It is dark. My torch struggles to illuminate anything beyond my feet. It is cold. My scarf, woolly hat, gloves, thermals and five layers of clothes struggle to keep out the chill, let alone keep me warm. It is impossible to see...
Category - China
A Picture Paints A Thousand Words: Here’s 532 about a picture ‘Bitch!’ I scream at the old woman. ‘Bitch. Bitch. Bitch.’ I continue to shower this frailest of flowers with cuss words right there in...
It was a pleasant morning for a stroll. The sky was cloudless and blue, the sun big and beaming, and there was a crispness to the air good enough to chomp on. It was the kind of morning that if I carried a cane, I would spin it...
I am clapping in and out of time to a Tibetan song. It has been playing on repeat for the last hour on television. The Tibetan woman opposite me is trying to learn the words to the song. She sings along: sometimes a few words...
The bus arrives late into Xiahe. It is dark and near freezing. My pack feels heavier than I remember. It cuts into my shoulders, digs into my lower spine. I walk out from the bus yard. Five men sit in the shadows, smoking from...
After several thousand steps upon hard concrete in the shadow of hard concrete buildings, I come to the conclusion that ChengDu lacks soul. Still I plod on towards the People’s Park in the hope that there will be people...
In a tree-lined and upper-class suburb of ChengDu, I find myself walking past high-end fashion retailers where immaculately-dressed and beautiful women trot in delicate patterns across black marble floors, circumnavigating the...
“I’m on the night train And I’m ready to crash an’ burn Night train Bottoms up I’m on the night train Fill my cup I’m on the night train” Axl Rose I’m On The Night Train The passing from...
I have a girl’s bike. It is pink. It has no gears and no suspension but it does have tiny girlish wheels and a small bell that tinkles just so. In Yangshuo county in the south of China, the dirt roads that wind amongst the...
The train rolls into a town. More like violently shunts. Smokers rummage for their lighters as they wait for the train to stop. Within seconds of the doors being flung open, fifty or so passengers are out on the platform of this...