Category Archives: Epic Journey 2

YouTube game

The rules are simple. Any number of players, everybody puts a tune on during their turn. The choice of music is free. You win, when you discover something amazing you haven’t heard before (Temptations “Zoom”, anyone?). You lose, when you get something like Lady Gaga. We did two sessions in Bei Jing with amazing results. It is mind-blowing when you discover that other people from different countries and with different backgrounds share a music taste similar to yours. Anyways here are the sets list for both sessions (everything is on YouTube). Rather Blue Room-ish material.

Session 1 (Hayden from Switzerland, Dani from UK, Zhenya from Moscow, Jussi from Kallio and myself)

Cotti feat. Kingpin “Let Go Mi Shirt”
Magnetic Man “I Need Air”
Peter Nalitch “Guitar”
Leonard Nimoy “The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins”
Frederik “Linda Linda”
Rolling Stones “2000 Light Years From Home”
Leadbelly “Black Betty”
Leadbelly “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”
Wurzels “I Am A Cider Drinker”
Swans “God Damn The Sun”
Circle “On The Bus In San Francisco”
Stevie Wonder “Have A Talk With God”
Rammstein “Adios”
Dolly Parton “Jolene”
Primal Scream “Some Velvet Morning”
Animals “House Of The Rising Sun”
The Coasters “Down In Mexico”
Lady Gaga “Poker Face”
Hedningarna “Kruspolska”
Ladytron “Runaway”
Kate Bush “Running Up That Hill”
Futureheads “Hounds Of Love (Phones Wolf At The Door Remix)”
Bobby McFerrin’ “Don’t Worry Be Happy”
Cleaning Women “Aelita”
DMX Krew “You Can’t Hide Your Love (Hidden Love Mix by Aphex Twin)”
Stockholm Monster “Partyline (Live)”
Dizzie Rascal “Just Sitting”
Fela Kuti “Teacher Don’t Teach Me No Nonsense”
Burning Spear “Jah No Dead”

Session 2 (Hayden, Dani and myself)

Eek-A-Mouse “Every Girl Is A Virgin”
Joy Division “Transmission”
The Clash “Train In Vain”
Sister Nancy “Bam Bam”
Black Sabbath “Planet Caravan”
Focus “Hocus Pocus”
The Congo’s “Fisherman”
Harmonia “Watussi”
Papa M “Arundel”
The Field “Over The Ice”
Cat Power “Satisfaction”
Morrisey “Spring Heeled Jam”
Chemical Brothers & The Flaming Lips “The Golden Path”
Yamasuki “Kono Samurai”
Black Grape “Reverend Black Grape”
Creative Source “Who Is He And What Is He To You”
Lack Of Afro “Wait A Minute”
Africa Hi-Tech “Blen”
Toto “Africa”
The Slackers “Married Girl”
Willy DeVille “Demasiado Corason”
Giorgio Moroder “Tears”
Yamasuki “Aieaoa”
Kenny Rogers “But You Know I Love You”
Radna Hare Krishna Temple “Govinda”
Old Crow Medicine Show “Wagon Wheel”
PJ Harvey “C’Mon Billy”
Gossip “Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version)”
Slick Rick & Doug E Fresh Tribue “La Di Da Di”
NWA “If It Ain’t Ruff”
Senor Coconut “Smooth Operator”
Slick Rick “Mona Lisa”
Isaac Hayes “Walk On By”
The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows”
Slick Rick feat. Outkast “Street Talkin'”
Nick Drake “Northern Sky”
Blackalicious “Alphabet Aerobics”
Tricky “Black Steel”

Shaolin Town

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Deng Feng, a small town by Chinese standards and a home to Shaolin Temple, makes an impression of a place from the Shaolin Soccer universe. There are numerous kung-fu and wushu schools in town and it seems that everyone is involved in some sort of a martial art here. Shaolin Temple itself is a very tourist oriented place which is reflected on a steep entrance fee (100Y). Upon arriving into the town I met this local kung-fu / tai chi practioner, whom I taught a couple of capoeira tricks. He, in return, told how to get to the mountain and temple for 2/3 of the price. You go to other side of the mountain and buy a ticket for only the mountain entrance (35Y, not advertised anywhere) and then at the temple pay only for the temple entrance free in form of donation (30Y). Voile, a little saving and great mood for the whole day! Anyways, Shaolin Temple is just another temple, nothing special about it except the hype and all the history. Kung-fu show demonstrated by Shaolin monks was ok, apart from the terrible music and poor coreography. Nice moves, though. On the other hand, supplemental sights as Pagoda Forest, 500 Buddhas Hall and Songshan mountain are magnificent. Songshan is the central mountain out of five Taoist mountains and plays an important role in China’s history for one reason or another. Joseph Campbell with his “every mountain is a central mountain” sprang to mind. No wilderness here, but the hiking infrastructure is impressive. The mountain looks like a civilized park, but on the other hand if not for infrastructure it would be rather difficult to climb the mountain. Had mixed feeling about that one. Shame though that even here up in the mountains you cannot escape the Great Air Pollution Wall of China.

I planned to spend some time to Keifeng the next day and leave to Shanghai by a night-train, but upon arriving there learned that there are tickets only for a day fast train. No Keifeng sightseeing for me, but on the other hand got another chance to feel myself immersed into the futuristic world of Chinese high-speed trains. This one is not as fast as previous one (top speed 200km/h vs 330km/s of the previous one), but I got a soft seat, which is essentially the first class, as China is theoretically a classless society.

Russia: tales of corruption, trash and those little differences (part 1)

Corruption

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There is an illegal logging site in the forest near Arshan. Everybody in the village knows who are responsible for cutting down the trees, but since appropriate parties are paid off, nothing is done about it. What is even worse, only the most valuable part of the tree is collected, with the rest left rotting in the forest. Locals do not dare to pick that wood, because as soon as you touch you will be charged with illegal logging for the whole business. Sigh. Another example, when tax agency inspect grocery stores, they tend to grab things like vodka, fish, bread, sausage and other ingredients making a perfect picnic party to do a “lab analysis”. Business as usual.

Money

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It seems like Russia is on the mission to reach the price level of Europe, while quality of service not making any progress. The smallest practical money unit is around 1-5 rubles, but the coinage goes all the way down to 1 kopeika (1/100th of a ruble). Most prices are not rounded making money transactions a complicated business and there is a constant shortage of chanfe. When you purchase something, they tend to ask you for change instead. Sometimes this results in a deadlock, when both parties do not have any change, the cashier is not prepared to make a small discount. You also see coins lying everywhere, especially in tourist spots (even as far as in Mongolia). Shows how useful all these coins really are.

Trash management

One thing many Russians are not able to do is to take care of their trash. Everywhere you look you see heaps of garbage. When you travel by train, the entire area along the railway is covered with litter people throw out windows. Trash management in villages and small towns is not any better. People just throw out trash outside their property or sometimes even form a landfill in their own backyard or nearby road. National parks have not escaped this fate. Here again trash is everywhere: empty bottles, tin cans and even batteries. What is particularly sad that Russians take pride in their rich nature and holy land, but are unable to keep it clean at the same time. There are signs everywhere reminding to take care of your trash (sponsored by some company), but no trash cans. Go figure. It is almost shame that Russia has such a vast area, making it possible such a care-free policy. If Russia had one tenth of the area, maybe this ill practice would change. So sad.

Food so far

As you advance into east, quality of food becomes better and better. Russian food was pretty much crap. Russian cuisine can be excellent, if you go a fancy restaurant, but when it comes to eating out in cheap places, food tends to be pretty bland and tasteless. Potatoes, pasta, processed meat, little to no spices and bland salads. Bleh. Food in Buryatia was even worse, a poor parody of both Mongolian and Russian cuisine. As one of the locals described the differences between Russian and Buryatian cuisines: when a Russian makes a soup, they put meat, potatoes and onions. In case of Buryats, it is just meat. All in all, a pretty grim picture.

Mongolia was not any better. Meat and pasta – these two words pretty much sum up Mongolian cuisine. Ulaan Baatar offered some variety, but in countryside these two ingredients were the staple of Mongolian diet. Oh, and spices are virtually unknown to Mongols, as well as vegetables and fruits. Thanks goodness for ubiquitous Korean restaurants around Ulaan Baatar. Otherwise, it would be very bleak.

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Chinese cuisine, on the other hand, is marvelous. Very greasy, weird at times, pretty much meat based, but the flavour is excellent. Needless to say that the food here is very different to Chinese food you get in Finland and only at a fraction of the price. I tend to overeat here, because everything is just so damn good and there are so many things to try. When it comes to meat, Chinese use the whole animal, not only juicy parts. Head, feet, skin, intestines – all parts are put into use. For example, when you order Bei Jing duck, you get filet as the filling for pancakes and the rest of the duck (including the head) in form of a soup. Or another example, fish heads are considered a delicacy and cost more than the actual fish meat. Go figure. As for weird things, I had a chance to taste scorpions (both small brown ones and huge black ones), sea-horses, snakes (meat and skin), bird’s nests and roaches of unknown origin. Apart from small scorpions, the rest was not very tasty, but not bad either. What I learnt from this experience, you can eat anything as long as it is deep-fried and sprinkled with chili. However, these snacks are rather a novelty and tourist attraction and not a part of daily local diet. On the other hand, a millennium egg, a transparent black ill-looking egg is a) a part of traditional cuisine b) extremely weird c) actually very good. Looks disgusting, but is very tasty, especially with soy sauce and ginger on top. Yum.

Xi’an, not so ancient city

Xi’an turned out to be pretty boring. With population over three million, ultra-modern architecture, tourism oriented mentality, air pollution and numerous designer clothes shop (Prada – check, Louis Vitton – check) it rather resembles a trendy capital in Europe than an ancient capital of China. Few ancient sights as Bell and Drum Tower and City Wall are in top notch condition and give an impression of being built just a few years ago. Terracota Army, the main attraction of Xi’An is one of those “been there, done that” sights. Nothing special, apart from historical value and huge hype surrounding it. On a more positive note, one of the pleasant memories about Xi’an was playing ping pong and doing tai-chi push-hands with local people in the park outside the city walls. Push-hands was particularly interesting – 20 minutes of wrestling resulted a bruised elbow, a dirty t-shirt and invaluable experience. Nice one! And all that without any successful verbal communication.

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Anyways two days in Xi’an was more than enough for me, mainly thanks to extremely polluted air. I arrived in Deng Feng, home to Shaolin temple, via Luo Yang by a high-speed train (with the noted top speed 334km/h). Three times more expensive than a regular train, but the train is superb. Ultra-modern, with enough leg-space, comfortable seats, reasonably priced snacks and real-time floor sweeping. As a bonus it makes you feel like you are in a sci-fi novel. No wi-fi though, but there are power sockets. Loved it.

Shaolin temple and mountain hiking tomorrow. Yep.