Cockroaches and Dragonflies
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
59
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Longjing,
Guizhou,
China
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The place was certainly picturesque. Traditional wooden buildings, decorated with red lanterns and flags clung to the sides of the hills, overlooking the rice terraces, as farmers in pointed straw hats worked the fields with hand tools, oxes and mules. Our hotel was no exception, with amazing views from our window, and unfortunately the wildlife that comes with it, finding a cockroach in our bathroom. It seemed like one of those places that the modern world hasn't found yet, and I hope it stays that way, it was beautiful and genuine. The villagers all greeted us with big smiles and a happy hello. It seemed to be one of those places where life is hard but fulfilling.
We took a long hike through the rice terraces the next day to a neighboring village. It wasn't long before we picked up one of the local hawkers. Its traditional here for the ladies to grow their hair very long, and so all the women have their lengths of hair twisted around into intricate knots. There were dragonflies a plenty on the trails, and we all crowded round taking pictures whenever we found one. The views were certainly impressive. We had a quick stop for a rest and the ladies quickly descended upon us with hats they had made from the fronds of ferns. I found a small spider dangling in front of my eyes a few minutes after I'd had one donned on my head, but it was a small price to pay for the fashion statement I was currently making.
We got the ladies to take us back to one of their homes for lunch and cook us dinner, rather than eating in a restaurant. It was certainly an experience. I was impressed with how big the house was, more of a hall than anything else. The two kids playing and watching TV in the lounge seemed slightly disturbed by our presence, but got on with their games as the woman sat down and started preparing our meal. The woman had collected some fern shoots on the way, and this ended up in one of our dishes. I was slightly skeptical at first, but was pleasantly surprised at the taste. All in all, it took the ladies a good hour to prepare the meal, but it was really worth the wait, and we were all thankful for the time we had to sit down and rest after all the walking. The food was great and plentiful, we had some egg dishes, and other vegetables, none of which we really knew what they were. There was of course, far too much food for us to possibly eat. At the end of the meal, it was time for the ladies to try to sell us things, you can't go anywhere, or doing anything without this, but at least they waited until the end of our meal before the hawking started.
There was another tour group in the hotel that night, and they had arranged for a group of local women to sing and dance for their group. They invited us to join them, so I decided to take them up on the offer, even though I was the only one of the group who did. I did feel a little strange invading the group, but I was really glad I did. The singing and dancing was really interesting, and it was fun watching the reactions of the group when they were asked to perform in return. In the end four of them were dragged up and ended up doing the macarana - interesting choice! The ladies then performed a wedding dance, and we all had to get up this time and join hands in a circle after watching the women perform a dance with their wedding balls. The tradition in the village is for the men to show which woman he wants to marry by throwing a special wedding ball at her. If she catches it then they will wed. It certainly beats some of our dating methods! Our dance all turned a bit violent, when we formed arches and walked under them in turn. Some of the group started hitting the people going through with their arms instead of just hovering above. I was with one of the local ladies, who got very into the idea, and was doing with a particular force, she was enjoying it far too much! Finally the women brought some bamboo poles out and we took it in turns to dance over the moving poles.
Heading back to bed, when I turned the light on several cockroaches ran under a towel left on the floor (it wasn't mine by the way!). I'm not proud of this, but instinctivly I screamed like a girl and jumped up and down and finally jumped onto the bed. Thankfully there was no-one there to see my performance! Regrouping myself I dealt with the problem, moved the towel and sprayed copious amounts of insect repellent around the place and on me. Unfortunately one of the little critters, managed to get into my bag I discovered, as I had just about finished packing it ran over my clothes in my bag. After doing my screaming dance again, I emptied the bag and watched it scuttle under the door. So much for packing my bag!
Cockroaches aside, I loved my time in the village, and was very sad when I had to go. Although it now catered very much towards tourists, the people here haven't lost their traditional way of life, which is great to see.
