Email from an exhibition

這張照片是你的朋友在香港規劃及基建展覽館電郵給你的。照片是利用互動快拍裝置拍攝的。這項裝置是展覽館其中一項既令人驚喜又特別的多媒體互動展品。歡迎閣下蒞臨參觀我們的展覽館。

Your friend has sent you this digital photo from the Hong Kong Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery. The photo was taken at the interactive snap shot installation, one of the many exciting and unique multimedia interactive exhibits installated at the Gallery. We look forward to seeing you at our Gallery!

Six months searching the Next Stop

Six months of traveling, we are near Lijiang, in Yunnan province of Southwest China. Twelve countries crossed: Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China. Thousands of kilometers done mostly by train, some by bus and short escapades by bicycle, foot and kayak. "Do you sometimes feel tired of traveling?", was the question posed by Maria, a Swedish girl we met at the cozy Naxi Family Guesthouse were we slept during the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek. Indeed sometimes we feel tired, we miss family and friends, a own house, a routine. This usually happens either after several days changing beds (unpack&pack) every day, or after persistent annoyances like the leaking shower flooding the toilet, the odourful public toilets, strange food, irregular buses, bargaining, traffic, pollution or killer drivers. But at 181 days mark we still want to continue. "A special day", asks the Singapore guy the same night. Eva answers - "The day when we took the 6-hour boat ride from Russia to Japan. Arriving by dirty roads and old bus to a port where even a security guy working there did not know where was the passengers check-in and then boarding on a clean japanese boat where they bowed at our passage and arrive, exactly 6-hours later, to a sparkling village, having cars stopping to let us pass, people saying thank you after each word."

I would add the Couchsurfing experiences, the Buryatia villages and volunteer project. But every single day was special in its way and I believe that, feeling the 'special' of each moment is what makes this trip so important.

Main tips so far - use a small backpack, maximum 35-40 liters; do not book anything before leaving home and... travel.

Eva birthday chocolate cake

Paul Theroux says...

"Overland travel is slow and a great deal more trouble, but it is unconfortable in a way that is completely human and often reassuring."

Recommended lecture, any of his travel books.

Clarifications

You might be thinking (as I read from a friend) that we are not enjoying the trip, as the last few post about China were negative. Traveling is not only about enjoying things, but mostly discovering things. We have been discovering that most of China cities are unbearable because of pollution, way of driving and lack of respect among others.

However today we did 8 hours of bus to arrive to a 50% Tibetan village at 2600m altitude where, for the first time, we can see the sky and breath some fresh air. Before here we have been discovering most known villages of China, using public transports, being in environments where the mob of Chinese people just suffocates you (and we are not talking about India, where we believe it is much worst). This does not give pleasure of traveling. However at same time you want to discover, you want to feel, you want to visit world heritage sites which are near big cities like Beijing or Xi'an.

We are enjoying the trip and no way to return soon. Just that there are parts of the world where you loose your patience because things are difficult to handle and, in tight budget together with long trips it makes heavy. It is the "and again, and again, and again syndrome".

Another friend wrote yesterday that for most people travel is: way of escape; way of distraction (holidays); way of laziness; way of avoidance (of reality).

Long travel for me is, however, a way of continuous reborn; way of confrontation with the (others) reality; way of getting lost and way of rethinking about life and, a way of true freedom. Enough. And argh, I cannot see the youtube videos of the Portuguese party leaders being joked by commediants... Eva cannot access and update her facebook.

(the picture, if it appears in the blog, it is Chengdu downtown. The weather was fine and it was day. The gray is not fog, it is the pollution).

Photos from China

Two pandas - eating
Originally uploaded by eva_p

Blogging is more difficult in China because of censorship. You will have to wait for the "spicier" stories for another couple of months, but you can already see some of my photos on flickr (which, miraculously, is not blocked):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photos-eva/sets/72157622402530708/

I will try to update the photo site whenever possible.

I took this picture today at Chengdu Panda Reserve. We saw a lot of very cute pandas eating and sleeping. Why do we find pandas so cute? Well, they seem to have big eyes and big ears due to their colouring, and they grasp food and objects just like humans.

Pandas

Today we went to see several of those pandas. Yes, they are cute and you just keep staring at them as they eat the bamboo.

Travel moments of indecision

Today we are in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, near where one year ago there was the huge earthquake that killed 65 thousand people. The hostel where we are is a bit the hub for travellers who come from Xi'an to visit Sichuan or that come to China to go to Tibet. There are dozens of travellers organizing their trips, deciding where to go, trying to find travel colleagues to make the rent of a jeep cheaper, etc.

When I hear all those people my mind came confuse, I don't know where to go, I don't want to loose places to visit but at the same time we cannot go everywhere. But it makes me fell dizzy just to think, should we go to Tibet, should we go to that national park, should we go left, right?

But well, this is life. Anyway what I want more is to get rid of non respectful chinese. They might have a different education, but is quite low in a big majority. Yesterday when we enter our compartment in the train there was a guy sleeping in one of our beds. Seeing our tickets he goes to his bed. But no shame. And the driving skills or lack of them is still making our road crossing a big adventure every time. No car stops, no matter of the color of the light for the pedestrians. Well, we see that chinese pedestrians might be color blind, as they cross in the middle of the crazy traffic in red. Then is the pollution. You can hardly see more than 200m far in the cities, behind is thick gray.

Well, our next stops will be to see pandas tomorrow in a reserve and then to go on the South Tibet highway, which is a road that goes up to more than 4000meters to Tibet. Near the border we will turn South to Yunnan province, as we don't have Tibet permits (which are expensive or a hassle to get).

Well, time to go to sleep. Anyone knows anyone in Hong Kong who can host us for 3 or 4 nights? :-) We should also be trying Couchsurfing again. Let's hope.

Breakfast

Trial of breakfast western in a chinese hotel: orange juice made with hot water; coffee 3in1 (coffee, milk and sugar); powder cereals; yogurt but there are no spoons.

Paracetamol

After visiting the Terracota warriors and being mislead by a tout to take a slow bus, Eva feels bad. For couple days she has some headache. Overdose of China, she may lack some strength to support the chinese bad education (or "lack of", or "different", whatever you may call it). She asked me to buy Paracetamol but in the pharmacy they did not knew what was it. After a non-sense phone call from the lady in the pharmacy which did not speak any english to someone who speak but could not understand english and after understanding that there was no book (or computer) in the pharmacy where she could look what "paracetamol" is (I had written in a paper), she sells me some headache medicine all written in chinese in the box. After going out the pharmacy I open the box and see it is "Ibuprofen" which Eva specifically said she did not want, and which I specifically said in the pharmacy I did not want. Going back to the hotel and I ask at the reception to check on the internet how to write paracetamol in chinese. The lady in the pharmacy eventually gives me something which says clearly in the box in english "Paracetamol compound". Eva asks me to know the ingredients, as she took already a good dose of Ibuprofen. Back to the reception for translating the chinese from the box... It is a medication for children... Eva cannot anymore from China at that moment. She rests while I go eat at hotel's restaurant. After, I look around for another pharmacy but again the only have the "compound" thing, which is almost no paracetamol but mostly aspirin. Luckily the headache is gone.

Finally in Chengdu (17-Sept) we find a pharmacy where they have simple paracetamol. Eva is happy now.