I'm Home

Location: Cache Creek, British Columbia, Canada (still the finest country I've ever been to.)
Local Time: Monday, Dec 11, 2006 - 10:04pm

Okay, I'm home, in Canada, in Cache Creek, drinking eggnog and eating mince meat tarts.

You can skip the rest if you want.

Well, I wrapped up training at Cabin Dao on Friday, November 24, 2006. We were going to have a morning session on Saturday morning but Xiao Yun got some kind of food poisoning, and was unable to teach us. He ended up going to the hospital at about noon.

There was a party, with barberque, alcohol and campfires on Saturday night. There were a lot of people there beating on drums, a couple people there swinging poi around, and an odd group of folk dressed in robes.

The party was to celebrate the end of Cabin Dao. The government decided that the land had financial potential, so they ended the existing lease 20 years early, paid no compensation for any improvements and kicked Julie and Xiao Yun off. China.

Sunday I did mostly nothing. Had a nice final breakfast with Sophie (my fellow student) at No. 5 guesthouse (buffet breakfast for 10 yuan, about $1.5 CND). We watched movies and read books in the afternoon at the Lazy Book cafe, then had dinner with Julie and Xiao Yun at a restaurant that, Julie assures me, has the best Chinese food she's had in 5 years of living in China.

Then, we wandered down, I said a quick goodbye to everyone and jumped on the bus. I got in my bed and went to sleep. When I woke up, I was in Kunming. It was really early, so I walked around for a couple hours, then I picked up my plane ticket, went to the airport and flew to Beijing.

It was windy and cold in Beijing, but above 0. It was the wind that was really wicked. I spent a few days reveling in Beijing, one of my favorite Asian cities (below Kuala Lumpur, above Chiang Mai).

Friday, December 1, I flew back to Vancouver. I stayed at Scott Lawrence's house for a couple days, and then rode the Greyhound up to Cache Creek, in the center of BC. There, I surprised my mom and dad, who didn't expect me home for another couple years.

Me ... Not Working

Location: Dali, Yunnan Province, China
Local Time: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - 9:01am

Still Kicking

Location: Dali, Yunnan Province, China
Local Time: Thursday, September 9, 2006 - 8:56am

Well, Val started her retreat at Kopan Monastery yesterday. She'll be completely out of touch (even more so than usual for someone in Nepal) for the next month.

I'm still here, studying martial arts with Xiao Yun. Aiden, my British companion, has moved on. He's going to Laos for some hiking, and to escape the increasingly colder weather I think.

Sofie, an American student on exchange for a semester in China, is now studying tai chi with Xiao Yun, she's my new fellow student. Well, not too new, she's been here for nearly 2 weeks now.

Not much to report. Every morning I wake up, walk a half hour down the hill, then a 45 minutes back up. 1.5 - 2 hours of practice, so time for a few hundred kicks and about 10 forms or so. Lunch, a bit of a nap, then another 1.5 - 2 hours of practice (a few hundred more kicks, etc.) Then dinner, reading, bed time.

Back From Wu Wei Si

Location: Dali, Yunnan Province, China
Local Time: Thursday, October 19, 2006 - 7:36am

Well, I'm back from Wu Wei Si. It is the weekend up there, so no training is going on right now, and the Daoist monk should be back from his vacation soon, so I'll go train with him.

Wu Wei Si was a good place to train for a while, try to get a little back in shape, learn a couple of Shaolin forms. I was stiff and sore for the entire first week. I'm not use to training 5 hours a day.

The second week was much better. I injured my hamstring in the first week, so I haven't been doing the kicks, but I was still fit enough to do the low stances and train the forms.

They start by teaching you a form called Shaolin Hua. It is a basic, intoductory form. I must say though, it is a much more interesting form than the basic forms they taught us in Master Liang's studio.

After I learned that in the first 2 days, I decided to learn the Shaolin Mantis form. It is pretty nice, lots low stances, only one kick, which was good given my hamstring problem. It is a very pretty form, and I decided to spend the second week just practicing it.

Nadav is an Israeli who was also training up there. He learned Mantis at the same time I did, but decided to do Eagle form for his second week. He demonstrated for me yesterday at the end of the day. Wow, what a nice form. Maybe I should have learned that one in my second week. :-)

All in all, there are 6 or 8 kids up there who train full time. They range in age from about 8 years old to 18 years old. I'm told some of them are orphans, in the care of the monastery. They have a very strict life style.

As a visitor, I didn't have to participate in the Buddhist cerimonies, nor in some of the special training sessions. The kids are up before 6 am, chanting. At 7 they go down to the stream, about 1 - 2 km away, and get a bunch of rocks that they carry back on their heads. Then, they train sit ups and the punching back until 8 when we have breakfast. They have free time until 9 when we start training in basics, which lasts until noon when we eat lunch. After lunch they have a little free time, then they study lessons for over an hour. Training begins again at 4 and goes until 6 when we eat dinner. After dinner, they have more chanting, then they train forms for an hour or so. Lights out is at 9:30pm.

There were other foreigners up there training with me. Some for shorter periods of time, some for longer. Amir and Nadav are two Israeli's who started at the same time I did two weeks ago. Amir was in Mongolia for 2 months, and now he's going bicycling to Laos. Nadav was is a Thai kickboxing camp for 3 months before coming here, and he is staying at Wu Wei Si. He'll be training there for possibly a few months.

Aden is a British bloke who was there for 2 weeks before before I arrived. He's going with me now to see Xiao Yun, the Daoist monk. Before training at Wu Wei Si, he trained with a different Daoist monk near Wudang Mountain.

Patrick is a German who was there before I arrived, and plans to stay for a while longer. He trained for 2 years at a Shaolin Temple a few years ago. He says the training here is very similar, though not exactly the same.

Rohm and Omar are two Israeli's who came last week. Omar plans to stay for many months. He came to China specifically to train here. He heard about it from a friend back home.

Notice an Israel theme? Well, welcome to life on the road. It seems that no country has as many travellers as Israel, and you meet Israeli's everywhere. Every where except countries where they are not permitted to enter, like Malaysia and Pakistan.

Well, I have a couple days of relaxation and eating here in town. The food at the monastery was exceptional, but in the second week we got a new cook. She has a preference for spicy cooking, and there were days when I had definate stomach troubles. Since the toilet is a short walk outside the monastery (which has no electricity at all), stomach troubles in the night are not a light matter.

Back in Dali (大理)

Location: Dali, Yunnan province, China
Local Time: October 4, 2006

Well, I rode the train for 40 hours from Beijing to get back to Yunnan province. Alone this time, which is a lot less entertaining that when Val is around.

I was on the bottom bunk, which means I am closer to the bathroom when I get the late night urge. On the flip side, it also means that the other 5 people in my section think my bed is a bench during the day.

I read my way through 3 books, and did 15 suduko puzzles from the book I bought in Beijing (北京). I also ate my way through a loaf of bread and a couple of lovely cheeses I bought from Jenny Lou's in Beijing before I left. A nice cream cheese (not Philidelphia Cream Cheese, much better) with herbs and garlic, and a chunk of something new, that was tasty but I unfortunately can't remember the name of.

I got off the train in Kunming (昆明) this afternoon, around 12:30. I went to the usual bus station, and asked about a bus to Dali. I said, I don't want to go to Xiaguan (下关), I want to go to Dali (大理). She says yes, 76 元. I pass my hundred over, and she looks at me and says, bus doesn't got to Dali, only Xiaguan.

I made her give the money back, then I went walking, trying to find the other bus station I saw mentioned in the guidebook. I did find it, and booked an express ticket to Dali. It said Dali on the sign, on the ticket. The bus, however, said Xiaguan, though there was a sign sitting beside it that said Dali.

As you might have guessed, we arrived in Xiaguan and the bus stopped.

My seatmate told me to take the #4 local bus to Dali, and I did. Just as fast, or faster, than the taxi Val and I took last time we came to Dali, for only 1.5 元 instead of 40 元.

Guess what? They are celebrating here too, and the friendly little hotel Val and I found south of the main town is full, except for a dorm bed, which is where I am. 20 元 a night.

Leaving, on a fast train ...

Location: Beijing, China
Local Time: Monday, October 2, 2006 - 1:11pm

Well, the train probably isn't that fast, but it will get me out of here. I'm headed back to Yunnan province in southern China, so I'll be out of contact for at least a couple of days.

Val already left. Gone this morning. She's going to Chengdu in Sichuan province. She hasn't exactly decided what she'll do after that, but she is generally making her way west, planning to go through Tibet and into Nepal.

Beijing is packed with people. There are 3 big Chinese holidays a year, at the beginning of May, at the beginning of October and Chinese New Year. I have managed to be in Beijing for 2 of the 3 this year. I don't like it so much. All the rooms are full in the hotel, the subway is packed, taxis are harder to get, the parks are jammed. We almost couldn't get the train tickets we wanted.

Five days ago, Val and I asked the booking agent at the hotel for train tickets. She just looked at us and said, there were no tickets, for maybe two weeks because of the holiday.

She didn't even pick up the phone.

So, I went down the road to another nearby hotel and asked there. The girl phoned and checked but said everything was full. She, however, told us that you can only book 4 days in advance, and at about 7 at night, more tickets for 4 days in the future would come on sale.

Why the first girl didn't choose to share that information, I don't know.

So, we returned to that hotel at about 8 (we were out for dinner) and asked. It was a different girl at the desk, and she didn't want to be as helpful. She made a few attempts at phoning for tickets but the line was always busy. She said it would be better to try tomorrow. I patiently explained that the tickets would all be sold tomorrow, and it would be the same situation tomorrow evening for tickets the next day. She tried for a few more minutes and gave up.

So, we went back to the hotel, and I stopped at the booking desk to talk to the first girl again. I didn't ask if there were tickets, I just said I wanted to book tickets for October 1. She gave me a strange look and repeated, October 1. I said yes, October 1.

So, she picked up the phone and called 2 or 3 times, and got someone in a couple of minutes. She chattered for a while, then asked if we wanted a hard seat for 30 hours. No, we want hard sleepers, so we can lay down.

She chattered for a couple more minutes and then said to us, none for today. Do you want to make a reservation for tickets tomorrow?

Yes! Absolutely! (Why exactly she didn't give us this information right at the beginning of the whole thing remains a mystery.)

Next day, no muss, no fuss, we had 2 hard sleepers out of town for October 2.

Beihai Park

Location: Beijing, China
Local Time: Sunday, October 1, 2006 - 5:05pm

Well, this morning I went to Ritan Park with my roommate here in the dorm, a Czech fellow who just spent a month in Mongolia and a month in Sichuan province. We played push hands for an hour or so, and occasionally attracted people to stare at us.

Then, I went with Val to Beihai park. However, we accidently stopped off at Jingshan Park instead (it is right beside Beihai Park) and we wandered around there for half an hour before we figured out we were in the wrong park. We knew there had to be a body of water somewhere, then we checked the name on the tickets.

Jingshan Park has a tall hill with a temple on the top, so we climbed up there and got a nice bird's eye view of Beijing.

Then we climbed down, left the park, walked down the road and entered Beihai Park. The body of water was easy to find. It was the part of the park all full of floating pedal boats and Chinese tourists. This week is a vacation week for all of China, and Beijing is busy.