From China

We were talking to the drummer Gilbert, when minutes later, one of our bags was gone. The surveillance camera footage showed one of two chinese guys pulling the bag from under the table.

I lost my entire DSLR cam setup, two mobile phones, wallet. We did file a report with the police (which was another experience and a half), but knew that the situation was hopeless.

Apart from the gadgets, I was miserable about losing hours of work — just the previous day, I had spent half of an evening covering Shanghai’s speed juxtaposed with the old. All gone.

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At about 2 in the night, the bus stops at a town for about 5 seconds, to let a couple out. In my sleepy eyes, I notice that the signboard of a bank reads, ‘Industrial and Commercial Bank, Huaihai City Branch’. Before we can decide whether to wait or get down, the bus has already made its way back into a dark highway. In 15 minutes, we realize that we are back in the middle of nowhere, and there is no point in trying to get down at this point. We decide to go with the flow, and treat the bus as a hotel room. Figure out our location when the bus stops and make our way to somewhere reasonable from there. So we fall asleep, our dreams heavy with monsters of apprehension.

Three hours of driving through darkness, and we finally enter a massive town. We wonder if we have left Hunan province, or are still in it. The bus driver moves the bus into a dark bus station. We are about to drag our bags out of the bus, when a woman in the bus grabs my arm. In broken english, she translates the bus driver’s frantic chinese directed towards us.
You can sleep here till 6.

I nod, happy at the opportunity to save a 100 yuans, and gesture towards Poorva to come back up and go to sleep. Ten minutes later, my eyes drooping with dreamscapes, when someone shakes me awake. Its the bus driver. I notice that someone has closed the front door of the bus, and four men and one woman have surrounded me in a circle.

The bus driver pulls out a wad of notes from his wallet, and shakes it, and points to my pockets. I get his gesture instantly. How much do you have in there. Suddenly the puzzle falls in place. To say that I am freaked out would be an understatement. No less due to the wad of 2000 yuan in my pocket, and my fiance sleeping close by.

I decide to act cool and ignorant. I smiled and said Hello. And while I continue to freak out, I wonder if its all my imagination. I start engaging them in pointless english chatter, which they try their best to figure out. In between that, I ask Poorva if we should just leave.

One of the guys go out of the bus, and I decide to use the opportunity. Abruptly, I get up and ask her to move out asap. Before they are able to act, we are out of the bus in the open. The bus driver comes along with another guy, waving the wad of notes. I keep smiling and walk away.

In a short while, after a chat with the locals regarding Mao and geography and cartography, we realize that we actually have ended up in the right destination, Huaihai. I still wonder what the other town was that I saw in my sleep

Right now, we are sitting in a net cafe in Fenghuang. Gorgeous little town that has been frozen in time (in pre-modernization days), its alleys and riverside cafes and bridges out of a wonderful panoramic snap. In a short bit, we will go sample some street food.

One small lesson learnt: always be short of cash. And, always act like a fool.

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Tomorrow I plan to test the mobile internet here, and then test the reach when traveling through more remote villages in central and northeast. I had initially planned to stay ‘offline’, but met two Australian travelers today morning who are on a 14 month bike trip through Asia (cutting across from SE Asia to India and then Middle East), and have a whole laptop + mobile internet setup with them and are blogging on the go.

On a different note — I re-read the facts of the Opium War. Its totally hilarious — (in simple terms) the Chinese begin with a winning import-export equation, and then the British dump massive amounts of Opium in the country leading to widespread addiction… and then when the King tries to stop the nonsense, they end up getting attacked and eventually losing Hong Kong.

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The small quiet town had literally transformed itself into one giant… eh… fair… with about 50000 camels, equal number of horses and ten times more people. It was also a perfect opportunity for photographers, filmmakers and journalists, with all the Rajasthani colors and flavors, and the full moon night when the pilgrims take bath in the holy lake.

This year, the dates are from Nov 2nd-6th, and I am planning a second trip. It’s hard not to, if I am in the country. Drop a word if you are reading this, and plan to be there. We could sit and chat by in the havelis and down a glass of bhang lassi one of the nights.

Last time, I created several video blogs to give an idea of the atmosphere. One of them won the leaderboard in Current TV recently. You will find more in my video blog.

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