myminimigration

London-Brussels Eurostar Brussels-Cologne ICE high speed train Cologne-Moscow 48 hours on the Moscow sleeper car 12 hour wait in Moscow Moscow-Beijing 6 days on the Trans-Monglian oops! (the Ulan Bator palaver) Training near Beijing for one month Beijing-Yangshuo (Guangxi province for teacher training) Yangshuo-Hong Kong to get my working visa Travel to Suzhou to teach at a Primary School for a few months Suzhou-Tongren (Guizhou province for 10 days: working at a Kindergarten and hiking up Fanjing Mountain) Tongren-Suzhou (damn, back here again!) Suzhou-Beijing (finished my contract! Back for some more Kung Fu) Beijing-Yangshuo (warmer, greener, river, good friends, playing music, and some unfinished business with a bank) Yangshuo-Shanghai (find out if my Indian visa is ready yet after 8 weeks.... NO?! AHHH!!)... read more

Still hanging in limbo waiting for my India visa to come through, I decided to return for a week or so of Baji Zhandao training with Master Chen near Beijing and also to celebrate the Chinese New Year (23/01/12) with him. 17/01/12 The air in the winter is not like the hot humidity soup we slurped in our summer hours of meditation - tongue to roof of mouth. This time the air is misty with what I think is a freezing smog. Beijing streets smell of fireworks, coal burners and Buddhist incense. The bus to the village was packed London rush hour tube style. This is Chinese Spring Festival. Biggest festival in human history. Busiest time and place for travelling in the world. I stood for 1.5 hours on the bus and at one point I ... read more

20/11/11 I woke at 0530 and was coming on for a cold. 50p taxi to the bus station. 0640 Tongren-Junko City, the nearest city to the 2.4km high Fanjing Mountain and surrounding nature reserve (with wild monkeys). Junko City bus station had photos of bus crash victims and their bodies. Didn’t know why. I got on a bus identical to ones in the photos and which dropped me at what looked like Fanjing Mountain base camp. A quiet little market of marquees selling either food or gifts. At one food marque a woman seemed to give off a good vibe from a distance. Unlike so many middle aged women in China, she had kept her youthful smile and often laughed loudly and heartily in her hoarse voice. I ate too much and set off on the ... read more

Last August... So me and my room mate Zac woke at 0545 Sunday morning and sneaked out the hostel before sunrise at what felt like an unholy hour. We looked down the end of our road and at the cross road we could just make out a busy market at the small cross roads ahead. As we got closer and began dodging the vehicles and manoeuvring the hectic scene I couldn’t tell if people were bartering or arguing about a car accident. I was still half asleep. But Zac soon got us to the park where we would take some steps up one of the incredible finger mountains that they call hills round here. We were soon climbing up hundreds of steps, my heart pounding and then suddenly we were looking over Yangshuo, a stunning view ... read more

An August thunderstorm As we near the end of training for the day, the typhoon that caused minor chaos in Japan and the Philippines finally approaches our abode. Remembering what you do in the event of a thunderstorm, I headed for high ground climbing the ladder to get on the roof. The wind was whipping up. The tall thin trees were being swept to aside. Bent over, I wondered if they might snap but they were supple and flexible just like the way of the Tao and the ideal martial arts technique. I climbed down from the roof. The rain started up. I stood out in the rain. A friend of mine once told me she was suspicious of people who are afraid of thunderstorms - what had they done wrong to have so much to ... read more