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Polly Evans
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Publisher | Bantam | ||
ISBN | 0553816780 | ||
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Jayne
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Synopsis
When she learnt that the Chinese had built enough new roads to circle the equator sixteen times, Polly Evans decided to go and witness for herself the way this vast nation was hurtling into the technological age. But on arriving in China she found the building work wasn't quite finished. Squeezed up against Buddhist monks, squawking chickens and on one happy occasion a soldier named Hero, Polly clattered along potholed tracks from the snow-capped mountains of Shangri-La to the bear-infested jungles of the south. She braved encounters with a sadistic masseur, a ridiculously flexible kung-fu teacher, and a terrified child who screamed at the sight of her. In quieter moments, Polly contemplated China's long and colourful history - the seven-foot-tall eunuch commander who sailed the globe in search of treasure; the empress that chopped off her rivals' hands and feet and boiled them to make soup - and pondered the bizarre traits of the modern mandarins. And, as she travelled, she attempted to solve the ultimate gastronomic conundrum: just how does one eat a soft-fried egg with chopsticks?
Polly Evans in 2007 by Victoria Warren
Review
This is the third book of Polly Evan's that I have read and in this one she definitely does the journey by conventional transport. All four of her books are amazing, she knows so much about the history of the places that she visits and helps to explain where and what she sees in words as there are no picutes in her books. This seems a shame because some of the places that she visits would benefit from pictures to show why she found them so powerul and beautiful.
Fried Eggs With Chopsticks starts at Beijing where she had landed in China and then by rail across to Datong and then down through various places to Shanghai from their she makes a detour around a number of small places then goes by plane to Zhongdiana and then by various transports down to jijiang and then back hort and east to Hong Kong.
Polly's journey seems to have been one of adventure and at times panic when she could not find someone who could understand her, but being British I'm sure the stiff upper lip helped at times.
Having worked in Hong Kong, she must have been able to understand some of the language though we all know that dialects can be difficult. But her perserverence must have helped her get though the hard bed journeys of trains or the soft seat cariages for her day trip journeys. Some of her journeys were spotted with conversations in English, one was with a teacher who had taught English but had not spoken it for some 20 years. Her friend with this lady was a Russia translator but said that they were all worried about speaking English because in many parts it was not allowed prior to the death of Mao's death in 1976.
Polly on one night ends up in a chinese theatre and bumps into Michale Palin the prolific writer of travel books and diaries. He seemed to understand what was going on around about him but Polly admits to not understanding very much.
All in all this is a great read both for the funny titbits that Polly puts in and her adventures trying to get around a country that as yet does not quite know how to deal with tourists in the out of the way places she visits. I think if I was going to China I would take on board all the bits and pieces she says about transport and try and negociate a better way to travel and preferable with an English tour guide and sensible night stops and hotels in place. You can listen to Polly in Spoken Interviews.
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