Market Day

 I have discovered a skill I never knew I had-namely that I possess the power to hit a white snooker ball, bounce it off all four sides of the table, thread it through the maze of balls left to be potted whilst touching none of them, before neatly slotting it into a pocket. I can also hit a white ball at a row of coloured balls in front of a pocket and somehow still get the white ball in while potting none of the coloured ones. Impressive, no?

The Tibetan dog here is not allowed to make a noise but as it is a guard dog breed, inevitably it will bark when people come in. This leads one of the guys here to get very cross and hit it with a stick or wrestle it against the wall and tell it off. Eventually the dog got tied up and put on the naughty step. On the other hand the St Bernard here howls along when someone plays the mouth organ so the Tibetan dog looks on rather confused as we all laugh and praise the St Bernard for howling while he gets told off...

There are also two cats here who are rescues. One has a broken paw so walks on the back of it while the other is deaf. As I sat down for breakfast the deaf one launched itself at me and demanded pettings NOW THIS INSTANT before settling down on my lap. As I sat there in the morning sun, stroking its long white fur, I though “excellent.. yes, excellent....”.

Yesterday Becka and I went for a wander in the valley. Many of the houses are made of packed mud and the roads tend to be cobbled or just dirt. The fields are terraced with buffaloes and the odd horse grazing amongst them. As I am on a quest to find a certain breed of horse I was interested in the various ponies around but they weren't too keen on me approaching. If we passed children they'd all shout hello! And get very excited when we replied.

Despite China's drive for mechanisation I have still only ever seen terraced fields which are rarely more than a few square metres and certainly aren't tilled with anything more sophisticated than a hand held plough. Or a buffalo. Certainly a tractor had nothing to do with the process. I suspect if China wants to grow enough food, terraces may have to go.

For lunch we were again confronted by the cabinet of random ingredients and again ended up standing awkwardly while the owner beamed at us.

“Er, potato?” I asked.

“Yes yes!”

“And, er, tomato?”

“Yes yes! Do you want spice!?”

“Er no thank you”

And then she disappeared. Eventually she reappeared with our random ingredients all chopped and fried together and it wasn't half bad! Although we tried that again today at a different restaurant, which I think was Muslim although the owner did not wear a headscarf but that wouldn't surprise me as those are Arab things, we weren't quite as successful as instead of all being mixed together everything came by itself which left us with slightly more than we needed. Still we tucked into a pancake made from fried potato strips, mounds of carrot and another of broccoli. I don't think I will ever need to eat again...

There are two middle aged English women here. The one to whom I have talked the most is in to conservation and has been here before. She is quite pally with the owner here although I heard her telling the owner off for having sugar in paper sachets as these cause Waste. Considering how sustainable this place is aleady it seemed a little unfair:P

At night here you can see the stars. Lots of them. Haven't seen them for a while... and it is so dark, the moon shines very brightly.

After Becka had retreated to our ex-horse stable I remained in the common room. Eventually there was an uproar and I was informed we were going to go and milk a cow. We all piled out of the hostel very excitedly and down a narrow alley and into someone's house where an old man was sat by a pail of milk. He slowly poured out three bottles for us with the air of someone used to the excited Cantonese tourist next to me excitedly taking excited pictures. Then we all piled back into the hostel and set about boiling the milk for milk tea. I asked one of the guys in Chinese if they were pasteurising it and he said no, just boiling. I felt rather pleased he understood me:D

Today was Market Day. I had been looking forward to this.

The streets were filled with hundreds of people from the surrounding countryside, all selling and buying. There were stalls of spices, stalls of vegetables, jewellery, clothes, shoes, meat, DVDs, cookers, pet fish as well as two stalls belonging to dentists. These had bottles carefully laid out on top as well as fake teeth and the dentist was sat behind on a stool peering into a wizened peasant's mouth. Just outside of the town was the animal market selling cattle, buffalo, pigs, goats, and horses. We had been warned it wasn't a pleasant place but on the whole everything looked healthy and happy, at least as happy and healthy as their owners who lead a hard life themselves. There was one small, grey pony that had large sores on its side. It didn't strike me as mentally very happy either. But there was nothing either Becka or I could do so we patted it and moved on.

Most of the crowd are of some minority or other, mostly Bai, and many of the women had dressed up in traditional clothes for the day. These consist of a headdress made from embroidered cloth, a long colourful skirt and a colourful shawl. They carried their purchases in square wicker baskets slung on their backs. The men tended to wear old army coats. There were also youths lolling on motorbikes wearing jackets with misspelled English and long hair their grandmother wouldn't approve of. I suspect that lads are lads the world over, whether they are Bai minority or Glaswegian...

One speciality on display was the mouldiest cheese I have ever seen. It was practically a small furry animal. We didn't buy any.

Becka and I bought some silver hoop earrings that would have verged on the Chavvy if they hadn't been bought in Shaxi as well as a fried bready thing for a snack. It was good. Tasted rather like batter.

They have electric blankets here. I think electric blankets are up there with the wheel as one of the greatest inventions of all time. I am definitely getting one when I return to Edinburgh!