Bike ride through yangshuo

In yangshou bikes were only about 70cents to rent for the day. I ended up with a girls beach cruiser and ended up riding 35 km through the country side. i thought i was going around in a circle then after around 20km there was a little village on the river i realized it was another 16km back to yangshuoi so I drank a few pijous (beer) to replenish my electrolytes before the rest of the ride back to town . there was this old guy who kept passing me on a full suspension mountain bike. he would fly by me then 20 minutes later i would pass him while he was resting then he would go by again then the same again. it was liket he tortoise and the hare anyways y i was highly impressed with the performance of the 70cent girls cruiser.

river cruise

dragons backbone

This is the rice terraces outside yangshuo also called the dragons backbone.

chinese chili john's

this is the chinese chili johns. this place is 100 years old and has been serving the same spicey secret recipe the whole time. they dont serve chili they serve spicey rice noodles and on the tables is onions and vinegar like chili johns. I also believe i saw lisa fisher leaving when i first got there.

I am back!

After 10 days in paradise I am back in beijing.

this is where i was:
n 24.77718 e 110.483954 ( click link for google map )

I will post more pictures and stuff later.

another gem

this is another gem of a letter i recieved for my advice column. if your curious 2000rmb is about $250. i personally would have asked for more.

I am a university student.I had a boyfriend from Pakistan.He pushed me to make sex with him.He damaged my first time, then we splited up.Please guide me to perswuade him give me damages---2000RMB. Thank you so much.
Sunday

love advice column

so i haven't been able to buy or post my last to columns so i feel as though i should make up for it. i am not sure if this breaks some kind of confidentiality or ethical boundries but screw it this is china. the recent letter i recieved is a gem!

Dear Ben,
I'm a high school student,I guess I 'm in love with my deskmate secrectly.However he's not my deskmate any more,he's even not in the same classs with me. He is such a fantastic guy,he does well in physics which is my weak point.
We share almost the same hobbies,for say,F1Racing,automobile.We are both Gemini. He gets sick when he eats peaches,so do I.
I once wrote a little poem for him which goes like this:(he said it was good and that's all)
I 've got a deskmate,
he's my high school classmate.
Craig, his name
Crazy about online game
He's Gemini
which is the same as me
He likes cucumber,
which is hard to find in December
Anyway, he's a smart guy
A deskmate of mine.
He's not in the same class with me any more, which makes me miss him a lot.I wanna tell him my interest in him,but I'm afraid his answer will turn me down.I would appreciate it if you can give me some advice on this.

Wendy

yangshuo, china

i am going to yangshuo tonight by train. It is far in the south i am guessing roughly 5000 miles it should take roughly 27 hours.
if i remember i will bring my GPS.

yangshuo is the exotic part of china where the mountains look like sugar mounds. the film the painted veil ws filmed there. here is some photo* i got of google images to give you an idea.

* who ever this photo belongs to please don't sue me i assure you i am making no money from this!

ox street mosque

i went to the super old mosque in beijing. it is like 400 years old and one of them main mosques in the chinese world. i bet xinjiang has more impressive. it looks chinese which is funny. how it survived the cultural revolution is beyond me.

i thought the portrait could have been a gem except for that crappy balcony behind him. this is the shit that is killing me with B&W film. i am also using kodak triX 400iso with a red filter which i am digging way more than the ilford delta.

Dead Powerbook

The hard drive in my powerbook died sunday hence the lack of posts. I got it back today it cost
$300 to fix... tai gui le!. the only back ups of files i had were on my 40GB ipod which also seems to be dead.

to quote the wise tyler durden:
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."

if i get photoshop rocking i will post a few pics tomorrow

chai'd hutong

I shot tons of photos in a hutong that was getting demolished and saw this boy going home through the rubble. people are still living here as they get knocked down every day. i also though b&w is effective here. its not very readable and in b&w i am having a hard time with that. anyways heading to the muslim hutong district in beijing this afternoon and will shoot a ton of pictures there.

Temple of Heaven Holgas

so below are some temple of heaven holga shots. i tried to do some B&W color comparisons. i also shot the color ones with slide film. i am really digging the slide film but it has to be really sunny to get good results. i am really diggin the e200 slide film as well. its expired and the images tend to be more blue and its faster and more forgiving when the clouds roll in.
My feelings now are for the temples and normal things shoot color and use b2 on ancient run down stuff like the hutongs and urban ghettos. plus i lucked out and found a shop with 2 bricks of expired kodak 400tmax b&w film. i bought both of them at 17 yuan a roll.

anyways let me know what you think. and let me know which is the most effective temple of heaven shot.

ilford delta 400

kodak e100vs

kodak E200