Chinese New Year

It's eerily quiet in Shanghai. I checked out the rail station (pic) and there were no crowds, no mad rush, no snaking lines at ticket windows, kind of weird.

But I'll be spending the week in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to see Angkor Wat. I had thought about staying in Shanghai this Chinese New Year, but in the end, the freezing nasty cold weather made the decision easy -- I just don't do well in cold weather...

Eff'in Farm Fresh

Right now I’m an unshaven, unkempt, unruly looking man, suffering from vertigo, being back in the big city, sitting at the Guyang airport coffee shop while waiting for my flight back to Shanghai. Guyang is not exactly a big city, but any place that has wide paved roads, truck fumes and taxi-clogged traffic counts as City compared to where I’ve been for the past 2 weeks. It’s dizzying to be in a glass and steel encased space with stale air; seeing horn-rimmed glasses under gelled coifs, kids with clean faces and no running noses and not bundled up like a mini Michelin Man under 7 layers of clothing to keep the chill out; and having my toes and fingers thawed out by excessive all pervasive heating.

But before getting here, I couldn’t resist one last hurrah. On the way from Xijiang to Guyang (with a transfer in Kaili), I hopped off the bus after seeing a few dozen cattle under a freeway underpass, their breaths steaming in the morning sun. It turned out to be a cattle swap meet. (I’m not sure if you refer to them as cattle, steer, bull, cow, livestock or general bovine -- I confess to not know the difference, but I know they are destined to be beef.)

The animals ranged from year-old calves (which I’m told will fetch about CNY1,000) to big huge things that the locals use in spring festival bull fights (up to CNY10,000), led around by their owners by the nose, with about a hundred would be buyers circling. The cattle pissed and shat everywhere, and when one starts to moo the others join in a cacophony of moo, and vendors lined the side of the street hawking rice noodles.

After about 30 minutes, the buyers started in on their targets and the bargaining began. I didn’t completely understand the local dialect, but I think the bargaining went something like this: seller gives opening price, and buyer feigns shock and spits; buyer counters, and seller feigns disinterest and ignores buyer; buyer says the said cattle looks small for the price and tells seller to be reasonable, and spits; seller explains he has raised the cow for years and the buyer’s price doesn’t even cover his cost, and spits; meanwhile the cattle is getting scared shitless (well, not exactly, cos it continues to piss and shit) and wants to get away from all the people crowding around, so the owner lets the cattle walk but in a continuous circle; this bargaining and circling cattle dance continues for awhile, with both sides getting animated now, seller angry that buyer low-balls and buyer angry that seller knows the market price but doesn’t budge; the turning point seems to be if/when the two sides are close, then buyer offers a last concession and takes the roped cattle from seller to walk to the shack in the back to settle payment, and if seller lets this happen then the deal is sealed, but if seller takes the cattle back then buyer spits one last time and walks away.

I got jostled a bunch of times by circling and frightened cattle, stepped in lots of piss and shit, took pics while the farmers looked at me as if I were from another planet, and finally hailed another bus to get back on my way.

The people at the airport were looking at me funny when I got here. I suppose you can say that I look and smell farm fresh. The ticket agent looked like he was skeptical about whether I could afford the flight. Here at the coffee shop, the perfumed waitress made a point of first staring down at my mud caked boots and then flipping the menu for me to the low-budget section. Well, fuck Them and Their clean nails, cos I’m one with the cows and farmers!

Ok ok, I say this in my polar fleece top while eating a CNY78 bowl of noodles (which tastes like hell cos it ain’t farm fresh like me), while an iPod feeds Vida La Vida into my ears (…"I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing / Roman cavalry choirs are singing"…) as I type away on my laptop. But humor me. Give me my moment of solidarity with the people before I re-urbanate myself.

On The Prowl

Magic happens when the night lights come on in Xijiang. I spent the night prowling for the last pics of the trip, since this is probably my last night of the trip. I ended my New Years Day (and my trip?) with a greasy dinner at a local restaurant, where everyone except me and an old man ate hot pot with their friends -- is this old man eating by himself, a sign of things to come for me? Well, I'm having the time of my life, so if that's my path then so be it!

New Years Day 2009

New Years Day in Xijiang. The Miao girls prettied themselves up; squeal of pigs in the final throes, slaughtered for the day's feasts, could be heard throughout the valley; families sat around the fire getting happy off home brewed rice liquor.

It was cold and cloudy during the day, as it has been on this entire trip. I wandered around the town market and up and down the village on both sides of the valley, waiting for dusk and the town lights to come on, to make everything beautiful.