dealing with vagaries

The tarmac in Kashgar last night. View over the city this a.m. Hotel room ceiling/wall last night.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 am to horns bleating and “Happy Birthday” spewing out a car’s speakers circling the block below my hotel room. It’s a funny place— I love it so far. I’m just excited to be in a new part of a country that’s relatively old to me.

Last night back in NYC was the premiere for a project I was involved in for several months this year– CNN’s Planet in Peril. Wish I had been able to attend– especially since it would have been with amazing friends from my agency…Annick, Lauren, Sarah and Aidan…next time hopefully. I always miss the parties!!!

There’s a French drama playing on the cabin screens, dubbed into Mandarin, subtitled in English. We’re spaced out between rows 6, 7, and 8, our carry-ons divided among all the left over overhead bins. We were the last ones on the plance so our bags are jammed in wherever they could fit. It’s three hours into the 5-hr. flight to Urumqi in western China. I always forget how massive this country really is. If we didn’t have Alaska, the US would be dwarfed by the PRC.

We’ll sit in the Urumqi airport and then hop an hour or so flight into Kashgar. I love the name Kashgar– for some reason it conjures up images of total desolation– frontier life on the outskirts of civilization. I can’t wait to see how my impressions match up with reality. This is a part of China I’ve always wanted to see. I’m expecting a landscape and culture more akin to Mongolia than your standard fare Han-populated China.

Jason, our associate producer, just leaned back over his window seat in front of me to point out a road cutting across the earth below. Besides some distant mountains, it’s the only semblance of topography on a bleached landscape. It’s chalk and grit 30,000 feet below. Monochromatic until the land starts to mingle with the faded atmospheric blue of the horizon line. Yeah, I think desolation is the right word.

It’s going to be odd to see blue eyes on a Chinese person. Forget about blonde hair. But of all the places in the country, this is going to be the spot with the most genetic diversity. The most radical departure from the classic black hair and dark eyes of the stereotypical Chinese. It’s a funny place to introduce our producer and soundman to the country. We’re starting them off in the most atypical part of the country– although I guess the reality is that this is as much part of China as any other part– north/south/east/west. That’s going to be a bit of a brain stretch for me– to incorporate this part of China into my childhood concept of the place. In some ways– it’s not too far off from squeezing our bags into chalk-full overhead bins…

Here now in Beijing. Flight was long (13+) hours, but not as bad as ones I’ve flown before. But wow. United Airlines internationally is even worse than I remember. The flight attendants breached new levels of crabbiness– pole vaulting over established levels of decency. The sound continually cut out during the movies– at all the key plot points. As far as the “food” goes (and yes, I know it’s cliche to complain about airline food)– it had to have been carcinogenic in the least, harvested from post-apocalyptic fields, fertilized with radiation. Ugh. I’ve peeled back more than my fair share of tin foil on bad inflight meals, but wow.

We ran some errands yesterday– grabbing a cordless razor and some power strips. Stopped off for a quick meal and a beer and then an Ambien supported night of sleep at the Sino-Swiss Hotel. Now I’m sitting with some carry-on while we round up last minute cups of Starbucks and hop the 5-hr. flight to Urumqi. We got tagged with $1200 USD in excess baggage for this flight alone– so maybe that’ll buy us a meal upgrade….

Okay- on the plane…ready to go…excited. Fun to fly with Pete (my brother) again. Been awhile. Last time was Botswana I think. Hope they have good movies!

All packed. Well almost all packed. Still waiting for my iPod to finish charging. It’s part of my arsenal. My weaponry to combat the oftentimes idiocy of traveling. At least that’s how I feel about it now. Sometimes I’m excited. I would have been today I think, but then spent most of the time on the phone trying to finish up some contract negotiations and figure out liability and workers comp insurance. Yippee. Fun times. But now that it’s all taken care of, I’m more or less ready to go. Unlike a lot of times, this trip should be fun. I realize it can sound spoiled for me to say that. But it’s true. Spend too much time roaming, and it catches up to you. I’m with a group this time though. My brother and I are hosting a documentary for Nat. Geo. In row 40 on the direct Washington- Dulles to Beijing flight tomorrow will be our producer, our assoc. producer, our sound man, my brother and myself. The DOP is flying in from Sydney to meet us there. Other than that there’s not too much to say. Feeling a bit out of it right now. But that’s not too uncommon for me right before I head out. Sitting on my bed surrounded by a pile of just-washed clothes that I’m leaving behind. Munching on a pack of Gusher’s faux fruit candy (the kind we never ate as kids– too much sugar). A little scared even though I’ve done this a thousand times. I don’t think the Gusher’s are a comfort food, but they might be. Guess I have to add Gusher’s to my arsenal. Here’s a self-portrait from a recent shoot…my hotel room in Athens, Greece….