Yao minority women, Guangxi, China
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 1, Beijing here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 2, The Great Wall here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 3, The Forbidden City here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 4-5, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 6, Lost and Found, here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 7-8, Xi'an to Guilin, here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 9-10, Lijiang River and Yangshuo, here.
My
Crazy China Trip
Day 11-12
Longsheng Terraces to Shanghai
This
morning I got up early and didn’t have a shower, again. I got on an early bus north
to the Longsheng terraces. I was keen to get photos of the amazing landscape
with its rice paddy terraces stepping down the hillsides.
The bus got to one of the Yao minority
villages near Longsheng just before lunch. As I arrived a dance show started.
The music was great and the dancers were beautiful. They had wonderful bright pink
costumes decorated with jewellery.
All the dancers had long black hair tied up
in buns. One of the women was especially beautiful. I had that feeling in my chest
again, or maybe it was the spicy snacks I had on the bus.
After the show the dancers posed for photos.
Some of them let down their hair. I started chatting to the pretty one. She spoke
English and said her family had a farm with terraces near the village and I
could come and take photos.
After lunch I went with her I took lots of photos
of the terraces. Then we walked a bit further and came across a kind of water pump.
She told me it is called a "dragon spine" or “dragon wheel". She
asked me if I wanted to try it out. I said ok and we hopped up and began to
step on the foot treadles and turn the wheel. A chain of boards in a wooden
channel brought the water up to a higher level. It was great seeing the water
flow out. She said I was doing very well for a first time. The rice needs lots
of water she said or the crop will not grow. The she said she had to go to help
her grandfather for a little while. She told me to keep pumping until she came
back. I said ok.
A few hours later she came back. I was very hot
and tired by then. She said I had done a good job. We walked back to the village
together chatting. We saw three guys on another dragon’s wheel. They didn’t
look as puffed as me. More practice I suppose.
Dragon wheel irrigation pump
She asked me where I was staying. I realised I hadn’t booked anywhere. She said I could stay at her house. We went there and I said hello to her parents and grandfather.
She talked to her parents and then said I could sleep in her bed. I went red. They must be pretty liberal here I thought. I really wished I’d read those condom instructions.
After dinner and a walk around the village we went back and she made the bed. I said I was looking forward to stroking her hair all night. She said ok and unclipped it and gave it to me. Turns out it wasn’t real. Very heavy she said, she doesn’t wear it all the time. She got changed into jeans and a t-shirt.
Just them a man came in. He said hello to the family in Chinese and then collapsed onto her bed. The woman said something to him. He grunted, rolled over and soon started snoring. That’s my husband she said. He works in the town. Sorry, I think he’s a bit drunk. It’s ok, you can still sleep in my bed. I sleep with my sister tonight.
I decided that I wouldn’t sleep with her hair and gave it back to her. I didn’t want her husband to get confused in the night. He was a bit smelly, but then so was I.
My Trip to China - Day 12, Shanghai
This
morning I was up early again. The woman’s husband was still snoring. Her Mum
made me a hot breakfast and they only charged me the same as a hotel so that
was nice.
I said goodbye and caught a bus into
Guilin to the train station for the next leg of my journey.
I got a ticket for a train to Shanghai. It
was ‘Ying wo’ or ‘hard seat’. They were right. The seat got
harder and harder as the trip went on.
Sitting across from me was an old
guy who was half deaf. He liked to talk loudly. His wife must have been deaf
too since she didn’t seem to notice him. His grown up son in the next row of
seats tried to tell him to be quiet but he didn’t get the message. Eventually
he got tired and went to sleep. I was tired too. I really needed a cushion and
a pillow. My bottom went to sleep but not the rest of me.
When I arrived in Shanghai I found my way on
the subway system to my hotel with a bit of help from one of the assistants at
the station. Then I went to small noodle restaurant in a side street nearby. It
was before the lunch time rush and I was almost the only person there. I
ordered tomato and egg noodles since the picture on the wall looked nice. I tried
to be friendly but the waitress didn’t smile at all and shouted the order back
to the kitchen. It hurt my ears but it saves on paper I suppose.
Anyway
when the noodles arrived there was hardly and tomato and egg topping. I mean it
was nothing like the picture. I was hungry and this just wasn’t a fair go. I
complained to the waitress ’There’s no flavour.’
The waitress pointed to the salt shaker and said
‘Put some salt on it.’ ‘No, I said I want more tomato and egg.’ She took the
dish away to the kitchen and a few minutes later brought it back. There was
more topping this time so I said ‘Xie
xie’ Thanks, and mixed it into the noodles with my chopsticks and ate a
mouthful. It tasted very salty. I looked up at the waitress as she walked
away. She was smiling.
Later I came across a shop selling paintings.
There were some old style ones, and lots of modern ones. Here was one of
President Obama wearing a hat like Chairman Mao and another one had Mao in
front of a McDonalds. I was surprised. I remembered something from the little
red book. “We shall support whatever our enemies oppose and oppose
whatever our enemies support.” I didn’t think Mao would have been a big
supporter of McDonalds but then you just never know with China. Maybe it was
another of those contradictions he talked about.
I was walking
down a street past a vegetable stall when a lady there said hello. She said the
vegetables were very nice and she was going to buy lots. I should buy some too.
I said no thanks. She tried to persuade me but her English wasn’t good and my
Chinese couldn’t handle her explanation of why the vegetables were so great.
The owner also tried to talk to me in Chinese, holding up some things I didn’t
even recognise. I smiled, waved goodbye and left.
The strange thing
was I went down the same street later and saw the same lady talking to some
other customers. She must really like vegetables.
********
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 1, Beijing here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 2, The Great Wall here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 3, The Forbidden City here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 4-5, Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 6, Lost and Found, here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 7-8, Xi'an to Guilin, here.
Read My Crazy China Trip - Day 9-10, Lijiang River and Yangshuo, here.
Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
********
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Tell me what you think. Constructive comments welcome.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
If you like the story share with it with your friends.
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