Martial Arts Inn

October 14, 2011. Written in Dengfeng, China.

Martial Arts Inn

I have been in Dengfeng for a couple of days now. Dengfeng is a small Chinese city with the famous Shaolin temple located nearby. It is therefore a famous site for not only martial artists, but normal people as well. Oddly enough though, you will hardly see any foreigners in the city, and to this day there is only one youth hostel in town.

That one hostel, is in one word a fantastic place though. Not because the beds are good (trust me, they aren't) nor because it is a clean or cozy place (it is not clean and all the rooms feel empty), but just because it is a great place to meet interesting people, and that is what youth hostels should be all about.

To start with, the young female owner Coco (her English name) is an incredibly friendly person that treated me like an old friend from the moment I entered the place.
"You must have gone through a lot but now you are finally here!" she said with enthusiasm, and I could tell that she was not just being nice. I hadn't even booked a room or anything, but she approached me as if she had been waiting for me for a long time.
When I told her that I was planning to enter a Martial Arts school in town for about a month, she immediately gave me detailed information about the schools. I really had to question myself; "When did I see a person just being nice to someone without a special reason like her for the last time?"

That being said, the special thing about this youth hostel is, that every single guest I have met here has had at  least some kind of relation to martial arts. Sure, there were some people who had only practiced something when they were a kid, but there was no-one completely unrelated to it. On my first night, there was this crazy Malaysian guy that had been practicing all sorts of martial arts, and was now developing his own style of self-defense, which involved spitting people in their faces.
"Grab me!" he would say. "Do you know what I do when they grab me like this?"
And when I said no, he would pretend spitting me in the face.
I nodded politely to this interesting way of defending.

Then, there was an American guy I liked very much. Just like me, he left his home country when he was only 16, and has been living abroad ever since. But different from me, he did not stay in the same country for 8 years, but has lived in 8 different countries instead. Now that is what I call international.
But, living abroad appeared to be not our only similarity. He also enjoyed traveling, and has done lots of backpacking as well. Also, martial arts seemed to be one of his big loves as well. He has been intensively practicing Muay Thai and Taichi. And last but not least, he wants to be a writer and is writing articles on daily basis. How close can people get?

Together with the American, I went eating with a Mexican couple for two evenings in a row. They were musicians, and mainly developed soundtracks for movies. They had been traveling through Asia since february, which is quite a long time! Also, they have both practiced a very effective Israeli self-defense style called Krav Maga. I really liked it how they were just browsing the internet for one day and then  decided to take the plane and live in France. Now that is how people should live their lifes!

Yesterday night, the American guy and me decided to have a sparring session. We borrowed some gloves from Coco, and she suggested that we could use the 3rd floor since it is an open space. So this hostel even has a practice room!
While the Mexican couple were watching us, we had an interesting sparring session. I was having troubles by getting hit to the face and getting clinched, while the American was bothered by my kicks to the head and punches to the stomach. I think we have both learned a lot because of our different styles of fighting.

Today, all of the interesting people have left, and I am the only guest at the hostel right now.  I am taking it easy since tomorrow a new episode of my travels will start.