Round the World with Ann and Katie

As mentioned in the last episode we went cormorant fishing the other night. We went out on a boat in the dark and found the fisherman who was on a bamboo raft (with an outboard motor though!) with about 8 cormorants. They are tethered to the raft with string round their legs and have string tied round their necks so that they can’t swallow the fish. They paddle along and dive down, sometimes coming up with fish in their beaks. They swallow them down as far as they can and when they have caught a few they are lifted out on a pole and they have their catch extracted by the fisherman. I can’t decided whether it is cruel or not but I can’t see it going down well with the RSPB. After about an hour we landed the catch and had a photo session with the cormorants – all very touristy.
On Tuesday we wanted to go cycling but it was raining hard in the morning so we decided against it. So we had a bit of a wander round Yangshuo hoping the rain would stop. In the end however we had a change of plan because our new room-mate, Suzanne (from Sydney) suggested going on a Chinese cooking course. I phoned and booked us in and the chef came and collected us at the hostel and took us to the market where we purchased our things for the lesson. There were all sorts of fruit and vegetables, spices, dried goods etc etc. The meat is mainly live until you get it home – well the chickens, ducks and rabbits are anyway. There was also dog for sale – it was quite grotesque seeing quarters of dog hanging on hooks. We saw our fish being knocked on the head before being gutted so we knew it was fresh. Then we went on the bus to the cooking school. It was all very well organised and we each had our own place with a gas ring, wok and chopping board (with one of those big cleaver-type knives). The chef demonstrated each dish and then we did ours. We made beer fish, which is a local dish, chicken with cashew nuts, aubergines with garlic and ginger, green veggies with garlic and ginger and we also stuffed some tofu balls, tomatoes and yellow flowers with a minced pork mixture. The stuffed things were steamed and all the other dishes were cooked in the wok. The results were excellent and we all sat round the table and ate the fruits of our labours. We bought a recipe book so if I can remember how to do everything I will cook it all again when I get home.
Today we hired some bikes and explored the countryside around Yangshuo. Most of the tracks were very muddy after the rain and also very stony so we are all shaken up. We went along the river through little villages and through fields with people going about their farming activities. It was very pleasant. But again we encountered the problem with Chinese maps. They often bear little relationship to what you see on the ground so inevitably we got lost – or rather we were not sure whether we were lost or not which I suppose amounts to being lost. So we had to go back to where we last knew where we were and try again from there. Eventually we managed to find our way back to Yangshuo, crossing the river at one point on a bamboo raft.
As we will beleaving China tomorrow night (we don’t consider Hong Kong to be really China) we thought we would summarise our experiences.
THE EIGHT BEST THINGS ABOUT CHINA: the food, the public transport, not knowing what you are going to get or what is going to happen next, the cost of living, Tiger Leaping Gorge, trying to speak Mandarin, cheap beer, the variety of experiences
THE EIGHT WORST THINGS ABOUT CHINA: the noise, the pollution, the toilets, the language barrier, being hassled by people trying to sell us things, spitting, people smoking everywhere, Chinese music
TEN TOP TIPS IF YOU CPME TO CHINA: learn some Chinese, always carry some toilet paper, don’t believe the guidebooks, don’t believe what people tell you, stay in hostels rather than cheap hotels, eat in places where Chinese people eat even if they haven’t got an English menu (see point 3 in 8 best things about China), use hard sleeper on the trains, use your elbows if you are in a “queue”, bring some earplugs, and most important of all COME TO CHINA before it all becomes too Westernised.

Tags: Travel, Tag Index

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