Moganshan: the escape from 23 million people

prettypamelabrown — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 22:40:00 GMT

This weekend's adventure: Moganshan. Escaping Shanghai. Escaping 23 million people.
We took a train to Hangzhou where we got picked up by a taxi driver with a sign for our lodge for the hour and a half journey. This all seemed unspeakably convenient, but it there were some bumps in the road. He didn't know where the lodge was. We did some phone juggling. I called the lodge. He called his friend who spoke English. The lodge called him then had him hand me the phone. My confidence was soaring.
As we got further into town he slowed at the corner and started honking....another man ran over and got into the back seat with me. I stiffened!
What's going on!
I asked in Chinese to this man 'where are you going' and the driver said 'no no no'. What!
As I was running some worst-possible-scenarios through my head the driver handed me the phone and the voice on the other line told me the taxi driver didn't know the road to our place so he picked up his friend who knew the way!

We flew through the mountain roads, climbing hairpin turns in the dark and skidding around the dirt corners. When the taxi finally stopped a European woman peaked her head in the taxi and welcomed us. We weren't abducted!

We came inside the lodge area to have delicious dinner. The chick is totally cool and 'natural'....what i mean is not so natural as to be a hippie, but she looks chill with her curly hair and earthy scarf. I told her I was going to guess where she was from before we left this weekend and she's been giving us clues. It's cold where she's from, it's in the northern hemisphere, it's a small country that produces amber, she speaks a funny unrecognizable language, and there's a sea by her country. There.

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

prettypamelabrown — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 01:03:56 GMT

I grew up in Florida, but most recently traded Colorado snowmen and hiking for the fast-paced adventure of Shanghai. I taught music in US public schools four years before hopping on a plane over the Pacific to add some blonde-haired diversity to China. I stepped out of the pressurized cabin, into censorship and communism with my eyes open and camera in hand. I want my home to be everywhere. I want to see the unknown and I want everyone else to see the unknown, too. If I can take a picture that gets someone off his couch and out of his comfort zone, then I have done something good. How long do you have to spend out of your comfort zone until you are accustomed and ready to go farther? I’ve only just started my travels, but how can I go back to dreaming when I’ve been living the dream? I’ve climbed the tree and seen the view from up here. I want to go higher and see more. There’s a whole world out there! Are these people who inhabit the world really happy? What are their regrets? What are their sorrows? What decisions did they make that changed their lives? What opportunities did they pass up to remain the same? Photography has brought me to look differently at the places and people I meet. I see frames of light and composition. I see people whose faces tell a story. I see lives that change from one minute to the next. And I snap the shutter.

China: The Other side of the world

Moganshan: the escape from 23 million people

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry