Really Wednesday, Statue

Is she touching herself? Okay maybe that is just the feeling I get but look at where her hands are. This is in a Dangon park a place where there are little kids. Maybe it is just a really big hipped woman and she is modest. But I don't think so as she is only covering one breast.

Golden Temple

Today Matthew and I got directions for going to the Duonan Flower Market. By the time we were ready to go it was after lunch and we realized that to see the flowers we would have to really get there as early in the morning as possible. As a result we decided to go to the Golden Temple instead. This was not on our list of places to go and in someways wouldn't have been except for he weather. It has been cloudy and overcast. We want to go to the Western Mountain and the Stone Forest when it is sunny and clear. This may not be possible unless the weather changes.

We got to the Golden Temple late in the day. It was a long hike up into the gardens and then to the temple. The temple is made from bronze, one of the reasons it is so special. They tried to make it look like a dark wood and it is pretty impressive when one knows what it is made from. Just seeing the temple as a temple is not all that impressive. The walk up the mountain however, was quit a hike. There were so many stairs and people carrying double sided baskets. I would not have made it up if it was me carrying the basket. The gardens at the temple were also very pretty.

I have heard but am not positive that Yunnan is one of the only other place besides the Appalachian Mountains that have red pink rhododendrons. They also have the more common white rhododendrons which are also very pretty. I don't know if I have ever seen the white rhododendrons before even though they are the more common.

In the park there was also a bell tower. We walked to the bell tower and got there just as it was closing. As a result only one of the outdoor lookouts was open. The view was pretty amazing. We could see out over the city and gardens. We started making our way down to the cable car down the mountain after seeing the bell.

We walked around for quite some time finding that the orchid and cactus gardens had already closed. It looked really pretty so it is a little sad we couldn't go in. We walked through the Camellia garden but most of the flowers had already bloomed. The Camellia is the flower of Kunming.

We wandered our way to the cable care down the mountain only to find out that the price was much higher than we had originally thought. It was supposed to be something around 20RMB and it was double that. We decided it wasn't worth it and to just walk back down the mountain.

By the time we got down to the Western gate and were ready to leave on a bus my knees were wobbling from all the stairs. I wore my new pants and they are really comfortable so I decided to get another pair. This time I got a lighter color and a little longer. She says she can have them before we leave next Monday.

Matthew and I tried a new restaurant, The Box. It is a western style place but not one we have been to. We got a pizza which was pretty good and I got a fresh lime juice. It was sweetened. I think it may be the best juice I've had the entire trip. Well, the orange juice at the Prague is pretty good but I did like the lime.

After dinner we went to the Hump Hostel and the little markets near there. We started by walking through looking at the jade to see if they had any teardrop earrings. I saw some on a TV program Jinpeng was watching. They weren't being advertised, one of the characters was wearing them. I didn't find anything and all the vendors don't like it when you can't tell them what you want. Also, they don't like it when you know what you want and they don't have it.

After searching the market and not finding them we went up to the Hump to find out about tours to Shi Lin, the Stone Forest. They had a tour guide included but not the freedom that Matthew and I wanted so I think we will try and go by ourselves.

We took the 107 bus back and stopped at Wal Mart to pick up some last things we might need. Than back to the apartment and bed so we can try the flower market again tomorrow.

Back to Kunming

We got up really early in the morning. I woke up Matthew and Jinpeng as they weren't up, while I had been gotten up quite some time before. There was a really pretty sliver of the moon above the mountains before the sun came up. Everyone was trying to get on the 7:30 buses to Dali, was in a big hurry to get packed up and to the river in time. Matthew and I got all packed and across the river to the bus. At the buses men were handing out cigarettes as gifts. This is another male dominated tradition and so Matthew received a gift. For the entire bus ride on the mountains, where he felt like we were going to fall over the edge, he fidgeted with the cigarette.

Going back I sat on the same side of the bus as on the way in so that I could see the views and take some pictures. Our battery was almost dead so I didn't take as many pictures as I took on the way to the village. It was nice for me, though, to see that there were about 5 inches between the bus tire and the edge of the road and down into the valley. For whatever reason it made me feel a lot better. I didn't think I was going to fall of the edge and down into nowhere. It was a long ride back and we didn't have any breakfast in the village. I was glad Matthew and I had granola bars we could eat.

What we didn't know was that this particular Saturday was market day and that going out would take a long time. We got to a small town and what was normally a two lane road was turned into a very small road by people setting up for market. We got stuck as no one wanted to let anyone else go by first. We saw pigs being carved up and lots of veggies set up by the side of the road. I think it took us about an hour to get through the village. It was pretty unpleasant at times with all the diesel fumes. That, and people smoking on the bus. This bus didn't have anything which said no smoking so it wasn't like they were breaking the rules.

They motors on the big trucks out here are not covered. And you can watch them running. I think maybe they leave them open so they can get to them to work on quickly if they need to.

We had amazing views on the bus trip and it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to Dali from the village. Our driver wasn't very nice and the roads were very curvy. Luckily neither Matthew or I got sick. When we got to Dali I was more than ready to get off the bus, though. Everyone from the village met in Dali and we went to lunch. We had a good lunch. For me it was probably the best food in a while. There were veggies, which I always appreciate. I'm not as big of a meat eater as the Chinese are.

After lunch we hired a bus back to Kunming. We had some trouble trying to get all of the sleeping bags and pads loaded into the bus. We had to put many of them behind the seats and under the seats of the bus. It was quite a project getting them all loaded onto the bus. Matthew and I had been thinking about staying in Dali for a day but the prospect was daunting and we were really tired. We finally started going and the bus was playing Chinese movies. "Legendary Assassin" played first and it was interesting mostly because I couldn't understand what was being said. Then they played a Jacky Chan movie where he steals a baby. It was also in Chinese and we couldn't understand it. Again this made it more intriguing. I think I would have been able to block it out much more easily if I had been able to understand what was going on.

I tried to take a nap but the bus was really hot and I was starting to get a headache. By the time we got back to Kunming my head was pounding and I had already taken pain killer. I also had to wait on the bus for them to unload all of the bags. I was not very happy when we got off of the bus. Alyssa got a cab and we rode with her to a bus stop that we knew had a 52 bus, and we got on and went back to the apartment. I got a shower and it felt really good. All of the dust had gotten under my skin so I brought it back with me.

I also have something like 50-60 flea bites now. They are driving me crazy. We didn't take our bags into the room in case any of the fleas came back with us. Tomorrow Matthew and I are going to take it easy and plan our trips to the Western Mountain, Dounan Flower Market, and the Stone Forest. We are hoping for nice weather this week so we can have good views.

Celebrations in Shan Shi Ping

Last night was a long night. I went to bed before everyone else, so when all the girls came in they woke me up enough that I didn't sleep well the rest of the night. Finally, when I was starting to fall asleep they started getting up. I think it was around 6:30am. Then around 7:30 they told me it was time to get up. So much for sleep for me. After getting up I was watched very closely while I brushed my teeth. I found it a little bit strange. A woman sat in her window and stared at me the entire time. I would have thought she had never seen someone brush their teeth but a bunch of girls, Chinese, had all brushed their teeth right before me. I don't mind them looking at me, as I know that I am strange and different and they may have never seen a white Westerner before. However, brushing teeth is kind of private. I don't really want someone watching me spit tooth paste. I guess there are other things that I would have liked less. And I should say that the villagers were really very nice and wanted to make sure that I was comfortable and had everything I needed. I appreciate the warmth they showed me and I should not let my discomfort with being watch while brushing my teeth overshadow the feeling of warmth.

Once up I had some bread and a granola bar for breakfast. Matthew and I decided to go for a walk across the river from the village and further up the dirt road. We crossed the swinging bridge and started up the hill. They told us that events started at 10 and we should be back by then. The dirt was really red and very dusty. In places it was 2 inches think and when you stepped it would billow up around your feet. I think it would be kind of like walking on a red moon. At least that is what I imagine it to be like.

Like the other side of the dirt road going up to the main road, this side had a very steep drop down to the river. There were some pretty white butterfly bushes growing along the edge, and on the hills were mostly Jack Pines. Everywhere except by the river is still very dry. We had some nice views of the village from across the river. I did not realize that it was as big as it was. Yesterday Matthew got a tour of the village while I was trying to play the Erhu. There was a school in the village at one point but right now there are not any children of the right age to attend school. There are kids from the village that are in college but I don't think there is anyone over 4 and under 16 who actually lives in the village. It is a little bit strange to have an entire generation missing. from the population.

We headed back to the village to get ready for the events. There are supposed to be about 200 people coming today to take part in the celebrations. When we got back to the village I decided that after yesterday riding on the bus with the window open my hair needed to be brushed. I normally don't bush it unless it is wet but it was really knotted. Brushing only helped a little. Matthew and I put on lots of sunscreen as it is sunny and we will be sitting watching events.

When we got back to the village there were already many new people sitting and waiting for the events to start. Matthew and I went and sat in the back with Alyssa so that we could have someone tell us what was happening. At first the sun on my back felt good after the cool morning. Then they asked us to move to the front. I get the feeling we were guests of honor. However, this was really in the sun and after I took off layers and there wasn't any more layers I could take off I sat there and sweated.

At first I really enjoyed the performances. I didn't understand some of the skits because there wasn't someone who could translate for me all the time. After performances there were traditional dances from the Chinese minorities.The women from these dances wore the traditional clothing which was very interesting. They even came around and gave us straw hats. This made it much better for about 15 minutes and then I was back to feeling like it was really too hot and that I was going to get sunburn through my clothes as well as on any bare skin. So I put on more sunscreen. Matthew and I thought that there were only 2 more dances so we stayed.

About this time Jinpeng came and got us to tell us that because some officials had come the police had also come and when they heard that there were two Americans there they needed to see our passports. About this point I was thinking that it was a really good thing we brought our passports. We had almost left them in Kunming so that they would not get lost or stolen on the trip. We only brought them because we thought we might be staying a night in Dali. They looked at our passports and wrote down the information. While they were doing this one of the police officers, who I guess had never seen two white people, was taking pictures of us. I am alright with people taking my picture if they ask. If they ask there is a good chance that I will say yes but when they don't ask I just want to give them the "good ol' American" finger. I'm told that some people will understand while others will not. I always try and ask before I take a picture of a person here and that gives them a chance to say no. However, I am not given this option.

We were saved from having to sit in the sun by them wanting to look at our passports and when we went to sit back down we went to the shade. It was so much nicer sitting in the shade but I think I got a little too hot as I was not feeling really well. The events went over by a lot and by the time lunch came around I was not really hungry because the heat had really gotten to me. I ate some rice and radish.

After lunch I discovered that I had some bites on my hip. I didn't really think much of them as they didn't itch. So I went in the room I had slept in and rested for a while. After a while I got up and went and sat outside on the bench. I talked with Jinpeng. I asked him about the graves on the mountain side. He said that the villagers were minority people and thus they could bury their dead. For the Han majority they have to get cremated. This goes against tradition which says that to come back for the next life you must be buried to keep your possessions. I asked if Jinpeng cared about it and he said that no, he didn't, but that his grandparents might. He also said that in many families there is tension among the elders and the younger generation as they do not want to be cremated but want to be buried. They think it is the responsibility of the children to have this wish carried out. Thus there are many places which will say that the body was burned so that they can actually bury it. The government feels that there is not enough land to let the people decide and thus the Han majority must follow the rules. Jinpeng seems to be less bothered by this than I would have imagined. I like the option of choosing for myself. But he doesn't seem to question. I'm a little bit surprised because he seems to question other governments but not his own. I wonder if part of this isn't because of when he was born and the fact that he has only seen the rise of China.

There wasn't anything else planed until around 4 in the afternoon. Everyone kept telling us that there were really pretty rocks across the river so after resting we set out to look for rocks and see if there were any nice ones. Again I was really grateful for the straw hat as it kept the sun out of my eyes. I was having to try and keep it from blowing off all the time but it was still very nice. We found some nice rocks. A dog also adopted us. It swum the river from the village and when we went to go back we walked across the bridge it stood and watched us go. There was no way that dog was going to set foot on the bridge. I think the dog might have had some common sense as the bridge would have been a long fall and the river was not that deep.

Back on the other side they were planting fruit trees. Planting trees involved digging a hole by the river and then chopping off a branch from a fruit tree which was already established and sticking it in the ground. I wonder about the success rate for this method of planting trees. I have my doubts that it works very well. By the time we got back to the village the dog had caught up with us. It was not welcomed into the village either and all the dogs, puppies really, started barking at it.

I watched a group villagers of four play a card game. I have no idea what the rules were, to me it just looked like they were putting cards randomly down on the table. The goal I think was to get rid of your cards first, however, I really don't know what it was they were playing or if they were really doing anything more than throwing one card at a time onto the table. The view out of the village was really very pretty at this time of day.

Before dinner Matthew and I went and took some more pictures from across the river. It was really pretty right about sunset. When we came back three Chinese girls went out on the bridge to take pictures. While they were up there one of their hats blew off. Matthew chased it down and pulled it out with a big stick. For his reward he got asked to have his picture taken with her and the very wet hat. When we got back to the village we washed up a little. We were asked to sit with the leaders for dinner.

As it was the last night we had mostly the same thing for dinner as for lunch and as the night before. However they ran out of radishes so I ate rice and some spicy potatoes. During dinner I felt like I had a bug in my shirt so I looked and there was a flea. About this point I started feeling itchy all over. And I was more than ready to pack up and leave. I only had about 4 bites at that point and I knew they would just get worse. Somehow I managed to eat dinner and not get up and run screaming for the river like a mad woman chased by a pack of hungry fleas, the fleas are the size of wolfs in my imagination. Matthew had a bowl of beer. I think to start with he thought it would just be beer but then people started coming over and toasting. When people toast you have to stand and toast back. This is for men mostly. Alyssa and I did not have any beer so we didn't have to participate. She was telling my how China has a culture of drinking and you have to drink to get a better position at your job. She thinks it is really horrible. And seeing some of the men walking around with bottles of hard liquor and watching them drink almost the entire bottle themselves I understand why she doesn't like it.

After dinner there was more dancing. There are a couple of dances which they really like. One of them is to an English song which has a really repetitive beat and says something like "left, left, right, right, forward, forward, turn around. Jumping, jumping everybody jumping." They all line up and follow the instructions of the dance. It is really kind of funny and they all really like to to this kind of dance. I tried to learn it but didn't do very well. They played a waltz so that Matthew and I would dance. It was like a free-for-all, and most of the time I trust Matthew as a lead but tipsy Chinese don't keep a predictable course which then can be followed. It was a little like bumper car waltzing with a big fire in the middle.

I went to bed soon after as I hadn't slept well the night before and it was going to be an early morning. Around 7:30 is when we are leaving.

Traveling to Shan Shi Ping

Matthew and I got up at 6am to get ready and leave by 7 for the bus station. Kevin, Jinpeng's cousin, took us to the bus because Jinpeng didn't think we would be able to find the right bus as we had to transfer buses to get to the bus station. It took us about an hour to get from the apartment to the bus station and it was about 8:20 when we arrived. We thought the bus was leaving at 8:30 so we thought we were late and going to miss the bus. However, the bus didn't leave until 8:50 so we were fine.

We called the person for whom Jinpeng gave us a number, but she wasn't at the station yet and we couldn't find the other people. It is harder for us trying to find someone who is Chinese than for them to find us. We tried looking in the bus station and some ladies tried to get us to buy tickets to Dali where we were going to change buses for the village. We thought we already had tickets so we tried to get away but they were very forceful that we should buy tickets. Ffinally we did get away from them. We called Alyssa again but she was stuck in traffic. She was able to let the other people know we were there and they came and found us. All of the people going to the village made it onto the bus and we set off to Dali.

The ride was interesting as Matthew and I had not been out of Kunming yet. China is very different outside of the city. Our driver stopped along the way and picked up people on the side of the road. They were traveling between villages and some of them would be picked up in a town and then we would take them and drop them off and there would be a little house off in the distance. The landscape was very pretty and it took me a long time to fall asleep as I wanted to watch what was going past. I did sleep some.

We stopped halfway there at a bathroom. The bathroom was not so nice. There were stalls but they had no doors and it was a squatting toilet. They did not flush well so it was pretty gross. I didn't know when we would get to Dali so I used one. We switched drivers at the stop and the second driver was not nearly as nice as the first. He was horn happy, with some reason but still it was annoying. He also smoked on the bus even though it clearly said no smoking. I was glad to get to Dali and not have to deal with his driving anymore.

In Dali we ate lunch at a little place. It was a chicken broth with rice noodles. It was okay but not great. From lunch we tried to get a taxi to the next bus station. They were hard to find but we finally got one. Matthew and I rode with Alyssa because she spoke English and we could talk with her. When we got to the bus stop we waited for the other three people and then we went to the bus. It was a smaller bus. The girls on the bus insisted that I go to the bathroom with them before we left. This bathroom had even less privacy. It was a large hole in the floor which ran the length of the room. There was not any water that ran through, it was just a trough in the ground. Also, there was very little privacy as the walls were only about waist high and there was not door on the front. I don't know why the girls all want to go together, but even when we got to the village girls would say "I'm going to the toilet." Which meant I should go with them.

Back on the bus we headed out. We were on very small roads that wound through the mountains. It was fine for me but it bothered Matthew a little as heights are not his thing. It was really pretty and I had a window I could open so I took pictures of the trip. It took us about 4 hours. We picked up some people along the way and would drop them off. We finally turned off of the paved road onto a little dirt road. It was really dusty so I closed the window. It was a red dirt. We were riding along and at times I thought we were going to roll over the edge. I was not on the side with the drop but we were about 2 inches from the wall sometimes and I was thinking "how can we have any room on the other side?" I thought I was going to roll down the mountain and die at the bottom for sure. I guess this is how a fear of heights would start. Somehow we made it to the bottom and there was a nice river. We stopped by the river and got out of the bus. People from the village met us and we walked over a swinging bridge into the village.

The village was very nice with open courtyards in the middle. The first courtyard is where they have a stage set up for the performances and is where all of the events will take place tomorrow. They spread pine needles over the concrete. It is very pretty. We got settled in and put our bags in a room and then ate dinner. We sat at little tables with benches. They remind me of the little table I had when I was a kid. as they are about that height. They were painted bright orange and yellow. Dinner was pork (mostly the fat which I didn't eat), spicy potatoes, and radishes. I ate rice and the spicy potatoes until they got too spicy and then I ate radishes. I didn't think I liked radishes but these were not too bad.

After dinner a volunteer named Rachel took us on a walk down the river. She told us about the village. They grow fruit and walnuts to sell at the market. The river was very pretty. Also it wasn't as cold as a mountain rivers in North Carolina. It just doesn't get as cold here. There were grave markers on the hills. We asked about them and found out that is where the villagers who died where buried. Many of the first villagers had leprosy and when they died they were buried near the village.

Back at the village they gave me an Erhu to try and play. No one knew how to play it though. They told me that only the grandpa could play and he wasn't there right now. Grandpa is a term that they use for any older man whom they respect. They let me just play around with the Erhu until he got back and then they took me to him. He played a little for me and then gave it back. Turns out is it really isn't that much like a violin. The bowing technique is much different. For one, the bow is strung between the two strings, A and E. Then the bow is held what felt like upside down to me. On the A string you bow from the outside of the bow and on the E string on the inside of the bow. This means that you pull the bow on the A and push the bow and the E. It was very hard for me to get used to. Because not many notes can be played on one string - the strings are switched between - it was even harder for me.

After playing a little and finding that I was better than many of the other Chinese that hadn't played before I stopped playing. They wanted us to get up and dance. Also they wanted us to perform, so we should practice. Alyssa was going to perform with Matthew and I. She wanted to sing "You are my Sunshine". Only problem was we couldn't remember the second verse and it is not my favorite song. But I got up on the stage and sang. Then they wanted me to sing another song. The mike and the sound was horrible. They had it so that the voice reverberated which made it really hard for me to sing. They got that fix and I sang Scarborough Fair.

Finally they were dancing more and I was ready for bed. My lower back was hurting pretty bad, I think from the bus ride and the low benches. They told me that I wasn't actually sleeping in the room I thought I was sleeping in but in a different room. The other room had two beds. They were about the size of two king beds. They told me about six girls would be sleeping in there. So I set up on the edge of a be and went to sleep.

Travels to a Village

Matthew and I are leaving this morning to travel to a small village outside of Dali. It will be an all day bus ride according to Jinpeng who will be meeting us there. He thinks it is important that we experience the live of a small village before we leave China. I am a little worried about getting sick in the village from lack of proper cooking and new bacteria which I'm not used too. I won't eat anything now that isn't cooked. When I was sick last time I really got knocked out and couldn't do anything for a couple of days. Jinpeng has never been to this village so I'm not really sure what to expect. He wasn't able to answer many of my questions.

Things I do know about the village: they have a population of people who had leprosy, they have some running water, no hot water unless boiled, no showers, there is a river which is near the village, they have electricity, they don't have western toilets but what kind they have is a mystery. I could be venturing out to the woods had 3 in the morning when it is pitch black and I have to pee. Matthew and I will be staying at peoples houses so there will be female and male houses. Who am I going to talk with? I don't even speak enough Mandarin to talk to people here and Mandarin will not be the dialect there so I won't even understand numbers.

Even though Matthew and I don't know that much about where we are going or what to expect we are packing up and heading out to a village, a days bus ride away, to join in the celebration of March 11 day of dignity for those who have leprosy. We will be traveling to the village today and in the village on Friday and leaving Saturday. Matthew and I are planing on stopping in Dali for a couple of days on our way back to Kunming. We have heard wonderful things about Dali.

I will do my best to really update my blog when we get back. That means even the stuff before we left Kunming.

Really Wednesday, Ice-Cream

What is this brand of Ice-cream? It says "Leading Premium Ice Cream in the U.S." So is there really a brand called Dreyer's or is this a different brand and they changed the name in China?