Stuck In Customs

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Daily Photo – The Morning Fisherman

Now, getting to this place was not easy!

I arrived about 1 AM at a tiny family-run inn by the river. I was meeting a local guide (see Jack’s website) at 5 AM, so I didn’t get a lot of what I would call “quality sleep”. Anyway, I got up very early and went downstairs in pitch black. There seemed to be a big white cloth box I had to go around to find the front door. My guide was outside. The door was locked and we could not figure out how to get it open. Everyone at the little inn was sound asleep and I was totally confused. Then, from inside the big white box, a body flew out of it! There was a 60-year-old Chinese guy inside that was sleeping until I woke him up with all my lock-manipulations. His naked limbs in the white sheets scared the bejeezus out of me and woke me right up!

And then we were on the river about 5:15. It was still completely dark outside. And I mean COMPLETELY DARK. It was a thin bamboo raft with an outboard motor.

I turned around to ask my guide, “How the heck does the boat driver know where he is going?!?”

He calmly said, “Oh, no worry. The river is very wide.”

I not-calmly said, “Well, that’s great and everything, but I can’t even see the edge to the river!”

He calmly said, “But it is so wide.”

This line of questioning was not getting me anywhere, so I just decided to sit back and enjoy my possible last moments on Earth. Then the sun started to rise, and we moved the boat over to the best bank for the angle.

Want to hear something amazing about these fishermen? You won’t believe it… but maybe others can confirm this! The fishermen use these two trained cormorant birds that have their throats tied. The birds dive into the water, eat a fish, but then can’t swallow it because of the rope. The fisherman rudely pulls the fish from the bird’s throat and drops it into that basket behind him. The bird then goes over to a tiny keyboard and sends out the tweet, “WTF”.

The Morning Fisherman

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2010-10-08 17:21:49
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera MakeNikon
• Exposure Time1/20
• Aperture2.8
• ISO1000
• Focal Length20.0 mm
• FlashNo Flash
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Stuck In China Update

From my post yesterday, I’ve gotten all kinds of interesting response – thanks!  It looks like there are a few uber-powerful political types that stop by the blog from time to time and some strings are being pulled.  We’ll see if I can get out of the country in a timely manner!

(NOTE:  Do not ever run at full speed through an embassy.)

Three Days of China

I’ve been in China now for what is approaching a month. It has been a wild and adventurous time! I’ve been so busy shooting, and internet has been so hard to get in places — it has been hard to do regular, timely updates. So, obviously, I’ve been posting some new pieces from other photo adventures, but this is how things generally work around here.

But, for the next three days (including today), I’ll show you some brand new stuff from apart of my trip here!

Daily Photo – Ancient Feng Huang Cheng

As many cities in China quickly leapfrog American cities into one technopolis after another, there are still many old, ancient places across the countryside. So, in an effort to find some of the more unique and classical Chinese places, I had to go pretty deep beyond the major cities.

This is an old place that maintains its classic charm. It’s called Feng Huang, and the old buildings along the river are still up on stilts. They don’t build right along the river, since they know every 50 years or so, a major flood clears everything away. In the meantime, locals go on about their business, going down to the river to wash clothes, prepare food, and the like.

The entire time I was here, I never saw another white person and did not meet anyone that spoke English. I also suffered a fairly significant injury one morning… will talk about that another time. I’m going to hit a hospital here in Beijing to see what exactly happened! But, most importantly, even though my cameras hit the ground pretty hard, they are all in perfect working condition. Sweet Nikon.

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Update

Now I have made it out of China. Thanks to all the nice people that worked so hard to get me through the process! I appreciate it very much!

Calling in All Favors ??

So, I was supposed to fly out of China today to meet my family in New Zealand on Air New Zealand. When packing for the airport, I discovered my passport had been stolen! I can’t believe it… this has never happened and made me feel totally lame.

Now I am stuck here in Room 1716 of the XiangDa International Hotel (not the one where my passport was stolen). The problem is that it could take up to two weeks (or more!) to get a new Visa out of the country! Madness!

I have now experienced a new level of bureaucracy. Wait till you hear this.

I started at by finding my way to the US Embassy in Beijing because I figured the US Consulate could help get me home. There was a big picture of Hilary Clinton on the outside (seriously), so I knew I was in trouble from the start (seriously).

Outside the US Embassy were a ton of Chinese people. A ton. They seemed to be waiting for something while sitting on bags, shuffling about holding plastic sacks of whatnots, and this sort of thing. After wading through some (with all my luggage, mind you), I got up to a rather serious looking Chinese guard. They are all rather serious, really… they don’t hire guys that look like William Hung (of “She Bangs” fame).

Anyway… I have a VERY VERY long story to tell but I am mentally drained… After some serious form-filling-out and an interview with a very nice customs official, I was given a new 3-month passport.  So despite my worry about the US Embassy, I actually got my new passport in about 3 hours!  Great! But now, the problem is the Visa.

To get the Visa, it can take from 5 to 10 business days. This is infuriating because I already got a Visa, and I even have a copy of it. But this is useless. I don’t know why! It was just a sticker in my passport, and I have a photocopy of it. The Visa has a unique number, which happens to be the same on my photocopy! Anyway, I don’t know why it just doesn’t just key off the Visa number, and they can update their 1960’s system when I exit the country.

To get the new Visa, I need to visit Public Security Bureau (which was closed right at 5 PM when I arrived) and take: 1) The Lost Report issued by the Exit/Entry Department (a Department within the PSB), 2) a police report by the local police department, 3) One photocopy of the lost passport (thank Mao I have one!) 4) Temporary Residence Certificate (don’t ask… this is an annoying document to get), 5) an Introduction Letter by Relevant Parties (huh?) and 6) One 2-inch photo.

Now, I can get all this stuff, at major annoyance, but it’s confusing as to WHY I even need to do it just to leave the country! Why can’t I just use my existing Visa number? t’s just that I’ve never felt so trapped by absolute nonsense… especially while my family is waiting on me…

I promised the kids I would hug them in the airport when their plane landed in NZ… dammit.

Mid-Daily Photo: Hangin’ out in China

Shooting after the Storm

Here is something new that I have accidentally figured out in the last few years.

So, I watch clouds and skies all the time now.  Sometimes, I feel a bit like a shaman, back arched against the sky, watching subtle clues on the horizon for upcoming deltas in the weather.  I’ve become very sensitive to dozens of types of clouds, their layers and elevations in the atmosphere, and the incident angles of the sun in relation to the humidity.

If you are have in one of those late-afternoon storms in one of the tropics, the chances are pretty good for a spectacular sunset.  The “quick storm” is usually a localized cell where the clouds don’t reach to the horizon.  This means that the sun will be able to dip below the clouds and light them from underneath.  Watch for this.

Daily Photo – Purple Sunset in Indonesia

I promised that I would continue my story about the dead body in Indonesia, so here it is.  It doesn’t really go with a pretty sunset, but, well, here we go.  It’s short and not too spectacular, so don’t get your hopes up for a good old-fashioned dead-body story.

While walking through downtown Jogjakarta with Will the crowds were thick.  There were thousands of Indonesians walking around through busy downtown streets.  It was an area without cars, but hundreds of bikes and carts darted in and out of the traffic.  It was not really a commercial district, but it was somewhat third-world in the types of little shack-like stores that fringed the edges.  Food carts rolled around selling hot, steaming mysterious meat-mashes and small ziplocks of coconut juice hung from poles, ready for sale.

After walking through a bit, we approached a curb where we saw some poor soul splayed out across the concrete.  I’ve seen thousands of homeless / passed out / drunk / unfortunates splayed out in the street before, but this was different.  This guy was dead.  You can just tell.  People walked around him and certainly regarded him as an empty shell.  People would kind of step on or trip on bits here or there.  I passed by his legs and didn’t quite know what to do.  There was no one stopping to help, and I didn’t really want to get involved, since I don’t speak the language and didn’t want to get carted off for questioning/shakedown.

So I passed by and Will said, “Do you think that guy was dead?”.  I nodded and we got the hell outta there.

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Daily Photo – Man Crossing Street

I spent a lot of time in this dynamic area of Tokyo.  It’s sort of the techno-nerd electronic center of the Japanese world.  So I felt right at home there with my fellow nerds.

But this guy certainly stood out.  He was crossing the street and looking extremely Japo-cool.  I pulled up my 50mm and waited for the time to feel right before I snapped the photo.  Afterward, of course, it is kind of fun to look at little bits of the photo and find out, compositionally, why the photo did indeed feel “right” to take at that moment.