From the Environment to Big Destructive Business
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2009
1
44
Trip End
Feb 23, 2009
Kunming, Yunnan, China
Friday, January 9, 2009
The vehicle moved along steadily and slowly emerged with heavy traffic as it got closer to the airport. The Chinese press, incumbent TV presenters - and the western media - are all full of glamorous respectable fake tales about how marvelous everything is in China, and an annual 10 % GDP growth which is nothing more than a stuck gramophone record. If anyone has lived in China for several years as I have, they'll see the reality is quite different: smoggy polluted skies where the sun only glimmers, and where anything environmentally beautiful, such as Tiger Leaping Gorge, is being sidelined for greater economic development. China will end up like Japan where all its lakes have been given way to hydro-electric dam projects. Stunning spots like the Gorge have no place in the great Chinese boast - only the 10 % GDP!! However, this is also forcibly being capped due to the current economic meltdown. What a crying shame!! They'll pay the price in the long run, and Chongqing is thoroughly spoilt; a desert of sterile skyscrapers; a sort of unglamorous boom city where the sun hardly shines. Normally, the atmosphere here has the complexion and thickness of grey soup. But that's what most of China is - a base to play at games, at doing business. But wonders will never cease - the sun came out. One of those days, today.
The plane was delayed, then canceled. I had to hurry to re-check in to be put on another flight - one at a stopover from Shijiazhuang. The inefficiency had me exploding which I thereafter inwardly apologized, made worse by Chinese lack of queuing- more like clamoring. Don't they ever realize that there is a tangible animate object in front of them?
It is time to travel south and try somewhere different - to where the sun gets a look-in - where it shines.
Made it to Kunming after a rather confusing taxi ride, thinking the driver was doing a detour to accumulate more on the meter so I'd have to pay more....ripper off, cheater. You can't play these games forever.
Checked in to the Hump hostel.. 'By Gum' it's quite noisy; incessant soul-rap music blaring in the main lounge.
I wasn't sure about creating another unpaid travel blog, being just another channel for a self-centred egotist, according to one equally egotistical travel writer, but it helps to keep the record straight of what I've been doing.
Going off traveling on my own makes me neurotic: nervous, dreading, gut worry ... you name it. It's as a Canadian friend described the cause: "you've been taking your job (as an oral English teacher) too seriously." Yes but it's also a consequence of being attached and conditioned to a home environment.
A word or two more. The Hump is slap bang among a load of bars and discos, and there's a nice pleasant cheap noodle bar just next door. I ordered a bowl, and as it was quite late, the cooks and waitress staff were playing at tickling each other in a small back room; a welcome respite to have some fun.
The Hump is quite old, dorms are dingy, shabby, though lived-in, the Internet corner's a fabulous joke: PCs are painfully slow, someone spilt beer near the mouse and keyboard of one, paralyzing the desktop, and they expect you to pay 4 Yuan an hour! I hate Net bars. Otherwise, the staff seem down-to-earth and helpful.
I noticed a notice on the noticeboard in pink handwriting needing two more passengers to jump in a car which was heading for Luang Prabang and Vientiane - 300 RMB for the drive down. More about this tomorrow. In the meantime, headed for the sack.
