrus and tangerine trees in neat rows, flooded rice paddy fields, numerous leaf greens, banana stands, strawberries, melons and sweetcorn. After the initial town traffic onslaught this area was preferable, calm beautiful and very humid.

We all traversed concrete roads and dirt tracks and laughed and joked around for most of the ride stopping occasionally for more photos, especially some great group shots.

Our destination was a place called Moon Hill a popular ‘stop off’ point en route where one of the limestone peaks is shaped into an arch and stands high above the landscape. 

It’s an amazing sight and for 15 Yuan we could climb around 800 steps through a bamboo forest to stand beneath the arch. Each of us unfortunately acquired a tiny local woman clutching a fan and cool box with beer, water and postcards in. They had leapt out of nowhere when we were arriving on our bikes, we had heard this distant screaming and shouting as Victor proclaimed, ‘They’re coming!’ Around 20 ladies streamed across the busy road into our convoy of bikes causing chaos amongst the ranks – after previously pedalling for an age and feeling a bit tired we were taken surprise by this event! 

So, leaving our bikes at the café we took to trek up the hillside mw, with my very own woman. She was very nice, spoke great English and taught me to say 1,2,3,4 and 5 in Chinese and attempted to fan me on the journey – I felt awkward as we were advised to best ignore these ladies but I found her company enjoyable even though she was fanning the forest beyond me more than my actual face. She had the guilt trip on me perfectly and showed me a photo of her two sons, one 13 and the other 15. She pointed to the general direction where she lived, on a small farm – she had no other job other than gaining what she could from hot, sweating, out of breath tourists climbing to Moon Hill. I knew at some point I would have to give her some money. She stuck with me the whole journey, right to the peak. 

At the summit the tree line disappeared allowing for some great views of the surrounding landscape, much the same as before but from a higher elevation, as if I was inside a hot air balloon.

There were stalactite rock formations hanging from the archway of Moon Hill itself and walking beneath this I could view an even more expansive vista before me. I felt quite worn out and dizzy from the climb and gulped water in an attempt to level my head a little.

We descended and I gave my unofficial guide some money and asked that she walk the reaming path alone, she seemed a bit miffed by this but I felt she could have gained more money from some of the other tourists, especially the Germans. On the way down I noticed that some of the bamboo aligning the paved track had Chinese characters etched into it. If it’s some form of graffiti then I think it looks great, very attractive.

At the foot of the hill, back in the café area I treated myself to a delicious mango prawn dinner and chewed the fat with the rest of the group around our table whilst waiting for my forehead to dry a little. We all retrieved our bikes and cycled back via a different to Yangshuo, we arrived back at the hostel for the welcome embrace of a shower and clean clothes. Some of the group headed out for a Chinese cooking lesson but I decided to stay behind and write a few postcards. Tomorrow I will be participating in a calligraphy lesson where I hop to lean how to write my name in Chinese characters.

I’m laying in bed as I write this, it’s about 9:40pm local time and I’m watching some crazy television with the sound down, my ipod is treating me to the new Errors album.

Chinese television is insane, I have agreed it’s mostly advertisements for similar products to back home but brighter, more colourful, faster and generally manic. I just saw Jackie Chan endorsing some product which I couldn’t be sure about (Edit: It was hair shine cream). If you see Bruce Lees image on a shop front in China then they’re probably selling fried chicken, KFC style…he’s be doing kung fu flips in his grave if he knew.

I’ve just returned from having a few beers with Ben, Megan, Rob, Wayne and his wife Michelle. Earlier they had a cooking lesson which, judging by their photos went extremely well, they’ll all be pro’s back home. To choose their cooking ingredients they visited the local farmers market. They told me they saw dogs in cages for sale and other ‘processed’ dog carcasses hanging up. Some dogs were crammed inside small cages – up to 7 at a time; they said you could hear them before you saw them.

On another note, I’m really enjoying drinking so much water; I may adopt this habit when I return. Earlier I was able to use Wayne’s’ nifty laptop to send a quick email home to the parents and thought I’d sneak a quick peek at the BBC News page. There was a photo of Cameron and Clegg standing at the doorway to Number 10 waving – that sums it up. However, Clegg didn’t look too happy, certainly not as happy as Cameron. I think I may be returning to a different Britain, I hope the volcano re-erupts and keeps me out here for a while longer, especially in Yangshuo.

Illuminated Door Mechanism 2008

China - Monday 11th May

It’s 1:15pm, back home in the UK it’s 6:15am, people are just waking up.

We had a bit of a trek last night to the train station in Guiling. It’s the hard sleeper option for us with each numbered train carriage divided into 20 or so door-less rooms each with 6 suspended beds – 3 on each side, one above the other. I had the top bunk and my nose was almost touching the ceiling of the carriage.

This part of the journey will be 13 hours long, overnight and with a delightful squat toilet for the whole carriage to use. We had the misfortune of being in the first sleeping compartment and therefore the closest to the toilet and free movement of people during the journey, also the toilet area which was housed in the interconnecting section of the carriages also double up as the only smoking area on the train – wafts of disgusting smoke would flow through the carriage. Later on this proved to be uncomfortable when attempting to sleep with intermittent air conditioning and the banging of doors. But in a way, it made for an interesting adventure, but one I wouldn’t wish to repeat too often – thankfully there’s only another 3 of these equally long journeys to follow!

We spent the first few hours of the journey sitting on the lower bunks chatting away. The first train journey was novel and exciting. I mostly listened to the Australians talk about ‘things back home’ and read my Lonely Planet guide book. At around 8:45 I climbed to my tiny bunk to lie down and listen to my Ipod.

Lights went out at 10pm just as I needed to make the walk of shame to the toilet, so I had to navigate my way through the carriage to the delightful squat loo – three times in the night I had to make this journey. I swear my body plays these jokes on me just when I’m comfortable! On my final return I fell asleep easily considering the air conditioning unit was near my head and the ‘click clack’ of the train was irregular enough to usually cause me concern.

We arrived, through bleary eyes at our destination at 6:30am and transferred to a small coach to drive for 90 minutes. The landscape along the route was amazing, stunning in fact. Rice paddy fields hugged the lower landscape on small terraces crossed by tracks, roads and irrigation canals. The majestic landscape consisted of high karst limestone peaks covered in small trees and shrubs occasionally revealing the streaked limestone beneath.

We arrived at our destination, Yanggshuo and walked the bustling streets to our hostel. Each alleyway offered an amazing view of street vendors selling noodles and dumplings. Tree lined streets, hostels, restaurants, small bridges over dirty looking streams and inlets appeared along every street vista. The hostel called the Explorer was great, an amazing double room for myself. The hostel was coupled with a place called MC Blues, a café and bar set up which also was ideally located in the best backpacker’s area of the town. The bar front opened out into the street where you could sit and absorb life as it waltzed by in many colours and languages. Naturally being a western led area there are many touts and beggars but a simple ‘no’ means such and they leave be, however one chap passed me by numerous times and would only say, ‘watch, watch’ to me whilst pointing at the five Rolexes strapped around his wrist.

It’s the evening, just sat on my bed for the first time…it’s harder than granite. Anyhow, today, after a bit of free time where I once again bumbled around the streets we headed off in two small buses for a relaxing bamboo raft ride down the river. After traversing pot-hole lanes and uneven bridges we arrived at a small concrete jetty and boarded fake plastic bamboo rafts with outboard motors, ready for our relaxing glide down the Li River.

Despite the wobbly boat and noisy motors the scenery was simply stunning. Those tall peaks took on a majestic array of monumental proportions, each unique, each random and other world like – I find it difficult to describe their beauty but was able to take many photo which in reference with this journal may do it more justice.

After the trip and ride home I grabbed a good, stodgy pizza (bit bored of some of the dumplings already). In the evening at 7:10pm we headed through the market to the edge of the river to board a noisy passenger sight seeing boat to watch a local chap use cormorant birds to catch fish. It was dark which was less than ideal for my camera but fun to watch the birds diving from a raft, seeking out fish. The fisherman had a light fixed to the front of his vessel similar in style to 1940’s arched lamps. The purpose was for us to see and also guide the birds to the front of his boat with their catch. Most of the time it attracted a heap of strange looking insects and moths which landed on every available surface.

The birds, despite their tied necks did well and appeared to only aim for smaller fish which easily slid past the throat restriction – clever birds. The view of this attraction was more thrilling and attractive to see on BBC nature programmes, in real life, in these particular conditions it could not compare – even the HSBC banking adverts painted a better picture. For some of the journey the fisherman was busy yakking on his mobile phone.

One great part of this trip was to see the streets of Yangshuo lit up in neon lights and also to see some of the karst limestone peaks which were spot lit soaring almost vertically around the town like great looming gods looking down. After the boat trip I joined the other travellers for a few beers which were delightful in this thick, humid air. Some of the Australians decided to order a dog dish from the menu. The dish arrived, quite a lot of it too, rich brown in colour not dissimilar to beef in appearance. They tried a few bites before deciding it was ‘quite gamey’ and left the main bulk of it. It’s nice to know that dog didn’t die for nothing. Tomorrow I think they’re ordering roasted bamboo rat.

Illuminated Post Work 2008

Transit Shed Panorama - work by Trumbernick

China - Sunday 10th May

Last night I had a great sleep in a hard double bed – Chinese beds are good for your back I’m told. During the night I was woken by an intense thunder and lightning storm, the rain lashed down outside my window though it did nothing to clear the humidity in the air. Today we are boarding the hydrofoil boat to head to Guangzhou (Canton) – it’s a three hour journey.

During the crossing I saw my first wild creature in China – a small tern flew alongside the hydrofoil. The weather and water was fairly choppy coming out of the harbour but after an hour or so the waters levelled out. The views however, were limited as low cloud obscured much of what could be seen from the window. This lack of view made for interesting glimpses of hills and islands through the mist and murk.

I amused myself by getting to know some of the group and had a good chat with Yen and Megan who told me about their journeys connecting to this one and also their onward journey after this China trip finishes. I was surprised to hear where some of the group had arrived from, places like Korea, Japan and others are moving onto Mongolia, down to Shanghai, India…Ben and Megan are by far attempting the greatest route – After China and a short stay in Shanghai they travel onto Nepal for a week or two, then onto India, then they nip over to Europe to visit each major city – taking in Italy, Greece, Germany, Belgium, France before finally ending up in London a few months later….I feel myself turning a shade of green, perhaps it’s sea sickness.

In the sea were hundreds of small boats each with a crane attached to the rear – I’m not entirely sure what they were doing, it looked like they were possibly dredging the sea floor and pulling up sand or silt – larger vessels contained large heaps of the light coloured sands.

The group dispersed for the main bulk of the journey, the gradual rocking and humming of the boat created a comforting hypnotic atmosphere which allowed everyone to sit back and doze. Many people are simply staring out of the misty windows or writing into their respective journals. I’ve opted to listen to my special China play list on the Ipod – the songs are great, many of my current favourites but none really reflect the landscape I see from the window, maybe I need an epic, long piece – post rock perhaps. Much of the music I’ve heard in China whilst out and about sounds like crazy kid’s songs or insane karaoke.

The part of the landscape (sea scape?) we are travelling through at the moment looks similar to the ‘Just Cause’ game on the Playstation. There’s tall communication towers, chimneys, silos and fuel depots all painted in the same red and white banded stripes down its entirety. I couldn’t help but imagine (in my dozy state) running through the landscape with a mini gun in hand frantically searching out special icons to collect to progress to the next level. I could tell that I’m still firmly connected to my regular life back home and only on reflection after the trip did I realise that those ‘trappings’ seemed to vanish very quickly, perhaps within a few days on arriving in China – no more concerns about the news, television or even facebook…..bliss!

Some of our group have purchased very cheap gear from the street markets in Hong Kong – mostly counterfeit goods, but with my untrained eyes I couldn’t tell ay difference in quality – watches and Oakley sunglasses seemed to be the biggest attraction. The watches were around HK$15 (about £1.40). I’ve told myself to seek out some gear when I get to Beijing, last city on this adventure – though I may need to discard a few pairs of underwear first to make room in my bag.

China - Saturday 8th May

Well, I'm sat here in the departures suite at London Heathrow. It's the 8th May, a Saturday and I'm about to begin my voyage to China. I'm leaving behind the UK which is firmly in hung parliament mode and it's unclear if the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will be forming some kind of alliance with the Tories. I quite like the idea of flying away from it for a while, when I return it will probably be a whole new Government. I don't think the 1980's style riots would have started by then.

Sitting here makes me think of my friend Sam (Astill) who is also exploring the world, this time in Thailand having a solo trip. He would probably approve of my current practice of people watching I'm currently involved in - not something I usually do but here is where so many cultures meet within this airport and I often wonder where they're going, why and who they visit.
Some people are easy to figure out, they're the usual holiday makers, new sandals, shirts and sunglasses and very British looking. There's 2 muscle men who stand out a mile, they've got 'nutrition power' t-shirts on and shaven heads - I'm thinking they're going on a fact finding mission to Hong Kong or probably just going for the high protein duck dinner.

Most people look bored though, keeping their eyes to the ground or if they have to look up it's usually over the tops of people's heads - no contact. I think many are going to Doha, our first stop at around midnight, it's currently 2:30pm I'll be arriving in Hong Kong at 2:30pm again on Sunday - pretty much missing out an entire day. I can feel my hands shaking - I don't think it's nerves, I enjoy flying, I think perhaps it might be tuna and cheese bagel I've just eaten.

Looking out the departures suite window I can see my Qatar 012 plane sat on the tarmac with pipes and strange devices attached to various areas of the fuselage, cockpit and engines. It reminds me of a person in a hospital bed hooked up to a life support system. It's a good looking, clean, tidy plane though, well manicured.

To Build a Home

"Red Eye" - The Album Leaf

Taken from the album 'Into The Blue Again'.

Cafe Kino

A lovely full hearted breakfast without the meat trimmings can be found at Cafe Kino, just off Stokes Croft, Bristol UK. A playlist of delight accompanied me. (Photo: S.Astill)

"Dangerzone" by Clor

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts IV - 34. Video by Trumbernick.

Tim Roelof

Tim Roelof's Art: http://www.roeloffs1.com/

VJ James Bragg (James Bragg) | MySpace

VJ James Bragg (James Bragg) | MySpace

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