Interesting evening--
Some of the tour group tried to get me drunk on rice wine, ending with tour guide giving me an entire bottle. Then I had a head, arm and (gasp!) foot massage-a one hour one. {Anyone who really know me knows that unless I know someone well I can be very physically guarded--ironic because I am a cuddler-- and I really REALLY hate anyone touching my feet. I just feel really uncomfortable.} If I could have had that head massage whenever I get a migraine!
gam-bay means drink it all up-- if someone says that you down whatever is infront of you, kind of the equivalent of chug I heard that a lot tonight.
Monday, July 2, 2007
May 25th, Somewhere in China
There has been a change in itinerary. We're not seeing the large waterfall today. I hope when we get where we are going I'll know where we are.
We're going to the 'most beautiful scar on the earth'.
Malinghe Gorge, 4:37 pm.
"The Most Beautiful Scar on the Face of the Earth" certainly is. I could have stayed here forever--if heaven were like this...
It was quite a hike and I'm fried! I took a picture of the same type of moth that was dinner for the chickadees yesterday.
Speaking of food, lunch (as far as any of us could identify) was:
chicken (with the head on)
fish
rice
noodles (just like ramen)
various veggies that no one could identify
watermelon
What I find funny is even the people on the tour can't identify the food they are eating-so it's not just because I'm an ignorant American.
hen piao liang means it's so beautiful
hen how che means that tastes good
shao shing means be careful
how che means tastes good
sagwa is silly
shigwaw is watermelon
tse fan is time to eat (eat rice literally)
The story about eating dog: Dog meat is supposed to be very nutritious, so it is often served to guests. Before the dog is killed, the owner tells the dog that he has done nothing wrong and that he is a good friend, but if they do not kill him then there will be no food to feed their guests.
Apparently, they hide military manufacturing plants in the mountains here. Enemy planes cannot see them when they are in the mountains.
We're going to the 'most beautiful scar on the earth'.
Malinghe Gorge, 4:37 pm.
"The Most Beautiful Scar on the Face of the Earth" certainly is. I could have stayed here forever--if heaven were like this...
It was quite a hike and I'm fried! I took a picture of the same type of moth that was dinner for the chickadees yesterday.
Speaking of food, lunch (as far as any of us could identify) was:
chicken (with the head on)
fish
rice
noodles (just like ramen)
various veggies that no one could identify
watermelon
What I find funny is even the people on the tour can't identify the food they are eating-so it's not just because I'm an ignorant American.
hen piao liang means it's so beautiful
hen how che means that tastes good
shao shing means be careful
how che means tastes good
sagwa is silly
shigwaw is watermelon
tse fan is time to eat (eat rice literally)
The story about eating dog: Dog meat is supposed to be very nutritious, so it is often served to guests. Before the dog is killed, the owner tells the dog that he has done nothing wrong and that he is a good friend, but if they do not kill him then there will be no food to feed their guests.
Apparently, they hide military manufacturing plants in the mountains here. Enemy planes cannot see them when they are in the mountains.
May 25th, Anshun, Guizhou, China
Tso go-wei gui bean!
('mornin valued guests!)
What a dirty hotel! It was disgusting--beautiful furnishings completely not taken care of.
We're about to cross a 50km bridge--the largest in Asia (or China--some things get confused in translation).
Just saw someone skinning a dog, while another dog was looking on {Guizhou is the province in China that is famous for eating dog}.
I guess we're not crossing the bridge. Just looking at the construction.
Tschi-guo means please let me pass (excuse me)
I ate a fruit that was fuzzy like a peach, with meat colored like a plum and a flavor somewhere between a nectarine and a plum. It had a nectarine like pit. Mmmm. The nice guy who tried to fix my camera and sings karaoke shared it with me. {My camera broke the day we left Taiwan, but Jenny's mom had an extra camera that I borrowed. This man turned out to be the Taiwanese tour guide's brother--there were two tour guides. The Taiwanese love karaoke, so the bus was equipped the televisions and karaoke. This man would sing all the song while he was sitting behind me.}
('mornin valued guests!)
What a dirty hotel! It was disgusting--beautiful furnishings completely not taken care of.
We're about to cross a 50km bridge--the largest in Asia (or China--some things get confused in translation).
Just saw someone skinning a dog, while another dog was looking on {Guizhou is the province in China that is famous for eating dog}.
I guess we're not crossing the bridge. Just looking at the construction.
Tschi-guo means please let me pass (excuse me)
I ate a fruit that was fuzzy like a peach, with meat colored like a plum and a flavor somewhere between a nectarine and a plum. It had a nectarine like pit. Mmmm. The nice guy who tried to fix my camera and sings karaoke shared it with me. {My camera broke the day we left Taiwan, but Jenny's mom had an extra camera that I borrowed. This man turned out to be the Taiwanese tour guide's brother--there were two tour guides. The Taiwanese love karaoke, so the bus was equipped the televisions and karaoke. This man would sing all the song while he was sitting behind me.}
Zhijin Cave, Guizhou Province 5:40pm
Zhijin Cave Stats:
30,000 square meters in area
50-60 meters high average
185 meters high at its highest point
175 meters wide at it's widest point
1380 meters above sea level
The caves were AMAZING! I don't know how I will ever describe the experience to anyone else. There were stalagmites that look like flower petals, or smooth hills, chocolate sauce on a scoop of ice cream, coral, soldier's helmets, and upsidedown boots. There were stalagtites that hung like wet towels or grapes. Some of the formations looked like dragons, buddahs, old men and women, birds, helmets--and the cave was HUGE! The school {I work in} could fit in some of the caverns. I was in awe. Tomorrow we will see the waterfalls.
It's still raining. I've decided that the rain complements this countryside much more than sun. In the rain the green leaves seem illuminated.
I just observed a chickadee eating a very large moth, maybe 5 to six inches for tip to tip. I thought that the moth was an abandoned child's toy until the chickadee began to pick at it. The moth then began to fight back. The moth was larger than the chickadee.
Go-wei-gui beens means colleagues or valued guests.
30,000 square meters in area
50-60 meters high average
185 meters high at its highest point
175 meters wide at it's widest point
1380 meters above sea level
The caves were AMAZING! I don't know how I will ever describe the experience to anyone else. There were stalagmites that look like flower petals, or smooth hills, chocolate sauce on a scoop of ice cream, coral, soldier's helmets, and upsidedown boots. There were stalagtites that hung like wet towels or grapes. Some of the formations looked like dragons, buddahs, old men and women, birds, helmets--and the cave was HUGE! The school {I work in} could fit in some of the caverns. I was in awe. Tomorrow we will see the waterfalls.
It's still raining. I've decided that the rain complements this countryside much more than sun. In the rain the green leaves seem illuminated.
I just observed a chickadee eating a very large moth, maybe 5 to six inches for tip to tip. I thought that the moth was an abandoned child's toy until the chickadee began to pick at it. The moth then began to fight back. The moth was larger than the chickadee.
Go-wei-gui beens means colleagues or valued guests.
Guiyang, Guizhou Province, CHINA 8:10am
Guiyang literally translates into expensive capital {it is the capital of the Guizhou Province}
Guizhou translates into expensive province
Yesterday, we left Taipei at 7:30am, flew out at 10:20am to Hong Kong, took a ferry from Hong Kong to Shenzen and flew to Guiyang. Our hotel was the Hawn Mandarin Inn.
Today we're off to the caves {Zhinjin Cave}.
China literally translates to center of the world. America in Chinese literally translates to beautiful world.
The Chinese say of Guizhou that:
There are not three days with sun
There are not 3 miles that are flat
The people have do not have three things (to rub together)
It turns out the Guizhou is the poorest province in China with parts that have been cut off from the rest of China due to the mountains until the last one or two years. There are only about 118 days of sun a year, and over 200 days of clouds or rain. It doesn't snow here and there are no earthquakes or monsoons. From May to August they grow rice, and in October they harvest oil and mustard for cooking. 80% of herbal medicines are grown or can be grown here. {I'd like to apologize here for any misinformation as well as describe the circumstances under which I came to China as I don't believe I say that in the journal. In going to China, I was part of a Taiwanese tour group that Jenny's grandparents often travel with. That means the entire tour was in Chinese, and aside for Jenny, her brother and her mother I was the only one who would speak English. I knew NO Chinese when I left for China aside from hello, thank you, and she's not home right now (for when I had to answer the phone with Jenny not in the dorm when her grandparents called her). That was about as much English as the other members of the tour group knew save for one older gentleman. I didn't know he could speak English until four days into the trip. Anyway, there were maybe 30 people altogether on the tour.}
On the way to the caves we saw water oxen and farmers.
Guizhou was originally known to its people as "black gold". However, when an official went to present the province to the Emperor, the Emperor mispoke and named it "expensive province". What the Emperor says always goes (and if you argued with him, it could have meant death) so no one corrected him. Hence the poorest province in China recieved its misnomer.
Guizhou translates into expensive province
Yesterday, we left Taipei at 7:30am, flew out at 10:20am to Hong Kong, took a ferry from Hong Kong to Shenzen and flew to Guiyang. Our hotel was the Hawn Mandarin Inn.
Today we're off to the caves {Zhinjin Cave}.
China literally translates to center of the world. America in Chinese literally translates to beautiful world.
The Chinese say of Guizhou that:
There are not three days with sun
There are not 3 miles that are flat
The people have do not have three things (to rub together)
It turns out the Guizhou is the poorest province in China with parts that have been cut off from the rest of China due to the mountains until the last one or two years. There are only about 118 days of sun a year, and over 200 days of clouds or rain. It doesn't snow here and there are no earthquakes or monsoons. From May to August they grow rice, and in October they harvest oil and mustard for cooking. 80% of herbal medicines are grown or can be grown here. {I'd like to apologize here for any misinformation as well as describe the circumstances under which I came to China as I don't believe I say that in the journal. In going to China, I was part of a Taiwanese tour group that Jenny's grandparents often travel with. That means the entire tour was in Chinese, and aside for Jenny, her brother and her mother I was the only one who would speak English. I knew NO Chinese when I left for China aside from hello, thank you, and she's not home right now (for when I had to answer the phone with Jenny not in the dorm when her grandparents called her). That was about as much English as the other members of the tour group knew save for one older gentleman. I didn't know he could speak English until four days into the trip. Anyway, there were maybe 30 people altogether on the tour.}
On the way to the caves we saw water oxen and farmers.
Guizhou was originally known to its people as "black gold". However, when an official went to present the province to the Emperor, the Emperor mispoke and named it "expensive province". What the Emperor says always goes (and if you argued with him, it could have meant death) so no one corrected him. Hence the poorest province in China recieved its misnomer.
Guiyang, Guizhou Province, CHINA
It's late, so I won't go into details now. Here's what I ate:
cow intestine in soup (we think), cucumber or winter squash soup, pumpkin pancakes (kind of like hash browns but with pumpkin), peking duck, fried tofu, noodles, rice, unidentified green veggie.
That was dinner. For lunch (in Shenzen near Hong Kong) we had:
rice, watermelon, green veggies, eggplant (sooo good!), fish, tofu with meat in the middle
And on the bus we had lychees! YAY! {I first tasted lychee when Jenny brought back small bits of lychee jello from China when we were in college, in photographs they look like strawberries, but in reality their skin is rougher and more textured. You peel the thick skin back and inside is a white, translucent fruit. It is soo good. I recently discovered that Stop and Shop periodically has them in the exotic fruit section, albeit they are smaller and not quite as tasty}.
cow intestine in soup (we think), cucumber or winter squash soup, pumpkin pancakes (kind of like hash browns but with pumpkin), peking duck, fried tofu, noodles, rice, unidentified green veggie.
That was dinner. For lunch (in Shenzen near Hong Kong) we had:
rice, watermelon, green veggies, eggplant (sooo good!), fish, tofu with meat in the middle
And on the bus we had lychees! YAY! {I first tasted lychee when Jenny brought back small bits of lychee jello from China when we were in college, in photographs they look like strawberries, but in reality their skin is rougher and more textured. You peel the thick skin back and inside is a white, translucent fruit. It is soo good. I recently discovered that Stop and Shop periodically has them in the exotic fruit section, albeit they are smaller and not quite as tasty}.
9:23 pm/ 10:50 pm
wax apple is nien-moo
Well, today I did something I never thought I would do--I ate congealed pigs blood. It was a dense square block 1"x1.5"x3/4" packed with small grains of rice. Jenny's mom said that if I could eat that then I could eat anything in China. I ate it with no prompting or prodding. The scariest part? I really kind of liked it.
This was one of many things I cooked for myself at a restaurant we went to. It was a little like the Teppanaki grill in Disney World in that you turned on a submerged burner and a pot of broth was placed inside. Then you put in vegetables (cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, taro root, pumpkin) and some other flavorings (frozen then fried tofu, fish ball, fried fish ball, imitation crab meat, congealed pigs blood, fish paste, tofu, bean sprouts and I may be missing something), then noodles (maifun), and thin slices of beef. It was SO good! I couldn't finish it though because there was so much food!
Today I got my haircut and a little lesson in world-wide fashion--according to the hairdresser, Asian girls want curly hair and European girls was straight. Go figure. {Getting a haircut in Taiwan is quite an experience. For $30 you get a drink, hair wash, scalp massage, shoulder massage, hair cut, and blown dried. Each station has a television as well as magaizines and a mirror. I can't even tell an American hairdresser what I want, so I kind of gave him free range. He cut the straight hair away so the curly hair showed. It was quite an experience.}
We also had "Chinese hamburger" for lunch. It was made with this semi sweet, very white, doughy bread and inside you put salted meat, green veggies that are dillish and gingerish, shredded cabbage, eggs (shredded and thin), peanut powder (which I opted out of), and bean sprouts. I am so full!
I also ate about three wax apples too.
Well, today I did something I never thought I would do--I ate congealed pigs blood. It was a dense square block 1"x1.5"x3/4" packed with small grains of rice. Jenny's mom said that if I could eat that then I could eat anything in China. I ate it with no prompting or prodding. The scariest part? I really kind of liked it.
This was one of many things I cooked for myself at a restaurant we went to. It was a little like the Teppanaki grill in Disney World in that you turned on a submerged burner and a pot of broth was placed inside. Then you put in vegetables (cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, taro root, pumpkin) and some other flavorings (frozen then fried tofu, fish ball, fried fish ball, imitation crab meat, congealed pigs blood, fish paste, tofu, bean sprouts and I may be missing something), then noodles (maifun), and thin slices of beef. It was SO good! I couldn't finish it though because there was so much food!
Today I got my haircut and a little lesson in world-wide fashion--according to the hairdresser, Asian girls want curly hair and European girls was straight. Go figure. {Getting a haircut in Taiwan is quite an experience. For $30 you get a drink, hair wash, scalp massage, shoulder massage, hair cut, and blown dried. Each station has a television as well as magaizines and a mirror. I can't even tell an American hairdresser what I want, so I kind of gave him free range. He cut the straight hair away so the curly hair showed. It was quite an experience.}
We also had "Chinese hamburger" for lunch. It was made with this semi sweet, very white, doughy bread and inside you put salted meat, green veggies that are dillish and gingerish, shredded cabbage, eggs (shredded and thin), peanut powder (which I opted out of), and bean sprouts. I am so full!
I also ate about three wax apples too.
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