Sunday, October 8, 2017

Trip to Guiyang, Day 2, Oct. 3, 2017 Miao Minority Village

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

We left the hotel in Guiyang at 8:30 and traveled to a Miao (sounds just like the sound a cat makes – meow) minority village about 3 hours east of Guiyang.  At least it was supposed to take us 3 hours.  Because of the traffic trying to get to the largest Miao village and the headache it would be trying to be there on the National Holiday when about 30,000 people are trying to be there, the traffic was terrible and there had been a accident that delayed us almost 2 hours. 
Harvested rice patties with the rice stalks stacked in the field to dry.

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 Rice set out to dry on the roof tops.  Of course, the chickens get to pick through it also.
It was common to see the corn drying on the sides of the houses also.



Four of the children playing. At first they were reluctant to even make eye contact but they soon got over that and they were showing off for us.


A man washing his water buffalo after a day of work.

This is how the village looks on the side of the mountain.

Our group all voted to go to a smaller Miao village a little higher up the mountain that is not the famous tourist spot.  We were on some very narrow, winding, winding, winding (and did I mention, NARROW?) roads!  The driver had to honk the horn as he approached every blind curve to warn others we were coming.  That is the way they do it here.

Here is the kitchen that our food was cooked in. Pretty hot in there.




Bamboo shoots with LOTS of hot peppers!

The top left is pork fat with black fungus (a type of mushroom that I like!) and Chinese lettuce. Top right, fried potatoes (they were really, really good!) The bottom left had the red chili's in it so I just avoided it.

This was a chicken soup with sprouts and something else in it. I think it was called a vinegar soup.  Not to my tastes after a little taste of it.
This is the little table we were all seated at.  We looked a the little stools, shook our heads, carefully lowered ourselves onto the stools and tried not to bump the table with our knees.  These little tables are easy to fold up and put away when they aren't using them.

Our guide knew people in this village and arranged for us to have lunch at a traditional Miao home.  They had little folding tables and a large stack of little (very little) stools to sit on.  We found the largest ones we could to sit on.  Then they brought in dish after dish after dish.  The first one was bamboo roots with their traditional VERY hot chili peppers!  I had one small piece that I had carefully removed all red pieces from and that was all that I could handle!  The rest of the dishes were pretty good, but some were still a little spicy hot.

They demonstrated how to play one of their musical instruments.  You play it a little like a harmonica in that you blow in and out.  Notice where he places his fingers to cover the blow holes and make the different tones.


Some of our group had expressed a desire to go see rice being harvested.  The guide found out from the villagers that they had harvested all the rice in their village area, but on the other side of the mountain, they were still harvesting the rice there.  It was supposed to be a 2 km walk up a steep road to get there.  Well, it was very steep and after about a km, I and another gal (Marta) had had enough and we decided to walk back.  We took our time and had a great conversation.  I know this is TMI, but we decided that instead of using the two planks over a hole that they had for a toilet at the traditional house, we would step off the side of the road and find some bushes.  We did and we were greatly relieved… (pun intended).
Up and down of the main street in the village.

Toilet?  Yes, down the stairs, under the platform.  Stand on the two boards, go...

The others in our group continued on, and on, and on (it turned out to be almost a five mile hike) and watched the rice harvesting.  Marta and I had time to explore the village and take pictures - and get our pictures taken too.  A very nice group of three young men came up to us and wanted to talk to us.  The youngest who was 17, knew the most English, but still not a lot.  The oldest was 23, just graduated from university as a doctor.  He and the three boys were helping out at the local school as part of a “giving back” thing they like their young people to do.  One boy had a translation app and we did some communicating through it.  It was really funny because Marta tried to ask a question through the app about where did he study to become a medical doctor and the app came up with something like, “How can I sue you for medical practice?”   Ha ha!!  We all laughed!
These are the three young men that came up to us to try and talk to us.  The doctor is the one in the pink shirt.  He looked like a professional biker also.  He had all the equipment he needed.  When they left the village, they rode up the mountain that we had just finished coming down on.


After the Miao village, we were taken to a local hotel, the best that the area has to offer and the guide arranged for us to have a dinner at the hotel. 

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