Mad Englishman

I've met some complete lunatics on my travels, some on the verge of breakdowns, some I have no idea how they managed to get a passport to leave the country.  It's all part of the experience but when they latch on to you it can be a bit awkward.

When I had been in China for a few months one of the Chinese girls that I worked with asked me if I'd mind meeting a friend of her boyfriend who was coming to the city I lived in but he didn't know anyone.  I agreed not really thinking much of it at the time.  A mate of mine agreed to come with me to meet him.  I met the guy in a pub.  When I walked in the door of the pub I immediately saw two dudes sitting at a table and I turned to my mate and said "For fucks sake, please don't be these two", of course it was.

The guy was dressed as though he was a member of the aristocracy, all he needed was a monocle.  His face was bright red from too much booze.  Sitting next to him was a six foot six American who immediately informed us he was half American Indian.  He didn't look American Indian, but you have to give people the benefit of the doubt.  The English guy then kept telling me how great it was to meet me.  An odder couple you could not have met.

In the next hour or so the American told stories about how great he was, how much women love him, how he was going to go into import export.  The English guy just sat there sinking pints and occasionally trying to start conversations about the architecture of cinemas.  Apparently he used to be a cinema manager.  As well as talking about the architecture of cinemas he kept telling me how great it was to meet me and how great friends we were going to become.

After a couple of hours of the American talking nonsense and the English guy becoming increasingly eccentric we made our excuses and left.  I thought that was the last time I would ever see him but he rang me a couple of months later saying he was coming to Chengdu and he wanted to meet up.  I felt bad about saying no so I again had to endure a day of him telling me how great a time we were having, how great China was.  Oh and cinema architecture.

About a year ago I was in Mc Donalds and he walked in, while he was queuing up he kept looking at me.  He walked over to me and said "I know you from somewhere", I told him he had the wrong person.  Two other foreigners then came over and said "come on Oliver, time to go", then apologised to me.  It was like they were taking him out on a special needs day trip.  Luckily I never heard from him again.

China Photos

6 Years in Sichuan

"Helllllooooooooooo".  The word 'hello' is going to be one of my abiding memories of China.  When someone didn't understand you they'd say it, when someone wanted to impress their friends they would shout it out across the road at you.  It isn't a proper 'hello' though, it's a long drawn out 'hello' followed by laughter.

After six years in the country I've finally decided that it's time to leave.  I probably should have left earlier, the last two years haven't been that enjoyable.  The pollution has got worse, censorship make the internet pointless without a VPN, the growing nationalist sentiment has also made me feel less welcome.  For most of the time that I've been in China I've loved it, I just don't want to become that bitter expat that hates the place they live in but won't take the step to leave because they've become too comfortable.  The world is too big and time is too short.

When I first arrived in China I didn't know what to expect.  I genuinely had no idea.  I didn't even know where Chengdu was, the first time I'd heard of it was when I saw a flight announcement for a plane while I was waiting for my flight to Beijing.  When I eventually got there I was surprised at how westernised it was.  Probably naively, I am not sure why I thought China and India would be similar.

In the first few years of living there I loved it.  The all seeing authoritarian government that is portrayed in the media didn't seem to be there.  Apart from Facebook and YouTube at the time, most of the internet was accessible.  I couldn't speak any Chinese at all so I couldn't understand what people were saying, although it didn't take long to learn what the word for foreigner was.  At the time the expat community in Chengdu wasn't very large, you'd rarely see another foreigner on the streets.  The Chinese would stare and force little Xiao Wang to say hello to the foreigner.

For six months I lived in Leshan.  A city in the south of Sichuan famous for it's giant Buddha.  Working in a school full of spoiled rich kids and teachers that resented the foreigners popularity my time there was hardest to get through.  Working on dodgy visas, processing a visa with five minutes left, and being told by a teacher that I was stupid on the basis that I was a foreigner were the highlights of living there.  It was an experience that I wouldn't change, it made me a lot stronger as a person, you could offer me all the money in the world though and I wouldn't go back and do it again.  The 'hellos' were particularly prevalent here, I don't know how many foreigners lived in the city but I only ever saw two in six months.

The best experience I had in China was that of learning the language.  Going from having no words at all to being fluent is an achievement that I am proud of.  Chinese is not as hard as people think and if you live there it is well worth investing the time into learning it.  It makes your life so much easier as so few people speak English.  The hardest part of learning was the monotony of the classes.  Each lesson was the same and classes were never streamed according to ability.  Every day you knew what would happen in the class.  The teacher would go through some new vocabulary then ask you to make a sentence.  My first teacher was an exception to that rule and was the best teacher I had in the whole time I was there.

While experiencing the education system for us foreigners was bad enough, spare a thought for the kids who have to go to school from 7 am to 9 pm with the sole goal of passing an exam that completely shapes their future.  The education system in China is not one that should be emulated, it deprives children of independent thought and creativity.  The difference becomes most apparent when you teach a class of first years in primary school who are inquisitive and excited and then teach a class in middle school.  The children will be worn out, their eyes black with tiredness, the curiosity and youthfulness will have disappeared.

It is extremely hard to describe to people what China is like.  On the outside, especially in major cities, it is no different to any other Western city.  The buildings, the shopping centres the infrastructure.  It takes time to see under that.  Even then it's still hard to describe it.  A society supposedly built on Confucian values, a government that teaches Marxist economics even at university at level but has unleashed capitalism at its worst.  The contradictions in the society are ubiquitous.  Harmony was the propaganda buzzword a few years back, on the surface it seems harmonious but I always have the feeling that underneath there is an undercurrent of rage that could boil over at any time.

One of the things that China has taught me is the evil of ultra nationalism.  The belief in the superiority of a race and the belief that you have the right to impose your will on those that don't agree with you simply because you are inherently superior.  The government has used the nationalist sentiments to direct anger away from themselves, people need to vent so let them vent at imaginary enemies.  I do not think this is just a product of the Communist Party, it's more an ingrained part of the Chinese culture and can be traced back far further than the CCP.

This ingrained superiority complex is also contradicted in everyday life, not just by the rich moving abroad and sending their children abroad to school but also in desiring all things western.  Living in China you will always be told that you don't understand.  To an extent, no, we don't understand but the contradictions are more obvious to outsiders.  When you point something out it doesn't mean that you 'hate' or 'don't understand'.

China pissed me off immensely, but when you live abroad it's always the case.  Whichever country you go to the expats will tell you how difficult it is to live in that country.  I am not a China basher and I don't subscribe to the China collapse theory, China will always have some relevance in the world.  While I don't think the political system will collapse, it does have the potential to, and if it does it will be a spectacular collapse.

I often find myself defending China to people in Europe.  China is probably nothing like what you expect it to be.  It is cliched but China is not North Korea.  It can have a lawless feel to it.  If you're not getting involved in politics then you will be left alone.  People rarely involve the police in disputes, not only are they useless, but people prefer to settle things themselves.  Censorship has got worse in recent years, and in fact I became more aware of what I was looking at on the internet even when I was using a VPN.  A testament to that is that I'd never have written this if I was still living there, perhaps paranoia on my part but better safe than sorry.  I think China is at a turning point and this is the turning point that will determine the future for the nation.

China has been through immense changes since the CCP came into power.  The famines of the great leap forward and the destruction of culture during the Cultural Revolution has had a massive influence on the way the country is today.  Stability is paramount for both the government and also the people.  In the west especially, we take our political freedoms for granted, and we have grown up believing that it is our fundamental right to have a say in how our government is run.  At the moment Chinese people value prosperity and stability, there is no desire for upheaval.  This is not an attempt at excusing authoritarianism, but is an explanation of the situation.

I'm still going to keep learning the language, and I hope I can go back to Chengdu at some point.  I've complained about it, I've hated it at times but China and especially Chengdu will always have a place in my heart along with the Chinese people.  I have some amazing Chinese friends and I learnt so much about myself and others while there.  It's just that it has worn me out and now it's time for new adventures and so it's time to say thank you and hopefully I'll see you all soon.

7 years of travel in pictures

Seven years ago I the U.K for India, since then I've been travelling around Asia and here are some of my favourite pictures.  The pictures I've chosen are not there because I think they are well taken, I'm not a very good photographer, but because they have some meaning along my journey.

This was taken from Emei Mountain in southern Sichuan, China.  I went to China in 2010 to teach and ended up staying there for 5 years, learning Chinese and learning a lot of patience.  I recently left China for good but it is somewhere that will always have a place in my heart regardless of  how frustrating a place it can be!  If you are ever in China, Emei is well worth climbing and if you're lucky enough with the weather the views from the top are spectacular.  The picture below is of the sun rising at the top of the mountain.

This was taken in Cambodia in 2011.  I had left China for a little while and it was the first time that I had gone off backpacking on my own.  This man is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh.  The prison was one of the darkest places I have been to and Cambodia's recent history left a deep impression on me.  Not sure what was going on with my hair at the time!

Beijing was the first place that I arrived in in China.  The Great Wall is definitely worth seeing even if it is very touristy.  There are parts of that are a lot less touristy but you need to be adventurous to get out to see them. 

Vietnam in 2011.  This was taken somewhere in the south of Vietnam.  Vietnam is one of my favourite countries to visit.

Pandas in Chengdu, China.

This was taken in Leshan, Sichuan.  Leshan is relatively small city in Sichuan.  I lived there for about 6 months in 2011.  I had decided that I wanted to get out of the big cities and see a more authentic China.  While it was a great experience I don't think it is one that I would do again!  Living in such a small city and being one of the very few foreigners made it difficult on occasions.  It was impossible to be anonymous and just going out could be a chore sometimes.  The picture is of the Giant Buddha which was carved into a hillside.   

This building is in Yangoon, Myanmar.  I had wanted to go to Myanmar ever since I arrived in Asia and finally went in 2014.  Myanmar is a blend of South East Asia, India and China and is one of the most unique countries that I have been to.  The colonial buildings are also still evident.  

Taj Mahal, India in 2009.

Bandla, Himachal Pradesh, India.  I went to India for 3 months to teach English in a rural community.  This was the view from my balcony!  India was where a caught the travel bug.  The children that we were teaching also left a massive impression on me.  In a community that had very little they still had the desire to improve their lives.  

Sunset from the house I lived in India.

Golden Temple in Amritsar, India.

Some of the children I taught playing cricket during their break time.  Cows often wandered through their very small playground.  At the edge of the playground there was also a massive drop off the side of the mountain.  It didn't seem to bother them though!

Colombo, Sri Lanka.  This was taken just before a storm on the day we arrived in Sri Lanka.  I loved Sri Lanka however Colombo is not a place that I would recommend!  Get out and explore the country as soon as possible!

Bangkok, Thailand.  Bangkok is one of my favourite cities.

Tuk tuk during a storm in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Kuala Lumpur.  

Sunset in Sri Lanka.

Wild elephants in Sri Lanka.

Relaxing on the beach in Sri Lanka.

London, my hometown.  Last year I went back with my girlfriend as a tourist and I came to realise what a great place London is.  

London Nostalgia

As my hometown London invokes a lot of memories, some good and some bad.  It was the place that I grew up in and the place that I spent a large part of my life living in.  When people ask where I am from I always reply "London".  Never, "England", or "the U.K".  I've not been to any place anywhere else in the world that has the uniqueness of London.  The cultural diversity, the food, the places you can visit, the history.  

                                                                        

When I lived in London I went past Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral and Tower Bridge so many times that I would barely take any notice of them.  This time I did, and I also took notice of people from all over the world that had come to see the places that I had taken for granted.  Often, when I was teaching, my pupils would ask me about London and tell me how much they would love to see Big Ben.  It was this that brought home to me that I grew up in such an iconic city that people all over the world dream of going to, and for most of them it would be nothing more than a dream.  

To the rest of the world, to all the tourists, it's all these places that define London.  The famous pictures you see printed on t-shirts across the world.  The ubiquitous British flag.  To them this is London.  For those that live there though there is so much more to London.  

When I go back to London it's the memories and the feelings that I love.  Just walking down a certain road can bring so much flooding back.  I miss the autumn evenings, walking along streets with piles of leaves everywhere.  Watching squirrels collect the conkers that have fallen from the trees.  The misty rain on dark winter evenings as I came home from school.  Even the freezing cold winter mornings as the sun comes up in the pale blue sky.

Walking along Abbey Road the memories of kids in my class standing up to tell the teacher what they were going to do at the weekend and how they were going to go to Gary Lineker's house and get his autograph.  Then they'd start arguing because, of course, only one person could go to Gary Lineker's house and get his autograph.  

Walking back down towards Maida Vale and Paddington Rec I remembered going to the park with my dad to play football on cold Saturday mornings.  I remembered the two tower blocks you could see in the distance.  Abandoned because of asbestos, standing there for years completely empty.  As a kid my imagination would run wild thinking what you could do in a couple of abandoned tower blocks.

As I was on Oxford Street I was a kid again on a dark December day.  All the Christmas shoppers out.  Mum having taken me down to Oxford Street to see the lights and to do some Christmas shopping.  At the time a trip to Oxford Street seemed like going a million miles away even though it was 20 minutes away on the bus.

The late nights sat outside of a random person's house in the summer smoking hash.  Playing football until it was too dark to see the ball but not wanting to go home because you all enjoyed each other's company.  Spending hours talking nonsense in the warm summer nights.  Looking forward to the next day as you walked home because you knew you'd do it all again tomorrow.

There was even some nostalgia for the bad times.  The times when I was sick, the times when I could barely walk, sweating, shaking and tired but still managed to make it to a shop.  Going on missions to the other side of London just to get what you need.  Sitting on tubes with people staring at you in pity.  Nowhere brings up those memories like being in London.  

All places change, people come and go from your life.  You lose people that you love, you regret things that you've done but they always fade into memories.  The places, the people, the feelings, the people you wish were still here.  For all the places I've been to there is no place like London that brings it all up.  Some of the memories are sad, some are happy but none of them are ones that I want to lose.  

Making Money While Traveling

When you travel you need money.  It’s the one thing you can’t escape from.  There are various ways to make money when you are abroad, some of them easier than others.  One thing you should always ensure is that you have a backup source of money.  Being in a strange place without any money at all is not fun! 

Teaching

I have already posted on teaching and you can see my thoughts on it here.  Teaching is probably the most popular way to fund your travels.  I don’t think it is for everyone though.  It can restrict your travel as you have to sign a contract to stay in one place for a certain amount of time.  If you have a bad experience whilst teaching it can ruin your travel experience.  If you read the post that I have linked to it will give you a good idea if it is for you or not!

www.tefl.com

Blogging

You can make money through blogging, however, it isn’t guaranteed.  This is something that you have to work on.  Don’t leave home and expect to get a million views on your blog within a month.  It won’t happen.  You need to have something that interests people and you also have to spend a lot of time gaining an audience.  It’s not as easy as is made out!  If you do have something interesting that you can blog on though it is possible to make money.

The way you make money through a blog differs.  You can sell advertising space on your blog and you are then paid for every time that someone clicks on that advert.  This is a very slow process though, you’ll be lucky to make anything when you start off.  You will have to build up a social media following and get them to visit your blog.  The most important thing is to get people to come back.  If you have something to sell you can also use your blog to sell.  There are far more authoritative and useful guides to blogging than this so you will be best off Googling and seeing if you think it is a feasible way to make money for you.

Voluntary Work

Working voluntarily may sound a bit contradictory as this is about ways to make money.  You can find voluntary positions that will pay you a living allowance and provide accommodation.  They are few and far between these days as voluntary work has become big business, especially in Asia.  Companies will charge people a lot of money to do a few weeks voluntary week in a far flung country.

IF you look through http://jobs.goabroad.com  you may find voluntary work that does not need you to pay.  Personally, I have found voluntary work in India, Cambodia and Vietnam that paid a living allowance.  They may ask you to stay for a certain period of time, but voluntary work is very fulfilling if you can find the right place.

You will really have to search hard to find these kinds of voluntary positions.  In the future I will be doing a post listing as many as I can find.

www.vso.org.uk

WWOOFing

WWOOFing involves living on an organic farm.  You have to help out but they provide you with a bed and meals.  I haven’t done this myself, a friend of mine has and they said it was pretty good.  He did it in Argentina and although the farm he stayed on was pretty out of the way he enjoyed it.  There’s probably quite a lot of hard work involved and it may only suit certain types of people but if you are on a budget it is certainly an option.

http://wwoofinternational.org/

Bar Work/Repping

This is probably only suitable if you like to drink a lot and/or you are quite extrovert.  A lot of bars in tourist spots will look for foreigners to help them entice customers into their bars.  From what I know it isn’t very well paid, but you can survive.  They usually give you a place to stay and will allow you to drink as much as you like!  Certain hostels will also allow you to stay for free or heavily discounted if you do some promotion work for them.  I know some bars in Sihanoukville, Cambodia definitely do this.  It may involve dressing up in silly clothing but if you get a free night, it will save you money in the long run!  My advice would be to go to bars in areas with lots of young tourists and just ask.

Travel Writing

You could link travel writing up with your blog and go it solo or you could find somebody you could write for.  There are lots of blogs out there that are looking for guests posts, there are also websites that are looking for people to write for them.  The downside is that it is not very well paid and although it sounds like the dream job it is not very rewarding unless you are doing it for your own pleasure.   You are probably not going to have travel websites queuing up to take you on, don’t take that as indicative of you being a poor writer, it’s simply because there are so many people out there trying to do it.  It’s definitely worth investigating if you have been somewhere very few travellers go, that way your article will be unique. 

Ecommerce

This one is probably a bit more difficult, although there is potential to make quite a lot of money.  I have done this myself, I gave it up because I am not really a businessman and didn’t get much enjoyment out of it.  The shop I set up did do fairly well so it wasn’t a failure and it gave me enough money to live on and keep travelling. 

The best way to go about it is to find a niche market and then open an online store.  You will however need someone who can dispatch your stock for you.  If you can do that then you are on your way.  You will have to look after the online store and reply to customers, you will also have to do the marketing yourself but if you have a laptop and internet you can do that from pretty much anywhere. The links below are to an online store that has everything set up for you. 

www.shopify.com

www.volusion.com

Photography

There are websites out there that will take your pictures and then sell them on to a third party and you then get a cut of that money each time your photo is downloaded.  I am not an expert on this and all I can really say is that is possible.  Below are some websites that will help you out.

www.istockphoto.com

www.stockxpert.com

This list is certainly not exhaustive and there are plenty of ways you can make money as you are travelling.  I have met people that put whatever talents they have to use.  If you’re an artist you can paint or draw and sell your pictures, if you are a musician you can find bars that will let you do gigs and hopefully pay you for it.  If you can build websites, you can do that on the move.  Like I said at the beginning of this post, make sure that you have so money in case of an emergency!  At least a ticket home. 

Hope you enjoyed it and thank you for reading.  I will be posting a list of places you can find voluntary work that you do not need to pay for in the next couple of days!

Travel Photographs

Great Wall of China, 2010.  This was taken not long after I first arrived in China.  The most I remember about that day was it was almost 40 degrees!

Marble Mountains, near Danang, Vietnam.  This is an incredible place.  The inside of the mountains are like something from an Indiana Jones film.  The Viet Cong used the mountains as hospitals and shelter.  There are also temples inside.

Nha Trang, Vietnam.  An incredibly beautiful place.  When I took this photo I was on my way to go snorkeling with tropical fish.

Sunrise from Emei Mountain in Sichuan, China.  It is quite rare to see the sunset as it is usually cloudy at the top.  We were very lucky on this day.  The climb is steep but well worth it for the view.  Watch out for monkeys!

Sunset over Can Tho, Vietnam.  I took this on my way to the Cambodian border.

Taken in my home for the last 5 years, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.  Best to go early in the morning to see the pandas while they are eating otherwise you might find they are all asleep!

Leshan Giant Buddhal, Leshan, Sichuan, China.  I live not far from this Buddha for six months.  It is an incredible site especially if you take the boat trip.  Best to go when there isn't a Chinese holiday as it can get very crowded.

Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India.  I visited the temple when I was living in India.  Beautiful place and they will even feed you for free if you want to eat there.

Himachal Pradesh, India.  This picture is taken from the school that I worked in while I lived in India.  The scenery was amazing.

Mount Lavinia, Colombo, Sri Lanka.  This was taken at night walking along the beach.  The background is the city centre.

Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, Thailand.  This was taken from the river taxi.  Bangkok is one of my favourite cities.

Sri Lanka.  This elephant came charging out of the bushes while we were on a safari.  When the picture was taken I wasn't aware that there is a wild peacock in the background.