Fish Pets

Yesturday on the bus ride out of Huang Long, the views of the icy mountains along with flocks of geese, herds of mountain goats, yaks, and sheep made a picturesque impression into my memory bank. The driver picked up more riders on the road to increase his pocket money. The riders were locals of Tibetan origin. They were two women dressed in their traditional Tibetan robes. Their hair was dressed in Tibetan stones and braided accordingly.

As the women got on to the bus, the rest of the inner Chinese tourists on the bus pinched their nose with their hands and turned their face towards the window showing disgust and disapproval. I didn’t think they smelled that bad, they just smelled like yak butter. What I found to be more interested was the need to make a show of social disapproval towards these two ladies. Even the bus driver who decided to pick them up did the same by yelling at them with his body language and talking harshly like they were despicable. I thought to myself how interesting it is that people would like this culture to be preserved to hang onto a kind of nostalgia a romantic notion of a time, a place, and of the past. But when people are inconvenienced, then the reality presents itself clearly.

As we got off the bus, we paired up with a family of 5 from Guang Dong to look for housing for the night. One man in their group was a police officer. I seem to be making friends with police officers all over China in this trip. We settled for a hotel across from the station. We wanted something close by so that when we all had to get up for the first bus out the next day, it would be effortless and we wouldn’t miss out bus.

That night in dinner, Du wanted to eat freshly killed fish and so he did ordered catfish knowing full well I was a vegetarian and had lots of fish for pets when I was a child. So I watched him eat while I munched on toasted soy and peanuts. That could have been a pet fish of mine.

During dinner, Du got very angry on the topic of politics. He refuses to get off the subject and insist I compare US and inland, inland and neighboring island etc... I really don't like that stuff. He needed me to convince him that inland China is good and that he shouldn't move to US. That all various oppression, lack of opportunity to explore, expand his personal interest due to culture, governing style of inland etc..... has logic and a place and is good. He needed me to assure him how corrupt, terrible the rest of the world is. That by meeting me, inspired him, enraged him, disturbed him, and that I am an idiot really. That I really don't represent missed opportunities and freedoms he never got to experience and will not.

Du is quite an intellectual brain, a graduate of Beijing University, who does not allow himself to explore deeper within himself because he doesn't know how to go about making peace with all the disconnects and discrepancies. He continued with his drama the rest of the night by yelling at the service workers at the hotel, accusing them of lying to him and that he can't stand lairs. He basically need to dump his garbage on someone and he took it out on peon workers.


On route to Chengdu. Knowing full well that it would be a full day of ride on the bus, I had a big bowl of noodles and pickled vegetables by the station. Last night I slept in blankets that were damp. I was cold at night. Failing after a few hours of trying to warm up the bed with my body and a bed heater that didn't work, I had to resort to sitting in full lotus to mass fire up my body, slip into the bed to warm up the bed in order to trick my body into thinking it is okay to fall asleep under such conditions.

On the bus ride, Du asked me who or what made contribution to life changes within me. I named lots of people in varying fields including two Chinese people Ven. Empty Clould and Ven. Hsuan Hua, both of which he has never heard. I introduced the Tripitika to him, telling him as a Chinese major, he'd appreciate the beauty of classical Chinese in there and to make sure to get the real stuff and not 100 volumes chopped down into 1 kind of versions.

This again disturbed him, there are things he didn't know and I did and I am some how not suppose to in his eye somehow. Du thought JK Rowling is lame and Harry Potter is for immature people who lacked depth. He didn't understand the Da Vinci Code and the impact of the subject on a large population on this planet. He also didn't get Lord of the Rings. My discussions with him, because he asked for my opinion, included my perspective as a psychology major and a Buddhist interest looking at character growth and mind had disturbed him more and frustrated him. How could he a very well learned person, a Chinese major, a bookworm, a literature addict not know everything there is to know? How could his perspective be so un-universal?

Du the shifted the topic and wanted me to understand the pressure and distress in his life about work, and being single is a sign of lack of success. I thought to myself, “OH! Please, get over it, or get married and then continue to pretend to feel better as the head of household in charge and in control.

Huang Long a Winter Wonderland

Swen who moved in with me last night elected not to do Huang Long because she needed to catch a train to Beijing from Chengdu late today. So we had breakfast nearby the station. We had porridge, fermented tofu, pickled vegetables, and steamed rice buns for 5 yuan per person. This is quite the breakfast standard in China. Du insisted on paying for all of us of which Swen and I politely accepted. Swen and I ate like we’ve been starving for weeks. Well, in fact both of us were very hungry and we munched on a handful of nuts yesterday. Today knowing I’d be most likely hungry again, I filled up on breakfast. It was delicious and refills are at no extra charge. I ate Swen’s buns and she ate the eggs for all of us.

This morning we took the first bus out to Huang Long. Du took seat number one and assigned me to seat number two on the tickets which he was holding for the both of us. Seat number one was spacious at shotgun. I was in a mini seat by the engine that was sticking out leaving no room to rest my legs. Now I know how people with long legs feel in cramped up mini Asian cars. It was snowy and icy cold outside. The cold was so cold that it was as if the driver drove with the windows down. I guess Du thought differently of his very special spacious seat after the wheels started to roll. I tucked my head down to keep warm, to my left was a young man from Hong Kong who sat next to the window and I had the very hot engine to my right. The not so spacious seat that I was unhappy about in the beginning turned out to be quite a gem. The tight little uncomfortable spot was tight enough to keep me warm between a human body and an engine. Uncomfortable and warm, spacious but freezing cold? Hum…….. warmth always wins on my list.
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Went to Huang Long especially to check out the colored mineralized pools it is famous for. This park is on the route back to Chengdu to not also stop here after this very long bus ride the northern boarder of Sichuan would be a miss. The bus driver before letting us out told us he would take us to the local nearby town where the long distance bus station for Chengdu was for a small sum. We agreed it was a good deal and agreed by prepaying. He told us he would leave without us if we were late in getting back to the bus. Being so early, we got to hit the trails early morning. There were hardly any other buses when we arrived in the parking lot.

There was ice and snow, it was cold, I had all my clothes on. Du complained the whole way up the trail about how it isn't worth the trip etc..... I tried not to let it get me down. I just tuned him out. In fact that whole day was a day of grip and complaint and anger for Du. Maybe Du should have eaten more breakfast then maybe he wouldn’t have been so poopy. It was like someone farting and stinking up the trail with loud gas and diarrhea everywhere. Even so I really enjoyed myself on the frosty trail glistening under the sun.

Du was unhappy and nervous about the bus leaving without us that he rushed us everywhere. Since there was only one trial up we were pretty much together. Regardless, I did my own pace and really enjoyed walking in the woods.

I liked how it was winter in the park. The leaves have fallen. The water was icy. The colored pools look like pools of crystallized gems. The light shinning on icicles looked like beautiful jewelry. The patterns of ice on water pools and on branches and etc.. were all very beautiful to me. Even the naked trees standing in the midst of colored pools of frozen water looked amazing. I like being in nature. I find trees very healing. I find the air and the trees there to be very gentle. The park goes through difficult cold winter yet nature there remains strong, persistent, gentle, elegant, and beautiful.

While Du stopped by the oxygen first aide check in to take in more air, or just to try it out he says, I sat by a pool of colored water of limestone yellow, shades of green and soaked it all up all its magic and beauty for the whole forty minutes. I think the extra oxygen intake was good for Du he came back more relaxed. I guess for someone with all that congestion and anger, he’s bound to not get enough oxygen flow in his body. He even changed his mind about being so determined to not like Huang Long. He ended up appreciating it in its poetic beauty. What a drastic change!

Du found out I majored in psychology and asked me to analyze him. I told him that was not something to joke about or to be taken lightly and to do it right I would have to charge him by the minute in US currency to do both of us justice. He didn’t find that funny and he stopped pestering me with it.

Maybe because I was bundled in 5 layers and refused to rush like he did and trailed behind to walk at my own pace and to keep a nice distance between us, Du assumed I was not fit to jog or run. Well, he under estimated me by much and pretty much decided to mock me with it all day. I kept quiet until the last stretch of the trail where I decided to race him to the bus.