I have surprised myself on this trip by being content doing very little other than what I would be doing if at home on my boat. The things I have been doing that I would not be doing while at home have been gradually whittled away, but this has not bothered my while I can do the things that I would be doing anyway.
The first activity to be whittled away was photography. It was not really possible to take photographs on any of the forms of transport I took. There were two minor exceptions to this. It was possible to take photos out of the back carriage of the Moscow-Beijing train, while in Russia, because the last coach had a window at the rear that allowed pictures of the track we had just travelled over. These pictures became very old very quickly. They were only available in Russia, as they changed the make up of the train as it crossed the border. It was also possible to take pictures from the ferry across the North Sea as it docked at the Hook of Holland. Until that point there had not been enough light for photographs. Otherwise, on all the trains the windows were dirty and could not be opened, and it was impossible to compensate for the movement of the train. The buses were regular scheduled ones, travelling over poor roads, with again closed and dirty windows. I had hoped the mini-vans, which act as communal taxis, would provide more opportunities for photographs, particularly when a group of us had hired a minivan together. The drivers however were most resistant to anything but occasional, very short stops. This was typically because they had to return to their starting point, so a nine hour journey for us was an 18 hour journey for them.
I started to have problems with one of my feet while trekking. This has steadily impinged on my ability to walk. As a result I have been able to do far less walking than I wanted, and have ended up being limited to walks of no more than six kilometres, and altitude change of no more than 200m. So the walking, and being in the landscape diminished.
In TaGong where there were nunneries and monasteries that I had not previously seen, and which had not been transformed into Chinese tourist attractions, I was not very well for a few days, and missed some opportunities to go and visit them. So my visits to Buddhist sites was getting less, exacerbated by my foot problems.
During my travels I have met a number of people travelling in the opposite direction to me - from SE Asia into China. The one travellers tale that was notable for its consistency across everybody that related it, was a recommendation not to go to Vietnam. The tale suggested that their approach to tourism and travellers was totally exploitative. It also suggested that Vietnam was not much of a destination. By contrast, I was getting a lot of information that Laos was very worth going to, though going direct from China to Laos was not advisable, because that route put the traveller slap bang through the Golden Triangle, and that is still considered an unsafe area to travel in. Laos was one destination I had not even considered when planning out the trip. In addition, I learnt that my planned itinerary put me in Thailand and Cambodia during the peak of the monsoon season. While I did not find the stories of rain off putting, I did find the stories of snakes swimming into houses and hotels during sessions of rain rather disturbing.
Then I started losing the ability to do some of the things I have been doing regularly, and which I have been doing irrespective of where I am.
I lost my international SIM at some point. This meant that I could only access the internet when Wifi was available. The more remote I got the less such access was available. This meant that I could not blog, though I could still write entries on my computer. When access was not available I could not do one of my Chinese lessons - the flash card application depends on internet access.
Then, in Ganzi, I dropped my computer. It landed on its hinge, which in the Asus contains a lot of electronics. I did not immediately check out the computer, for fear of what I was going to find. When I did check out the computer, the BIOS reported that all types of boot media, hard disk, CD, and removable media, were disabled, and provided no ability to enable such media. As a consequence, the computer would not boot, saying it could not find the boot media. Repeated attempts to sort out the problem failed, and I had no computer.
So now, I could not write my blog entries on the computer, and had to revert to paper entries. I could not do any of my Chinese lessons, which are all computer based. I could not transfer monies to my currency cards, which is the only way I have been accessing money via ATMs. I could not transfer monies between my accounts.
So now I could do very little of what I wanted to do. I was going to need to have a technical conversation
about fixing my computer, or purchasing a replacement. If I was going to have to buy a new computer, I would have to have data transferred from my dead computer, and I would need an English based version of Windows. The thought of doing all this in my inadequate Chinese was daunting.
So I decided to leave China, as my visa was running out anyway, and to head for an English speaking country away from SE Asia, where I could get my computer fixed. I decided to go to New Zealand, as it was closer than I was likely to be for a very long time; it is English speaking; I did not need a visa; and it avoided the monsoon season, though it was winter in NZ. In addition it gave me the opportunity of resuming my original itinerary after touring round the islands, if that is what I chose to do.
So onward to New Zealand.
The first activity to be whittled away was photography. It was not really possible to take photographs on any of the forms of transport I took. There were two minor exceptions to this. It was possible to take photos out of the back carriage of the Moscow-Beijing train, while in Russia, because the last coach had a window at the rear that allowed pictures of the track we had just travelled over. These pictures became very old very quickly. They were only available in Russia, as they changed the make up of the train as it crossed the border. It was also possible to take pictures from the ferry across the North Sea as it docked at the Hook of Holland. Until that point there had not been enough light for photographs. Otherwise, on all the trains the windows were dirty and could not be opened, and it was impossible to compensate for the movement of the train. The buses were regular scheduled ones, travelling over poor roads, with again closed and dirty windows. I had hoped the mini-vans, which act as communal taxis, would provide more opportunities for photographs, particularly when a group of us had hired a minivan together. The drivers however were most resistant to anything but occasional, very short stops. This was typically because they had to return to their starting point, so a nine hour journey for us was an 18 hour journey for them.
I started to have problems with one of my feet while trekking. This has steadily impinged on my ability to walk. As a result I have been able to do far less walking than I wanted, and have ended up being limited to walks of no more than six kilometres, and altitude change of no more than 200m. So the walking, and being in the landscape diminished.
In TaGong where there were nunneries and monasteries that I had not previously seen, and which had not been transformed into Chinese tourist attractions, I was not very well for a few days, and missed some opportunities to go and visit them. So my visits to Buddhist sites was getting less, exacerbated by my foot problems.
During my travels I have met a number of people travelling in the opposite direction to me - from SE Asia into China. The one travellers tale that was notable for its consistency across everybody that related it, was a recommendation not to go to Vietnam. The tale suggested that their approach to tourism and travellers was totally exploitative. It also suggested that Vietnam was not much of a destination. By contrast, I was getting a lot of information that Laos was very worth going to, though going direct from China to Laos was not advisable, because that route put the traveller slap bang through the Golden Triangle, and that is still considered an unsafe area to travel in. Laos was one destination I had not even considered when planning out the trip. In addition, I learnt that my planned itinerary put me in Thailand and Cambodia during the peak of the monsoon season. While I did not find the stories of rain off putting, I did find the stories of snakes swimming into houses and hotels during sessions of rain rather disturbing.
Then I started losing the ability to do some of the things I have been doing regularly, and which I have been doing irrespective of where I am.
I lost my international SIM at some point. This meant that I could only access the internet when Wifi was available. The more remote I got the less such access was available. This meant that I could not blog, though I could still write entries on my computer. When access was not available I could not do one of my Chinese lessons - the flash card application depends on internet access.
Then, in Ganzi, I dropped my computer. It landed on its hinge, which in the Asus contains a lot of electronics. I did not immediately check out the computer, for fear of what I was going to find. When I did check out the computer, the BIOS reported that all types of boot media, hard disk, CD, and removable media, were disabled, and provided no ability to enable such media. As a consequence, the computer would not boot, saying it could not find the boot media. Repeated attempts to sort out the problem failed, and I had no computer.
So now, I could not write my blog entries on the computer, and had to revert to paper entries. I could not do any of my Chinese lessons, which are all computer based. I could not transfer monies to my currency cards, which is the only way I have been accessing money via ATMs. I could not transfer monies between my accounts.
So now I could do very little of what I wanted to do. I was going to need to have a technical conversation
about fixing my computer, or purchasing a replacement. If I was going to have to buy a new computer, I would have to have data transferred from my dead computer, and I would need an English based version of Windows. The thought of doing all this in my inadequate Chinese was daunting.
So I decided to leave China, as my visa was running out anyway, and to head for an English speaking country away from SE Asia, where I could get my computer fixed. I decided to go to New Zealand, as it was closer than I was likely to be for a very long time; it is English speaking; I did not need a visa; and it avoided the monsoon season, though it was winter in NZ. In addition it gave me the opportunity of resuming my original itinerary after touring round the islands, if that is what I chose to do.
So onward to New Zealand.