We woke to another gloomy morning so our plans to visit the small Miao town of Xijiang, which lies high in the mountains, were out and instead we decided to head straight for Kaili. The paved road had no potholes so we made the trip within 1 hour. There we settled in at one of the largest and nicest hotels we've been in to date. Our room had gigantic windows offering us a fabulous bird's eye view of the main city square. Mummy was happy. To top it off, the central heating was a real welcome from the cold outside. The folk's plans were to base ourselves here for a week to have my tummy checked out at the hospital, to visit some Miao villages and to purchase warm clothes for our upcoming destinations. The city is quite modern, with several large new buildings, and many more being built. We found a nice restaurant for lunch and ordered some special noodle soup. It was good and tasty but halfway through the meal mummy bit into a small chunk of glass! There was no harm done and true to Chinese style she just picked it out and laid it on the table with some comment about it being a new twist on "glass noodles". The manager and waiters however were quite apologetic. After our meal we paid, thanked them, and casually asked them the way to the hospital. We were quickly ushered to a waiting taxi by the manager: we had forgotten to mention it was for me and not because of the glass incident...! And when we returned there a few days later to have dinner we received the most joyous reception from all the waiters and managers. I guess they were really relieved to see that Mommy was still alive!
At the hospital, a very nice lady doctor who spoke a bit of English helped us and I was taken to see the pediatrician. Once again they didn't seem too concerned about my stomach, claiming I would need time to adjust to the food here. I was given some pills to take and I was already feeling a lot better, but this was not enough for the folks and they insisted on having a "sample" done. We were told to return again in 3 days for the results. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a computer store getting our pictures on diskette and the video camera looked at.
The next day was rainy so we spent our time walking through the city checking in on the CITS (China's tourist board). They told us about a minority market in the small town of Huangping and a Lusheng festival in Chong'an. So we decided to leave early the next day with only an overnight bag, aiming to stay a night in Chong'an. As it turned out this was not to be. We caught the early bus to Huangping where we got a chance to catch the weekly market.
The next day was Oct. 31st ? Halloween... - and I had nothing to wear! Halloween is not among the many festivals the Chinese celebrate so I knew I was out of luck on the "trick or treat" front. The day was spent looking for warm clothes, having our muddy shoes polished by sidewalk polishers and having our hair cut. This last item was an experience in itself. The folks couldn't believe that 5 Yuan or Can$1 gets you a wash, cut, blow-dry, and a head and ear massage! We created quite the attraction, the 3 of us sitting in barber chairs having our coiffures done. 2 hours later we left the saloon all spruced up... with nowhere to go.
And here I was, - just hours before Halloween night - and I still didn't have an outfit for the evening. Not wanting to miss out on the biggest night in a kid's life, I had mummy dress me up. The result: my sleeping sheet wrapped around me and a scarf on my head. So at 7pm I appeared at our hotel room door shouting "trick or treat" in a blue teddy-bear-printed "sari". Now, last year I was a Cinderella princess complete with a gorgeous gown... this year- a little Indian urchin!! So I ask you...What did I do to deserve this..???..Oh well, so be it - the bag of Oreo cookies and the chocolates were all I was after anyway.
