The end of civilization...

Time to tell a story...

About how 2 small people, heading into the far east.. to search a tale.
This is the story behind my collection "the end of civilization". To make it short i'll just grasp the big picture of it.

Unknowing about what's out there we set of from the north part of sweden. Travel with a simple backpack and 1000 euro on the pocket we aimed for the Trans-Siberian railway. To make the trip as scientistic as possible we slept on night-trains and joined friends we met on the way for dinner and guidance. A very successful way to meet a culture.
For the next 3 months we end up sleeping in hotels only 7 nights, the rest on rail.

Murmansk - St Petersburg - Moscow - Novgorod - Yekaterinburg - Omsk - Kansk - Novosibirsk - Irkutsk

They together gave the picture of a happy russian society, teared by conflicts and poverty. Still a helping hand was always available at the neighbors, like it always have been. Money is irrelevant to friendship, over and over again we was offered the best of a household in poverty. The heart of mother russia is one of few to be seen in the world... leaving it all behind felt hard.

Taking the Trans-Mongolian railway in Irkutsk we end up facing a new legend. Genghis khan. The mongolian landscape got to my heart. The gears lined up in the horizon and the horses running wild to the setting sun. I could die there smiling. One ought to wonder, what happened to this people? They ruled the largest empire of the world. Today they are less than 1 million without identity or independence. Their alphabet is lost and so is their culture... mongolia today is unfortunately a never-ending graveyard.

Sühbaatar - Ulaan Bataar - Borhoyn Tal

Arriving in china the standard dropped. The kind train lost its comfort and things looked worse and worse. The fighting started here... for a entire month we went sleeping sitting, often without tickets and stuffed with 300 other chinese inside a tiny wagon. A hell out of proportions, yet there was nothing else to do even if we wanted to pay a higher price.

Erenhot - Jining - Datong - Beijing

We have been stepped on, looked at and treated like a general circus attraction. Sitting and sleeping for 4 days in a row killed us mentally. Arriving at beijing gave us a small chance to breath and see the civilization with neutral eyes.
Without taking up the history book the enormous greatness of china is undoubtable there. One cannot help but admiring their strict society.. the family is tightly closed and the respect of the elder is unquestionable. I can spend hours explaining the bounds making the culture so unique as it is.. still it wouldn't justify.

Now what? Here came the decision. Rest or go?
You never get a second chance... we left beijing after 3 days, painfully aware of the trains we had taken.

Beijing - Tianjin - Jinan (Thai Shãn) - Zhengzhou (Shaolin) - Xi'an (The Terracotta warriors) - Wuhan - Shanghai

You can suffer to a certain limit. Climbing the holy mountain Tai shãn without sleep, starting 4 in the morning with no food in 40°C, its a striking suicidal attempt. Yet it was conquered and a moment of spiritual belief set in watching out over the enormous area.

Arriving in Shanghai was a long desired goal. A town in progress and highly westernized. A strong feeling of home came back on me. Amazed by how the chinese people are being used and abused, skyscrapers are growing up on old classic monasteries and europeans are sitting directing cheap workers. Its the future, i know.. still, its the bleeding spot of the chinese civilization. The hunt for wealth tear the old culture..

Tick tack, the time is running away. Losing 10 kilos and severe exhausted we increased the speed. Meeting the worst typhoon the country have seen for a decade and escaping it with less than 12h in Hangzhou made us reconsider what we are doing. 250 people died that day.

Shanghai - Hangzhou - Nanchang - Changsha - Guilin - Yangshoú

Yangshoú , this place is a paradise on heaven. The limestone peaks covering the area is unique. Simply amazing! God laid his hand on this masterpiece, must have... cant have, but must have.

Yangshoú - Guilin - Guangzhou - Macau - Hong Kong

Macau and HK is the future business center. The culture is mixed with the colonies, macaus beauty lies in its calm and relaxed atmosphere. Hong kong is too big for anyone. Crowds of people on-top of other crowds of people. This island is about to sink cause of its population. Yet it works... and with success... It is the future, the new face of the new final civilization. The one to absorb the others, awesome..

We probably lost 5 years of life arrive here. Breaking the health and taking the limit of cheap traveling. But damn it, we freaking made it!

By simple transportation we meet the tree oceans, Atlantic, Artic and the Pasific. Around 25 000 km by rail, less than 1000 euro spent and 2.5 months on the road.
We decided its enough, and took a flight home.

(haha.. right )

Thailand.

Thai Airlines set us off in Bangkok. Took us a day to breath in another new culture.
Inspired? not at all, it was suppose to be over !!
And so we made it, the last week we spent following the crowd, taking tours and laid back on the nearby Pattaya beach, feeling the memories go around.
The guide told us about the death railway, ancient temples and national reserves with outstanding highlights. But who cares? Our trip was done.. let someone else take over. Thailand will be another civilization vanishing out in nowhere, like many before.. what can help them? the history tells the stories.. the strongest survive.
Thank you globalization, thank you for bringing us into your public consumption. We served you well...

I tried to keep it short, for everyone reading this far, let the roads guide you. You cant understand a thing, sitting tight. Look around, its the last of the worlds civilizations, they are dying, and million of years of history with them..

~ A'P

wannabe-member of:
claustrophobic, europeans, The-Dark-Arts