oily tea and stinky hair
kevin and i are still in guillin. we are going to anshun tomorrow, which i think is about 19 hours away. we accidentally bought the expensive soft sleeper train tickets again because everything seems to be sold out with the chinese new year on the horizon. everyone gets 7 days off for the holiday and most of them leave the big cities for the countryside to be with their families. this increases the prices and makes tickets hard to get. anshun should be interesting. according to the lonely planet, they eat lots of dog there and hang the carcauses in the storefront to attract hungry customers. so i imagine we will be trying dog (if we haven't already).
guillin has been pretty fun. we went to longshen, about 2.5 hour drive, to the famous rice paddy terraces. it is where minority villagers farm and live at very high elevations. unfortunately, it was very foggy and we couldn't see a foot in front of our faces, let alone the awesome view from the top of the mountain. but the village was interesting anyway. we got to see a pig get slaughtered. they keep all the blood for some reason - i'm sure for one of their very tasty dishes. mmm. although we tried bamboo rice there and that WAS actually good.
the women also never cut their hair, so it is very long. if we paid them, they would take their hair down for us to take pictures. apparently they only trim their hair once in their lives, when they marry. they also wash their hair in the river and don't use soap or shampoo. so very stinky.
one lady invited us into her home for some oil tea, a local specialty. kevin and i liked it. first sticky rice is fried in fat, then peanuts are fried in fat and both are set aside. then even more fat is added with ginger and garlic and tea leaves. once these cook for a couple minutes, water is added and it boils for a while. when it's ready, the leaves and such are scooped out and just the broth is used. then the broth is poured over the rice and peanuts. pretty tasty, but probs artery clogging.
next we went to yangshou, a town about an hour south of guillin. i really liked this place. it reminded me a lot of banff. small town atmosphere set amongst some beautful limestone mountains. it's crazy because you can walk by these mini mountains right in the middle of town. and you can climb many of them as they have gazebos at the top. i have to say that kevin and i have climbed a lot of mountains and hills on this trip. not sure why i'm still chubby. maybe it's all the yogurt drinks i seem to like (apple flavour is gooood).
we spent a full day biking around the countryside in yangshou, which was great. we got a little lost of course. we found a cave and a really pretty orange grove. i love the oranges here. yes, they are the christmas oranges we get at home! yum.
the only bad thing is that i seen two kitties in cages at the market. and they weren't being sold as pets. they were right next to the chickens, bunnies and ducks. i can handle eating dog, but not kitties! but i guess i really won't know, will i. sigh.
people are starting to get crazy with the firecrackers now as the new year approaches. we've seen a lot of fireworks already, at all times of the day and night. i'm thinking next week will be crazy with celebrations.
here's some more pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/c388/kevinkeely/China%202/
guillin has been pretty fun. we went to longshen, about 2.5 hour drive, to the famous rice paddy terraces. it is where minority villagers farm and live at very high elevations. unfortunately, it was very foggy and we couldn't see a foot in front of our faces, let alone the awesome view from the top of the mountain. but the village was interesting anyway. we got to see a pig get slaughtered. they keep all the blood for some reason - i'm sure for one of their very tasty dishes. mmm. although we tried bamboo rice there and that WAS actually good.
the women also never cut their hair, so it is very long. if we paid them, they would take their hair down for us to take pictures. apparently they only trim their hair once in their lives, when they marry. they also wash their hair in the river and don't use soap or shampoo. so very stinky.
one lady invited us into her home for some oil tea, a local specialty. kevin and i liked it. first sticky rice is fried in fat, then peanuts are fried in fat and both are set aside. then even more fat is added with ginger and garlic and tea leaves. once these cook for a couple minutes, water is added and it boils for a while. when it's ready, the leaves and such are scooped out and just the broth is used. then the broth is poured over the rice and peanuts. pretty tasty, but probs artery clogging.
next we went to yangshou, a town about an hour south of guillin. i really liked this place. it reminded me a lot of banff. small town atmosphere set amongst some beautful limestone mountains. it's crazy because you can walk by these mini mountains right in the middle of town. and you can climb many of them as they have gazebos at the top. i have to say that kevin and i have climbed a lot of mountains and hills on this trip. not sure why i'm still chubby. maybe it's all the yogurt drinks i seem to like (apple flavour is gooood).
we spent a full day biking around the countryside in yangshou, which was great. we got a little lost of course. we found a cave and a really pretty orange grove. i love the oranges here. yes, they are the christmas oranges we get at home! yum.
the only bad thing is that i seen two kitties in cages at the market. and they weren't being sold as pets. they were right next to the chickens, bunnies and ducks. i can handle eating dog, but not kitties! but i guess i really won't know, will i. sigh.
people are starting to get crazy with the firecrackers now as the new year approaches. we've seen a lot of fireworks already, at all times of the day and night. i'm thinking next week will be crazy with celebrations.
here's some more pics:
http://photobucket.com/albums/c388/kevinkeely/China%202/