http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/TraceyDoxey/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from TraceyDoxey en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:16:49 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:16:49 +0000 People come to the restaurant with affects tiny brass objects attached to the back of their shiny shoes pleated skirts with ruffles keyhole backed dresses children who whirl around in the revolving door for at least twice wearing fake fur coats and glasses women carrying things that I didnrsquot even know existed like portable ashtrays for inside their handbag yes really useless stole http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Piccadilly/blog-462569.html At work I open the window to hear the piano play and then sometimes I can watch a run. Sometimes the dance moves are slow. so slow and small that you can see the breathing body before the start of the dance. the movement before the dance and that non move is pure vocabulary the vocabulary the non move a concentrated thought building to a small physical bodily shake loaded with energy mov http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Clapham/blog-459703.html My boss said that my camel hasnrsquot arrived yet. Which is why after 6 weeks of being back Irsquom still a little displaced because for as long as it would take for a camel to walk from Suzhou to London is the time it will take for me to feel lsquoplacedrsquo.In this short time so much has already happened and more awaits 2 house moves another on Sunday leading to another in the new y http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-457768.html London is changing me.Because on a rainy Friday at 5pm I can link arms with my tall daughter whilst using one umbrella and walk freely and anonymously to a place that we just can choose at that moment. And that the choice will be amazing. Today if you make the choice to go to the National Portrait gallery with a young woman by your side these things could happenwhilst your daughter will try to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-451736.html Last night I walked down Regent Street towards Oxford Circus but the road was blocked by an ever increasing crowd gathering around a stage and then I remembered that the Christmas street lights were being switched on in 4 places across the city but couldn't remember who was doing the honours at Regent St so I waited along with about 5000 others who merged with a crowd of around the same siz http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-450757.html What can I say about the contrast of a city in China with a population nearly 17 million my hometown in China with a population of 6.2 million a walk with 2 great friends across stanedge edge in gale force winds with changing weather at the speed of light and a rainbow stretching across the entire expanse of the horizon and LondonFour fantastic places 3 chinese dogs and 6 fantastic friends fr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Derbyshire/Peak-District-National-Park/blog-449120.html one suggestion for something to do if you have lots and lots and lots of free time in London like meTuesday Art i've just been to the whitechapel and now i'm sitting in this scummy place WITH WIFI in brick lane that i remembered when i was seeing len. you'll probably know it it has scaggy sofas and chipped paint and old tables and an amazing atmosphere and all around are people competing wit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-447209.html Altruism and a new day.6am mondayThe night moves slowly because it is day. My body searches for the right hour for a place to live and breatheIt wakes at the wrong hours again.London sleeps but Irsquom awake before the birds my mind calculating 7 hours ahead. I have the luxury of no anxiety from this. I have no work to be alive for. Itrsquos just me time again.So the hour wakes me and I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-446442.html i was not going to do this because its been a very slow quiet day but still momentous and thats what happens when you know your way around a bit and keep poking.i heard the band playing in the old town before i saw them and because i waited smiled and spoke to them all then took polaroids i got a special ring side seat and they got another player and another crazy instrument and performed ex http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-445476.html when i sit quietly and breathe i feel a deep hollow in my chest from cryingmy crying is not from hurt or pain or anger it is from a knowledge that i leave behind some of the greatest people this world holds.eleven hours ago i sat opposite Lao Wang and explained that i was leaving he knew but thought it was tomorrow or saturday but it was today. a man exactly thirty years older than me looking http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-445210.html Things of beauty A Chinese bride to be contemplating the colour greenThat on the day I tell the man that I most want to be with that I am leaving he declares he wants to know meTwo friends biking in the early autumn breezeA death wreath pinned to the bed of the dead man The sound of rain on my Chinese roof tiles and no other sound nothingThe bridal veil placed in positionA cat when it paws the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-444215.html Amanda and I went to Nanjing for a couple of days particularly to see the Massacre Museum and a place that I could not remember. Nanjing is an absolutely huge city and being the National Holiday meant that everyone was out enjoying the sun and the sights. During the last year and half that I have been in China I have Never seen so many people in one city at any one time as I did in Nanjing n http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Nanjing/blog-442316.html Seven hours walking around the old lanes in what is left of the old town in Shanghai poking inside the antique markets and feeling the fabric in the cloth market wasn't enough to really get to the bottom of the people living here. I saw real beauty. In the women's faces the old traditional skills mending shoes and tailoring the old houses divided up in 1949 to house 4 or 5 families all higled http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-441478.html After catching the train from Suzhou to Shanghai on probably one of the busiest days in the year National Day 60 years on. And after sitting with thousands in the station watching on plasma screens Hu JinTao drive through the barren avenues of Beijing except for the a million army soldiers lining it for miles and miles along with military tanks and war fare for the National Day Parade and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-441372.html Irsquove long wanted to visit M50 and I wasnrsquotrsquo disappointed and not only because of the art or the buildings and location.Instantly the environment feels good creative trendy and alive coupled with the added bonus of fantastic old warehouse buildings housing art in the most light beaming lightful way. but when you dig a little deeper the veneer of galleries becomes a little sa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-438350.html Many articles blogs and papers have been written on the disappearing hutongs in China mainly in Beijing and Shanghai. But when you see it for yourself the words that you can write and have read become useless as you are faced with the reality of the uprooting of lives in the name of progress. The demolishing of the old hutong houses is also happening in the city I live in and Irsquove walked http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-437889.html If you don't understand my love for dogs or if you don't like them yourself don't bother reading any further. On thursday I was walking with Amanda and came across a little dog.He was all wonky and rickety and so ugly that he was cute. So I asked around and the bike mender and the shoe man said he didn't belong to anyone so I took him because he was too lovely to just leave.The second dog I pic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-437837.html People have started emailing me because they're worried because I'm not updating my blog so much. Dun worry I just don't have much to say. My contract is almost up at Web and I'm considering my next steps after it became impossible for me to go on the trek around the Kora at the end of this month with the guys from Hong Kong. So next year I can do that one. For now I'm planning to go home for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Jiangsu/Suzhou/blog-433524.html I nipped to Shanghai on Thursday and met Tracey straight off the train. Firstly I wanted to put my 120 roll film in at snaps on Huai Hai Lu but it wasnrsquot open so we went to HM and tried loads of clothes on some whilst standing on the shop floor. We ran back to snaps in the biggest thunder storm Irsquove witnessed yet in China and wersquove had some lsquobeltersrsquo. Fish could http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-429938.html If you one day decide to pack your bags and leave your country home family and friends and catch a train to another city then another country then another continent and you keep catching trains through unknown cities and towns into new places until eventually you find a small city to live in then you have traveled. But if you move through these lands and meet the people learn to speak a little http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-424932.html