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
December 16th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Sorry to hear about the death of your green turtle. You seem to have recovered after the wake that you had for your turtle.
December 16th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Sounds like you are better off without Raphael. Do most of the people you speak with speak English, the Chinese you have learned, or a mix with some hand signals? or… do you just smile and trade stuff?
December 18th, 2005 at 7:31 am
We speak in Chinese. The only people that I’ve met who speak English come up to me in the street to practice their English. Not that I don’t appreatiate these random people trying to comunicate, but no one I actualy want to talk to speaks English.
December 18th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Cool. You must be getting pretty good at speaking Chinese.
December 22nd, 2005 at 10:16 am
I can roughly comunicate. I wouldn’t call it a great conversation. haha. It supprising how much you can say with just a few words thrown together in diffrent combinations.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:53 am
That is what it was like for me in Austria. I could have a variety of small conversationg with the limited words I knew. It was pretty fun trying to tell stories. I am not sure they ever made sense.
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:26 am
Probably not, but it’s all in the telling!