Kung Fu Jenny dans les Montagnes

Je suis en Chine et je vous annonce que l’acces a mon blog m’est interdit depuis la Chine continentale, d’ou mon silence prolonge. C’est donc mon frere qui va gracieusement mettre en ligne ces quelques mots pour moi.

Je suis en Chine, dans la province du Yunnan. Apres mon apprentissage de la meditation, j’ai passe quelques jours encore a Hong Kong chez Eric, de la bien connue famille Jumbert, avec sa femme et ses enfants, et c’etait comme qui dirait fort agreable, fort sympathique, et fort difficile de partir. Arrivee a Canton, de l’autre cote de la frontiere, j’ai bien failli faire demi-tour. Votre bien-aimee voyageuse a failli faiblir devant le bordel absolument indescriptible de la gare de Canton quelques jours avant le nouvel an chinois. Impossible de trouver quelqu’un pour m’aider, personne qui puisse aligner trois mots en anglais, des queues de plusieurs heures dans l’espoir incertain de trouver un billet… bref une catastrophe totale, une epreuve un peu rude que j’ai tout de meme reussi a surmonter, en trouvant un bus pour Guilin. J’ai passe quelques jours au bord d’une riviere magnifique, la riviere Li, puis je suis partie pour 24h de voyage vers le Yunnan, Kunming puis Dali. Et arrivee ici un francais rencontre par le plus enorme des hasards me parle d’un monastere bouddhiste en haut d’une montagne ou les moines apprennent le kung fu pendant une semaine aux locaux et quelques etrangers de passage. Comment resister? J’y vais donc de ce pas et le rapport complet sur la meditation que je vous ai promis attendra encore un tout petit peu, mais pas longtemps c’est promis.

J’allais en parler en quelques mots quand meme, mais je me rends compte que ce serait dommage, alors je vous laisse attendre encore un tout petit peu, et je me penche sur la question.

Sur ce je me mets le sac sur le dos, je prends la mini-moto qui va m’emmener en haut de la montagne ou l’electricite n’est pas encore arrivee, je crois que je commence deja a avoir mal partout a l’avance, et je reviens dans une semaine!

Silence please

Yes I haven’t written much lately, I was on holiday, like most people. I am in Hong Kong, I have been there for almost 2 weeks now, and I haven’t done much. I read, I watched TV, movies, went out with friends, went to the swimming pool, slept, it was my holidays after 6 months of non-stop travel. I am the luckiest person in the world to have a dear friend called Marc Jumbert, because this name only is the password to the extended Jumbert family network. Anyone who is part of this family should be proud and happy. In this particular circumstance, I met up with Eric, Marc’s brother, who lives here with his family. He was going on holidays for Christmas but he gave me the keys to his house, the kind of flat you usually only ever dream of living in, especially when all you’ve seen in the last 6 months is the Budget category dorms of the Lonely Planet. It has a beautiful view over Hong Kong, it’s massive, modern, comfortable, and there’s even a swimming pool, gym, sauna, tennis court and so on in the actual building. As you can imagine, I loved it. I also have a few friends in Hong Kong. Yaser, obviously, my first London flatmate, Assad I knew from London as well, Olivier who I met in Japan, and Gabriel Hebert, brother of an old acquaintance from Edhec. I also met a few Hong Kong locals during my stay. So I enjoyed it, had a great time, and now it’s time to move on.

And the next step will not be an easy one. I am starting in a couple of hours a ten day meditation course, in the Hong Kong Vipassana meditation centre. It is a non-religious retreat, where we learn one of the most ancient mediation techniques, originally used by the Buddha. We meditate about 12 hours a day, we vow not to talk, not to read or write, and to have no connection whatsoever with anyone, even just signs. My personal favourite is the schedule for the day:

4:00 a.m.---------------------Morning wake-up bell
4:30-6:30 a.m.----------------Meditate in the hall or in your room
6:30-8:00 a.m.----------------Breakfast break
8:00-9:00 a.m.----------------Group meditation in the hall
9:00-11:00 a.m.---------------Meditate in the hall or in your room
                                according to the teacher's instructions
11:00-12:00 noon--------------Lunch break
12noon-1:00 p.m.--------------Rest, and interviews with the teacher
1:00-2:30 p.m.----------------Meditate in the hall or in your room
2:30-3:30 p.m.----------------Group meditation in the hall
3:30-5:00 p.m.----------------Meditate in the hall or in your room
                                according to the teacher's instructions
5:00-6:00 p.m.----------------Tea break
6:00-7:00 p.m.----------------Group meditation in the hall
7:00-8:15 p.m.----------------Teacher's Discourse in the hall
8:15-9:00 p.m.----------------Group meditation in the hall
9:00-9:30 p.m.----------------Question time in the hall
9:30 p.m.---------------------Retire to your room; lights out

I am afraid I will not be around on New Year’s eve, I will already be there. Waht a great way to start a new year, and to celebrate it! So don’t be annoyed if I don’t reply to any emails or texts before I am free again, on the 11th. I guess the next post on this blog will be interesting, because I myself am not fully conscious what will happen, how it will feel, except that I kow it will be extremely difficult. I will let you know all about it.

So happy new year! and please keep in touch, don’t forget me because it’s a new year and everything! I will definitely think of you!

First Sight of China

I can see myself back in the office of Global Village in London, with my friend Ed, making up my trip. ‘Yeah, give me a stop in Beijing, I’ll have a look at the Great Wall.’ These things you say that sound distant and shallow when you say them, and then one day become filled with reality.

My arrival in Beijing was the most difficult one I’ve had so far. I got off the bus from the airport with no clue where I was. All the taxis refused to take me. No one spoke English. The cold was bitter. The city was huge and scary. I had been carrying my big back pack for a long time. I had woken up at 4, and I basically thought I was going to fall apart, right then. It’s at that minute that a charitable soul came to me in the form of a young Chinese woman, speaking near perfect English. Beautiful. She was the first one of many nice people I met here.

Beijing is not a number 1 tourist attraction in winter when temperatures are very clearly below 0. It’s not an easy city to visit. Everything is big. Everything is big, far away, and tiring. The language is impossible, the food uncertain, tourist rip-off is a well-loved pastime, they spit so much and so loudly you must suspect some of it must have landed on you, and it basically feels like being in a gigantic and hostile labyrinth. I struggled to get up in the morning, never had enough clothes on, wasn’t impressed by the Forbidden City, or by any of the temples or gardens I’ve seen.

BUT – and I know you’ve been waiting for the word- there is something special about Beijing. People are amazingly and unexpectedly friendly. The first day I hired a bicycle to Tiananmen Square. I had to stop at every corner because I could never believe it was so far whereas it looked so close on the map, so I always thought I must be lost. The traffic wardens became my best friends. With their smiling Chinese face circled with a big furry hat, massive coats, big bellies, and tiny multi-coloured flags, they’re a little bit like Beijing’s teddy bears. They seem to have a smile embedded on their face, and it’s contagious. They do have a tendency to tell you to cross the street when there’s massive buses coming out of everywhere, which make you dount whether they actually want to see you dead, but with a bit more experience  I realised it’s just the way the traffic is in Beijing…

What else did I do? I met with a crazy Italian who wanted a taste of the Beijing nightlife. So we went out and had the funniest evening I’ve had in a while. Properly cool. And we both like trying to talk to people, and it never usually works, so we all laugh. There is nothing to me like an Asia smiling face.

I noticed, like in Japan, that people in general and taxi drivers in particular have a tendency to speak to you for about 5 minutes, very seriously, looking at you in the eye, when they know very well, in Chinese, hence knowing very well that don’t have the slightest clue what they’re talking about. Always one of my favourite moments. So I start talking to them in French, because after all I too have a right to express myself, and we have a 10 minute conversation of looking at each other, bewildered, while the other talks in a completely strange language. The conversation usually ends with a universal ‘OK’, and a large smile. I truely love it.

The funniest thing I saw here is when I when I was walking arond the garden of the Temple of Heaven. I see this massive group of people, probably 50, by -2 degrees, in a public park, dancing. Very seriously taking lessons, practising, commenting their performance, learning new moves. I don’t know if you’ve ever experience laughing on the inside, but that’s what I did. For half an hour, looking at them: with their gloves, hats and massive coats. There’s this woman practising so intently her arm movements it looks like she’s about to take off and fly.  Or this guy dancing around  a lamp post.. Oh dear it was so funny!

I went to a stunning area of contemporary art, massive, as is everything in Beijing.  I went to a mosque, tried shopping but apparently lost all appetite for it.  So now all I am left to tell you about is the actual big thing. The Great Wall. The Great Wall of China. Sometimes I think I go to too many places, see too many things, don’t stay enough time anywhere. And it is true. But then I would’ve missed out on things like the Great Wall which truely is a beautiful sight. Like you would imagine it except when you see it it’s much more beautiful. It’s more steep as well, not an easy walk. The view is breathtaking especially in winter with the snow and ice. The mountains in this region are not easy to follow. They are extremely steep, and go up and down all the time. So the wall is a bit like a roller-coaster blended into nature, a crazy and inspiring roller coaster. I wonder what seeing all these things is doing to me, but whatever it is, it can only be good!

L’oeil alerte

12 decembre.

C’est sur un sac a vomis que j’ecris ces mots, dans l’avion de Japan Airline qui m’emmene de Tokyo a Pekin. Il faut que je vous raconte.

Ce matin, a 4h, apres une nuit un tout petit peu courte, je sautais hors du futon d’ami de chez Stephane, a Tokyo, pour aller visiter le plus grand marche de poissons du monde. Nous avons vu les etalages interminables de poissons et crustaces, les ventes aux encheres ou les vendeurs font les signes les plus bizarres pour manifester leur interet, et les entrepots ou les carcasses de thons congeles sont alignees a meme le sol, et examinees une a une par les acheteurs a l’aide d’un pic a glace. Nous avons fini cette agreable promenade matinale sur les coups de 6h30 par le meilleur petit-dejeuner du monde: des sushis ultra frais, au thon et a l’anguille fondants. J’ai meme reussi il me semble a reprendre le metro sans etre suivie par une persistante odeur de vieux thon, qui aurait ete facheuse, surtout dans l’avion.

Je quitte Stephane, je vais a l’aeroport, je pars pour Pekin. Et je suis tres fatiguee apres la derniere semaine en Australie epuisante, ainsi que les deux au Japon. Donc en posant ma vieille carcasse dans l’avion, je me suis endormie.

Je crois que c’est la bave qui etait sur le point de s’echapper de ma bouche grande ouverte qui m’a reveillee. Je savais plus trop ou j’etais, j’ai regarde par le hublot. Ce fut comme une apparition. Un truc auquel j’avais pense, que j’avais espere et qui soudain s’offrait a moi, a mes yeux encore tous pleins de sommeil. Fuji-san. Le mont Fuji. La montagne sainte et mythique du Japon. A la voir la, dressee au milieu des nuages, baignee dans une lumiere bleue, un cone parfait avec son sommet aureole de neige blanche, ca vous donne des envies subites de commencer a avoir des idees un peu mystiques. En tous cas ce volcan, je ne sais pas qui l’a pose la mais il impose un respect sacre.

Avant hier je revenais de Takayama en passant par Nagoya, et j’avais pris un billet pour m’approcher le plus possible de la montagne sacree. Impossible de partir du Japon sans la voir. En arrivant dans ses alentours, les nuages etaient bas, le mont Fuji ne recevait pas ce jour la. Alors j’ai change de plan, et suis allee a Kamakura a la place. Et la, dans mon avion, je me dis que le mont s’est montre a moi, et je l’en remercie humblement. Il avait pris pour voisine une chaine de montagnes, sur sa droite, noires, qui decoupaient verticalement l’horizon. Elles aussi etaient enveloppees d’une brume bleue, laissant deviner leurs formes sombres qui s’etendaient jusqu’a l’infini. Au milieu de cette etendue rocheuse, comme un ruban de satin blanc, des pics enneiges formaient une ligne droite imaginaire, elle aussi infinie. Une vision qui vous laisse le souffle court et les yeux incredules. Quand l’hotesse est venue, j’avais du mal a detacher mes yeux du hublot, et je lui ai dit, betement: Regardez, c’est Fuji-san. Elle a du me trouver touchante et elle m’a repondu Oui c’est beau. Pour feter ca je lui ai demande sa meilleure vinasse. La derniere image que j’emporte du Japon sera aussi la plus belle.

Ce sera l’une des decouvertes de ce voyage. Rien ne vaut une montagne. Elles sont toutes differentes. Certaines sont belles, d’autres sont ennuyeuses et d’autres encore vous donnent des ailes. Celles d’Amerique du Sud me manquent cruellement depuis que j’en suis partie. Du coup j’ai dans un coin de ma tete de finir mon voyage en beaute. Le Nepal. La vallee de Kathmandou et le tour de l’Annapurna, qui prend environ trois semaines a pied.

En tous cas je ne sais pas s’il m’a entendu mais j’ai remercie Fuji-san et lui ai dit que j’aimerais, s’il me le permet, revenir en ete et emprunter le chemin qui mene jusqu’a son sommet.

Can’t be that long…

But I think it has. 6 months. It sounds like a hell of a long time. To be fair, as time passes by, I feel better and better traveling, I like this life, I enjoy the things I see and the people I meet, and I think it will be very difficult to come back to a normal life.

I realised I forgot to tell you about Becky, a crazy English girl I first met in New Zealand. You’ve seen lots of pictures of her when we did the kayak trip in Doubtful Sound. I met her again, completely randomly, in Cairns, over a month later. I was going to Cairns and she had put on her Facebook profile that she was there. I had no idea. She’s the funniest girl ever, we spent memorable nights in Cairns together. I miss her, but I know I’ll have to figure a way to see her again. She apparently decided she never wants to go back to England now, but settle in Australia or New Zealand…

I am not sure what this post is about really, it’s quite embarrassing. I’m just happy. I am freezing in Japan, a lovely crazy country, and I feel as lucky as ever, as happy as can be, as motivated as ever. I think it’s just about time I thanked the lovely people who pushed me to leave a place where I was dying of boredom and sadness. I now know there’s other things out there, and nothing can make you feel more peaceful than living your life by the day, with no plans or obligations, other than trying to make the best out of it.

It all sounds like some 18 year old teenager’s diary, I’ll give up trying to figure why tonight I just felt like writing something, just anything. Ahh for the record I’ll write down the places I’ve been in Japan, before I forget all the names. Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Himeji, Okayama, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Takayama, Hakone.

Oh that’s a good one  I wanted to mention. When I was in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, toward the end you could read stories of people who had witnessed the effect of the A bomb, just after it was dropped. They came a few hours later, to help the victims. And apparently the most helpless thing you feel if you ever get hit by an atomic bomb is thirst. You desperately need to drink water. That’s why so many people just jumped in the river. So these people who came to help were torn with the most horrible dilemma ever. Imagine this. You get to Hiroshima, devastated by an unheard type of bomb that just completely destroyed the city. The few who survive have their bodies burned, their skin melting and dropping off of their arms and hands. The medical authorities have told you, before you entered the town, that you should not give water to those heavily burnt, because it will make them die. And you see this woman in front of you, holding a little baby in her arms, burnt. She reaches out to you, and she begs you for water, not for her but at least for her baby. Water is the only thing they were left to hope for.

Some of these people did decide to give some water, because they considered it was the victims’ last wish before dying, and after that they did indeed die on the spot. Others didn’t give any water, because they were hoping that even though the burns were severe, the victims still had a chance to live. The interesting thing is that both those who gave and those who didn’t give water, explain how they will eternally regret what they have done. Those who gave water regret that they made them die, and those who didn’t give water regret that they didn’t fulfill a last wish. Needless to say it made me cry.

After that it feels very strange to have a stroll by the river, and to find it pleasant. So… what started as a happy post ends up as the saddest ever. So I’ll just upload pictures now, no more words. It’s Francois, Aiko and Stephane, the Tokyo crew, and Becky and me doing the ugly fish.

Good Old Japan

I love Japan. I told you about the Japanese before, but I didn’t know yet about Japan. It all started with a warm welcome from Francois and his girlfriend, which is always a good start.

The second day I went on my own to visit a temple, Asakusa, in Tokyo. I got a private guided tour from the Tourist Office, with three apprentice guides. She explained to me a few of the religious customs before we entered the temple, including the fortune telling. You take a wooden box and you shake it until a wooden stick comes out from a tiny hole in the box. You look at the number, you open a corresponding drawer and there lies your fortune telling. I did. Out of just about hundreds of numbers, the stick that came out of the box, I got number 1. You should’ve seen their faces when I showed them the stick. In the drawer number 1 I picked up my fortune. The title was Best Fortune. I got the most lucky paper they had ever seen, so lucky all 4 of them wanted to read it for themselves, and when they all had a look of amazement on their faces, they looked at me, and started applauding me. Twice. It was mad. But Japan must be a lucky country for me then. I am also lucky that without knowing I came right at the time that the maple trees are bright red. It is a stunning vision when you are visiting a temple, or walking around a city like Kyoto. Beautiful.

And then I have been traveling for a while now, but I think no other place can make you feel as lost, as amazed, as bewildered as Tokyo.You walk around the streets with a sense of being in a place that looks vaguely familiar, there’s people, it’s a city, there’s shops and stuff, but nothing looks really the same either. It gives you the delightful sensation of floating in a space and time that is completely at odds with anything you know. You loose yourself. You walk, you look, you follow, you gaze and you feel different. Getting lost on your own in the streets of Tokyo is a genuine traveler’s experience. It’s powerful.

The rest of Japan is full of Japanese tourists, it’s fairly cold at this time of year, and you just can’t help but thinking: Ahhh I’m in Japan. I guess that’s the kind of feeling I’m looking for. I also spent a great evening with Stephane, another of my brother’s friends, and I met Olivier in Kyoto, who I’ve been traveling with since. Tomorrow I am heading to Hiroshima and I can’t wait to see the famous museum. Oh and another important fact about Japan: there is tons of things to buy and it’s terribly horribly difficult for a poor girl like me to keep myself from doing it. I have a feeling though that this is not the only time in my life I will go there.

The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

I was going to tell you about the cruise on the Whitsunday Islands, how cool it was, the snorkel and stuff. How I made friends without trying. How I slept 2 nights on the deck of the boat, freezing my ass off because of the wind, and gazing at the stars. Then it’s Capte Tribulation I wanted to mention. Where the rainforest meets the reef. How I saw a beautiful fluorescent pink sunrise on my own on the beach. How I freaked out walking back through the rainforest when it was dark. A rainforest at night is seriously scary, let me  tell you. Ah and I licked an ant’s bum because it’s full of Vitamin C.

But now all that is history. Because this day, the 26th of November, will remain in my personal history. Today, I scuba-dived on the Great Barrier Reef.Yes my friends, 2 elements here. I dived! and La Grande Barriere de Corail! You know me, this girl at 25 years old was still going to the beach with floaties, who swims like an agonising frog with 2 broken legs, who won’t go where the water is deep, and who’s afraid to be eaten by a shark in a swimming pool. This old Jennifer is not the one I was with today. The Barrier Reef does these things to you, it’s not like anything you could imagine.

When I was snorkeling I thought if I was an artist or a fashion designer I would get my inspiration from down there. The colours, being the corral or the fish, are the brightest, the most vivid you could ever think of. It’s a multitude of different textures, from mushroom type, to mussel type, to to moon type, to branch type, all different colours. You have these giant clams, which look like they are lined with purple velvet inside, and sprinkled with bright green dots. They close on your hand. And the fish my friends, you just want to adopt them and make  them your best friends, just because they’re so pretty and graceful. I got my eyes filled to saturation with the beauty of nature. I actually felt like a fish. I swam along with them, and we were mates. With my head under water I could hear my fishy friends feeding on the corral, like it was chocolate. The ultimate experience of a lifetime. Worth a trip to Australia just for that. And when I hear that it might all disappear within 10 years, it makes me want to become a crazy ecologist.

When I snorkeled the second time, I was putting on my fins and I said to that girl: ‘See you later, I’m going to find a turtle’. I snorkeled on the reef for about an hour, thinking ’I can’t believe I hated the sea before’, hoping to see a chark. I suddenly put my head out of the water. A guy on the boat was pointing to a spot on the water, all excited. ‘TURTLE, HERE!’. I put my turbo fins on, big time. I got there first, no one around but I couldn’t see anything. The guy goes: ‘Can you see it?’. I yelled NOOO in my tuba amd he said ‘It’s just below you!!!’. And indeed it was, just below me, on the sand, easy. So that’s the new-lucky-Jennifer-who-saw-a-turtle for you.

Write to me! Ecrivez moi!

If you write in the week to come I will receive it no problem! Come on, an old fashioned letter, a postcard, whatever, and whoever writes will receive an answer back, of course!

Qui m’aime m’ecrive!!

Ca glisse!

Je sais ce que vous allez me dire. Un truc du genre ‘t’as trop la belle vie, pas besoin de te lever le matin, tu fais ce que tu veux de tes journees, tu te laisses vivre’. C’est peut etre un petit peu vrai. Mais mes tres tres longues vacances ne sont pas faites que de visites passives ou de grasses matinees. D’ailleurs mes grasses matinees je les compte sur les doigts de mes mains, ainsi que mes siestes. Mais non mes amis parfois la vie est dure aussi. Comme en ce jour du 18 novembre, a Noosa Bay, sur la cote australienne. Je suis la depuis hier et il pleut c’est malheureux. C’est d’autant plus malheureux que ce matin j’ai un cours.

Je vais surfer! Et quoiqu’il advienne, je suis determinee, c’est pas une petite planche qui glisse et des grosses vagues qui vont m’empecher de me tenir debout sur l’eau! Le prof Philippe, est mythique. Un vieux parisien qui enseigne depuis 15 ans ici, dans la Merrick school, un ancien champion du monde de surf. Il est passe me chercher ce matin a mon backpacker, moi bien sur je pensais que c’etait le sous-fifre qui fait le ramassage matinal. Mais en regardant de plus pres la brochure, c’etait bien lui le champion du monde. Charmant par ailleurs.

Mais Philippe, un monument a la pratique du surf. Je rigolais tellement que j’avalais encore plus d’eau que ce que j’avalais deja. N’empeche que sur la fin j’ai failli le faire pleurer. On peut pas dire que je l’ai dans le sang, le surf. Mais allons y par etapes. Je commence, allongee sur la planche, la jambe qui sera a l’arriere en l’air, l’autre prete a pousser, les bras au niveau des cotes, pretes a pousser.  Etape 1 je pousse sur les bras, je leve les fesses au ciel sur un pied. Etape 2 je passe le 2eme pied, celui qui fait rien, sous moi. Etape 3 je prends appui sur ce pied pour tourner ma hanche et poser le 2eme pied. En vrai c’est super facile. Et apres je surfe les amis, le pieds bien ancres dans la planche, le regard au loin, les bras a la direction. C’est excellent. Bien sur j’y arrive pas vraiment, je me leve sans probleme mais j’ai du mal a ne pas plonger immediatement. J’ai quand meme reussi a rester debout assez longtemps pour tourner! Yayy!

Bon je vous avoue la je fais un peu la maligne, mais Philippe, ce cher Philippe, il a du me pousser environ 250 fois avant que j’y arrive a peu pres correctement. ‘Allez Tata, monte sur ton cheval, et tu vas y arriver a cette plage?? Concentre-toi bon sang!’ C’est le regard qui tue. C’est vachement dur de regarder en face de soi en se levant, quand on est train de s’emmeler les pieds. Mais si on arrive a se lever et qu’on a pas leve la tete assez tot, on tombe direct. Ma specialite maison.

C’etait super rigolo et maintenant j’ai au moins les bonnes bases! Ca m’a donne d’aller faire une petite saison au Chili chez mes potes Nico et Tota un de ces 4, histoire de perfectionner tout ca. Bon alors vous voyez moi aussi je travaille dur! J’ai du bien m’accrocher pour y arriver!

Farm

I’m trying to upload the farm stuff!

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