Road time – a travel log from summer 2005
Dec 17th, 2007 by Michael Max
Travel can easily be broken into two general categories. The time you are in places and the time you are between them. One is about settling, the other, movement. The Chinese would just say it’s Yin and Yang.
I see it more as Doing, and being Done To.
“Brakes bu ling” 刹車不靈
This is NOT what you want to be hearing from your driver as you are heading down a winding mountain road. I thought the driver was just paying more attention to his cigarette than his steering as we rounded a bend, skittered past a pile of road work gravel and smacked a dent into the back of the big bus in front of us, thus slowing us down and preventing a careen over the edge.
Driver, what the hell are you doing?
“The brakes aren’t very lively.”They don’t work?
“Don’t worry, it’s not my truck!”
Oh, I feel much better now, that is certainly going to help us get down the mountain in one piece.
“The truck belongs to Xiao Chen.”
Somehow dis-owership is going to save us.
Dissociate, and crank up the electronic Nan Wu Ah Mi Tou Fo box.
Call on Jesus, Buddha, Moses or your favorite saint, as if their dusty bones will make a difference. I suspect that should they really have god status, they’ve got bigger fish to fry.
I notice that the trees are all perfectly summertime green, and hoping that those “ping an“ amulets stashed in my luggage riding in the back with the bags of fish and chickens, are doing their thing.