Well Well Well. How to start? The past several months has had me pondering a question which all men eventually must ask themselves. "No smartass comments Joey!" At the end of august 2003, I met a lively, sweet, and inteligent young lady who goes by the name of Maggie. That of course is her english name. Her Chinese name is "ÂÀÌÎ" Lu Tao. We enjoy many of the same pastimes, for example, music, dancing, and well, just each others company. So for the past little while I have been contemplating the seriousness of our relationship. Y'know the goods and the bads and things like that. Where I see myself. How I see myself. Thinking about where I want to live in the future and knowing my feelings for this girl.

Of course I promised at the beginning of my blogging that I would be honest and dagnabit, honest is what I'll be. This past vacation for me was a time not only to see and experience new things, but to take some time by myself to really think about my life. When I had decided to ask Maggie the big one I had just finished a five day stay in Dali. I decided to buy a ring in Shanghai, which in my previous blog I hadn't mentioned. I found one that I liked and ended up taking the ring in and out of my pocket several time to just have a look at it. I guess that could've been some nervousness showing itself on the outside but whateve's.

Upon arrival in Urumuqi I had mentioned previously, that Maggie's parents and I had many things to talk about and this particular one was my idea! I asked them about it and oh boy did I get some answers. The general gist of it was that they wanted to be sure of my feelings for there daughter and vice verca. After three days of observing our(Maggie and I) behavior towards one another they felt quite happy with the two of us and this time her Mom brought up the topic.

Time passes....

Maggie and I are not sure when we will get married but she is now wearing my ring and we are making plans together. I hope when you hear this news you are as happy as I am and I hope you can possibly foresee a trip to china within the next couple years.

Peace&Love in Heart&Mind
Patrick

Hello friends and family. Today I would like to talk about the last five days that I have spent in Dali. Maybe not so adventerous as the last excerpt but nontheless I had a great time. I won't be able to seperate this blog into sections because something is screwy with my blog today. At any rate it's the content that matters most, not neccessarily the way it's presented. By the way I know my spelling sucks. Give me a break.   So where to begin. I suppose I'll start by introducing you to Mr He Li-yi. My second day in Dali I was wandering down one of the very touristy streets in the little town of Dali(which for those of you who know Banff just outside Calgary you might say that this could be the Banff of China, beautiful mountain backdrop, cultural haven, and more foreigners than you could count ) I came accross a small cafe called the cultural exchange centre. This humble little hole in the wall is owned by a minority author who writes books and short storys in english. His name is Mr He Li-yi and to be honest I felt a little in awe of this man.  I wanted to ask him questions but I was a nervous. Anyways we met; and I had read about a book he wrote in the lonely planet, so I asked him about it and he was of course more than happy to show it to me and give me a brief introduction to the book. I bought it immediatley and he wrote some very nice words for me on the inner flap of the cover. Our short meeting came to an end and I couldn't wait to kick up my feet and dig in to this old mans life story. I've heard so much bullshit about the cultural revolution and all that stuff that I though I shoud get an honest mans thoughts. Anyways so far the book is great. ................. On to the afternoon just some very regular stuff I suppose, meeting many other backpackers and the conversations that we were having went from talking about different religions to how nice the weather is to finding out that Paul Martin is Canada's new Primeminister. See yah later Jean I really thought Jean had Charisma! Anyways The days kind of floated by and I got into just relaxing and getting to know some of the other travelers. On my third day I took a boat accross the huge lake, Hiked for about two hours through some small villages and ended at quite possibly the coolest market I've ever been to. And everyplace in china is famous for some sort of market. The people flooded the alleyways, some merchants were even pulling at our sleeves to try to get us to justa looka justa looka. They were so funny. we enjoyed our time there and returned to Dali by the afternoon. There's a place in Dali called Salvador's and this place is run by a couple of californians. They're only 22 and 23 years old and there making a great little coffee bar. I havn't had any really great sandwiches since I arrived in China so I made it my habit to enjoy as many of these chicken mushroom melts as I could. They were awesome. By the fourth day I started suffering from what they call reverse culture shock. This is when you return to your homeland and you have to adapt all over again. I felt some serious anxiety about it all y'know being still in china but.. not really still in china. More like in Banff. I quickly realized what it was and took some time by myself to quiet my thoughts. ..................Last day. Met up with Uri again. I told you about Uri in my last entree. We had treked together for a couple days and then went our seperate paths. Well he turned up in Dali so that was really great. Anyways Uri and I decided to step into the cultural exchange cafe, he wanted to see what it was about and I wanted to chat with Mr He Li-yi some more. We went in and sat down. The kind old man introduced us to some really great chinese tea and I had let him know that I was enjoying his writings. Then Mr He did something that truly felt great. He had just finished typing out the first draft of a new short story he was writing and he asked If I had the time to edit the grammer and do a proof read. Now I realize that I'm not qualified to do such things but my english is native, really all he wants to know if foreigners can understand his style of writing. I felt honoured. The time was all I had. I read his hillarious tale of "A Ridiculous Well To Do Village" and corrected a few minor mistakes and then had a great little conversation with him. We exchanged contact information and he said he would send me some of his storys over email. This may not seem very cool to a lot of you but for me it was a fantastic experience. There's so much misconception about what's going on, what went on and probably what will go on here in china that it was nice to finally get some straight forward answers. The answers came, more importantly from a simple villager who lived through the experience and If there's one thing that I've learned here in china, It's that the surface IS.. shallow. If a traveler really wants to get to know china then he or she shoudn't rely on his or her own personal perceptions. They should really make some good friends and establish a truthful trusting relationship. That's when you can start to fathome "China" With a lot of foreigners we like to stay somewhere familiar so we of course stick together and help each other out but the ranting and raving that sometimes goes on is still to my eye's full of ignorance. More important than money or government or all that other bullshit is PEOPLE! So if there's any fellow trvellers in china that are having a difficult time, try not thinking about the bullshit and really get to know some beautiful chinese people.  These are my thought's not yours I'm Patrick Juurlink signing out.     PEACE&LOVE ALL

 

   

 

 

 

 

I

Arriving in Dali after 24 hours on three different buses was quite a relief. Bought a book by some cool Chinese dude who wrote about the cultural revolution in english, found the phone bar and net cafe, and went to the bathroom now I've bought myself some time to just sit back, relax and think about the past three or four days.

Chris and I had decided to take a hike through the rainforests of Xishuangbanna. This is the most southwestern part of China and we are bordering on Laos and Myanmar(Burma). So we head to the Mekong cafe to find out some info. After we ate we met this dude form Israel, who had been trekking through Laos. His name was Uri. He mentioned to us that he wanted to do a trek, and we quickly decided to do our trek together. After talking to a local guide a couple times we eventually decided that wih Uri's experience and Chris and my chinese skills we decided that it would be okay if we made our own way. Maybe it was dumb but it turned out alright and we saved each other 600 yuan each.

The next morning we hoped a bus to Damenglong and set out, into the jungle! The first couple hours of the hike were pretty uneventfull except of course for the amazing scenery and and the local villages. These villages were the definite real deal man. The people for the most part didn't even speak chinese or if they did it was very rough and definitely there second language.

After the sun set the three of us came upon a small village with some pretty friendly locals. We talked around a bit and managed to hitch a ride on the back of a dump truck filled with shingles or something. Chris and I talked with the little man who was in the back driving with us. We managed to work out the details of where we were headed and where we would eat and sleep for the evening. This guy was really friendly and it was a great opportunity to see the tribal culture in action. When we got to his village we hoped down, paid the driver and were greated by his family at the bottem of he trail. It was real dark at this point so I didn't see too much. But what I did see was a sweet ass Stilted house made of baboo with a thatch roof top. "Tian de!". That means sweet in chinese. The man named "Agua" I think, made sure we felt comfortable and then started to make dinner. As time passed we had sorted out that it was up to us to decide how much to pay the man. Looking around this home I realized that these people seemed quite content with what they had. Full of dignity they did things the way they did and it was really neat to see. We all gathered around a candle lit table to eat. The house was divided into two rooms. A sleeping place with a small bamboo wall dividing it from the main room, was in the back corner. There was a small fire place just off the centre of the dimly lit room where the kids were gathered as well as the nearby grandmothers. I guess they came to stare at the weirdo's who just arrived. Anyways, we chowed down to an excellent meal and some sugarcane to top it off. Sugar cane is really good. After dinner we chatted for a bit and dozed off into sleep.

Cockadoodledooooooo!!!!!!!!
Huh! oh, I guess it's time to wake up. I've never woken up to roosters before. cool. We got up and hung out for a while. Paid the man before he left for work and his wife gave us some breakfast and sent us off in the right direction. After hiking for several hours we came across a waterfall.. Oh Yeah! Pat gets naked and jumps in. Shower time. Well actually I put my swimming suit on but,... for all you dreamers, I was naked for a second. Continueing on down the road Chris almost stepped of one of those bugs that looks like a twig. That thing is freaky man. We got some pictures and you really wouldn't know it was alive. Adaptation is cool. We ended up finally, (after a long 7 hour hike) in the town of Bulangshan. We grabbed a room for the night and had a bite to eat and laughed it up over some beer untill we fell asleep.

The next day we bused back to the capital of Xishuangbanna and parted ways. Uri, It was great to meet you dude. Hopefully we'll meet up in Dali. Chris have fun in Loas and Thailand.

I'm now on my own in Dali. First impression, Very cool old china city. Lot's of pictures lot's of hiking and a dam fine time.

Peace&Love
Patrick

Hello again from a place that I really don't recognize as China. Besides the communist block style buildings and the ability to communicate with manderine this place is very unfamiliar. Having said that please allow me to tell you why.

#1 Nowhere in China have I ever seen a begger play some sort of flute through his nose. No joke. Yesterday before Chris and I left kunming for xishuangbanna we saw this dude crutching his way along a busy market street with a little girl if front of him dressed in some traditional minority clothing. Every now and again he would stop, shove a flute lookin thing really hard up his right nostril causing his face to scrunch up like a drunkin wrinkle dog and just giv'r on that puppy! He was awesome, playing some really nice sounding tunes and blowing his heart out on that thing. The little girl in the trad. clothing was holding a bucket for small change which Chris and I both felt happy to give a little. He offered for us to try playing the flute but uhh... we respectfully declined due to.. way to many bougars.

#2 Nowhere in China have I seen a place where someone could so easily hippy out! Man oh man, Chris and I went to a bar two nights ago in Kunming and as we entered a familiar smell rushed across our sences. Yep It's exactly what you might have guessed. Not only the smell shocked us but the sight. This bar was completely full of whacked out  foriegn hippys. I've never seen more dreadlocks in one place, oh.. and the music groovin stoner music only someone who's trashed could enjoy. Cool place.

We did notice a trend among these people though. "Sadness". I met this one dude from alaska who'd been bumming for quite a while in kunming it seemed, not working not really doing anything but smoking and drinking for the last couple months and you know I just couldn't talk with him. It was only complaints I heard coming from him so we left that one behind. We did meet some dudes from england that we could really relate with and we had a great time with them. They were travelling from europe to aussieville without taking a plane. That's cool.

3# Well kept temples. The cultural revolution destroyed a lot of the history and the temples in China but the ones in Yunnan province seemed to escape much of the damage. Really nice to see active temples.

#4 Laidbackedness. Is that even a word This morning we arrived in Jinghong. The capital of Xishuangbanna and as we walked around looking for a place to crash we noticed a sence of ease among the people here. nomally when we check in to our hotels we are bombarded with questions and we must immedietly show our passports or we don't get a room. Well not this place. We asked the girl how much for a room she told us and gave us the key. That was it. We even asked her if she wanted to see our passports and she just sort of grunted and shrugged her shoulders.

I'm sitting here in this internet bar and as I type this message three young boys with bald heads walk in. The boys are wearing nothing but some slippers and soft orange robes. Cool I thought Monks in training. They have a different language that they speak, I wish I could understand then I'd be able to ask them some questions. Ah well I'm sure I'll run across some who do speak manderine. The boys are up for playing street fighter on one of the computers. maybe I'll join them.

Oh yeah I guess I should say a little about the Sleeper bus. We ordered the sleeper bus because the ride was so long. Have I told you anything about chinese busses yet. I'm not sure. But anyways we got a little sleep but for the most part the road was so freakin windy and the bus driver was driving so fast you'd go from almost falling off one side of the tiny bed to almost falling off the other side in a heart beat. It was FAAAANNNNTASTIC! and I meen that with no sarcasm whatsoever. We did meet some nice people on the bus and had some nice conversations though.  

Nice talking to you and I hope to hear from you guys soon.
Peace&Love
Patrick