Spring Festival 2002
OK, so maybe alcohol and firecrackers don’t mix, but there is a certain delight in standing alongside the road in the PRC with contraband sparklers, cherry bombs, firecracker strings and other exotic, multichambered launchers, lighting them with impunity.
Ha! And any amount of Maotai is worth bringing the Very Polite Hosts down to the level of saying, “Hey! Big nose! Have another lotus root.” Of course, this started a putting-the-tiny-firecrackers-under-each-others shoes battle that frightened and delighted the children, and I became “Aunty American,” lighting firecrackers for all the little ones. They even spent their Spring Festival money to buy me my own bag of fireworks so they could watch me torment David and his brothers.
Awww.....
Next day, we went to the Stone Forest, a grouping of limestone karst outcroppings in the Sani peoples' area. The 2-hour ride into the mountains in a minibus was punctuated with music from an Eagles' CD (and you all know that it is impossible not to be overwhelmed by nostalgia when listening to the Eagles). And on the way home we had a perfectly sublime lunch of fresh veggies and fresh-smoked duck plucked right off the rack in front of the restaurant. Lunch and a carwash $12 for three.
Before departing for Mangshi, David and I went to a Buddhist temple to worship in the first day of the New Year, ... I just tried to remember my Catholic Litany, which seemed to be adequate, although the incense was a bit distracting.
Zaijian
Ha! And any amount of Maotai is worth bringing the Very Polite Hosts down to the level of saying, “Hey! Big nose! Have another lotus root.” Of course, this started a putting-the-tiny-firecrackers-under-each-others shoes battle that frightened and delighted the children, and I became “Aunty American,” lighting firecrackers for all the little ones. They even spent their Spring Festival money to buy me my own bag of fireworks so they could watch me torment David and his brothers.
Awww.....
Next day, we went to the Stone Forest, a grouping of limestone karst outcroppings in the Sani peoples' area. The 2-hour ride into the mountains in a minibus was punctuated with music from an Eagles' CD (and you all know that it is impossible not to be overwhelmed by nostalgia when listening to the Eagles). And on the way home we had a perfectly sublime lunch of fresh veggies and fresh-smoked duck plucked right off the rack in front of the restaurant. Lunch and a carwash $12 for three.
Before departing for Mangshi, David and I went to a Buddhist temple to worship in the first day of the New Year, ... I just tried to remember my Catholic Litany, which seemed to be adequate, although the incense was a bit distracting.
Zaijian
posted by EastWindGoddess | 11:10 AM
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