…and we’re back… I am inspired to write a proper post about China but not inspired enough to edit it properly to any extent. Enjoy

Man, it was a nice couple of weeks in ‘What is my job description again?’ land but now we have officially arrived back from boiling hot and humid China to cold, yet sunny, Melbourne. Talk about your culture/enviro shock!

Poor Rox has had to go to work today while I was lucky enough to take another day off to resynchronise my brain. I spent all yesterday evening catching up with my bro and work and this morning browsing the intertubes for iPhone news. Haha kidding, I don’t give a shit about the iPhone launch (although it does look pretty leetballs in the vids I have seen.

Walking around Melbourne was weird. I feel like I have been away for ages and everyone is bizarre. I thought I heard someone hawking up a spit as I walked past an open doorway but it was a coffee machine making a cappuccino. Strange how quickly you get used to things.

Getting back into stuff is going to be tough. I am straight back into piano lessons and am starting the Landmark SELP course this weekend which means all Saturday is gone. I know I will enjoy it when I get into it but all I really want to do is watch Transformers and get drunk… (Yeah it’s a tough life I know, I know - Ok I’ll stop whinging now)

Enough about that. Let me tell you about China.

First off it was hot - All of my video segments seem to start with “Hello. Shit, it’s hot” which you don’t notice when you are filming. I am going to try to cut together an awesome vid set to music but that won’t happen until next week at the latest. I have to rip it all to disk first (Just bought a new 320GB seagate HD for $110 though so space isn’t a prob anymore - w00t!)

Secondly China was amazing. We did some really cool things that, due to my reticence to read an itinerary, I hadn’t even thought about doing until I was actually doing them. Some of them were:

– Had a kung fu lesson at THE Shaolin Temple
- Trekked for 10Ks along THE Great Wall
- Went to Tibet and stayed overnight in a village with some Tibetan sheep herders
- Played basketball with some superfit Tibetan crazy dudes at 3200m up (Believe me, it’s hard to breathe up there!)
- Went shopping in every village/town/city in China
- Biked around Beijing’s Houtongs (alley ways)
- Had some awesome Peking duck
- Lots of other shit that I will remember later

One of the highlights of the trip for me was doing kungfu at the Shaolin temple. We had a private lesson but it was amazing to see hundreds of other kids all learning at the temple. The kids start at the age of 4 or 5 but even those guys already knew how to flip and do flying kicks. They train 3 times a day and even late into the night. And this can go on for years until they are my age. It’s crazy!

Also trekking the Great Wall was really cool. At a couple of points I thought I was going to die but then it was pointed out to me that we only had to trek past 30 watch towers - not the 67 someone had originally told me! Still it was a massive effort and we all felt like we had achieved something afterwards. The wall itself is in amazing condition considering its construction was started over 2000 years ago and just goes to show that the emperors in those days were madder than a box of snakes (who had missed out on seeing the Transformers movie).

Going to Tibet was also a highlight for me. We stayed near one of the major monastaries in Xia’He and there were maroon robed monks everywhere you looked. Life is so laid back there as everyone seems to either be a farmer, a shop owner or a monk. In the mornings the people of the village walk clockwise around the monastary turning the prayer wheels for good luck. And the great thing about Buddhism is that they are not only praying for good luck for themselves and their families, they are also praying for luck and prosperity for the entire planet. I would love to see that in more religions instead of all the damnation that seems to be everywhere!

(Also if you are reading this mum, I bought you a prayer wheel - You are gonna love it! )

Throughout the trip it was clearly evident that China is going through massive changes. Everywhere you look there are new buildings going up and people cleaning stuff in preparation for the Olympics next year. I am not sure how I feel about the Olympics being in China actually, given their track record for human rights violations and the obvious poverty that exists in a lot of places but it will be interesting to see how it goes now that they have it.

Overall China seemed to me to be caught between the old and the new with over 5000 years of history rubbing against the shiny plastic and metal of the future. Who knows if it can make the transition successfully? Not me, I’m just thankful that I have had a break from work!!! PHEW!!