A Book is Born!

Following the year plus it took to write, I’ve been keenly following the printing process of my book: from my computer to the publishers’ offices in Florida via electronic mail and express courier (for the maps and photos), through painstaking editing, to the printers in India and then to the Hunter warehouses in the States. A few weeks ago I heard that my book had finally reached the warehouse and was ready for sale! A few days ago, after months of waiting, wondering and wishing I finally saw a copy of my book, then today I got an e-mail from a friend letting me know he’d seen it on the shelves of Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon! Happy times and though I say it myself I don’t think there’s anything on the market quite like it! It offers a new perspective on some of China’s most famous destinations and attractions and a range of adventurous possibilities unrivalled by any other China guidebook: cooking, tai chi, dragon boat racing, feng shui, calligraphy, traditional painting and kung fu are all on offer along with the more regular cycling, hiking, kayaking, golf, swimming and skiing. And there are some great photos (thanks Tot, Ewen and all others who contributed). So if you’re heading to Beijing, Chengde, Xi’an, The Three Gorges, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huangshan, Guilin, Yangshuo, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong or Macau, then get yourself a copy!  You can buy the book online at Hunter Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Powell’s.

Silk Road Rocks

A man wearing an overcoat and a huge hat sidles up to me. Stones he whispers, barely audible above the cacophony of the street, as if he’s letting me into a secret. There’s an edge to his voice and he repeats stones a little louder and loaded with urgency. I’m intrigued. This is my introduction to the stone market at Khotan bazaar.

A few streets later and all around me there are hundreds of vendors selling magnificent collections of the stones for which the town is famous. As impressive are the different kinds of headgear being sported by shoppers and vendors alike. I check out some stones and the stall-holder busily oils the stone to show me its “true quality”, playing for the not insubstantial crowd which has now gathered. A few pebbles in my pocket and I try and find the sheep market.

Striking up a conversation with a man leading a sheep seems to be a likely option, so I approach the shepherd and ask the way. His response is ambiguous and could be taken to mean either that he’s going to market to sell the sheep or that he’s just bought the sheep and is going home. He’s a nice chap and we walk together for a while until we’re approached by a tall man with a large mustache who wants to buy the sheep. So I’m on the right track. The tall man inspects the sheep for quality as a connoisseur might address a fine wine, albeit with far more rough handling and tail grabbing. After some boisterous bartering the deal is done and both men decide to go home which leaves me back where I started, but fascinated.

The tall man speaks some Chinese and points me in the direction of the sheep market and soon herds of sheep and a mighty dust trail lead the way. Sheep bums stretch in lines as far as the eye can see and their handlers keenly clip the wool on their behinds like dog beauticians preening poodles. Groups of men with elegant knives slung in their belts walk the line and grab the odd bum, stopping for further inspection if the feel is right. This is just the first market of many to follow on my research route across the Silk Road and I think I can already smell the next!

The Road Starts Here

Having finally (finally finally) sent off the text, language boxes, maps and photos I want to commemorate this momentous event in my life, my first whole book, with a blog where I can ramble, rant, use superfluous adjectives, and not worry about word counts or the wisdom of what I’m saying.

I am physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, but happy, relieved and excited about a few weeks in the Philippines before heading back to Europe for Xmas and no work until March when I’m covering Western Australia and the Northern Territories for the Rough Guide.

This morning I caught my reflection in the mirror and it was a halloweenesque spectacle; translucently green pallid skin offset by a bright ginger beard, deep black rings under my eyes and the look of one who’s seen the dark side of the moon. The final 42-hour writing stint running up to my deadline really wiped me out. Much as I want to have a random wordfest, I can’t think of a single adjective. But given this is the first solo book I’ve written (albeit with bags of help from Tot), looking back on it it never got tooo bad. In spite of the workload I gave it, my computer didn’t pull any disappearing acts with any of the files, and the nearest I came to losing it was ripping my t-shirt off in a feeble impersonation of the incredible hulk when a repair man came to try and fix the window at a seemingly ungodly hour.

Of course, the edit process lies ahead, and whilst all I have to do is answer the odd question, past experience tells me that the road may be long and fraught with misunderstanding, but for now that’s the last thing on my mind. Bantayan Island Philippines here I come.