MATBAKER

Guangzhou to Kunming. The Guangzhou we met was grey and strange, although not lifeless, and very unlike the scenes we had witnessed in Hong Kong. The huge square outside the station was full of people sitting and milling around, waiting for trains to who knows where. Perhaps a great deal of them were migrant workers. Although I don't think there are many itinerants in China I think perhaps a lot of people have to travel to the cities to find work and then return to homes in the country. Many of the people in the square looked disposessed and morose, and the whole scene was an intimidating start to our time on the Chinese mainland. Towards the station building stalls sold plastic pre-packaged bowls of noodles which were filled up from a thermos of hot water. ... read more

Hong Kong airport was a real blast of luxury in comparison to Thailand, with glass and stainless steel everywhere, a cool temperature, and wealthy looking people strutting to and fro. A cool and empty train sped us from the airport, where we disembarked into the apparently calm maelstrom of the Kowloon peninsula. Going by guidebook we reached a towering apartment block, within which was apparently to be found a hotel. After consulting someone at the front desk we were given our key and shown up to our room. The hotel part of the apartment building had simply redecorated their part of the landing to look more European, with pine effect doors and gold handles, and the room was minuscule, but it felt great to be there. From the window you could make out the busy street ... read more

Arriving in Tibet the landscape was grey and desert-like, a mountainous version of the grey and windy concrete streets of Chengdu, from where we had flown. The airport was very rudimentary, and I half expected to see some cowboy-town drama unfold over some luggage or a taxi, but we managed to collect our belongings and make our way to Lhasa without any problems. A simple and inexpensive hotel wasn't hard to find, although a subliminal sense of blasphemy for having come to this place with no real knowledge of its religious significance settled in the back of my mind, to become manifest in various ways later on. The views from the hotel encompassed the mountains surrounding Lhasa and some gilted rooftops, along with a beautiful blue sky crossed and framed by fading prayer flags. After dumping ... read more