Start of a New Career?

For some time now, the exploits of Jan “Hollywood” Slatter have had me consumed with envy. Repeated requests for television and print interviews is just sickening. Surely he’s no more handsome than me? But at last I have got off the mark, with my first television interview, for a regional TV station! I was stopping in Pucheng, a small city off the tourist trail, where very few white people ever visit. I ran into Rock, a local who thinks he is probably the only person in that city who speaks English. He showed me around the town, and sorted out getting a decent haircut at his friend’s hairdressing salon.

Rock works at the local television station, and so the next morning as I was riding out of town, a car pulled up alongside, with a TV camera sticking out the window. We then conducted an interview at the side of the road, followed by footage of the tollgate officials giving me a cup of tea, before I rode off into the distance. With a bit of luck at some point I’ll get hold of an online copy of it. I really need to do a print interview as well though, so I can get something in Chinese about what I’m doing printed out, to show to people.

So-so riding the first couple of days south-west from Hangzhou, but things have been really nice once I crossed the border into Fujian province. Not nearly as much money here as in Zhejiang province, but less industry and fewer vehicles has made for some great days out. Riding down the G205, a national highway, feels like a backroad after some of the busier roads. Just a nice concrete road winding down through a forested valley, tracking a clean wide river. Small rural villages, just nice and pleasant. Another surprise though at Jian’ou – after checking in, I got a knock at the door – rather than the usual “massage happy ending” proposal, the hotel owner had gone and gotten his English-speaking friend to make sure that I was happy, and I didn’t need anything. If I needed something later, they would give him a call to help sort it out. How nice is that?

A bit of hilly stuff over the last few days has left me feeling a bit more tired than usual, so I’ve had a half day today, and I’m stopping in Nanping, a nice city at the confluence of two rivers. I might take the day off tomorrow too, will see how the legs feel in the morning. Trying to download the 157MB update for my iPod is taking forever anyway, it could be a while…But by all accounts the city/riverside is beautifully lit up at night, so should be nice.

I was going to go in a straighter line to Hong Kong, but since I’m liking this province, I’m taking the advice of locals, and tacking southeast to Fuzhou, and I’ll follow the coast around from there, via Xiamen, to Hong Kong. Perhaps 10-14 days, I haven’t really worked it out. As usual, I try not to plan too far ahead. Frequently when I wake up I’m not even sure where I’ll sleep that night. Here you can get away with that. Someone asked if I was worried about getting lost, but it really doesn’t bother me much. Obviously if I was in a remote area I would need to take more care, but then there would probably only be one road anyway. Worst case here, I’ll end up in some town I didn’t plan on stopping in. But no problem, I can get back on the road soon enough. Perhaps that’s part of why I’m so happy in China – it’s not just that I’m enjoying China for being China, but it’s that I’m just in a good rhythm, and feeling completely comfortable with what I’m doing.