Author: Jeremy Teeuwsen
HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!!!

Lots of love from all of us to you! It is great to see your adventures and we are thinking of you often. Hopefully we will see you soon. 😉

Author: Jeremy Teeuwsen

This was a big weekend in the life of our house. It was started….

Now we only need to wait 6 more months. 🙂

China Update

Author: steeuwsen
hey folks,

I’m writting from Ho Chi Minh City. I’ve been hanging out here for a few too many days, but I’m getting my passport back from the extenstion office tomorrow so, I can flee this too comfortable city soon. I’ve been hanging around in coffee shops and resturants, hardly leaving my hotel street and amassing a new book collection that is almost to big to carry around. There are guys that walk around with huge stacks of coppied books tied together and towering above them. They seem to just focus in on me, knowing that I’m weak and want more, more, more.

The last post I made I wrote about finally getting to see the white stuff and some foggy views on the mountain where Tai Chi (Chi Gong) was founded. Here are a few pics.

Who is this guy and his hair? It was getting a little unruly and caught under my backpack, so I cut it after this hike.

Guys, way tougher than me, bringing up stones to improve the path to the peak.

Jon stretching half way up the mountain.Dinner in the monks caffeteria. Everyone is absobed in some Chinese T.V. melodrama.The seen we were greated with in the morning, after cuddeling for warmth (shivering to death) under every spare blanket we could find the night before.Part of a mural.One of the only monks who said it ws ok to take his photo.Part of another mural.

The temple at the peak and the three of us: me, Jon and Jordan

From the mountain we headed to Wuhan for New Years Eve. When we went out that night, we met students from all over Europe and Africa. They were all studying Chinese at the University. After some new years fun, which ended on their dorm roof watching the first sunrise of the new year, we cruised down to Nanning. We dropped off our passports to get Vietnam visas and then backtracked to pretty Yang Shou. It’s such a sweet place, as Dan can attest. It was great returning for a few days of bicycling around the peaks and chilling by the river reading.

The Li River

Yang Shou

This is a picture from the topof Moon hill. There’s a handy post to climb if the peak is just not quite high enough for you. Ziggy toasting the sunset.

These are a few pictures from the boat going from Yang Shou to Guilin. It’s deffinatly the most pleasent way to go between the two cities. If you want to go in style arrive in town on the banks of the Li River.
The guys I’m travelling with are also buying up books left, right and center so, there is always something new to read and get dazzeled by. I just finnished three Haruki Murocami books that Ziggy was really into. He’s a great Japanese author. He writes really honestly about realtionships and connections between social outsiders in Japan. If you want to check it out Norweigan Wood and West of the Sun are good, although be forwarned a little strange =)

After a few days hanging around the mountains and meeting with other travellers in Yang Shou, we went back to Nanning to to pick up our passports and to meet up with Iris and Etta, two lively Chinese friends from the Santa project. Christmas night the Icelanders were talking to the girls and were shocked to hear that had never been out of China. They’re poor students from Beijing, ya know. So, we said that we’d help ’em out travelling for a bit in Vietnam if they could get passports, visas and a backpack, then meet us at the boarder and they did.

We took the most interesting train I’ve been in yet down to the boarder. It was just an empty box car with two long wooden benches along the sides but, it was cheap and we met some nice people who were headed home on Chinese New Year vacation so, I really didn’t mind sitting on the floor.

It was excillent walking over the boarder with two people who had never left their home country before. Excitment is contagous. They were skipping along, so we were too.

I had a great time in China, but it was deffinatly done when I left. With the tropical air, from new and crazy jungle, hitting us as soon as we walked into Vietnam, I knew I was on a good path.

It was night by the time we were getting in a mini bus to Hanoi. We just caught the last one and it was crowded! I was squished in the back with all the bags and my knees to my chin for the three hour ride.

The ride turned out to more unpleasent when we tried to get out though. The guys who ran the bus tried to cheat us badly and wouldn’t let us out. Everyone on the bus, locals and us, had paid one guy who later got out of the bus. When we got to Hanoi the driver and another guy let all the locals out but, told us we had to pay them for the ride saying they didn’t know the guy we paid. It was such obvious b.s. that I assumed we could just laugh and explain that, no, we aren’t paying agian and they would accept it, but they pretended not to understand, said we were cheating them and wouldn’t let us out. We were all in the back and they were blocking the front bench so, we couldn’t just walk away. After loads of arguing our friends actually had to push their way past driver and his friend with some scuffeling and I passed our bags out the back window. It was really lame. On the street I was still trying to explain how everyone had obviously had paid the same guy and they let everyone out except us, but they kept bringing around other people who said we were wrong and another old guy tried to pick pocket us while I argued. It seemed pretty tense, but the whole seen evaporated as soon as we acually turned and walked away. They made no move to stop us and stopped arguing seeing it hadn’t worked. I still wanted to win the argument, you know, let reason prevail, but it just wasn’t going anywhere. Besides that, it was a beautiful night in really happening city. There are French style buildings left over from good old colonial times and loads of people out in the streets, at markets and eating at impromptue street reasturants. I love countries where people get together in the streets and use the space as true public property. Oh, and probably the only good thing that came of colonial times, besides pretty buildings, good BREAD. Anyone coming from China can tell you that sweet bread gets tierd really quickly. Everywhere in Vietnam you can buy excellent baguette bread for almost nothing and on everyother corner there is a lady making sandwiches, SANDWICHES! Oh, it’s so good. I’ve been living off sandwiches since I got here. I’m just starting to get into all the tasty noodle dishes now, after three weeks. I was totally monopolised by the bread.

Iris taking photos of traffic that’s even crazier than she’d seen in China

We found that big, crazy, guy from Israel, YAYA, again. He and I went to check out a temple and a prison turned museum.

…and a cathedralThe Cathedrial was quite cool. We came about an hour before mass and people were starting to fill the pews. A few older laddies sitting togethere started a chant in Vietnamese and other early comers in the congrigation would responded. It reminded me of the responsive reading that we used to do at First Christian Reformed Church, way back in the day. Except this wasn’t lead from the pulpet; it was started by a few elderly women. It seemed like a great way to start a meeting of the church. We sat a listened for a while, checking out the ceilings and stainglass, untill the bells started tolling and the place really started to fill up. It was an amaizing seen, but not quite enthrawling enough to stay for a whole sermon in Vietnamese 🙂


I didn’t stay in Hanoi too long. I’d had enough of cities in China, but did spend a good day walking to a few sights in the city with Yaya and hanging around the central park with crew. The night we arrived we met a french guy who was travelling with his trumpet. He played cool, jazzy tunes in the park and we got a few beers to toast Johnny for his birthday.


Johny, Iris, Etta and I headed a little way south to Nihm Bin the next day. Jon and Ziggy stayed back to hang out with some silly Icelanders they had met. They were so excited getting to talk Icelandic and talk about how small Iceland is. There are only 300,000 of them and after talking for few minuets they figured out a mutual friend. I give them a hard time, telling them they’re from such a little, insignificant place and that they speak a stupid language, but it’s just because it sounds like such a cool place and I feel infrior being so monoligual.

In Nihm Bin we rented motorbikes and cruised around some rice paddie roads to a village near the river. We took a ride up river through another small village and then to a cathedral like cave. It was great getting on a motorbike again, even if it was a little 100 cc with no clutch.

We met up with the guys on a bus south to Hoi An. We were planning on renting motorbikes there and taking off right away, but we ended up hanging around the beach town for a few days. The night we arrived we were walking along the dock and paid a laddy to take us out in the boat for an hour. I sat on the prow,..stern,..aft?.. front, with Jon and my feet in the water as chugged through the night.
some allie pics from Hoi An
When we did head off on the motorbikes, we ended up getting seperated. Etta had fallen off her bike behind Ziggy and me so, Johnny and Iris stopped and waited with her. Ziggy and I stopped to wait shortly after and Jon who was behind everyone caught up to us. He didn’t think he could have missed them if they had stopped so, we assumed they got ahead of us when we stopped. Ziggy went ahead to catch them and we waited at a turn. By the time we finnaly thought we should check back they had turned around back to Hoi An. We figgured it all out by e-mail that night. Etta was alright just sore, but we were a town ahead so, we had to wait a day for them to catch up. A little frustrating, but as it goes.

Because we had to wait a for them to catch up, Jon, Ziggy and I drove around some small town roads, checking out farms and markets along the way. We stopped by some rice feilds to take a few photos and a Vietnamese guy named Yum stopped to say hello, which was all he could say in English, but he got accross that he really wanted us to come have something to eat at his place. At first I didn’t really feel like it, but I’d never been in a Vietnamese home yet and he seemed like a nice guy so, we went.

A market along the way

Where I met the Ledgend of Yum.

Yum’s house.

He lives in a little place and has a corn farm. When we got there he was so excited flipping through pictures. He found the one he wanted and was practically jumping up and down. In the picture there were some people building a house and one of them was a forigner who looked a lot like me. Yum was giving me huge hugs and lifting me off the ground. I wasn’t sure if I should try and explain it wasn’t me. He was so happy, why ruin that? Although, I felt like I was impersonating a saint or something. We comunicated by phrase book and when one of his sons came home he could speak English pretty well, so were understood and I broke it to him I wasn’t the guy in the picture.

Yum was always just giving us more, more and more. He sent one of the kids to buy a case of beer and got the Kareokee mike out. Of course there are no English songs so we were singing really strange freestyles that didn’t rhyme. Yum was so psyked up I couldn’t believe it. It was hillarious dancing with him. There were a bunch of neighborhood kids laughing and pointing at our sillyness and three smilling ladies that enjoyed the show, but sat a good distance back from us. Later, Yum brought out a jug of something sealed up with plastic. I’m not sure what it was made of but it looked like palm leaves filled most of it. It’s deffinatly a potent moonshine that you drink through a bamboo straw. Someone takes a glass of water and pours it in the full jug as you drink. You have drink fast enough that it doesn’t spill and you get to stop when the cup is done. Some of the older kids tried as the bamboo straw went around. There was more dancing and bad singing and eventually everyone went home. We slept that night on the cool cement floor of the living room. As everyone was laying down I went for short walk into his corn to check out the night sounds and the increadably bright stars. Yum gave us such a great night out of no where, just to have friends to host and he couldn’t even speak any English.

A sweaty rendition of ‘Yellow Submerine’ to Vietnamese dance musicAttempting to get a dancing partner and getting shut down.
The next day Yum jumped up early and was just as ready to go as the night before. This guy! He has so much energy, always grining and laughing. He showed us to a place where we had bean porage and rice cakes for breakfast and he kissed us good-bye as we went back to town to find Johny and the girls who had caught up to the town we stayed at the night before.

Me and Jon getting our good bye kisses

The ledgend

It was a good day riding into the mountains. Vietnam is beautiful! We made it to Kon Tum after driving by sunny rivers and rice patties, through rain and fog near the top of the mountain and then down into a steamy, valley night.


We had headed up there to see the mountains and also check out some CHER? villages. It seemed a bit weird to be going to a small village and wander around taking pictures of people, but once there I met Hyme and her friend Pung. Both of them are about 50 and like to sing to pass the time. Hyme speaks great English and it was interesting talking to her for a while. She works at an orphange in Kon Tum cooking bread.

After sitting with Hyme and Pung for a while I went to find the guys. I found a gang of kids instead. I hung around with them for a bit, sword fights and games of slaps. They even found my friends, who I had walked right by. They were dancing and singing again. Some guys, who were playing a broken guitar and keeping beat on bottles, invited them to have a drink of rice wine. One of locals guys was a pretty slick dancer. He taught Etta some steps and was spinning her around the room as she giggled.
Saying adios


The next day we checked out the orphanage that Hyme works at. It was nice to run into her again and the kids are amaizing. We played games with them and I talked to one of the sisters who run the place about teaching there for a while. I told her I’d love to come back after getting my visa extended. She saidI could stay there for as long as I wanted to vollunteer.

It was a long drive back to Hoi An to give back the bikes because, we started so late (it was hard to leave the games of tug-o-war). We ended up having to drive through the rain at night. We got back soaked, but still laughing, and passed out in a comfy hotel.

The sunseting on the mountains as we drove back to the city.

We stayed another day relaxing in town and that night Jon and I headed out to see what there was around town. We found everything around town closed, except a noodle stall. We sat down there and met Do. He said he could take us to a place for a beer. We squished onto his little motorbike and he took us to his friends reasturant. As we talked we asked him about the war a bit. He said if we wanted to find out a lot we should go to Sun Mi. He told us if we wanted togo he would take us and the next morning he was at our hotel bright and early. Sun Mi was the site of a village that was wiped out and burned in an attempt to flush out VietCong sympathisers. Now there is a memorial and museum. Although the place talked mostly of American crimes it was a reminder of what all wars are and how we let our governments (which are supposed to be represntatives of us) go start them again and again.

From Hoi An we headed to Na Trang, antoher beautiful beach town. Na Trang was a lot of sitting on the beach reading, sitting on the beach playing chess and sitting on the beach. We are such intrepid travellers that we spent nearly a week there, before catching the bus further south to here, Ho Chi Minh.

The Icelanders have headed off to check out the Mekong Delta, then onto Cambodia and the girls got on the bus back to China a few hours ago. So, it’s just me and Johny now. Yesterday when I found everyone in a reasturant they were sitting there with David, our friend from Beijing, who first inspired the tricycle trip. They had run into eachother earlier on the street. David had bought a very simple tricycle, no engine, just peddle power and started out from Beijing just before we did. It was hillarious to hear his stories of everything breaking just like ours and to laugh at ourselfs for thinking we were all going to meet up on tricycles for Christmas in Hanoi. It’s been three months since we met and first started talking about tricycles in Beijing. Reliving it all, with David there, was a great way to send off the Icelanders and the Chinese girls.

A few days ago I bought a mountain bike off a German guy who rode it from Laos, through Cambodia to here. When I get my passport back I’m planning on heading around the delta for a few days and then back North to meet some good friends from Taiwan, Niahm and Emma, in Na Trang. Then, back up to Kon Tum to teach for a while. I’ve never done a big bicycle trip before so, I’m bit worried I might wuss out and throw it on a bus after a few days going through the mountains, but it should work out.

That brings it up to date. I’ll try and get back to a computer sooner next time so, you don’t have to read such exhaustive posts.

laters,

Steve

Chile

Author: Jeremy Teeuwsen

Well… I have committed a cardinal Teeuwsen.com sin. I went to Chile and didn’t post anything about it. No stories, no pictures, no notice…

First no pictures, because I forgot my camera. I tried to buy one, but the only one there was an underwater camera and the lady behind the counter wouldn’t sell it to Gringos. Not a very nice lady.

So here is my story…

First we land and we have to go through customs. I am of course searched, because in my suitcase are 4 hard drives replacements for the server that I have to setup. Needless to say the customs people don’t speak very good English and I don’t really speak Spanish at all other then Hola. After some very awkward conversations I ended up paying a bunch of money so that I could bring the hard drives in and everything was ok.

Taxi driver took me to my hotel. Along the way most of the houses I saw were small, crowded and squished together. There was quite a few little shacks and odd little homes and garbage in the river and generally quite poor. Then we drove through a long long tunnel came out the other side into their new downtown. It was like entering a new world. They had all kinds of nice huge skyscrapers, fancy hotels, restaurants, and nice cars. The downtown is really nice and they have people constantly cleaning. In the morning when I would walk to work there would be someone mopping the sidewalks and then when I cam home at night someone else would be picking up any leaves that may of fallen during the day.

Side note: Almost all of the cars in Santiago are new. The increased emissions standards and all the old ones were no longer allowed. However cars in are cheap. A lot of people buy Hyundai’s for approx. $8000. There is no tax on cars as they do not manufactuer cars in Chile. As well they have just signed a deal with China where they will be buying a new Chines car for about $3000 or $4000. Crazy…

Anyway, my hotel was really nice. I barely had to open a door the entire time I was there. When I walked into my hotel room there was a Kitchen and beside it a living room. Through the sliding doors was my bedroom, then down a mini hallway with two closets was my big bathroom. I had three phones all in the most necessary locations, beside my bed, beside the couch, and beside the toilet. The phone by the toilet was actually easier to get to then the toilet paper.

The first two days there I went on a couple of tours. One of Santiago (older part of town) and one to the beach. The city tour was pretty good, but they don’t have a lot of really old architecture. There are some nice buildings and a big church, but I believe a lot of it was destroyed during earthquakes and each building looks like it was designed by a different society and hardly any of it looks Spanish.

The second tour was the beach tour. We drove through the country side and learned about their wine making. I guess there is an formally extinct grape that the French use to use all of the time in their best wines and was thought to be lost until just recently. They discovered the Chileans were using it in some of their wines. So the French brought it back to France and tried to grow it so that they could again make some of specialty old wines, but with no success. As it would turn out they only place it grows is in Chile. The tour guide is confident that Chile will be really famous for the new wines that they will be releasing using exclusively this special grape.

On the beach tour, I got to run through the ocean, sit on the beach for a little bit, see some more interesting architecture and hear tones of stories about things that happened or that they had discovered or lost. Now this would be the time that the camera would come in handy, but… well… you know. I might have to go back again and if I do I will take lots of pictures and I will write more. 🙂 To note in one of the towns we went to it had the most diverse architecture yet including a community of Victorian homes that the British built when trying to start a colony.

Well the rest of my trip was less exciting. I worked a lot, met some really nice people at the place where I worked and they took me out for some good food. I also only bought one present and it was for Kim, not you. A bracelet and necklace made with Lapis Lazuli.

Now I promise to keep everyone a little more informed especially as soon there will be a new Teeuwsen in the world. Boy or Girl we don’t know yet, but life is about to get a little crazier.

Author: dteeuwsen
Happy Birthday to the Candy Man!


A big “Happy 75th Birthday” to Henry “Grandpa, Dad” Teeuwsen!
It’s your birthday.. going to party like its your birthday!

Author: steeuwsen

Hello SNOW!

Shortly after Christmas Jon, Jordan and I headed up Wudang Shan and I got my first taste of snow in a long time. It was hugely foggy on the hike up and the wind was howlling when we made it to the monistary on the top of the mountain. “Tut tut, feels like snow poo bear”, I said to Jon.

We ate a load of rice and veggies in the dining hall. It’s really funny to see the monks come in out of the wind and crowd around the t.v. to watch Chinese soaps. It’s the new China I guess.

There were scurying sounds coming from the empty bunk above us that night, but we tried not to think about it as we huddled for warmth in our heaterless dorm room. We stuffed up the hole in the window with our hats, but it was still pretty drafty.

In the morning there was a thick new layer of windblown frost on everything and snow falling in the trees as we slid our way down the mountain. It was so sweet to be throwing snowballs after all this time with no snow. I know I you’re probably thinking, “oh, poor Steve with no snow. It’s almost as tough for him as it is for Hawii with three days of shade”, but you’d miss it too.

Happy New Year 🙂

Author: Jeremy Teeuwsen

Although it is a mild winter everyone still wishes they were some where nice like Hawaii, but have you seen the weather forcast for Hawaii lately…. Hawaiian Weather Forcast.

Author: steeuwsen

Merry Christamas
from the thirteen Santas of
The Santa Project

The first rule of Santa Project is you don’t talk about The Santa Project. The second rule of Santa Project is YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT SANTA PROJECT. The third rule of Santa project is if you’re in Santa Project you have to be a Santa.

It was Jon’s first Christmas away from Iceland and he really felt like he needed to do something big for the season. Especialy since after he left us on the tricycles he’d ended up back in Beijing and the hostle was becoming his own personal Hotel California. He bought thirteen Santa suits for the thirteen Icelandic Santas of yor and we all agreed to met up in ZhengZhou. Jon recruited some more Santas in Beijing, so the crew was13 strong.

I arrived in ZhengZhou on the 22nd but, I located them late on the 23rd. Before I got there they bought loads of candy and small gifts. We celebrated the Christmas reunionin of everyone dancing in the hotel that night and planned where we were headed the next day: to the nearby village DengFeng.

On Christmas Eve we danced down the street handing out preasents and candy on our way to the bus station. We passed a stage that was having some sort of promotional show and one of the organizers grabbed us and asked if we would throw some gifts for them. To a hard techno beat we got jiggy with it on the stage and threw out little key chains with the stores name. We wished them a merry Christmas, ‘Cheng Deng Quia La’ and continued off to the bus station.

When we got to DengFeng we gave out what we had to any passing child. There were a few terrified kids that couldn’t compute the mad seen in frontof them: 13 people with big white beards and red suits running over to them with maniacal smiles. There were also some really appreciative kids that just stared at their new ball or stuffed dog. We found the town park and the seen slowly degenerated into bedlem. Everyone realized what was going on and we started to get mobbed. After some group pictures we split up to try and give stuff without getting trampled by grabby kids and their even more grabby parents. Once everything was given away we still had a huge crowd and so we started singing christmas songs, but even our group didn’t know all the words. I started teaching the kids in the circle head and shoulders knees and toes. It’s the easiestEnglish song there is. It was like I was leading excersize time at school again. The hoeky-poeky really took off and then the Chinese Santas lead the kids in some Chinese versions of the songs we were singing. After, we climbed the park hill to a pagoda that over looked the town for a few group pictures and to escape our fans.

On our way back to the bus station the guys gave even their costumes away.

We returned to the city we had our Christmas dinner in Pizza Hut. Which is quite a fancy affair, like when in Demolition Man Stalone gets invited for dinner and dancing atTaco Bell. We stayed in the hotel for the evening with our Christmas tree. We had two people from Iceland, two English, TwoDutch, One German, four Chinese, one Israeli and one Canadian. On Christmas day we cuddled and watched dvds for most of the day.

Tomorrow we’re splitting up. I’m going to keep on heading south to warmer and warmer weather. I want to be in Vietnamin a few weeks.

My Christmas is never as good as when sitting with Mom, Dad, Jer, Dan and Keith in the living room and eating chocolate. I miss you a lot and love you tones, Merry Christmas, I hope you get the most out of the next year =)

love,

Steve

Author: Jeremy Teeuwsen

Merry Christmas!!!

It has been pretty exciting so far. Lots of food at least. We are missing all of you that aren’t here today…. Steve, Dan, Nicole, … other family. 🙂

Jer & Keith

Author: steeuwsen

I’m groving to Hot Hot Heat on the computer headphones, so cool. download.com is deffinatly my favorite websight of the day.

My wandering continues, but I’ve parted ways from the tricycle crew. I had considered doing it for a couple days then one morning in the mountains, as I was fixing a flat tire (I had just changed it. I guess my patch was no good) the other went falt, I had a sinister impulse, I picked a large stone that providence just happened to place beside me, lifted high above my head and let it fly. It destroied the entire headlight pannel. I let all my guilty beating fanatasies out on it. I threw the stone again and again, brought heel down on the seat, ripped the arm rests off, kicked the passanger seat in half, stomped the engine casing to peices, then started it up (still ran!) drove the slanty handlebared wreck of a ride off a jump (debatable air) and down the other side where it finaly stopped, but just wait, I ran back to grab a long handled sledge hammer from the little roadside mechanic (providence again, life always provides) to beat the frame appart and wrap the wheels around themselfs. The four of us formed a joyous circle, arms around eachothers shoulders as we stomped the waste of my poor soft shelled tortous, I was giddy as I twisted the handle bars off, set them up as grave stone, took my left over gas, douced the slow-ass green turtle and finnaly set it alight. We opened our sole bottle of wine to toast it’s ashes.

I never really considered destroying it other than in jokes, but after a month it felt good to rid of it. I wanted to get moving and it was always such a hassel to motivate everyone to get on the tricycles, drive in the cold, break down, and only make it another 40 kms down the road. I had a great time watching countryside slowly slip by, singing out to big ol’ China, meeting small town folks, partying with the boys in truck stops and what not, but all good things…

I set off walking the next day, something I’ve always wanted to do. It was a sweet day. I picked a great place and a good day to start walking. There was a cool little village with cave dwellings that slopped along the side of the hills, empty corn feilds with farmers stacking the dead stalks and a big blue sky, but as the sun was starting to set I lost faith in finding seeing another village where I could ask to stay the night, so I flagged down a ride. We took off and promptly passed the perfect town to find a place in, sigh, should have believed, oh well next time. The people who picked me up took me a town of moderate substance. I found my cheapest hotel yet, less than a dollar a bed.

I met some out of town workers who were staying there and a guy from the hotel showed me around the town the next day. Small streets, a temple on the hill and a museum of revolutionary war photos. I gave him the last of my camping gear to lighten my pack and hopped a few busses south to where I am now. On the way we passed a stretch of road that snaked down around jagged limestone ravine peaks with a nearly full moon overhead. Maybe I smashed the bike a few days early… nah

It’s much warmer here. I spent yesterday sitting in the park reading good ol’ Sophies World and writing humanist thoughts influenced both by the book and the people around me. As I was leaving the park and felt like I should head back in. What is there out there in the streets? I may as well wander a grassy place with people relaxing in it. I checked out a statue and found a small stairway that lead down to an underground market of traditional stuff: old stylie paintings, paper cuts, wood carvings along with all the Mao memoriablia, chinese nickacks and dusty books you could want. I was really suppriesed I didn’t see the stairs before, the grassy hill I was sitting on was right beside them.

I took some photos of painters, and a paper cutter doing their thing, a few gave me some of there stuff and we sipped tea. Today I found a photo devloper and returned the guys there photos. There were more trades, sips of tea and smiles all around. I didn’t make it to the caves I planned for today, but tomorrow I’ll head down.

As it turrned out the rest of the boys also got rid of their bikes. Two went as flaiming recks down a ravine and one was given to beautiful girl working in a truckstop. I’ll be meeting back up with the boys for Christmas, but first I’m headed to Shaolin Temple (the birth place of Kung Fu) for a while.

p.s. I’m onto groving to Spoon now. I love this websight