Angels At My Table 1

I had no idea what to expect as I left the beautiful ancient city of Jianshui, and headed north.

It was hot and dry.

Once I navigated my way out of the back road sprawl, I passed through some farmland, and hugged the expressway and railway line for awhile.

The jacarandas are out! It's April, and spring has sprung.

I passed through some small towns, nothing large at all, until later in the day.

Eventually, after the obligatory sweaty climbs, I stopped for sugar, right here.

It's fertile country around here alright.

Leaning towers of peas

I eventually hit a forested valley, and began the biggest climb of the day.

Alt-rock

Waterfall

Local soaking in the view. The sign wishes people a safe journey. So sweet.

An actual servo, a petrol station

Huge potted trees. People are into that sort of thing here.

Another town, another gate

As I cycled close to Quilu Lake, and as the light faded, the whole area became a patchwork of super fertile farmland, packed with all sorts of food plants. It was also packed with people working the land during this slightly cooler time of the day.

The small settlements there were relatively new, connected to the fields by smooth concrete roads, it was sort of surreal.

Damn! What in cotton-pickin' hell is he doin'? Imagine loading it. And driving it?!

Unbelievable Hosts

I eventually stopped in a town called Naguzhen, which, to my complete surprise, had a few mosques around with traditional minarets, and, as I rode around, I noticed heaps of women in veils, and men with their haj hats.

Surprise surprise. A Muslim town way down here. It's pretty much the last thing I expected.

Muslims actually comprise about 2% of the Chinese population, around 28 million people, and are quite ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse. The largest group is Hui Muslims, who speak the dialect of the majority Han group in their various regions. Uyghurs, who mainly live in Xinjiang, are ethnically Turkic. And there's loads of other Muslim ethnic groups.

Most Muslims live in the west, southwest, central, or northwest parts of this country.

Over the centuries there's been loads of tension and outbursts of violence between the Hui Muslims and the Uyghurs. Let alone conflicts with the powers that be.

But I have to be really careful what I say about what's happening in this space while I'm here. Including discussing my interrogation by the local forces when I arrived in the town. Suffice it to say that it's really not a good situation, with troubling recent events occurring right here in this town.

I found a hotel, and Na Hin, my host, a proud Muslim, immediately took me out for a meal, in his electric buggy.

Later, some of his friends came over, and it was on for young and old. We ate and drank, and ate and drank more. Delicious local tea, oranges, and fresh dates, sultanas and almonds, all the way from Xinjiang.

And not a drop of alcohol.

Of course, Google Translate played a big role again. With some dubious work ...

Na Hin gave me the best room in his hotel, for the price of his worst. And said I could stay for as long as I wanted for free. Unbelievable. He said he wanted to take me to the markets, and that I should be ready to leave at 9am.

He knocked on my door at 8, all ready to go.

Bless him.

Off we went to the local markets,with him describing everything to me, and walking around as proud as punch.

Local blueberries and cherries. Mmmmmm!

Rice and agave sweets

Na Hin. Looks a bit like a Chinese version of that incredible drummer Pete Wilkins.

Blocks made of tofu and peas

Their last High Threes

More fermented Century Eggs. They gave me six of them as I left, didn't they.

Root veggies

Dirty root veggies

I've started a chain reaction

Cured meats

Animalia

Na Hin bought us some fresh bread to snack on

Meaty smile

Creating elaborate head scarf decorations. Her assistant was resting.

Na Hin proudly took me into a regular run-of-the-mill supermarket, as it's new in town, and they've never had a big one like this before.

Then they invited me to eat the main meal of the day with them. Incredible.

Through my many travels all through my life I've come to the grateful realisation that the largest slice of hospitality seems to be reserved for the food table. The hospitable. There appears to be no limits to what people will offer me, in the name of service to their guest. It's incredible.

Whilst talking food the night before, I'd told my generous host that I was a vegetarian, but the information didn't seem to even go in one of his ears, let alone have the chance to slip out unprocessed through the other.

Na Hin's son and grandson. They brought along a duck. A dead one. They gave me some of the prized gluggy fatty bits, I didn't ask what part of the poor creature I was dribbling on the table.

The feast.

Na Hin and his wife. Angels at my table.

Tucking into ox tail. Sad but true.

The thing is, when you're a guest at a meal in Asia, people flop things in your bowl all over the Buddhamn place, and once they're in there, you can't just take them out and put them back in the shared bowls.

And around here no one leaves anything in their bowls at the end of the meal.

So I made a solid meaty effort to get it all in.

And it was pretty tasty too, I gotta say.

As I finally left to ride north I was handed fruit, eggs, and some special local tea, which Na Hin's son had gone off to buy for me.

I can't tell you how moved I feel after experiencing the incredible generosity and warmth of this amazing group of people.

I could go on and on about it, but I guess I already have. It's so beautiful.

This is the tea they gave me. It's pu'er tea, a variety of fermented tea specific to Yunnan province. It's really good for your health.

And the fermented eggs.

They'd make a good weapon, as they're super hard to crack, and are all sharp and lumpy. During fermentation, stored and covered in sawdust, the egg whites eventually become a transparent brown colour, and the yolk, well, it doesn't look good, I can tell ya.

But I ate all six, in three separate sittings.

And I survive to tell the tale.

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9

Go to Part 2