day 13: 保定 (baoding) = 0km

This is my room number in the basement hotel I am staying at. As I am writing this, the nightguard just blasted out intestinal gas that I could hear on top of his TV and through two closed doors. 厉害!

I didn’t move much today. Instead I went to an internet café and stayed there for about eight hours in the blue haze and the smoke of the people that never seem to leave. I should have taken pictures to show you but I didn’t think of it because I was too busy sorting out stuff and moving pictures onto the server.

Then the phone rang and THE BAD NEWS came all the way from Beijing into my ear and then into my dumbfounded brain:

—Repair work on the lens will only start next week because there are replacement parts missing—

Now what am I going to do? My feet are basically okay and willing to continue. But I have no wide angle, and with every step I am further from Beijing it’s going to be a bit more of a hassle to get it back when it’s fixed.

I was going to shoot self-portraits every day, too, to document the process – and I need a wide angle for that, otherwise:

I think I will leave on Friday. Slowly walk in the direction of 石家庄 (shijiazhuang). Continue.

After all, I knew all along that things could and eventually would go wrong. But so soon?

Soundtrack: Air – “All I Need”

—total: 189,8km