Day 4

Sunday, November 24, 2007

I am sitting on an airplane. The seatbelt sign has not turned off yet and my ears are popping. We are on our way to Chang Sha the capital city of Hunan – where Sophie and Isabelle were born. In front of me is a contingent of Arab business men. I recognize their accent as gulf Arab and I wonder where they are from. I am tempted to practice my Arabic on them, but then, that would be silly. I miss our expat life.

The silk Market last night was so much fun. It is now indoors but consists of seven floors of incredibly crowded flee market like stands. You can buy anything there! We start off on the watch/electronic/jewelry/nick knack floor. I warm up by bartering for a Breitman Watch for Duncan. I get the price very low and it worries me so I tell them I don’t want it. But it was fun. I haven’t lost my bartering skills. It goes much faster here than in Abu Dhabi. Marg and the girls barter for some toys and children’s earrings. The kids are loving it. Despite the fact that it is very cold outside it is excruciatingly hot. Two hours later and feeling invigorating by the challenge of the buy I proudly show Marg my purchases. I have come away with two I Pods which cost me the equivalent of $20/each, some jade, and some gifts for the kids. Marg and the girls, equally flushed with their successes all agree that we should return to the Market when we come back to Beijing in six days time. I can’t wait.

For dinner we went to a traditional Mongolian restaurant. The waiters and waitresses were all dressed in traditional clothing. I wished that I could dress up like that as the clothing was rich in colour and texture and edged with fur. After convincing two of the waiters to carry Marg up the stairs and a couple of false starts where they nearly dumped her out in their enthusiasm to help we were seated at our ornate carved table in a crowded room. The food was fantastic. Again we just pointed at things and hoped for the best. Marg and I both agreed that Duncan would be jealous of our feast. We had lamb skewers that were seasoned with the most delicious things and mouth wateringly tender. The camel wraps were second to none and the vegetable dish full of vegetables that I had never tasted before was savory and perfectly prepared. Our meal finished with a soup like dish that we added whole wheat noodles, pickled garlic and some other unidentified things. Our cute waitress distressed that we obviously did not know how to eat it, came over and gestured the correct way to manage it. What fun.

Later we were treated to a show with haunting violin like instruments and evocative singers. It was incredibly moving and the audience shouted its pleasure. There was also some unusual frantic dancing and some more modern pieces all performed by men and women in fantastic clothing that one would expect to see in a fantasy film What an evening it was!! The girls are slowly adjusting to the time change and were able to enjoy the performance and almost agreed to join in the dancing when they were invited up on stage.

This morning came quickly as we were up late rearranging suitcases trying to decide what to take with us to the southern provinces and what we could safely leave behind. Again we had a filling and delicious breakfast – I think I have gained almost ten pounds already! Our driver picked us up exactly on time and transported us to the airport where officials tried to decide what the appropriate thing was to do with Marg’s wheelchair. Eventually after much gesticulating, waiver signing (all in Chinese) it was decided that Marg would be taken through special security and I would take the girls through regular security. The girls would have nothing to do with this and I, have to admit, with twenty minutes to catch the plane I was not too thrilled about being separated. But we went our different ways and managed to get to the plane. Once on it was another adventure in sign language as we tried to explain that Marg’s chair was to stay on the plane. I can’t get over how amazingly cooperative and willingly helpful the Chinese people are.

And now I am enjoying a cup of Herbal tea, some unidentifiable snacks – tasty – and the thought of the next leg of our adventure. I ask Marg, do you like the snacks? Ya she replies, What are they? I ask “I don’t know but they are good” she replies. So now I will try them myself. Bye for now.

Martha