my first leap

It’s 10.15am and I’m in the Camellia Hotel’s business centre which has 6 computers and they charge you 10 yuan an hour compared to 3 yuan in local internet cafes for the convenience. Most internet places and restaurants, including this centre shut about 11pm. The other night I walked for 20 mins looking for an internet cafe because this one was shut. The streets were still busy with people; though I realised that even if I did find an internet cafe, after an hour surfing, the streets would be empty. I was surprised to see grown men looking through the dustbins. I didn’t feel threatened, they didn’t take much notice of me but felt I should be cautious. Seb was at the hotel thinking I was also in the hotel and didn’t know I had wandered out and it was selfish of me to not think about how worried he’d be if anything bad happened to me. When you’re determined to get somewhere yet half of you feel you should go back, it can be a frustrating feeling. I saw a woman tuk tuk driver and saw that as a sign. I jumped on and went back to the hotel.

When we were in PingXiang; my cousin told me of the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival and that we could celebrate it if we went to ZhongZuo to visit her mother. Because of time constraints we didn’t go to ZhongZuo in the end. It was the most stunning place I’ve been to and to get an idea how stunning, you can get an idea if you take a bus from PingXiang to Nanning. I forgot all about it until last night. Yesterday night, both Seb and I were so tired after travelling that when I felt a male presence behind me stroking my back, I felt a little freaked; so freaked I jumped on to Seb’s bed and slept with the wall on one side and Seb on the other. I was sleeping in that half sleep state when you’re still aware of the room around you but you’re sure you’re asleep as well. That’s when I felt more than one pair of eyes on me, of women and children in the bedroom. I dismissed it as tiredness and a too-active-imagination. But normally with vivid imaginations, images tend to be a little more horrifying. This time, I wasn’t scared, they were just watching and even the man who stroked my back wasn’t aggressive. I finally I slept and had a nightmare. In my nightmare, I felt the presences again. I whispered to Seb ‘Seb, do you see them?’ and Seb said ‘Shhh, quiet, I see them.’ And the next minute I felt an invisible-but-seemed-so-real bag made of some sort of netting thrown over my face and I choked myself awake. I related my nightmare to Seb and then forgot it. The next day, coming into the room on my own, I felt I wasn’t alone. Last night, whilst walking back to the hotel we noticed on the pavements circles drawn with chalk and burnt ashes within. I had noticed them the night before but it didn’t click. But last night I remembered the Hungry Ghost Festival and that these piles of ashes were the result of families burning death money, clothes, food etc for their dead. And then I remembered the feeling of others in the bedroom, the nightmare and how mine and Seb’s arms, the right arm, have been feeling weird ever since we’ve stayed here, like someone was putting pressure on it as though trying to draw blood. Seb also has been losing feeling in his legs the same night I had the nightmare. It’s all very strange. This morning though, after Seb went around the room chanting something inaudible – no, I lie, I don’t know what he did but he said he did something, the presences were gone. Very weird. This was the first for me.

We’ve booked ourselves on a sleeper coach. I’ve been on one before but this will be the first for Seb. We’re leaving at 3.30pm and arriving in Mengla 14 hours later. We love China. This time round, knowing a bit more of the language, people are friendlier and more approachable. We both wanted to stay longer. The air is cooler and the weather perfect for cycling.

It’s now 13.26am and we’ve just checked out (check out 14.00) after some breakfast – the breakfast buffet at the Camellia is good, I especially enjoyed the noodles. We’re waiting around til it’s time to go to the bus station. So while Taiwan, South China and Tokyo are being whipped about by typhoon Maria, Saomai and Prapiroon, I’ve just watched a documentary on the Nanjing Massacre 1937, within 6 weeks the Japanese invaded, tortured and raped 300,000 Chinese people – click here for some photos. Today the Japanese remember the bombing of Nagasaki yet they deny ever the Nanking massacre ever happened. As Seb reminds me of what the Chinese are doing in Tibet; I know that not one Nation is good or bad; but I just want to remember the victims no matter who they are.

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To Amy: Forgot to say thanks for commenting on Silent Witness. Hoped mum liked it. Glad to hear to watched it twice!

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I like men who have a future and women who have a past – Oscar Wilde. Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854–1900

It’s 18.33, Tuesday 8th August. I’m at a massive internet cafe on ChunChen Lu in Kunming. Since arriving yesterday morning at 6.09am, Seb and I have been getting to know the area on our rented bicycles. This is the best way to get around. Most people ride bicycles, motorbikes are fewer than Vietnam and the city was less polluted. We could have gone to the various touristy places like the Stone Forest etc but we decided to chill and prepare for the 14 hour bus journey from Kunming to Mengla and across the Laos border. Getting to Kunming, we travelled from PingXiang to Nanning by bus and the most beautiful landscape tour for 52 yuan – I definitely recommend it. From Nanning we took a taxi (tuk tuk’s were hidden a little further so we didn’t see and can be less comfortable for people with big butts to endure the approx 10km to the train station) and got a sleeping compartment for 118-122 yuan (hard sleeper – the best soft sleepers for 4 were all full) on the next train, the one at 15.36 and arriving at 6.09 (the next one was at 18.09). We were lucky we didn’t have to wait long. After food, and an hour delay, we boarded the train. The waiting area on the ground floor was packed, hot and unbearable so Seb and I waited on the first floor away from people. I saw guards below noticing us and talking on their walkie talkie and minutes later another guard approached us (man, we couldn’t possibly be a security risk), checked our tickets and told us the waiting area was downstairs. I told him we knew but there were too many people. He was satisfied with that explanation and left. I didn’t know what to expect with the train. Sleeper coaches I’ve tried but not sleeper trains. We had tickets for a bottom bed and a middle bed; the bottom was more expensive, I guess because you didn’t have to be athletic and move like a monkey. We dumped our backpacks under the bottom bunk and I was to have the middle. There was no air conditioning, just a small fan in the ceiling. One Chinese guy was really friendly, tried to communicate about International telephone numbers etc but I kept saying we didn’t understand. Another guy, mafia-type, big belly, rounded face and forever will be remembered by Seb as the stinking and smoking b**stard occupied the other bottom bunk. Stinking and smoking b**stard stripped revealing fat belly and stinking nylon-cladded feet; he started munching roasted peanuts and making himself at home. I asked Seb if he wanted to change booths with my middle bunk neighbour a tanned thinner Chinese guy who was more than happy to swap. Later stinking guy and thinner guy shared peanuts. Seb met a 16 year old Chinese guy who spoke relatively good English and who wanted photos of us. I was trying to finish Paulo Coelho’s ‘By the River of Piedra I Sat Down and Wept’ which was slow starting, with a character who irritated a little but was much better at the end; and aiming to finish his other book ‘Eleven Minutes’ which I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. ‘The Alchemist’, a story that touched me, Seb bought for me, I enjoyed so much, that when these two books were offered for very little in Ho Chi Minh City, I couldn’t resist. Later, I realised why the books cost so little, they were copies; obviously photocopied once you start reading, disguised by a good-looking front title page. 

Anyway, back to the train. I stayed in my booth most of the time, reading. Seb, I’d find wandering the place, talking to people and at one time, scared me to death by popping outside the train and calling me from the station platform. Again, I can’t say enough, how important cleansing wipes (wet tissue) and tissue is here in China. You’re lucky to find tissue and soap in toilets and restaurants. But we were prepared, with water, snacks and lots of tissue. In smaller places like PingXiang and Nanning, they can charge you a lot for tissue and cleansing wipes are hard to find but in Kunming, they’re everywhere.

In Kunming most do not speak Cantonese; we found one. Everyone speaks Mandarin. Also hotels can be 3 times more expensive, well, especially compared to PingXiang. Most hotels offer twin bedrooms from 188-300 yuan and that’s the bottom selection. After arriving at Kunming, we ate some food at a nearby restaurant. No food stalls for us for awhile as our stomachs were playing up. After food, we walked looking for a hotel. Most hotels near the station were way too expensive charging 70USD or more. I had read about the Camellia Hotel so we headed for it. They showed us a twin bedroom but it hadn’t been cleaned since the last occupants left and looked dingy. We decided against it. For 2 or more hours, we searched the area but came to the conclusion that the hotels that were available were too pricey for us and the ones we liked were full (The Hump hostel had a great atmosphere; we didn’t see the bedrooms and it was full). It was back to the Camellia Hotel. This time round the only available twin rooms were at 200 yuan. We took it; by that time, we were tired, desperate for a shower, food and rest. The room we did get, room 722, is much better than we had expected though we had difficulty finding it, the signs by the lift didn’t show it existed and after asking someone we finally found it located in between rooms 712 and 716!

Today we got passport photos done by a guy who made Seb and I put on a suit jacket because they were black and we wore white which was the same colour as the background and wouldn’t do; he clicked with his camera and then tapped fast on the computer and presto, 8 passport photos the same size as Seb’s photo in his passport (but not the same sizes they were offering which were either a little too big or a little too small), opposite the Camellia Hotel. After, we tried to get some money changed to Laos currency but after taking two numbers for their frustrating queuing system in the Bank of China and missing one and then being told by hawkers that the bank doesn’t change to Laos money, we left the building confident we’d find another solution.

Tomorrow we’re going to head for Laos.

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To Adam: Thanks for commenting. Though there are now over 2185 visitors to my blog and 11937 pages read, it’s nice to know some of the people reading are people I actually know. Also, I have a bad memory so if I don’t keep up the blog, I will forget and though I jot down things I’ve done to remember, I really don’t want to keep bits of paper on me all the time. Seb nearly lost his French journal – some of my journal/memories will at least be saved on a computer and accessible for when I get back. It saves carry a bulky journal about.

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When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago – Friedrich Nietzsche. German classical Scholar, Philosopher and Critic of culture, 1844–1900.