happy china!

so mainland china is just one hell of a place! we have managed to crawl our way up to a little town called yangshao (about 12 hours northwest of hong kong by train).

if there's one thing that sticks out so far about china in general (aside from our light colored hair), its just how different it is than any other place i have been to or imagined for that matter. japan doesnt even really hold a candle to the types of experiences and things i see here. all kinds of whacky shit going on!

this difference i speak of is for the most part what comes in the way of just cultural nuances (communism for one), eastern ideals and all the host of things that are trying to catapult china in to a position as world power.

but for a laugh.. heres a pretty whacky thing. men here ingest dried deer penis to do the same sorts of "things" that we use viagra for. now there's a real stunner for you! that was a fun "conversation" to have with the guy at the herbal remedy store.

continuing with this extreme difference and departure from any other travelled places-- the language barrier is just incredible. this is honestly the first time i have travelled with such an extreme obstacle. i certainly have taken for granted the large amount of english speakers in prior excursions. it took us a good 30 minutes in shenzen to figure out what time a certain train left for guilin. incredible!

in a sense though, i really love that. you all of the sudden really feel like you are TRAVELLING-- in the true sense of the word.

in thailand, even laos-- the norm was english. everyone spoke it, understood it, etc. here.. at least in parts of china that we have experienced, that couldnt be any further from the norm.

and this language barrier can certainly get you in to trouble it seems. now see, just the other day i was experiencing some pains in my stomach. now this was partially due to to the firy cuisine i have taken a shine to, but also due to the fact that i hadnt taken a crap in about 10 days. not cool..

so now, mix together the little language obstacle with a visit to the "pharmacy" for a pooping aid and you get one funny picture. enter me, not speaking a lick of mandarin and without my "survival chinese" language handbook (which claims it will give you the ablity to conduct chinese language communication INSTANTLY!-- HAH!) trying to ask the nice lady behind the counter for a laxative. the crinkled face that resulted when i did so much as try and say the first two syllables of "laxative" was getting me NOWHERE. i tried to say "poop," "shit," "crap," "BM"-- there was just no hope.

you guessed it. i had to resort to visuals.

so here i am squatting in the pharmacy trying to act out me squatting to take a shit and feverishly grunting as if to say "i cant shit!"

she laughed pretty hard. i believe it was at that point that she got it. but the little remedy she reccomended was not coming anywhere close to my bum no matter how many days i was constipated. it's hard to even explain the contraption she held out.

no, not happening.

she tried to hand me some pills, but i hadnt a clue what the hell they were or what they were going to do. so i left the place feeling like a moron but also without a single laxative to help me in my time of need.

and just in case you were wondering, i did in fact take a crap later that day. hoorah!

so enough.. we are in this little town called yangshao. its a smaller "country" town i guess, for lack of better descriptive words. peasants are abundant-- farming, selling you small chinese buddhas or fruit from their local farm. chinese tourists seem to run rampant in the place and you will occasionally spot a westerner. the way i see it, when i first set foot on the cobblestones that line the street, it made me think of a mix between a small colorado skiing village and luang prebang in laos. so, in other words, a real chilled out poorer version of a small colorado skiing village. it is colder here, no doubt about that. i find myself wearing almost every piece of clothing i have. it has rained on and off.

we rented some pretty sweet mountain bikes the other day and ventured off in to some pretty cool little villages. whilst riding, it was fun to communicate with the few passers by-- either those that were farming or just walking outside. we would get an occasional "hello" but most of the time would exchange a "ni hao" (hello in mandarin). it was a good time.

so we got some good views and really managed to give my cardiovascular system a goddamn challenge. i had some serious leg issues at days end. cramps, pain, geez. we took care of all that pain by feasting on some local culinary delights.. one in particular called "the beerfish."

ahhh the beerfish. let me explain.

so you walk in these markets and you pick out the fish you want to eat.. and these fish most closely resemble the american "carp." so you pick out your little fellow from one of the wading pools and the dude that is going to cook it for you filet's the big old fish in about 2.25 minutes. its really incredible to see if you can bear the occasional gill or skeleton flying out and landing on your pant leg as he labors away.

so then they throw it in a wok, add some garlic, ginger, green onions, chilles of all variety and well... beer. you sautee the little fellow for about 10 minutes or something and out pops this fish just beautifully presented to you on a platter. the thing tastes delightful (we have had two in two days). throw some rice in the mix, maybe some fried vegetables and you my friend are living the yangshao high life.

switching tracks a little bit: just the other night these two younger girls, aged about 14 or so, approached bryan and i while we were walking down the main drag in yangshao. they asked us to come help out in their "all girls class that is learning to speak english." sure!

what managed to come about from this little "teaching" experience was both rewarding and incredibly humorous. we walked in to the classroom to about 25 little chuckles and some collevtive laughter. bryan and i looked at each other and laughed as well. we didnt really know what we were supposed to "teach." i mean i could teach them some cool swear words surely!

for the first portion we were just holding conversations with the girls so they could practice their english in "real life." slowly we were asked to sing songs, dance and teach them "american words."

haha, we were eating it up, and probably perfect for this now. i couldnt teach them a damn thing about gerunds or indirect objects in a sentence, but i could most definitely teach them some songs and a few slang words here and there.

and that we did. upon asking us to sing, bryan and i were struggling to establish a song that both parties knew. that slowly led to us belting out the backstreet boys' "i want it that way" to a laughing crowd of about 30. for some reason rock and roll got brought up and we just threw it all out there with a little led zeppelin. as i was singing the words to "black dog" i thought to myself i am probably commiting a high sin in china and could potentially be killed for teaching school girls this language. what the hell were we doing?

we taught them cool english words like... well... "cool," "awesome," "dude," "sweet," "rad" -- you know the drill. they got a kick out of it. things culminated with bryan and i teaching them the electric slide.. haha. let me tell you, that dance is damn hard to pull off without stevie wonder in the background. but we managed.

they were baffled by bryan's moustache whch i thought was great. and the girls kept pointing to the strip of hair i had on top of my head-- they really did not understand.

all in all a really cool experience and the girls loved it about as much as bryan and i did. so it was fun and rewarding at the same time. i jsut hope i actually taught them something worthwhile (haha and that is questionable at this point).

today is our last day in yangshao. we leave here by bus to catch a train to xi'an (about a 25 hour ride i think). xi'an is in the northern part of china, directly west of shanghai. it houses the terracotta warriors, an ancient site that was just discovered and excavated around 1974. it follows closely behind the great wall as being one of china's biggest attractions. there is a really extensive history museum that extensively covers all of china's dynasties up until present day. so i really look forward to those two things.

and speaking of history and such, i managed to get a 25 disc national geographic DVD set here in little yangshao. it covers documentaries of everything from the mayan civilizations to the evolution of the polar bear! just incredible. and heres the kicker: i got it all for about $23 USD. lovely, i tell you.

so up to xi'an today and then to shanghai (and surrounding areas) with a culmination in beijing. we'll be in touch.