So I am in Guilin, Guangxi right now, awaiting my night train to Shanghai. Sans ipod, may I remind my gentle readers. This weekend was spent in lonesome, which is famous for its terraced rice paddies which date back to the Yuan dynasty (800 years ago). See all the photos heres also famous for the minorities there, whose women sport extremely long hair. However, more than anything, they should be known for their ability to hawk their wares. They are intense. They know exactly when and where the tourists will be. If they smell weakness, they will conjoin like goldfish to a loaf of bread. As I was reading my travel guide, trying to figure out my next move, four of them sat down and tried to sell me literally everything they had..Their bracelets...which I said I didn't have a girlfriend (lie). Give it to my mother they said. Well, it won't fit in my bag. Mail it to her, there's a post office in town. It'll get lost. Well, you should wear it, because they're actually for men. One offered to make me her son, just after offering to help find me a 1)wife or 2) girlfriend for the evening. I don't think she was joking. anyway, the area was lovely and I spent the days hiking among the rice paddy mountains and the night talking with a Kiwi named Mike, A Swiss guy named Chris, and Anne, a 72 year old from Florida/Caribbean. We had a good time playing cards. The weather was really nice in the mountains.

anyway, the place was nice but getting there was murder. Nearly. Or I should say deadly. The place is accessible only by a single lane road on the side of a mountain that is home to many a spontaneous waterfall and therefore also is known to suffer from many a landslide.the road was so rough going that at one point I actually feared for my life. Actually, I should have been fearful most of the time.

Hanging out with the "Ba guo lian jun" or other foreigners was fun, but it made me realize that I have not traveled much, and that I am not much of a traveler. These people had been everywhere, and were able to share lots of tips. I had none, and was quiet most of the night.new movies here.
Wanna listen to my horrible first attempt at a podcast? here. Careful, it's loud.

so here are my pictures from today here and here and here
Today started off well becuase i awoke at 8am to get breakfast and go to the internet cafe (see below). I went for a ride on the li river which was pretty boring if beautiful However, in the afternoon Guo Kaiquan (my guide/coolie) took me to "Shangrila" which was a "AAAA" park, as determined by that national tourism board. It was fully depressing. No seriously. It was a park to see how the minorities live. It was pretty much like a museum...we would ride by a boat and the minorities....zhao, mao, yao, etc. would start dancing. some of them were wearing leopard skin prints. It was sort of like disney world's pirates of the carribean, except in China manual labour is cheap so they're able to afford real people to dance and fake throw spars at you,etc. I wasn't sure if i should be bored because the whole thing was a joke, or if i should be sad that these "minorities" are being taken advantage of. .It's a tough call, and i couldn't decide. It was more depressing watching all of these Chinese tourists act and react as if they were experiencing these people's real lives. "Oh look how happy they are!" the announcer on my little boat would say. She said "they don't have a care in the world." Later i pointed out that this seems funny considering they have a huge One Child Policy slogan painted across their "peacefully, happy villrage(sic)."
Incidentally, I have updated my propaganda photos here.

On the way back, it started to rain like all hell so i was able to take a bus back to town instead of riding Guo Kaiquan's scooter.

It's so hard to just start yelling at people. but then i calm down and have a mango smoothie.

well, i've spent two hours loading these pictures. time to go to bed. i;'m going to Longshen tomorrow, which is about three hours north of here.

So yesterday i went river rafting which was actually the most fun i've been on a rafting trip if you consider only the course. The people were cool too, and I met a "danwei" or work unit from nearby Guilin who were rafting as a group. All ages and sizes, and a few of them were especially nice to me. Not all the people here are Commie nationalist automotons, or at least not utnil you bring up Taiwan, Japan, etc. Anyway,a ll was going well until some girls from Tianjin decided they needed guys to be with them cuz they couldn't swim. Despite my attempts to not switch with Mr. Zhao, who was a cool old guy who was as lively as he was poor and malnurished, I got stuck with some city girl from tianjin. Every bump was a "Save me!" every drop was a "Help, we're all going to die." Non stop crying, non stop bitching. Why could she possible think this was acceptable behavior for an adult is beyond me.

But the course was fun. man made river down tot he resevoir. so it was steep...

Last night had some lamb for the second time and now i know what my Weeghur friends are talking about...the food is good. I also was able to observe some Han mistreating the poor guy. this one girl after she would finish her lambstick (not really a kabob, now is it?) would throw them on the ground right next to the stall keeper. No thank yous or anything. Of course, it's hard to tell if they're being rude because he's a weeghur or that's just the way things work when you talk to a lowly stall keeper.

Things are awkward as ever with my guide/servant Guo Kaiquan. Really nice guy, although it hink i started asking him too many questions because he keep on saying "i'm just a gongmin (citizen)." but anyway, the guy does everything for me, and for about $3/day. i tip him a few extra dollars, and for him it's like christmas. It's sad, but a reminder of how poor this country is. For every Shanghai'er (shanghairen), there's 3 guys like my guide busting himself everyday to...okay,i 'm sorry for rambling. Soon i'll be experimenting with Audio/podcasting. I bet you (and by you, i mean, you, mei, since you're the only one reading this, and that's because i set it up so the blog is sent directly to your email, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it) can't wait!

oh, movies here. you'll need a fast connection.




Pictures of the countryside? click here if you can't see the slideshow, leave a ocmment and i'll just link to the regular list of pictures. give some feedback,eh?

So i'm putting together a set of pictures that is subject oriented...Propaganda. so far i have a couple One cihld plocee (i'm going to be spelling a few key words worng just for extra cuation) and an education slogan. i've translated them to the best of my ability given 1. my lack of access to language resources. 2. my level of giving a shoot.

anyway, I realize that the blog thus far has been a little short on analysis. that's because it takes forever to upload the pics and by the time that happens, I'm over the whole thing. I tink i've figured out the best way to handle that, and i promise more insight and analysis le future.

but for now, enjoy the propoganda here

So today i discovered when i woke up that my ipod suddelnly wasn't working. It was flashing with a folder and an exclamation point. so the ipod's not broken (as far as i know), but i have no music. fuck.

CHeck out my pictures of Yangshuo here .

So once i got into town the first thing i did was hire a coolie. no, seriously. i'm not sure if i am supposed to use that word, but i hired a guide for 20 yuan, which is about $2.50. But he acted as my servant which was a little annoying yet embarassing. he took my picture (good), watched out for me (good), handled my socks (not so good), brought me water (a little weird).

So I left HK yesterday, and took the night sleeper bus to Yangshuo from Shenzhen. Check out these pictures. One thing that annoyed me was Visa's support of the One China policy (see pictures). That and how everyone wanted a piece of me.

I spent yesterday wondering around hong kong island.
visit here to see my collection of photos.

**please, check out the slide show, leave comments, etc. it's nice to know i'm not doing this in vain :>)

Spending a day by yourself can allow for some reflection. Unless you're in HK. It's funny that despite my experience in Taiwan, I was wholly unprepared to deal with such massive throngs of people, and the intensity of everyone's actions. I felt guilty stopping on the street to get my bearings.

Anyway, after booking my bus ticket (HK$250) to Guilin, I walked from Central HK to the tram peak, negotiating my way through markets, overpriced (fake) antique districts and banks.

I felt fairly accomplished getting breakfast, my bus ticket, and a power converter in such short time that I felt better about breaking Kwok-sing's fan. I woke up at 5am (jet lag) and felt like the speed induced elderly women in There's something about Mary. I simply had to clean. SO i took apart his fans and wiped clean the dust. unfortunately i couldn't put one of them back together and I ended up breaking it. I rule.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the day trying to find an internet cafe, and ducking into shops and malls during my quest.

CIMG0168
Originally uploaded by kevin miles.

The weekend before I left for china, mei had a birthday party. check out the pictures here. Included are some pictures of our trip to Muir woods.

CIMG0261
Originally uploaded by kevin miles.

So We're on Lamma island, a redoubt for dog owning wailaos, and just returning from the beach with the good view (see hong kong set), and he gets bit with a millipede reading a newspaper.

Click the link to see the whole hong kong set.

CIMG0304
Originally uploaded by kevin miles.

Hong Kong has the best eggs. no, seriously.

So if you're reading this, thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. I just got to Hong Kong last night and I'm visiting my friend Kwok Sing Sit aka Anthony. We met in Taiwan in 1999. Anyway, i'm staying in his apartment which is next to Shenzhen.