China with Siebe

And there he was, my sailor in China. It was very exciting to get going with him and to explore the Chinaworld with two man strong. Lets see if we would understand more together. The first days we enjoyed eachother in Chendu, walked through parks, had cozy dinners, talked about the last four months and made plans for the months to come.
In this journal you see and read some of the many things we came across. Lots has been left out, there is too much to tell all. It would bore you concidering most of you don't know me that well anymore and have their own precious lives. logically it will be time to make this my last journal. It's time to put energy in other things. After more then ten years of updating my life the big world web has expanded inmensly and stories like my own are even more wide spread. Different means like facebook, hyves and personal sites are the way of communicating and updating your friends. It all takes too much time for me, sorry, my life is out there, in the sun, where you can't see anything at your laptopscreen because of the reflexion.........
People come and go, stay in touch or forget about you. Only a few people have stayed in close contact with me after all those years of travel, all others are great memories who made my trip through the continents complete and extremely comfortable. Without them it would not have been possible, without them it would have been without color. Like food without smell, like a forest without flowers. Still tasty or quiet, but without soul.
Through this way, I would like to thank all of you one last time. Without you knowing it, I talk about you, about where you took me, what you made me eat, what you told me about your personal live, how you lived, your pretty house. How you took me into your routine, took care of me, showed me the things in town and introduced me to your friends. How we played games, discussed the reason why we live, where I would go and what you would be doing next week. I loved it, it made me feel at home, welcome, special and part of it. You made me proud of the world and of who we are.Thank you.

My travels aren't over. I really really hope to stay traveling every year for three months. With our work on the sailing ship from April till October I/we have a whole winter to do so. Together or alone, I don't care, as long as I can feel that freedom, have that feeling of not knowing where I will sleep that night, eat strange things, live with so little, get really dirty, meet strange and authentic people, climb mountains for solitude and get to places where you hear nothing, I will stay happy.

No more updates through this website, but if you are curious how I am you know my email: mathubloom@hotmail.com and you also know I will write back straigh away. Better this way, close and personal, then having no idea who is still reading and interested.

But first...... The things Siebe and I came across in China:

They walk around in parks and teagardens. The earcleaners. Equiped with long small pins and sticks with cotton they pinch and wipe your ears clean. No, you don't hear better afterwards, but yes, sometimes they really get some big stuff out.....like with Siebe. His ear hurt till three days after, but it still felt like it was good.

First excursion: Park Jiuzhaigou.
An extreemly high entrance fee made us scrumble through the wood, up a steep slope for a few hours, hide in the ditch around nightfall so nobody would see us (you were not allowed inside the park between 6pm and 6am) and to sneaky camp at different spots for two nights. This way we were spoiled with a totally empty park around 4:30pm the next day. Sooooo pretty, so quiet, sooooo beautiful. Really, I use the word beautiful many times to discribe something, but this is really the definition of it. IF you go to China, go to this park. I have to admit, we were in the low season and IN the autumn time, so less people and the best colors. 

Gorgeous, paintinglike pictures around every corner.

Many lakes in the most wondrous blue colors, like mirrors for the clouds, like fishes were swiming between the birds.
There were many waterfalls too.

We hitch hiked all two months and ended up in little towns. Sleeping in forgotten, dirt cheap hotels or along the road in our tent. We were waved inside by people. like this big house and it's owners......

......... a few minutes later in the kitchen (beside the big house?!) with tea and apples from the garden.

A sky burial in Litang. Here there are no trees to burn and frozenhard ground many months of the year. So to get rid of their dead people they cut them in little pieces after a holy ceremony and feed them to the waiting vultures. A very clean, neat and round solution to my opinion, what comes from dust returns to dust. Only thing, who will be the cutter.....

Hitchhiking in cars, trucks, on bikes, in tractors, in the back, in empty busses, with rich people, with poor farmers, schoolkids on a trip, guys going home from work in the mines. You name it, we took it.

A spectaculair dressed up Yi-woman in Haba. Her earrings are connected with a beaded string.

Lightbeams through a roof like laser beams. We asked this farmers house if we could set up camp nearby.......

.........It was okey. Later the kids played frisbee with us and at night they sat at our fire while we made tea and tried to make thier given potatoes in the coals.

In to Tiger Leaping Gorge.
A very famous hike of just two days. You will meet every backpacker in this area and there are many guesthouses along the way. We camped and were not too stunned with the scenery.

Goat herders along the path. Hello?

Stange things to eat in Lijiang. Insects, maggets, big worms, bees, dogmeat. We tried it all.

Lijiang is an old (but touristy) town where you can souvenir-shop till you drop. Renting a bike to see some of the valley and temples around is one of the things to do. Not the best we did, but we did meet this old lady who got us inside and made us tea with jummie things. She had had many other tourists crossing her garden and we as well wrote something in one of her many visitdiaries. At the end she did hold up her hand...... something we didn't expect. We gave her the equivalent of the things we consumed and the strawberies we had just bought.

On to Dali, another tourist/backpack town where we hired bikes again to cycle all around the big lake. This was really fun. It took us two days and the last boring stretch we threw the bikes on top of the bus. We had nothing planned, but we found a hotel to sleep at the right time.

Fishing from shore.
In the early morning they run out a huuuuuge net into the lake and early afternoon they reel it in. Something which takes hours. When one seemed to be almost in we stopped, played a game and waited with all other curious people to see what the catch would be. In this Photo you see the sorting of the five different fish.

Markets are always a nice place to wander around. So may different fruits and vegetables, sauses and fish, meat, herbs, salted goods, baskets, cactus oil, juices, etc etc. 

Hills flanked the lake to the West. Very suitable for walking. With this map we hiked in, sneaked passed the pay-post and traversed our way to a very cozy guesthouse where only solitude seeking back packers ended up......

Right with dinnertime we walked into the warm livingroom. A fireheater burned and the table was full with little diches and chopsticks.

A magical moth.

From this guesthouse we walked even further up the hill, a very nice dayhike full with views to all sides. Really recommendable.

Back at Dali we had to wait one more day, so we played games and drank wine in a very funny, unexpected gamebar.

To the South, into Xishuangbanna, where there are many tribes from different countries being close to the Tibeten, Myanmar, Thai, Laos and Vietnam boarders. We arranged a motor for this excursion. Just somewhere at a garage for scooters. 5euro for the day. Helmets were not neccesary.....

Different houses once again. Wood and palmroofs. High on poles for the rainy season. Surounded with jungle and banana and gum plantations. Very special people. We did not feel very welcome, but maybe that had to do with the big motor.

My prince offering me a banana flower.

And this market was the most fun. Just sitting there, watching, trying strange things, buying black tea (very rare) and watching the old woman smoke opium pipes.

Yes, this is VERY much China.

In the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. It took us three days hitching and a long train to get here.
A shame we were in this off season where there were no glimmering water reflections of the underwater terraces or fresh green rice sprouts or golden layers of ripe rice culms or bright white vista's of fresh snow. At this moment is was all brown and boring, just after harvesting and just before real winter.
But still spectaculair agriculture.

Yangshou with it's Karst Mountains was our last stop. We stayed here almost a week. Rented once again bikes to make a three day trip with the tent and to explore those interesting mountains and cool rivers.

Sometimes you take rafts to cross, or to go for a pleasure trip. We were so lucky with the weather those months. No rain, no extreem cold and quite a lot of sunshine.

Beautiful vista of the Karst Mountain.

Our last stop before leaving: HONG KONG
Shopping, shopping, blerg, shopping.

So the second day we took a ferry to an Island and relaxed one day on our private beach. The first and only time it was warm enough for shorts and bare feet, warm enough for a dip in the South China Sea.

And that's it.
Just before Christmas we flew home with 15kilo's of presents and a ready slideshow to show all familymembers.

The end of my (for now) last long trip, the beginning of new plans in Holland.
With mixed feelings I went back, excited for the fun familydays to come, to see friends after half a year, but also afraight how I would feel with knowing that my solo adventures were pretty much over.
Life is a lesson to learn every day. First I had no idea where I would sleep the next night, now I know what I will be doing this whole next year, but HOW I will do it, and how I will FEEL doing it I have no idea. That's where I have to find my suprise and challenge this time. Getting to know myself during those travels has not really been the point, I WAS myself. Now, in this regular life with set plans and long term friends I walk into many more challenges and obstacles. It is a true adventure how I deal with this modern, civil, fast and luxury life.

Wish me luck
and I wish you luck too.