Business stuff has kept me busy this week, lots of meetings with people. Very good but tiring! more meetings this week as well. Pr for me to have wisdom in considering this opportunity that we have of securing some investment funding. I am feeling more than ever the need to be wise- money and gaining more isnt my primary goal, but obviously investors want a return on investment. It would help us to develop some projects faster, but in the end is that a good thing? Not sure! Gd grants wisdom to those who ask, and thats what I need. I'm more determined than ever to go farther abroad in the future, and China and Cambodia are still in my sights- I think I can use business to do that and I always want to remember that. I'm thankful for Gd's blessing on my little business already.
Our friend J from scottish dancing is visiting this week- pr that I'd be a good host and that things wob't be too weird for her.
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Nov 7, returning home
Well its bedtime after our last day here in China. We wandered around Beijing, saw scorpions and geckoes being offered as food items on the street, Didn't buy an orange that was $3, and generally rested most of the evening. George bought some studying Chinese books today, about the history of Chinese characters.
On this trip we've seen a LOT of things- roosters being sacrificed to protect a new car (complete with blood splattered on the new car and dripped all around it), beautiful friendly Miao ladies doing their daily chores, and flashy Beijing in all its modern glory. We've smelled a LOT of things too- several of our hotels had bad drainage, many villages had open sewage drains, our lunches smelled amazing, and we even smelled the lovely perfume and shampoo smells of Western tourists as they walked through the villages. Noticable by our own lack of lovely smell courtesy of no proper washing facilities and pants and sweaters worn for 17 days in a row. We tasted a LOT of things, from pickled hot peppers to pig intestines and bits of chicken you wouldn't think were edible. Fantastic fresh local veggies we'd never seen or heard of, tasty fungus, bamboo shoots, and fresh tofu. Dirt in the air from all the construction. We've heard SO many "Helloh! helloh! You want to buy?" and the cacophony of honking on city streets. People shouting loudly everywhere, spiting loudly all over the place, and the lovely sounds of Miao local dialects and beautiful music. We have also felt some unusual things- like pig intestine in your mouth as you're chewing it, sore backsides from hours of bouncing around on mountain roads, aching ears from cars honking 6 inches from you to get you to move, people shoving you from all directions into the person in front of you, village paths beneath our feet, and beautiful sun on our skin. It's been an amazing 17 days for me here in China.
I will miss a lot of things about China- the lovely people, fantastic food, ancient culture, and beautiful language. But there are afew things I'm looking forward to about getting home: my own bed, a bathroom without mold, a toilet that doesn't need squatting to use, clean clothes, quiet streets, proper sanitation, toilet paper, green grass, petting my cat, seeing friends in Cambridge, driving on smooth roads.
It's late here, well after bedtime. See you on the flip side in the West. :)
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On this trip we've seen a LOT of things- roosters being sacrificed to protect a new car (complete with blood splattered on the new car and dripped all around it), beautiful friendly Miao ladies doing their daily chores, and flashy Beijing in all its modern glory. We've smelled a LOT of things too- several of our hotels had bad drainage, many villages had open sewage drains, our lunches smelled amazing, and we even smelled the lovely perfume and shampoo smells of Western tourists as they walked through the villages. Noticable by our own lack of lovely smell courtesy of no proper washing facilities and pants and sweaters worn for 17 days in a row. We tasted a LOT of things, from pickled hot peppers to pig intestines and bits of chicken you wouldn't think were edible. Fantastic fresh local veggies we'd never seen or heard of, tasty fungus, bamboo shoots, and fresh tofu. Dirt in the air from all the construction. We've heard SO many "Helloh! helloh! You want to buy?" and the cacophony of honking on city streets. People shouting loudly everywhere, spiting loudly all over the place, and the lovely sounds of Miao local dialects and beautiful music. We have also felt some unusual things- like pig intestine in your mouth as you're chewing it, sore backsides from hours of bouncing around on mountain roads, aching ears from cars honking 6 inches from you to get you to move, people shoving you from all directions into the person in front of you, village paths beneath our feet, and beautiful sun on our skin. It's been an amazing 17 days for me here in China.
I will miss a lot of things about China- the lovely people, fantastic food, ancient culture, and beautiful language. But there are afew things I'm looking forward to about getting home: my own bed, a bathroom without mold, a toilet that doesn't need squatting to use, clean clothes, quiet streets, proper sanitation, toilet paper, green grass, petting my cat, seeing friends in Cambridge, driving on smooth roads.
It's late here, well after bedtime. See you on the flip side in the West. :)
--
361 Photography
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Burwell
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t: 01223 850343
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Saturday, 6 November 2010
Nov 7
We're chilling here at the Guiyang airport ready for our flight to
Beijing. 3 hours to Beijing, then we'll be at the hotel and wander
around the city a bit. I think I'll need a post holiday break. :)
Beijing. 3 hours to Beijing, then we'll be at the hotel and wander
around the city a bit. I think I'll need a post holiday break. :)
Interestingly we have to take a bus shuttle to our flight, and there's
no orderly boarding it is all just random! :)
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November 7 2010
It was our last day of touring local Miao villages today- we visited a village where they make batik. I had no idea how difficult batik is to make! The lady in this village had many awards for her batik. George bought an awesome batik shirt. :) Batik is made by putting wax onto fabric, and then dying the fabric and removing the wax. it's a common thing for African villages, and I had no idea it was also made in China. After this last village we had our final local lunch, which included one dish that had pig intestines in it! Not for the Western pallete- in case you're wondering it's very tough and chewy with not much flavor, but what little flavor it has is like liver. I didn't much care for it but ate it enthusiastically anyway. :) We spent a lot of time driving back to Guiyang, where we visited a flower and bird market. I bought locally grown tobacco (boy is it strong smelling) and we saw lots of interesting Chinese herbs.
Last night on the way back to our hotel from a big Miao village I was thinking about how night is the same everywhere. An odd idea, but despite all our cultural differences, food, music, clothing, houses, we all experience nighttime. As we drove past villages with teeny lights on and TVs in distant houses, I thought about how people are people everywhere, and some things are universal. I thought of my own small village way off in Michigan, of my road and my neighbors enjoying the warmth of their homes and the light, and thought about how glad I am to be from a village. Like most young people I was eager to experience a bit more of the world again (having seen quite a bit traveling as a child), and the young people here are also keen to leave their villages and rural life and live in the cities. But many find that city life is still leaving them poor, and their quality of life is lower. I hope that as they get older they will remember their villages and return to them. Village life can be difficult because everyone has to live together and work together. But the friendly sense of belonging and connection that comes from that life is something precious that city folks don't experience. I can't help that I was born with an adventure bug, but I know eventually I'll find myself back in a village somewhere enjoying a quiet self sustaining life- growing my own food, and spending the cold winter evenings with friends.
Goodbye for now Guizhou- we had a lovely visit to a rural life that is quickly changing, to a China that is quickly developing, and I look forward to another visit in 5 or 10 years.
--
361 Photography
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Last night on the way back to our hotel from a big Miao village I was thinking about how night is the same everywhere. An odd idea, but despite all our cultural differences, food, music, clothing, houses, we all experience nighttime. As we drove past villages with teeny lights on and TVs in distant houses, I thought about how people are people everywhere, and some things are universal. I thought of my own small village way off in Michigan, of my road and my neighbors enjoying the warmth of their homes and the light, and thought about how glad I am to be from a village. Like most young people I was eager to experience a bit more of the world again (having seen quite a bit traveling as a child), and the young people here are also keen to leave their villages and rural life and live in the cities. But many find that city life is still leaving them poor, and their quality of life is lower. I hope that as they get older they will remember their villages and return to them. Village life can be difficult because everyone has to live together and work together. But the friendly sense of belonging and connection that comes from that life is something precious that city folks don't experience. I can't help that I was born with an adventure bug, but I know eventually I'll find myself back in a village somewhere enjoying a quiet self sustaining life- growing my own food, and spending the cold winter evenings with friends.
Goodbye for now Guizhou- we had a lovely visit to a rural life that is quickly changing, to a China that is quickly developing, and I look forward to another visit in 5 or 10 years.
--
361 Photography
14 Parsonage Close
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t: 01223 850343
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November 5, 2010
Today we visited 3 villages- it was a bit of a fast tour. Mostly we spent time driving, because the villages are so remote. 3 in one day was a bit much actually- the last village turned out to be the biggest and the best one for shopping for local Miao products, and we had barely any time at all to see the shops.
At the first village, which was called Jidao, we got to experience another welcoming ceremony complete with rice wine, drank this time from bowls though not horns. We saw the local people spinning yarn, weaving, and sewing. All very interesting- the ladies here use their spinning wheels in an upside down way, so they have the needle down at their feet and they control the yarn with their toes, while they turn the wheel with the hand. I thought that was interesting, and wondered why no one thought to do it the other way like the Europeans did, with the needle where you can control it with your hand, and your feet turning the wheel.
The second village was unique in that they stored all their rice in special barns that were in the water, raised up on stilts, but not in their houses. This was meant to reduce fire, but I'm not sure if it was to protect the rice or to keep the fire which might have been caused by rice out of their homes. The Miao houses are all made of wood, and are 2 or 3 floors high. The bottom floor is used mostly like a garage or barn, for storing stuff, and the second and third floors are for living in.
The third village has been designated a special village for tourists to visit. The local government charges you to enter, and they have special Miao traditional costume performances, and you can have your photo taken in a Miao costume in different places around the village. We had ours taken at the entrance to the village- turned out pretty well! Miao people are lighter skinned than Han (Han are the majority people group in China) so I didn't look too different, though my face isn't wide enough. J Anyway with a Miao costume on I attracted a huge crowd of Chinese tourists wanting to take my photo, which was slightly embarrassing but the norm for me here. It was fun to wear the traditional costumes.
Being of a somewhat crazy nature, crazyness seems to find me everywhere. I wanted to buy some of the local pickeled peppers to bring back to make Miao food, which is very very tasty indeed. I also wanted to dried peppers to add to food- the peppers here have a unique flavor and are extremely tasty combined with garlic. So our guide asked a random Miao restaurant lady if she'd sell me some of hers, which resulted in a small crowd of language students surrounding us talking to the lady, and various negotiating, though she was more than happy to sell me hers. In the end I walked away with a kilo of dried peppers with oil and a big old jar of picked peppers for cooking. Yum!!
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361 Photography
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November 4, 2010
Today was absolute madness- it turns out the Lusheng Festival is like the Miao people's equivalent of our county fairs in Michigan, minus the rides, and with 10 times as many people! There are performances of Miao traditional singing and dancing which are done by local school girls, and everyone wears their festival best. The wealthy families are easy to spot, because wealthier families have more silver for their costumes. Some of the girls had very elaborate silver head dresses, and silver attached to their costumes all over the place. Besides being a yearly reason to celebrate, play the lusheng pipes (a kind of large bamboo flute), and see whose water buffalo bull is the strongest in the bull fighting, it's also a time for people from other villages to meet, and for young people to interact. Traditionally this would have been a prime way for boys and girls to meet and chat, though a matchmaker is still in use. The villages tend to be rather remote, with many footpaths through the mountains between them, so getting from one village to another is not easy. Wealthy families have cars or motorbikes, but some families don't, and gas is expensive for them so walking is still a prime way of getting around.
The festival was absolutely packed- and I mean packed, like we never ever see here in the west. Just when you think not one more person will fit, a car decides to drive along the road honking so loudly you think your eardrums will split, and lo and behold there IS enough space for a car to fit. I got caught between a non moving car and a very slowly moving bus, and I cleaned the side of the bus with my jacket as it went slowly by because I was so close. I did still have plenty of space or I would have hopped onto the car's trunk- see Mom don't worry, I think of all of these things! :)
We really enjoyed the festival- lots of opportunity for photographing people. And I definitely enjoyed the water buffalo bull fights. I don't usually like animal fights, because they tend to be vicious and gruesome, but these water buffalo are part of their families and are critical for their work as farmers plowing the rice paddies, so they don't come to any harm. Also if you've ever seen a water buffalo you might wonder how they could ever come to be angry enough to fight one another- they are so very mild mannered and mild tempered most of the time. And indeed, many of these buffalo were a bit like "Uh, can we go home now?" rather than actually fighting. Even when they did decide to fight, it was more of a putting both heads down and pushing each other around, although we did see one very strong bull flip another one right over. Their horns curve backward, so they don't accidentally gore each other. Mostly they had to be encouraged to fight with each other by being occasionally swatted with a long stick, and by the owners talking to them. Sometimes there was a second round- they would separate the bulls and the owners would pet their noses and talk to them, before the next round. It was really cool actually- I really enjoyed seeing the fairly gentle fighting of such huge and strong creatures.
The days on this tour are very long- after the festival we came back and had a fantastic dinner in a local restaurant. The local flavors are really very good, different from other parts of China. Chinese food is something I get excited about eating, it's about the only kind of food that I love to eat, besides chocolate. J I'm not much of a foodie about any food except Chinese food- mostly I eat because if I don't I'm hungry. :)
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November 1, 2010
Today was our first full day in Guiyang. We went out of the city 2 hrs to visit a waterfall and a beautiful park, and then on to an ancient city that was populated by some soldiers 700 years ago. I felt really sad today because we came face to face with the animist beliefs of the people here in Guizhou (Gway-joe). Large rocks suddenly become gods, trees have red ribbons tied on for good luck, all sorts of superstitious beliefs. Especially lots of beliefs about bad luck and how to avoid it. It must be scary to live your life like this, always worried about bad luck, trying desperately to improve your good luck.
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361 Photography
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Zhengzhou Day 1
I made it to Zhengzhou (which is pronounced jung-joe) via 5 hr Chinese fast train. It was really comfortable, and strangely no one seemed to think it strange that I was taking the train. Though I was definitely the only Westerner in my car. I'd definitely take Chinese trains again- if you go for the soft seat option, which is like First Class in the UK or US, it's very comfortable. I've never had to use a squattie toilet on a moving train before, but there's a first time for everything. :)
Zhengzhou is one of the smaller cities in China- the population is less than 10 million, which barely rates as a city here. It's very spread out, unlike Beijing, but not as widespread as London. Like most of the cities here the population is booming, with people moving in from the countryside like crazy. On the way to my hotel I saw 30 or 40 very large buildings going up. Like 40+ stories. Here in China living in a highrise building in an apartment is considered a good thing, very middle class, which is a step up from the farming life most people live here. That's a problem actually because everyone is moving to a city, but who will produce food for all these urban dwellers?
I'm not sure what's on for tomorrow, but the wedding is Friday so at least I'll have a day to settle in. I'm off to dinner with everyone at 7pm, which is quite late for me- I've gone to sleep at 7pm every night since I got here! :) Anyway it'll help me to adjust properly to the time zone. :)
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361 Photography
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Zhengzhou is one of the smaller cities in China- the population is less than 10 million, which barely rates as a city here. It's very spread out, unlike Beijing, but not as widespread as London. Like most of the cities here the population is booming, with people moving in from the countryside like crazy. On the way to my hotel I saw 30 or 40 very large buildings going up. Like 40+ stories. Here in China living in a highrise building in an apartment is considered a good thing, very middle class, which is a step up from the farming life most people live here. That's a problem actually because everyone is moving to a city, but who will produce food for all these urban dwellers?
I'm not sure what's on for tomorrow, but the wedding is Friday so at least I'll have a day to settle in. I'm off to dinner with everyone at 7pm, which is quite late for me- I've gone to sleep at 7pm every night since I got here! :) Anyway it'll help me to adjust properly to the time zone. :)
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361 Photography
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Wednesday, 3 November 2010
November 3, 2010
Calling it a night here in Zhenyuan- went out for some night photography, tomorrow Lusheng Festival then back to KaiLi. So far Zhenyuan is my favorite city, its gorgeous and old Chinese style here! Would like more time here. :) bed time!! zzz....
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
November 2 2010
The time has really flown here- we're nearly half way done with the last part of our trip. We're here in KaiLi and nearby villages today, off to another city and nearby villages tomorrow. We got to meet some local Miao people and see their welcoming ceremony, and their village, and lots of mountain driving. We also saw plenty of farmers and lots of water buffalo (water cow in Chinese). The days have been quite long and we are very tired by the time we get back- bedtimes have averaged about 8:30p or 9p, I've been waking up around 8am, so 11hrs sleep! The hotels are comfortable but not posh, and the food has been tasty (except for one place that tried to pass off potatoes and ketchup as Chinese food).
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361 Photography
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361 Photography
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