Guizhou - entry 13

So, as promised :) , we're back at Guizhou and we're near the end of our second day in China. After our physically tiring hike at the Malinghe Gorge, the guides arranged for us to go to a fruit market in the city of Anshun. I think they knew that there are only two real obsessions in a Singaporean's life, eating and shopping and it's been almost two days in Guizhou and WHAT!!! no shopping???? Sacrilegious. =D

Well, although I did dramatize it somewhat, it's really not that far from the truth. So far at every location that we've been, the guides have asked us to try and not stop and shop as they had a schedule to meet. Also, in their minds what was on offer outside the entrances of these scenic areas were mostly not worth buying and in their opinion they were nothing more than tourist traps. In a way, they were correct and the fruits and vegetables were priced higher than those at the market. But we did regret not picking up some of the cheap handicrafts on display as we did not see them later in the trip and they would have made good gifts, like key-chains from Disneyland, that kind of thing.

Anyway, by the end of the second day, both Xiao Ou and Xiao Yu knew that many in the group were dying for a spot of shopping and even those who didn't care much for shopping wanted to buy fruits to munch on during the trip. So although this wasn't part of the itinerary, they took us to this small fruit market in Anshun. We bought some small oranges which were amazingly sweet and we also picked up a few persimmons, some green looking fruit, roasted chest-nuts, cup noodles and chewing gum. Well, the gum and the cup noodles didn't come from the fruit market, they came from the mini-mart across the street. =)

I really regret not taking pictures of the street and the market but by this time I was really not feeling that great but I won't bore you with all the details. Instead, check out LC's photos.

Fruit stall
Food stalls
A stall selling mutton noodles, one of Anshun's most popular and well known dishes apparently according to Xiao Ou.

After our little excursion to the market, we had dinner before heading to the hotel for a good night's rest. I think the name of the hotel we stayed in is the Yan An Hotel but I'm not sure. Except for the really noisy karaoke a couple of floors down, we did get a rather nice and spacious room. And get this, we even had a automatic mahjong table in the room which made some of the other folks in the group "jealous". :) We did try to get it to work but we only managed to get the dices to spin but had no clue how to get any of the tiles onto the table. But it was probably all for the best since mahjong would have kept us up all night. :)

Anyway, here's a pix of the mahjong table.


And that's it from me for tonight.

Maybe if I get up early enough and manage to squeeze in sometime tomorrow morn before I head off to work, I'll write up an entry on the 1-1 draw between Everton and Reading at Goodison Park. For now, it is over and out. =)