Sunday 15th April we left the care of Ratnakar and Nivedita from World Wide Records, with myself and Khanun both in good working order, we headed north to Jaisalmer in the deserts of Rahjistan. It took two and a half days to get there from Mumbai, but it was a very nice trip. The scenery once we finally got into the country was really amazing. I can seriously recommend driving through the desert as the sun is rising!
I am really amazed at how Khanun coped with the heat. It was 50 degrees during the day but Khanun's air cooled engine just kept on running without any problems at all.....a big thank you to Pratak from VW Showtime (www.vwshowtime.com) for doing such a great job fixing up the engine in Thailand :-)
The manager at the hotel in Jaisalmer was very helpful and hooked us up with his good friend who was to be our guide and translator. The following morning he met us at 05:00 and we headed away from the town, deeper into the desert. We drove for 45km to a small village where we had to leave Khanun and travel the rest of the way over the sand dunes to Teschi village, by camel cart.
This may sound like a very romantic and exciting journey....traveling by camel cart across the sand dunes at sunrise.....actually it was, except for one small detail. Our camel had ran away into the desert the day before and ate something he shouldn't have. We were sitting on a cart, about one meter from the camel's rear end...in direct firing range. I don't need to go into the details about what a camel with diarrhea is capable of, I'll leave that up to your imagination!....The good thing was the camel's name was 'Khanul'....almost like 'khanun'....I took that as a good sign :-)
Along with the diarrhea and Khanul getting stuck in the sand so we had to push the cart up the dunes, it was an eventful hour's trip to Teschi village. When we got there we were given traditional breakfast and tea while we waited for the musicians to gather. We sat in a small round mud hut, me in the center and the musicians around me in a circle. There were 3 young boys who sang and played percussion and a man who played harmonium. From my position I got a great surround recording of their traditional songs, mostly about love. The boys sang with such passion I have never experienced before, on checking the recordings later, I am happy to say that I believe I managed to capture the magic that day. I also recorded a group of about 15 kids all singing together......a beautiful sound.
Finally we had to leave the desert and make our way to Amritsar at the border with Pakistan. That was about 2 days drive, we made it to the border just in time to see the amazing closing ceremony. I can't even begin to describe what takes place, I recommend you check it out on the net, maybe you can find some video clips. We slept in Khanun and were first in line to cross the border the following day.
Crossing the border was surprisingly easy. We had all the right paper work and everything went smooth. When we arrived on the Pakistani side we really could feel we were in another country. Very quiet, much less people. We decided to take the highway to Islamabad instead of the normal road. The highway turned out to be amazing. 3 lanes each way, plus emergency lanes. Almost no traffic and plenty of large service stations offering everything a hungry and thirsty traveller could want, even Kentucky Fried Chicken! We passed around 20 speed control traps on the 398km highway, but getting a speeding fine while driving Khanun was not something I had to worry about :-)
Next stage is from Pakistan to Denmark...starting around end of June.
Take care,
Peter.
Last news letter was telling of the epic journey through the northern deserts of India about to begin.....well, it didn't quite work out that way.
After getting the car out of customs, we took it to a garage to get the brakes fixed. They replaced the master cylinder and made some other adjustments...it took all day, so we postponed leaving until the following day. We got up the following morning, sent the backup video recordings by DHL back to Denmark, then headed off.
We were staying in an area called Colaba, in the very southern tip on Mumbai, so we had to drive across the entire city to get out of there. About 2 hours into the trip we got some serious braking problems and pulled up at a small garage not far from the airport. It was actually a body repair shop, but the guys said they could fix the problem.
They worked on it for many hours with no luck, and I was starting to feel sick. I lay down inside the car with the doors closed and started to freeze....I was freezing so much I took the emergency blanket from the first aid kit (one of those that looks like tin foil) and wrapped myself up .....my temperature soared and I passed out.
I don't have much recollection about what happened, but apparently they continued the whole day and night to try to fix the car without luck. Ivan was getting worried, we were in an unsafe place, in a car we could not drive, I was semi conscious and we had all our equipment with us. He called Ratnakar from World Wide records. They have released my CD, 'The Way of the Camel' in India.
Like a knight in shining armor he came straight to our rescue. He arrived on the scene with his driver and mechanic. His driver took all our luggage and equipment to his guest house at the office, his mechanic took care of the car and he drove me to the hospital. I got checked in, pumped full of antibiotics, put on an IV and then wheeled off to the top floor in the hospital where I would stay for 4 days.
It turned out to be acute enteritis....some intestinal infection from something I had eaten. It left me feeling extremely weak and unable to continue driving for at least 4-5 more days. Ratnakar is now looking after us at his place. We have a nice air conditioned room and his staff continually bring us cups of tea, water and food.....He has also put his mechanic on the case with the car.
I forgot to mention that the people who first tried to fix it (while I was sick) crashed it into a tree while testing the brakes....so Khanun now has a broken nose. Ratnakar's mechanic is at this very moment taking care of fixing that too. They are giving Khanun a complete check over to make sure everything is working well before we continue.
We are extremely grateful for his endless help, he genuinely saved us in a really big way and is continuing to take care of us.
So, now we wait until both me and Khanun are fixed before heading off again. This delay will mean that we won't make it to Iran on this trip. We will record film and music in India and Pakistan, but we will leave Khanun in Pakistan this time. Next stage we will drive from Pakistan all the way to Denmark.
We'll get to Denmark eventually....hopefully before 15th August. I (Out of Phase) have a live gig in lborg on that date and it could be great to drive there in Khanun with the band.
Take care,
Peter.
Stage 2....Hong Kong, China, Tibet and Nepal, finished in the end of October 2006. I traveled directly to Thailand from Nepal, and Per traveled to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. I've not seen Per since, so it will be nice to meet up with him again in Iran after 5 months.
Since starting this project, I have moved out my apartment in Copenhagen, closed my company, got an apartment in Thailand, and now I am living half my time there with my girlfriend.....but also spending time in Copenhagen, where I have my children. That's a lot of traveling and a huge change in my life in the last 12 months!
Now I have been in Mumbai in India, for the last 2 weeks together with Ivan. He will be the camera man for India and Pakistan. Per will be joining us in Iran. We came to Mumbai because the car, Khanun, was shipped here from Malaysia. I had to drive from Bangkok to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia to deliver Khanun to the shipping port. It was a nice drive. I took my girlfriend, Fon, along for the trip. We stopped in Phuket for a day and night, driving around the Island and finding nice quiet places to chill out and eat delicious food before heading to Malaysia. When this project is over, I hope to ship Khanun back to Thailand where I can take more time driving and exploring this amazing country.
All together it took 5 days to get to Kuala Lampur. Khanun now has 2,300km more on the clock, but it was a great experience. There were some problems with the lights and also the clutch, but I managed to fix those at the side of the road. It was great to live in the car for that time and I look forward to getting on the road again very soon.
MUMBAI
We had a long day at customs in Mumbai on 30th March. We were picked up by the shipping agents at 08:30. They took us to the customs and container port. We spent the whole day there, going from one office to another getting papers stamped and signed. A completely chaotic procedure which could have taken a fraction of the time if they used computers. At the end of the day, they managed to find the right container, open it, and let me check that it was the right one. It was very frustrating to see the car, touch it, but not be allowed to drive it out until the customs officers had inspected it. This was Friday, I have to wait until Monday.
In Mumbai we have been concentrating on the Bollywood film industry. We found out about the music they use and also the history and culture of Bollywood. I took part in a film as an extra on 2 occasions, once as a pilot walking through the airport, the second time as a traveler, walking through a car park as a horse was running past. It was good fun to be on the set and see how they make films here.
Otherwise, our time in Mumbai has mostly been used waiting for the car to clear customs. Finally, we get the car on 2nd April!!! So, we will be leaving Mumbai and heading north to Rajistan on 3rd April. There are many local tribes there who are very musical and very remote.....just the way I like it! We plan to spend a couple of days recording music in Rajistan, then heading up into Pakistan around 7th April.
I doubt we will have many chances to go online as we travel north, so, the next newsletter will probably be from Islamabad in Pakistan. We have to go there to get my visa for Iran. It only takes 2 - 3 days to get one there.
Take care,
Peter.
Stage 2 included Hong Kong, China, Tibet and Nepal....We made it back safely to Denmark with a load of great music and great video.
On March 16th our car 'Khanun' should be in either Calcutta or Mumbai. We are in contact with the shippers right now and are still trying to get all the details and paperwork sorted out so they can ship the car next week.
From there Ivan (Extra camera man) will join me (Peter) as Per is still in Puerto Rico, where he has been for the last 3 months. Myself and Ivan will drive through India into Pakistan where we will meet Per. Then the 3 of us continue across Pakistan, through Iran and into Turkey. We hope to be in Istanbul at the end of April....all going to plan.
On this stage I'll be experimenting with a new surround setup prototype from DPA microphones, also I'll be trying out some other techniques for recording in 5.1 surround.
For those Mac users reading this, I've made a new home page for Mac. The PC users will just have to live with the old version for the moment, or, go out and get a mac! :-)
Any web designers out there interested in helping us with the home page......feel free to contact us anytime :-)
Ok....that's it for now......if you have any questions, you can reply to this mail, or if you send to info@hotelvw.com me and Per will receive it.
Take care,
Peter.
A few short music clips and an interview with Per, in Danish.
We plan to go to India tomorrow, 28th October, stopping at Deli, then Mumbai.
That's it for now, full news letter in a week or so....home page also updated with some photos from China.
Take care!
Peter & Per.
We have been moving very fast through China, been very busy and have managed to get some great video and audio recordings. Our first stop after Hong Kong was at Liupanshui, where we stayed a few days with the Longhorn Miao tribe.
My (Peter) dream from the beginning of this project was to record the village girls singing, and they did not disappoint. We all packed into one of their small stone houses, 4 singers, Xiaoyan, (our translator), the two of us (and about 4 curious kids and 2 old women). I (Peter) set up my surround equipment and started to record. I felt shivers down my spine as they started to sing. They have an indescribable tone and technique which makes your hair stand on end. This for me was the highlight of the trip so far, a goal reached and a dream fulfilled!
Due to the fact that Khanun is still in Bangkok, waiting to be shipped to India, we have been traveling by train through China. We left the Longhorn Miao and travelled with 2 busses and 2 trains for 2 days to Chengdu...the Panda center of the world. This cosy city hosts the Panda breeding center and is close to the national panda reserve. We went to see some pandas at the breeding center and I (Peter) managed to get some recordings of pandas munching on bamboo...quite noisy eaters! The following day we came across a group of musicians who hang out every day in the local park. What a strange experience...around 10 musicians playing different instruments and different songs in different keys....all at the same time!....Chaotic sound experience!...I managed to set up my surround equipment in the middle of it all and got some really freaky recordings...I have never in my life heard anything like this before.....I loved it!
To sum it up: The sound of China to me is noise, chaos and spitting.
I (Per) have been surprised at how little problems I have encountered filming in China. I had heard from a lot of people that I should expect lots of problems walking around with my camera, but after an initially cautious way of hiding the camera every time I felt the presence of a policeman, I have taken to walking around freely with the camera mounted on a tripod and so far... no problem, just LOTS of curious glances. Maybe it helps that I don't have a need for filming government buildings - actually quite easy to distinguish by the guards standing on podiums in front of the building. I have however noticed that Chinese in general are very curious towards the camera and almost push me away to have a look in the viewer to see what I am filming.
On 18th October we finally left China and flew from Chengdu to Lhasa in Tibet. We wanted to take the Tibetan Express, but it was surprisingly difficult to get a ticket, so we had to fly. The thing which we noticed first was the altitude. There is 30% less oxygen up here and we all suffered from acute altitude sickness. Dizziness, headaches, dry nose, red lips...we tried to do nothing for the first day or so, but even then, it was tough. Our room in the guest house is on the second floor, it felt like climbing the Mount Everest getting up the stairs.
When we finally managed to get out and look for music, we found a great street musician playing local songs on an instrument called a jani-e, Tibetan stringed instrument. Quite interesting communicating with him actually, as our translator speaks mandarin, and this guy only spoke a tibetan dialect. So we found a girl who spoke both mandarin and tibetan. She seemed to have some problems understanding his dialect also, but at the the end we managed to get it translated from Tibetan into Mandarin into English and eventually into Danish. Talking about lost in translation :) We also recorded a young guy singing and playing Tibet's version of a mandolin.....great stuff! The next day we found another local (originally from China) who has a folk music bar. He sings and plays in his own style he has adapted from Khazakstan, Tibet, China and Mongolia. This guy is amazing, he sings with overtones in his voice, similar to Mongolian throat singing. We have an appointment to record him on top of my music, later today. First we are going to visit a monastery and ask if we can record the monks chanting and playing drums.....I look forward to that!
Tomorrow, 23/10/06 we plan to leave Tibet by jeep and drive for 2 days to the border of Nepal. Here we will take a local bus for the 5 hour drive to Khatmandu....next update will probably be from there if we get the time.
We have uploaded photos from Hong Kong, and also a short video clip from Thailand of our car mechanic doing human beatbox while conducting a VW orchestra. Photos from China will come very soon.
Thats it for now....
Take care,
Peter and Per.
After having spent almost 3 weeks in the land of smiles and warm friendly people, entering in Hong Kong was a shock to the system. We really felt we had arrived at a major metropolis which was running at 3 times the pace (and 3 times as expensive) as Bangkok. Actually, the prices for accommodation and beer are actually more expensive than Denmark, but video cameras and electronic equipment can be as little as half the price of DK. Its a good thing the budget is so tight otherwise I (Per) wouldn't be able to walk with all the gear I would have bought.
We have been following a young up and coming Hong Kong rock band called 'Dear Jane'. We went to a couple of their gigs and hung out with them one evening in the busy streets of Hong Kong. I (Peter) also recorded them playing percussion effects and singing on top of my tracks and the beatbox I recorded in Bangkok....sounds really cool and was great fun doing it! Dear Jane is definitely on the way up so keep an eye and ear out for them.
We've started to go on 'Sound Safaris' in each country. We take to the streets with a small digital tape recorder with a stereo setup of 2 DPA microphones, and record any interesting sounds we come across, whether it may be the gossiping between a gay hair dresser and his customer in Bangkok or the pounding of a jack hammer in the streets of Hong Kong. The purpose of these sound safaris is to try to capture the sound of the country or city, which later will be mixed into the music on the CD.
We also met up with a guy we nicknamed Tony the Dragon, ie. Tony Reno from Dragon Radio. A cool American guy who is in love with Asian music and runs Dragon Radio (www.dragonradio.hk). He did an interview with us about our trip so keep tuned to the radio and you might hear a Scotsman and a Dane babbling on about Hotel VW.
Later today, 10th October, we leave Hong Kong and go into China, its about 40 minutes on the train to get there. We are a little anxious about the border crossing due to the amount of equipment we are carrying, it may be difficult to persuade them its for personal use......fingers crossed! We'll spend about a week in southern China, then head off to Tibet on the Tibet Express, a train trip which takes about 3 days. A few days in Tibet, then a flight to Nepal where we also plan to spend a few days before heading off to Calcutta in India where hopefully our car, Khanun, will be waiting at the container port.
That's it for now, next update will be from China.....didn't manage to get video, sounds and photos from Hong Kong uploaded yet, we've been very busy here, but soon... we promise!
Take care,
Peter and Per.
Khanun really got a good service, the engine was removed and new push rods, piston rings and cylinder head gasket were installed. As well as new brake pads and rubber seals around the doors and windows and a load of other small jobs, he is running great now!
The man who fixed everything is the owner of VW Showtime in Thailand. www.vwshowtime.com and has become our newest sponsor and is also a drummer, we plan to record him doing some human beatbox as soon as Per gets here to film it.
In the mean time, I've rented myself a room here in Bangkok, as a stepping stone to starting working as a producer for Thai artists. I plan to alternate 2-3 months in Denmark, then one month in Bangkok. In January I'll be spending a month here to establish connections and try to create a network as a producer, but also to play live with my band, 'Out of Phase'.
On around 4-5th October, we fly to Hong kong, Per has set up some meetings with local radio stations and musicians, so I look forward to seeing if we can get some exciting recordings, both video and audio, out of that. At the moment I'm just waiting for Per to arrive so I can install a surround monitoring system in Khanun, he asked me to wait so he could film me installing it. I guess I'll just have to go out and drink a beer until he gets here :-)
Next update from Hong kong!
Peter.
p.s. Our home page www.hotelvw.com will be updated after we leave Hong Kong...we should have some more video clips and photos by then.