September 2005

The Distinction of China

Yesterday morning I had to wake up at 4:30am in Vientiane, the capitol of Laos, to catch my flight to Kunming China. This was still several hundred km from Chengdu, my final destination, and I had to find my way there one way or another. Upon my return to China in Kunming International Airport I went upstairs to book another ticket north to Sichuan province. Immediately I’m happy to be back; there are no foreigners around, hardly any English anywhere to be seen, and the people at the ticket booking desk don’t speak any English. I had a 30 minute conversation with a group of ex-military businessmen while I waited for them to book my flight which was a blast.

I met up with Tenzin as soon as I returned in Chengdu and we talked for a long time about many things, including leaving and coming back to China. Tomorrow he leaves for Thailand for a month to unwind; off to almost the same place that I’ve been for the last month, for the same reason. But just like I told him: This is the first international vacation I’ve ever taken where I’m happy and excited to return home. Generally I associate the return home with an air of “back to work”. Other things are associated with my return, but that’s what seems to come to mind first, for me. Spending six weeks in Indonesia, Thailand, and Laos was a blast – but two things made it less of a blast for me than China is.

1. The language barrier

I can’t speak Indonesian and my Thai is very poor. I have no chance at reading a menu or communicating to someone who doesn’t speak English, but in a way this isn’t a problem because everyone speaks English. In another way, this is a big problem, because a key element of the adventure of traveling to another country is lost. If everyone can speak English, what motivation do I have to learn the language at all? I tried to learn; I really did, but found it incredibly difficult when there was no other reason for me to learn than for my own pleasure. The result of this futile linguistic struggle was that I’m relegated to being another tourist. I only feel marginally more a part of the community or culture than a group of fat sunburned sex tourists wearing Speedos.

2. Tourism and the local economy

Most of the places where I spent my time in SE Asia survive because of tourism. You can very rarely go anywhere where this isn’t evident. Everyone has adapted to the English language to support the influx of tourists, menus are all in English, and local communities are filled much more with tourists than with locals. Many of these countries don’t produce or export much of anything; tourism is a key element of their local economy. This compromises the culture, especially as it relates to any ethnic outsiders. Instead of a mutual culture exchange with people on the streets, they’re trying to sell me t-shirts. I didn’t come to Asia for t-shirts. That said, it’s great to be back. Everyone is friendly and surprised to see me, and no one relies on me to fill their mango milkshake or tourist t-shirt quota.

I wasn’t back for 4 hours before my cell phone rings; unidentified number. It turns out to be King; the manager of Focus Club in Lanzhou, north in Gansu province. Focus Club was the first club that I DJ’d at in China outside of Chengdu, last spring. I hadn’t talked to him in six months – within 10 minutes we’d reached an agreement for me to perform there on Friday and Saturday. What are the chances? I’m not here 6 hours and I get a pair of gigs out of nowhere from someone I haven’t spoken to in six months. I’m interested in using this time to do a lot of recording and collect and assemble new ideas for music, but I’m happy at the same time that business is great and there are zero concerns about finding work.

I’m listening to the new Boards of Canada album, The Campfire Headphase, which is unbelievable. I haven’t listened to it in its entirety yet, but I’m blown away by it so far.

When Tenzin returns from China we’re getting a new apartment in Chengdu and looking at more longterm plans to relocate south to Kunming, closer to the border with SE Asia. The apartment used to be the home of Chengdu’s biggest mob boss – the place hasn’t been rented out in over a year. I haven’t seen it yet but apparently it’s cavernous – we’ll use the space to build a studio. Tenzin, Jovian, and myself are all getting our equipment shipped over here from America.

Glory Days in Vang Vieng

I took the “SUPER VIP” bus (which broke down) out of Luang Prabang at 8am this morning and arrived back in Vang Vieng in time for a late lunch. I’m overjoyed to be here; this is such a fantastic place. My arrival here was vastly different from last time; this time it seemed like everything was there to welcome me back. When I return to the same riverside bungalows, the owners wife hugs me and is ecstatic to see me. Okay! The two frenchmen are still on the porch of their bungalow smoking joints; virtually nothing has changed in the week that I’ve been gone. I have yet to visit the bar/restaurant which I went to the entire week that I was here last time – the pleasure of their surprise to see me will be mine this evening.

Shortly after my arrival I walked into town to say what’s up to Wayne, the proprietor of the internet shop which I frequented when I was last in Vang Vieng. I’ve hung out with him for most of today and I’ll spill most of what I know which is interesting.

Wayne is a 38 year old Chinese Malay entrepreneur from Singapore engaged to an 18 year old Lao girl he met a month ago. He made a boatload of cash in Taiwan selling counterfeit cell phone batteries and moved to Vang Vieng and started an internet shop, but he has wild ambitions and a good sense of business which I feel is sorely lacking in this particular corner of tropical paradise. He rents a space for $80/month and recently renovated the place for $1,200 which included new walls, furniture, ceiling, all kinds of shit. It took a month and he employed four local guys to do the work; they worked all day, hammering this or sawing that, getting paid $100 a month. Here’s where I come in, though.

A week before I arrived, he made the decision to expand his business. He offers MP3’s to travellers at the cost of $1 an album. People passing through sort through a list of albums available, pass him their iPod, and he copies whatever they want. This is a genius idea which would land you in jail in about 20 minutes in America, but is no problem over here. I saw a poster advertising this new feature in the window and walked inside to inquire and find out what the deal was. Well, this guy has a thing or two to learn about efficiently pirating intellectual property, and I was in a unique position to advise him while he offers me free internet and local insider information. I set him up with the software he needs to copy music from iPods (iTunes disallows this), so now he copies music from other peoples iPods as they pay him to add music to theirs, instead of his mainstay which has been Soulseek. (vastly inefficient by comparison). So we hang out and talk about this or that, Singapore or China, computers or music, or whatever. Today he closed the shop and took me to a local guys house for lunch; the guy is a Norwegian who sold his house in Spain and moved here, acquiring a guest house which he manages. He was joined by his son who’s a Norwegian hip hop MC and another guest house proprietor, this one Irish with an attitude. The plot of land that the Norwegian has staked for himself is unbelievable, with a flawless postcard view of vast mountains over snake-like river. We sat and talked for a few hours while he served home made ice cream made into floats; he also has a coffeeshop which serves drinks. As the sun was starting to set, his Vietnamese wife arrives, says hello, and goes straight to the kitchen. Twenty minutes later she sets a giant bowl of boiled snails onto the table, with some kind of sauce, and toothpicks to pry the snails out of the shells with. That was a first; the snails themselves have very little taste, hence the sauce that you dip them in. They were straight out of the Mekong, that afternoon.

I returned to the bungalows and spent a few hours catching up with Ellele and Jeremy on the porch of their bungalow, smoking joints with them as they also do. I’m surprised that they’re still there in the same place, but I can’t blame them for not being in a rush to leave. This place is wonderful. Thoughts of starting business here have come into my mind across the span of the last two weeks, and I’ll be keeping it in mind for a while.

The sunset was beyond words, and even the two frenchmen said they hadn’t seen one like that since they’ve been here. I went to the deck on the riverside restaurant to take some photographs and video of the sunset where I met a German couple. I spoke with them for about thirty minutes, as the girl seemed to laugh at everything I said. Either she was flirting with me, or she’s had some happy shakes. Either way, it resulted in entertaining conversation as we touched over the German election, travel in Laos, and DJ’ing in China.

Wayne is copying everything new he’s gotten onto my iPod which will soon be filled with who knows what. Apparently a lot of french and Isreal music in Hebrew. Anything new and different is good.

An hour ago a customer was here in the shop who introduced himself as Mark, from England. A few minutes of conversation reveal that he’s just been in China, Dali in Yunnan province, to be exact. I asked if he’d been to Bad Monkey, the bar owned and managed by my friend Scotty who lives half of the year in Chengdu. Turns out he was there for a week and they’d become good friends, being from the same district in London. I don’t have Scotty’s email address, so on my way back to Chengdu I’ll pay him a surprise visit.

My flight to Kunming, Yunnan province China, leaves on the 28th at 6:30am. I’ll fly there and then take a bus to Dali, and after that, find my way north to Chengdu. I can’t wait to return to China because I love that place, but I’m simultaneously grieving my departure from Laos, and most specifically, Vang Vieng.

I will be back.