Peregrination

Vacation is nice. I try to have that mentality all the time, that I am on vacation but sometimes it's good to actually go and get a reminder.




Subscribing to the opinion that traveling is much more enjoyable when you don't have a lot of stuff, and thinking that most things ought to be done in moderation, (even moderation,) I didn't bring the computer with me. My biggest addiction left at home brought great perspective... I miss the wilderness. This city is amazing and fun and the country is where I feel most full and real.

O.K. then. Now that that's out of the way, might as well jump in with the story telling.




I was feeling a bit cranky one day and suddenly realized I had but a week before it would be Beijing full time. I rather freaked out and booked tickets (with the help of XG) to Yunnan. Literally translated as "Cloud South," Yunnan is in the lower left corner of China and borders on Tibet (Xizang), Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. It's beautiful.



Getting the plane tickets was interesting. I met XG and his travel agent friend at a fast food restraunt where we ordered one milk tea between the three of us, sat down at a table in the back, and I slid $1600 cash across the table for the e-ticket. This is apparently how it's done in China.



First stop, Kunming, the capitol city. Sort of tropical, with lots of pretty flowers and clean smelling air, I'd heard Kunming (Elder-brother bright) is a hot spot for foreigners. I stayed in a hostel and had my first introduction to the people who might join the "Homeless, unemployed, and wandering the Globe" group on facebook. Interesting people from interesting places, travelers are definitly a sundry lot who always give me lots to think about. I met a British woman teaching English in Nanjing who passed on the number for a Taichi teacher in Daili, a man studying flash animation as he traveled about, and bead salesman/juggler/guitar player who'd been on the road for 30 years. Wonderous.



After just a night in Kunming, I took a bus to Dali. I don't remember much from this trip, except it was wonderful and I slept a lot. Getting off in the wrong town, I eventually took a city bus to the "old town" in Dali, a beautiful and increasingly touristy village. I spent two days here, drinking lots of coffee and getting myself lost on a rented bike. I also went up the nearby mountain which was a much needed does of nature and brought lots of joy once I got over feeling like an asshole for riding a horse. Of the people I met in Dali, the most note worthy included a family of 8 Christians from Wisconsin who live there full time and a fluent in English, Chinese man named Li who moved there with his grandma from inner mongolia. He told me about the charcoal heating brick things I've seen everywhere and and let me take his happy golden retriever Dumbo for a walk. More people stared at the dog than at me, which was really nice.


In my experience so far, travelers tend to be a pretty open bunch, and in Dali I met a German woman named S. Through her wanderings, I was met locals R. and M. R. was born in Tibet. His parents died shortly after and a Canadian couple sponsored him to go to school in India, where he lived until 8 years old. Then he traveled overland illegally and somehow made it back to Tibet. This in itself is staggering. I'm not sure what happened, but he ran into some trouble with the Chinese for a "Free Tibet" banner and now lives in relative poverty in Dali. He cannot legally work, so he and M. run a bar/restaurant from their two room home. M. is from Xianggang and left her home and family to be with R; not particularly easy in Chinese culture. They are 26 years old. (Home and peace lamp at the Tiger Leaping Gorge.)
The walls of their small place were covered with homemade banners, Bob Marley posters, and sketches. I asked R. what "Om mani padme hom " means, which is something I've always wondered. He told me that a very spiritual man, maybe the first man ever, spoke these words and they are everything and every language. Between M. speaking Chinese to me, and R. speaking English to everyone else, they told us many things about Tibet. Despite the struggles in their lives, the two of them were very kind and R. spoke of his homeland with a passion and a reverence that were truly beautiful. I am so grateful to have spent an evening with them and to be further inspired towards someday living in such a way: on love and little else.




Sometimes, however, traveling sucks. I get tired of never having my bearings, tired of sitting on planes and buses, tired of feeling lonely. In my week long vacation, I was ill to the point of throwing up five times in one day and also sunburned my neck so badly it bleeds if I don't put ointment on it. But it does makes me more grateful for the cushiness of Beijing. As per common Chinese wealthy practice, we now have a maid that comes every day who cleans the apartment, washes, and cooks delicious food. I love my Ayi.



And traveling is also a hell of a lot of fun. Every day is an adventure, a puzzle with a very steep learning curve. For instance, you bet your booty I'm not about to ride a horse up a mountain in bright sunshine and forget to put sunscreen on the area above my shoulders again. On the other hand, I already forgot the Frenchman's advice of checking the toilets of an establishment first and wound up staying two days in a family run guest house with faucet pipe showers and canal toilets. It was really quite lovely.


From Dali via another bus I landed in Lijiang. Dominantly inhabited by the Naxi people, Lijiang is another town in Yunnan that is attracting a lot of tourist attention these days. The ancient city is beautiful, with old wooden buildings. cobblestone streets and flowing canals that are skimmed daily and some even have fish.



A matriarchial society, I really liked being surrounded by the Naxi minority! (China has 56 governmentally recognized nationalities: the Han majority and 55 minorities.) I stayed for several days in a hostel called "Mama's Guesthouse." When I got sick Mama came into my room, pummeled my spine via my tummy and fed me 5 unidentified pills 4 times per day. She also ran the establishment with lots of yelling and a winter coat/shoulder purse outfit that never came off. She's great.




The last stop on my trip was Tiger Leaping Gorge, a couple hours by minibus outside of Lijiang. Apparently, TLG is the world's deepest canyon. Set at an altitude of 2500m, (~8,202 ft) the gorge is so narrow that legend has it a tiger escaped pursuit by leaping across. Measuring from the mountain tops that compose the southern rim, the gorge is 3000m (~9,842 ft) deep. I'm not sure if it's true, but I heard that it's set to be dammed this coming summer, or next. Faye, John, I wished so badly the two of you were here with a boat and gear and skill to raft that thing. Madness!





My friend P, whom I met at Burning Man's math camp joined me for the trek and we had a great adventure hiking the upper and lower trails. On the way home we were asked by some folk to stop and drink some beer, which got mixed with some Baijiu, which resulted in some lots of laughing and P driving some Chinese man's pickup truck. In a tipsy haze we wandered around the mountain trying to find where we had left our coats at the beginning of the hike and looking at the bright bright stars.


I start working officially tomorrow.

Hope you all are well and enjoy the snow!