Posts

Showing posts from 2010

Dongguan, China

Hello everyone, The Chinese government has blocked facebook because protesters have been using it to show Chinese brutality, or so the story goes. Getting around it wasn’t hard but it doesn’t work that well. China Has been great, I'm teaching at an EF again here. I have tons of spare time and this city is definitely interesting. Dongguan in business is know as the factory of the world, the majority of Chinese exports move through here in some way. There are thousands of factories closer to the city limits. Living downtown I don't see them but you always know they are there. The majority of the corporate offices in the city are here to help support the huge number of factories. The city has a good amount of culture even though it is very new and modern; by new I mean it has only been developing in this way for 20-30 years. Before that it was just a little town. Now there are app. 9 million people living here and 7 million of them have immigrated from different pa

Travel

To travel is human.  Everyone longs to see the world and experience the wonders it holds. We all seek to remember and understand what our ancestors knew long ago. How to be in touch with nature and remember that we too are just another species in the evolutionary chain. We are linked to the earth in ways that we can only begin to comprehend. Ninety-nine percent of our history as a species was spent on this earth as nomadic hunter-gathers, always moving and living in step with the natural world. Only in the past ten thousand years have we suddenly stopped moving as a result of the agricultural revolution. Over the course of the past few thousand years, mainly the past few hundred years, we have managed to totally sever our connection with nature. And yet there is still within us all there an ancient desire to move like we once did because it's in our nature. To know the world is to know one's self. I believe that the great emptiness felt by most in the modern world is their l

Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia

On the worn stone board walk by the Bali Sea a group of about 10 children fly their kites in the strong wind as their elders relax in the shade of their precarious bamboo shacks. My mind is confused by the sound of chickens, goats and the crashing waves of the sea mixed together. I guess growing up in Canada we tend not to associate farm animals with a tropical sea side. We get the usual look of confusion from the locals as we walk by, but it quickly turns into a smile when we say “hello, apa kabar” (“ hello, how are you”). “Baik baik” (“good, good”) they yell. “Hey, where you go?” asks the old man after we pass. It’s always the first question that pops into their head, not sure why. Maybe it’s the only English they know. “Jalan Jalan” (“taking a walk”) I yell over my shoulder. “Oh jalan jalaaannn” they laugh. The cool breeze blowing in from the sea is a nice change from the hot backstreets of Singaraja we took to get to the sea side. As we continue along the path we notice a large

Exploring Ancient Bali

After a few days in Jakarta it was time to move on. JP had found a job in Jakarta so his journey ended there, for now. We flew down to Bali, continuing our search for work. We have been in Bali now for maybe about a week. A couple days in Kuta (a boring beach town near the airport, popular for drinking and clubbing), 5 days in Ubud and today we arrived in the beach town of Lovina. On the second day in Ubud we did some cycling through the countryside and visited a few temples and sacred sites. On the third day we did a 10KM walk through some of the major archaeological sites around Ubud. We walked out of Ubud towards the village of Sala. Most of the way was down hill deep into ravines and then the strenuous climb up the other side. Arriving in Sala was a nice change, nice and flat! Rice Paddies as far as we could see. We passed through some of the important local temples and saw some of the different style of ancient Balinese architecture. Not far from Sala we went to the Ant

Into the Mountains of North Bali

Image
In search of culture we left the beaches of Lovina and headed on foot into the mountains to the south . We didn’t have to go far to leave the touristy little town of Lovina behind. We quickly realized that this part of Bali didn’t see that many tourists on foot, maybe they would spot the occasional foreigner flying by on a motor bike. The small one lane road headed straight into the foot hills which wasn’t much of an incline. After about an hour we came to the top of a ridge and had a beautiful view of the mountains on the coast to the west. We met a woman there cutting grass with a small hand scythe and had a quick conversation in Indonesian about the heat and where we were headed. She seemed relatively unaware of the scorching heat even though she was wearing two shirts and a long skirt. She seemed a bit surprised that we were walking up the mountain for no reason except just for the sake of seeing what there was to see. I would likely feel the same way if I had grown up in a

Jakarta, my old home

Just a recap Of what I have been up to. I was in Beijing for a while checking out the sites before leaving china which was pretty cool. Met some really nice people there. After a few days, we flew from Beijing to Singapore and caught a ferry to the island of Batam in Indonesia. Flights directly to Jakarta were pretty expensive so we figured we should just fly to Singapore and take a ferry to Jakarta via the island of Batam. Batam was a nice island, though we only stayed for one day before jumping onto a ship bound for Jakarta. The ferry ride was overnight and lasted about 30 hours. We met a couple in their 70s who were on a biking trip all across Europe and Asia. They had biked most of the way from Scotland to Indonesia and were about to bike the length of Java to Bali. Amazing! In the end, we ended up saving a couple hundred dollars each. We arrived in Jakarta In the evening and took a Taxi to the main backpackers street, Jalan Jaksa. An interesting street if you’re in the right place

Our Journey Through Northern China

After living in Dongguan in southern China for we decided that it was time to move on. JP Jeanette and I left dongguan together. With a common goal in mind we figured we might as well travel together for a time. After leaving dongguan we headed north on the train because we had a prospective job in Jinzhong, Shanxi Province. The train ride wasn’t too bad... right. We had a bed which was unfortunately on the top bunk giving us little room to move between the bed and the ceiling, approximately 2 feet of room to be precise. We saw a lot of the Chinese country side, but were getting a little giddy and overtired near the end. The train ride was about 45 hours long, but felt more like a week. From the beginning to the end every 20 minutes a man would emerge from the end of the train car slowing pushing a fruit cart moaning shuuuuiiii guo (sounds like Shuaaaaay gwo), which means fruit in Chinese, as he made his way through the Car. By the end of the second day we were so tried we would br

Nan She Village

Image
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk down a street in China during the Qing dynasty! Well you can't because it was a long time ago, but!! you can go to Nan She Village. In a district of Dongguan called Chashan you can find the village of Nan she. It is a perfectly preserved village that has survived the test of time, through the Ming and Qing dynasty it has been relatively unchanged. In the past it was known as a major cultural center for south-eastern China now it is a quiet town but no less important. It has now been placed under protection by Chinese authority as one of China's many cultural relics. The whole village is not much larger than 5-10 square blocks enclosed by an ancient wall, but it packs a lot history and culture into a small area. The current residents spend most of their time sitting around talking or walking up and down the beautiful streets. Most of the young people are usually off in modern China getting an education or working in one o