story from Ofek

Ofek

...

back to work after a very nice time on the 1st May vacation.

i will tell you a bit about it...

Well, The first  day we spent in here,Tang Xia, mainly in walking around and introducing Nurit to the restaurants i know.

We went of course to the massage, which was very funny since the girls can do tricks and you find yourself in an impossible situation. (like she lifts you with her feet, while you lying on your back-like "aviron" but up side down...)- was great massage...went to the very loud music disco and back to sleep.

Also sit on the main center watching the spontaneous dancing and enjoying the evening's relatively coolness (after boiling during day time).

Because we were late in buying tickets and this holiday is more or less all China is on the roads so we had 2 more days to spent in the area.

We went to Shenzhen which is a very modern full with shiny hotels and gloomy buggers,it was interesting to see the contrast.however we took the subway (i like subways...) to the "window of the world" which is a huge (!!!) park of miniature world famous sites. so we climbed Eiffel tower walk around the statue of liberty Taj Mahal visited the pyramids and got soaking wet while taking a boat in the Grand canyon. well, it aint easy to see the world (god, they didnt miss a thing...) in one (exausting) day...

The day after we finally managed to take a bus to Guangzhou. visited the lively traditional medicine market with variety of herbs worms,snakes and monkey's head.All good for health. headed to the main road which was a human traffic jam, really an incredible mass of people reminds me that i am in the over populated China...so to relax a little we took a walk on the very nice coast line and to Shamian Dao which was the foreign area in the 19th centuries and even on 1st May keeps the quiet and lazy atmosphere. it was a relief- the Chinese ignores the most beautiful place in the city and prefer go shopping. (China is maybe the most capitalist country these days...).

So just before the night train we had the chance to take the subway (i like subways) to the train station and catched our place on  the sleeper car.

19 hours ride ended eventually and we reached Kaili, esat of Guizhou province which is very agricultural non developed area what makes it good for travelling in this time...besides is the home of many minority groups.

The ride btw was nice- the views were great,seeing the hard workers planting rice, and chatting with the new friends. one was a law student and he invited us for dinner with his local friends...so we agreed.

So we all met in the local restaurant for a lamb stew and had to suffer the pressure to drink the local spirit (was kind of lemonchielo which is ok in the beginning), we tried not to get to pissed- some of us succeeded and some not (you better not loose too many times in their drinking games)-well, our dear lawyer threw up all the lamb. (poor bastard).

The day after we were ready for the minority village. headed to the largest Miao village in China., greatly situated surrounded with green mountains. our friends came with us but after lunch (again needed to suffer drinking the local rice wine-this time was disgusting from the start) they went back and we stayed for the night.great local dishes dinner and went to a dancing "cultural show" starring our hotel owners. (2 charming women).

on the morning we said goodbye and back to base camp kaili. searching Kaili was not more than a Chinese wanna be western town, but saw a strange gathering we turned to see what is happening...and I saw a shocking sight- a mother with a monkey boy- well, it half boy half monkey-something so bizarre! such an ugly  monkey behaved child. of course she wanted money for her gifted son...

the sun rises again and we went north to a place we heard should be a festival...pass through a village with interesting market and got to this cave temple site- where the festival was held. It was like Woodstock, maybe around 20-30 thousand people gathering, eating dogs meat (the dog is a special meet and mostly eaten on special occasions). we were the only westerners around so we were a main attraction as well. Nurit took the locals pictures and thy were very happily cooperated.

minutes before left the balagan we met an "English teacher" who didnt understand a word but sum it up saying "we mist say goodbye now" and he went to his way.(it make a good answer how come the kids doesn't know a word in English out of "what is your name?").

spent the last night having the best potatoes ever and good sleep before was the time "to say goodbye' to Nura, go to Zhen Yuan to catch the train back home... Zhen Yuan was quite nice place with nice river and carst mountains. around. again on the way i saw 2 kids with white stripes on their head (white-symbolise death) asking money...the picture of their mothers body is shown attached with the death docs...2 little kids alone...-hard).

The train ride was hard as well. 21 hours hard seat train (no sleepers were available). on the middle of the night i felt someone touches my leg look down and saw a woman sleeping underneath my chair...was very crowded journey but like every bad thing it ended eventually...and got to the heat of guangzhou...very tired went of train and asked where is the bus to Tang Xia. the police men gave me the bus number but it seems wrong, i asked the driver about TangXia Tian He station and he said yes...just to make sure i asked again about Dongguan county and he said-yes. i asked for the price and it seemed suspiciously cheap...after 10 min rides i went down the bus 9good move) and went back to the bus station to discover that the bus i was on was a bus to Tangxia Tian he station Donguo area- but all in Guangzhou!!!! 9while i need a different place 2 hours from guangzhou...

It teaches me that even when you got some Chinese its never enough...

However i finally made it home, to my bed and DVD...back to reality, back to work...

...

Ofek.