Blogs from Guiyang, Guizhou, China, Asia
February 12th 2011
Photos: ....the human mind cannot remain a blank sheet as it prepares to visit a new place. It fills the sheet with preconceptions, half-remembered comments, snippets of things read &, when that's not enough to cover it, the crudely scribbled imaginings of what it MIGHT be like. The resultant image almost always bears no resemblance to the location. The plan is simple. After a couple of days in Nanjing with Greg & Linda, get on the train to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, where Miss Piggy will meet me & take me to meet her new boyfriend & his family. Never expect a smooth run. As you know already if you've read any of these newsletters the simplest plans can quickly go awry in China. ..... …..a light flurry of snow this morning. Exciting for ... read more
June 27th 2009
After Beijing Yini and I traveled to Guiyang, capitol of the Guizhou province in southwest China. Guizhou is filled with watefalls, forests, mountains, and other such natural delights. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!... read more
April 12th 2009
I havent written anything on here for a long time and I realized I wrote the most while we were in India. This was not by coincidence obviously and after some quiet weeks there are new experiences popping up as we have reached China. Since leaving Ho Chi Minh City we have spent a few weeks in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. All of them safe, westernized, modern and with fairly good levels of English speaking residents. This meant relaxing times but not as many challenges or odd encounters. There were some run ins with snakes in a Kuala Lumpur city park and some dealings with chinese hostel owners in hong kong but mostly just sun, beaches, cheap shopping and so on... Right now i am in a landscape of about 200 computerized chinese youth in ... read more
February 19th 2009
Much is said about the ‘assault on your senses’ - that way so many have chosen to describe Asia. I’ve been here in China for a year now, living and working, and to say it’s an assault is to do it an injustice - it’s an inescapable barrage! My alarm clock goes off at 7:30am. That’s not so bad, and after a shower I feel liberated and ready to conquer the world. I grab my necessities for the day, not forgetting the necessary sound insulation (the iPod) and step outside into the big wide world. I feel the rays of sun on my face, wow that feels good - it hasn’t been sunny here for a while! If I made heaven the sun would be my elixir - the bringer of happiness into my life, it ... read more
February 14th 2009
15th February 2009 I've been back in China a week now since a three week holiday in the UK. I wasn't going to write anymore of this blog but seeing that it was such an eventful trip, I thought I would write a little more. Anyway, it is 1 a.m. and I can't sleep. Ever since I've been back I've been unable to sleep properly; I go to sleep but then all too soon I am awake and can't get back. The other night I awoke after about ten minutes sleep and didn't get back to sleep until early morning. It's a good job I'm not working at present; start back to school on Monday. My journey back to the UK was going to be a long one in any event but I wasn't prepared for ... read more
Some heavy thoughts on a year living in China
Published: January 29th 2009Asia » China » Guizhou » Guiyang
January 29th 2009
Hey Guys, First of all, a belated merry Christmas and happy New Year! I hope all of you are taking good care of yourselves! So, guys, it's been a while...... what to talk about this time????? I think I'll start by just saying my patience for living in China is starting to wear thin, and hence when my contract finishes at the end of February I'll be happy to leave this country and start travelling again! Over the last 4 months or so, we've been living in Guiyang in the south of China and I have to say it's been a completely different experience to living in Baoji (the ass end of nowhere!) for many reasons. Guiyang is a much larger and more affluent city than Baoji, it has a much larger expat community (though still ... read more
September 6th 2008
Thursday 21st August. My journal continues - A tale of two lighters. They get you in the end, they always do. I’m approaching British security at Heathrow and find a lighter in my pouch. I quickly unzip my case and put it inside the case, believing that I should not carry it in the plane but not wanting to throw it away because I might want to light a cigar at the other end of my arduous travels. However once through x-ray my case is put to one side for further securitization and I have to wait. I’m done for, they will find it now! I wait patiently, trying to look cool, not like a terrorist! The man with who is doing the checks knows his job and is thoroughly inspecting the case of a young ... read more
April 9th 2008
Wednesday April 9th 2008 I'm sitting writing this entry from Guiyang, I still haven't set off on my trip yet. I spent last week travelling to Nanning to put my passport into the Vietnamese Embassy to get my Visa sorted. I took an interesting picture in the Nanning Bus Station, a good example of the beauty that is 'Chinglish.' Check out the "Bus Station Loving Service", not a dating service or seedy hooker booking service as it might suggest, but actually just a customer service booth. I met a guy in Nanning, a young Brit called Liam, who had just spent the last week in Yangshuo chilling with my friend Monkey Jane and my dog, Xiao Maxy. We went out and had a few beers, but to be honest, Nanning is a bit of a hole. ... read more
February 10th 2008
Hello all! travelblog.org? Welcome to first blog entry! With the plethora of blog hosts out there, why travelblog.org then - with its non-HTML formatting (a pet hate!), google ads (equally as annoying), difficult to remember address (no one types in .org) and unfriendly user interface? Probably not the most important thing one looks for in a blog but I'm somewhat fussy about my blog applications, after being used to livejournal for 5 or so years. Well, travelblog.org is the only one which works properly in China. Most of the other popular blog sites such as blooger.com and livejournal.com are disabled due to the huge firewall the Chinese government has put up to restrict access to foreign sites. I remember when I was here in 2000 and couldn't even access hotmail. Ok well I'll stick with this ... read more
Guizhou: where did I see that large statue of Mao before?
Published: January 28th 2008Asia » China » Guizhou » Guiyang
January 19th 2008
Winter Wonderland From Anshun I took the bus to Guizhou. Too bad there weren’t any stops, some of the sights where amazing. Especially the frozen rice fields. Usually when we think of rice fields the prominent color that comes to mind is green, there was no green in the rice fields these days but the replacing white made a spectacular sight nonetheless. The rice fields were not the only things that were frozen, some parts of the highway were suitable for the Dutch elfstedentocht (ice skating competition linking 11 cities). I’m wondering if the Chinese use any precautions against this (like salting the roads) but those parts where untreated, and we saw some minor collisions during the trip. Our bus also made some small slips but the driver drove slowly and kept lots of distance from ... read more
