China - Sunday 10th May 2010



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.