China (click here for the video)

I picked probably the worst time of the year to travel in China. After arriving in the Southern city of Kunming I was told the next available ticket to Beijing was in 9 days, I only intended staying for a total of 4 or 5 in China. After two days I manage to get a ticket to Chongqing, about a third of the way to Beijing, from there I hoped it would be easier to get a direct train. I did manage to do so after a 24hr wait, and feel very lucky to do so.

A family are travelling in my carriage, but don't have enough tickets, the Mother of the two young children hoped there age and size meant they could travel for free as is the train companies policy. Unfortunately the daughter who was around 8 years old was slightly too tall (they have amusement park style "are you tall enough"measuring devices on the walls). Except in this case, if you are, it's not good news. The Aunt of the children tried her best to console the crying children as their Mother was forced off the train (this was a definite case of "More than my jobs worth, pettiness").

Chongqing, when I arrived, was holding a fundraising event for flood victims. This involved taking over the city square by a huge stage, upon which opera singers, traditional dancers entertained the huge crowds gathered. The Chongqing television crews were out in fullforce televising the event which I understand was being shown on over 20 local TV channels.

A large telecommunications company were sponsoring the event, and at the very front, cordoned off from the crowd were very lovely young ladies taking calls from people sending in donations. A large banquet style table was set up with the ladies sitting side by side, which was pulling almost as big a crowd as the entertainers themselves. Everytime a call came in the lady would write down the amount and someone would add these, and everytime it reached a certain level, someone would walk across the stage holding a large card with the amount printed on it, to huge applause from the gathered crowds.

There was a wonderful, excited and light hearted atmosphere about the place. All except for the very serious ladies at the table, so I tried my best to get a little wave or a smile from one or two, along with the help of a couple of locals, to make sure they weren't some kind of sophisticted robot. But, either they were or they were made of sturner stuff, or our slightly drunken attempts at humour weren't quite as funny as myself and my new found best friends believed.

After 5 days I finally reached Beijing and met my contact Erin, she had very kindly agreed to help me with the 2nd task. After spending a night in a hostel, I met Erin again and we proceeded to a localpark to meet Mr. Wang Lei. He is the 6ft 4in Basketball coach who would obviously be taller than me, and therefore help me with the task. He spoke no English but could speak fluent portuguese after spending three years in Brazil training to be a footballer. He kindly offered for me to come to his school to meet and play with his team, who he claims contains 4 players taller than himself. I would have relished the chance to be ridiculed by fitter, stronger teenage boys at a sport I've only played twice, but time constraints meant I couldn't. It was Friday afternoon and we wouldn't be able meet the team until Monday morning. I had a contact to meet in Mongolia in 36 hrs time, and if I didn't get moving I'd never be able to meet her before she left for her studies in Japan. Anyway, job done challenge two completed.

The Lantun and Sida people

The villages of the Lantun and Sida people are situated about 4hrs apart, by a pretty tough trek over 2 small mountains. The Lantun village is fairly easy to get to, you can almost drive to the door of the village Headman's house, now that the Loas government has realised that there is money to be made from tourists, and has built a small road off the main highway. To get the Sida village you must be prepared for a fairly exhausting climb up two steep mountains (and at the time of this visit, also made extremely slippery by Monsoon rains).

Strangely enough it is the Lantun, this unique group of only 3000 people, living in Loas, and a few hundred more in neighbouring vietnam, that seem the least touched by modernisation. The ladies still shave off their eyebrows at 15 as a sign of womanhood, and continue to do so until death. All still wear the traditional Indigo clothes,worn for hundreds of years. The indigo dye is produced by the ladies of the village, which they use to dye all their clothes. The indigo plant is processed in a large pot filled with water, by scooping and pouring the mixture with their indigo stained hands. Eventually the mix thickens into a paste and is poured through a sack cloth and the remaining gloop is used as dye.

They also sell their dyed clothes to tourists (mainly backpackers) to earn a little extra cash, and tour companies pay to allow groups to visit the village. The day we arrived a spirit ceremony had been in progress since the day before. A village elder was sick, and the local, let's call him soothsayer/spirit guide (SSG for short) for want of a better term had just finished his diagnosis (no doctors for these guys, they believe in spirits). The SSG had spent the last 24hrs non-stop speaking to the house spirit of the sick man to find the problem,and solution. He did this by reading chants from a book that we were told only a few hundred people still alive could read it.

Once the house spirit informs the SSG of the particular ailment (evil spirit) and what sacrifice must be made to appease it the village gathers in the house of the sick man. Effigies are made of the evil spirit, and are burnt whilst the SSG's young assistant rings his bell to ward it away from the home. Then the sacrifice is made to the house spirit for his help, in this case a young goat. The raw meat is offered to the house spirit, and once it is accepted they cook it and a celebratory feast takes place.

We were invited to watch the ceremony but not to film it. We still had about 6hrs before it began so we set off for the Sida village. Even with my, and my 2 American companions eagerness to return in time (but not I think Ria's, after all she is a vegan, and I myself was feeling a little uncomfortable about watching an animal sacrifice) we missed most of the ceremony. The trek was just a little too long and coupled with breaks to allow the Monsoon rains to pass over the mountains we only managed to catch the end of the ceremony.

Unfortunately, I didn't get quite the same insight into the Sida people's way of life. They were not expecting us and the headman had gone hunting. We did get to deliver the school supplies and were treated with great hospitlity by his wife. In my eagerness to return to the Lantun village to see the full ceremony, goat an all, I turned down an offer from an elder to spend the night in the village. This is something I hope to do on my return.

Laos (click here for the video)

Why did I think anything would be easy in Laos in Monsoon season? After my 2mins boat ride across the Mekong, I arrive Huay Xai the Laos border town at around 1pm. No hanging around for me though it's straight to the agent to arrange a ticket to Luang Nam Tha in the far North of Laos. "you no can get bus today" he says, "why, has it already gone?" "no, no bus today, Monsoon, road closed" "Crap!" The next 20 minutes is spent trying to arrange an alternative route, because maybe the bus will leave tomorrow, maybe it won't. In the end the friendly agent suggests I take a boat, then a pick up truck then a bus in a massive circle. This is going to add 1 or possibly 2 extra days to my travels, this is not good news. Myself and Ria (Dragonfly team member) take a walk to find other alternatives, and a good thing to as it seems, yes, the road is bad but the public bus runs every day, and you can also hire a private car (for considerable cost) to take you. It seems our friendly agent was on the blag all along and just wanted to sell us an expensive boat trip.
So this post doesn't drag and bore you to death with inane details I shall attempt to sum up the rest of the Laos trip in as few a words as possible.
12hrs driving over a giant rocky building site, in a small pick up truck with 16 people. Sore back, sore bum, in fact pretty much everything sore. 1 puncture, stuck in the mud (towed out), wheel bearings breaking (wheel off again), almost hit by Lightning while having lunch, men with AK-47 assault rifles (not soldiers, as far as we can tell), and that's just to get to Lunag Nam Tha. Find a guide to take us to two remote villages, visit the Lantun people (ethnic Chinese run out of China); then the Sida people (also ethnic Chinese run out of China). I suppose when the guide told me the walk would take 7-9 hrs I should have believed him, and not been slightly cross when after 30 mins of walking he told me "No, we're not there yet"
I really do need to get fit, I ended up swopping bags with my guide, as mine was too heavy for me (big wuss), and I still nearly gave up. It's no easy thing, to carry my considerable bulk and the school supplies up these mountains but in the end I did, or should I say we did, after all Ria was there, in fact she seem to find the trek quite easy, and so did the to Americans we met in Huay Xai and managed to talk into helping us carry the load. So, one down, and 11 to go.

On the road

After a tearful farewell, I said goodbye to my motorbike and get on the road. It feels strange to finally be going after months of planning, worrying and sleepless nights. I'm ready to sink my teeth into the first task, to get one under my belt, I know it'll be one of the easier ones, but it's good to start off at an easy pace. First things first though, I need to get to Loas, which means a 13hr overnight bus journey from my home in Korat, to Chiang Rai; then a relative hop, skip and a jump (2hrs) to the border town of Chiang Khong. The boat across the Mekong is bit off a blur, 2mins of diesel fumes, and shuddering but I'm here, I've made it to Laos (this is going to be easy).

A slight change of plan

Hey Guys, You may have heard that I will be trying to break two world records of mass participation in Germany. After careful consideration, and the fact it's been almost impossible to organise (I'm in Thailand, I don't speak German and I don't know anyone there) I've decided it would be better to attempt them in England instead. I will arrive in England in October, so anyone that's interested in joining in or helping to organise this event please let me know ASAP. Any suggestions as to where to attempt it, where to get 3500 pillows from, and any other suggestions would be appreciated. The attempts will be the longest Mexican wave (around 7000 people), and the largest pillow fight (3500-3700 people). Also I now need an alternative challenge for Germany, any suggestions?