Back in Johannesburg

We landed about this time yesterday morning after a 24 hour trip. Beijing -> Singapore -> Johannesburg. During our 4 hour stopover in Singapore (landed 10pm, left 2am) I grabbed 3 blueberry muffins, a cappuccino and went to sleep on the floor next to the shop. Dad came and kicked me in to action at 1:30am and we got on to our SA flight.

Coming into SA I was faced with a scenario I'd played through my head many times: how to get Andrew's iPod through customs. I bought his iPod in Singapore for 30% cheaper than SA (our local Apple prices are ridiculous when compared with the international prices) but needed to get it through customs. Luckily my Dad was bringing in some rocks to assay them locally, and they were housed in a suspicious box - so when we went through the "nothing to declare" line the guy pulled us over and asked us to open the box. After looking at the rocks and establishing they weren't from Botswana (???) he let us through - and we hadn't even handed in our SARS forms. Hooray!

It's nice to be back in SA. "Nice" is an ok word - not too much emotion, just a few notches above ambivalence. I'd like to spend more time in China - 8 days wasn't enough. Maybe some kind of part-time work or something - but at least I'll be back for the Beijing Olympics in 2008...

Over the next few days/weeks/months I'll be posting more pictures as well as more stories of my experiences in China. Stay tuned via rss!

Hometime

I'm sitting in the Beijing airport doing some internet stuff while waiting to check in for my flight. It's been a great trip - can't believe we've just been here for a week. So much to learn! I'll hopefully be back sometime soon. Hamba gahle, China.

Breakfast in Harbin

"See China right in front of you," sings Bono in his killer U2 song, "Beautiful Day." Funny - I'd never picked that up before...

The good news is, last night was the last night we would be drinking jiu (which is a great relief, I can tell you). It kinda creeps up on you. Instead of drinking glasses and glasses of the stuff (Dad says the closest English translation of "jiu" is "rocket fuel" - no wonder the Chinese are 1 of only 3 countries to have put someone in space!) we just had one...but even an hour after finishing it I could feel it still absorbing into my system. Gumbe!

An advertisment for Apple

I love my iBook. For those who know me some might say this is the reason I'm still single (and no funny comments about my beard either) - because I'm really attached to it. It goes with me everywhere - and I mean everywhere. At the beginning of this year I took it with me on our Garden route trip - and we used it to keep up to date with the latest breaking news (via Google) on the Asia tsunami where Kath's brother Mike and his girlfriend Fern were (we'd heard they had flown into Phuket the day before the tsunami - turns out they were still in Vietnam but it caused us some anxious days).

I've taken my Mac with me to China and it's been great - they work on the same power as SA so I just plug in and I'm ready to go. I've used it to keep up to date with my website work in SA, keep in email contact, chat as well as skype. I've uploaded my flickr photos and kept this blog updated, bought some skype credits and called Mom, Heath and Lynd at work and on their cellphones through my laptop using the (free) hotel internet connection.

Currently I'm sitting on a train in north eastern China typing out this entry while looking at some spectacular scenery outside.

I love my iBook!

Train journey to Harbin

I'm sitting on a train going to Harbin from Mudanjiang (that's a 4 hour trip which we got up at 5:30am to make - we left at 7) - which is in northern China for those of you who aren't familiar with Chinese geography. We have had breakfast so it's Super C's all the way. The scenery is spectacular - very lush with many crops. We're travelling through a floodplain next to a river which I'm sure overflows in Spring - especially good for the rice. Funny, because when I think "rice" I think Vietnam rice paddies cultivated by farmers with pointy round hats, not like it is here.

Kid gloves

What a soft entry into China! Sunni met us at the airport - he works with Weigo Lang who we'll be spending the next week with. Sunni took us to our hotel (5 stars no less) - so we didn't have to try to figure out busses/taxi's etc. Supper was great - we had Cantonese which was really good. The most interesting was "barbeque dumplings" (as Weigo called them - "barbeque" because they couldn't think of anything else to call them...) - which is a dumpling about half the size of a fist with a meat filling. Delicious. Otherwise Won Ton soup and many little meats and vegetables arranged on small plates in the middle of the table.
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Cheaper than China!

I'm sitting in the departure lounge of Jhb Intl doing some random website updates and bemoaning this morning's loss by South Africa to the All Blacks (although NZ did deserve to win, I thought - more than we did at least). Marius has given me a book called "Prayers" by Michel Quoist (with the inscription: "To Sahib, from the Punk") which is a series of profound prayers rooted in everyday life - rather than pious religious fluff. Here's one called "The Subway" - which was the closest to flying I could find:

The last one squeeze in.
The door rolls shut.
The subway rumbles off.
I can't move;
I am no longer an individual but a crowd,
A crowd that moves in one piece like jellied soup in its can.

A nameless and indifferent crowd, probably far from you, Lord.
I am one wiht the crowd, and I see why it's sometimes hard for me to rise highter.
This crowd is heavy - leaden soles on my feet, my slow feet - a crowd too large for my overburdened skiff.
Yet, Lord, I have no right to overlook these people; they are my brothers,
And I cannot save myself, alone.

Lord, since you wish it, I shall head for heaven "in the subway."

I don't fly all that much but I must admit, there's a moment of sheer terror just as the plane takes off...that moment of "we haven't yet left the ground but it feels like we're airborn" - a point of tension between flying and being earthbound. The last few times I've felt that I need to make my peace with God because I honestly don't know if I'll live (!). Anyway...

Just after Marius gave me the book he pointed out the new ad campaign of YDE - "Cheaper than China." I snapped a pic with my phone - it's rather amusing... :)

China beckons...

I'm heading to China next Saturday (27 Aug) for 10 days. My Dad is going there on a geological research trip and I offered to carry his luggage - and he agreed. Hooray! I've wanted to go to China for a few years now and especially would like to be there for the 2008 Olympics - yet it's happening now. We're going to Heilongjiang which is the northern-most Chinese province, the capital of which is Harbin (the "Ice City") where they have the massive ice sculptures in January that sometimes make it onto our news. Our destination is just north of Mudanjiang - a city of 1/2 a million people.

It's going to be fun!