Today was our last day in Guizhou and it was a fun one. We drove (or were driven) 3 hours to a minority group village (Miao). About 1800 people live in the village, though we only saw about 2 dozen, I think. A group of women dressed in traditional costume met us at the gate to the village. They sang a greeting and offered us rice wine (yuck!) from water buffalo horns. Kris was glad that she was not offered any. Our guide explained the traditional clothing to us. They wear the symbols of their culture because they do not have a written language to remember it by. We then toured a traditional house. They had a tv in the kitchen, but otherwise it was very traditional. There was a huge pot of what looked like soup simmeringing in the corner. It was food for the pigs. Most kitchens have two such pots with one smaller than the other. The big one is for the pigs and the smaller one for the people. In the next room, the ladies that greeted us and a man did a little dance for us. We got to join in on the second round. The women danced and the man played a handheld pipe instrument (called a Leshui or something like that). We saw another room that had pictures of past leaders and family members on the walls. This was a place to worship their ancestors and past leaders in hopes of securing good luck for them and for themselves in the future. We walked around the village and saw their terraced fields (we were up in the mountains) and had a great view of the village all nestled into the hillside. It was very beautiful - even in January. No tourism tour ends without a gift shop, so our next stop was their "market" where they sold some handcrafted materials - beautiful embroidery, etc.
Our next stop was a Chinese Restraunt in the Autonomous region of Kylie. Our guide ordered some "not spicy" food for us and though we ate 6 hours ago, I am still full.
Katie did pretty well on the trip. Dean had the task of keeping her occupied in the back seat. I am still really worried about the car seat when we get home. It may be a while before we make it up to Wisconsin!! The only bathrooms available all day were "Eastern toilets" a.k.a. "Squatty Potties" so we had to buck up and use them. Once we figured out how to adjust our pants, it really wasn't a big deal. Now I really feel like I am in China. :)
Tomorrow morning we leave for Guangzhou. We got Katie's passport today. We were surprised that they used her baby picture in it instead of a more recent one, but it looks like her so I am not too worried about it. I am excited about moving on, but a little nervous about fitting all of our stuff into our suitcases! I suppose if worst comes to worst, I will have to make a trip to Walmart to get another suitcase. I think we can do it though.
Karen
Good night and I will hopefully send the next update from Guangzhou.
Dean's comments:
-the rice wine was not all that bad and we only had a few swallows of it - it did warm one up a bit.
-the dance, though I clearly had no rhythm, has to be one of the highest points of the trip so far
-I'm very glad we had the chance to see this village
-some of the "not spicy" food still had a little kick but we are wimps and it was quite tasty. I kept wanting to eat the noodle soup though my lips were burning.
-it is ironic that we will be heading east toward what we believe will be a more westernized city
Dean
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