HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR FROM CHINA

Hello from Qijiang 綦江县 village in Chongqing Province - its 8 degrees c indoors. I haven't had a shower for 3 days because its too damn cold. I have been eating weird food like hot pot which is so hot it makes your tongue and mouth numb. In the hot pot goes various foods like cubed ducks blood, ducks intestine, fatty pork bits, fish skin that look like lizards to name a few.

The specialty in Qijiang Village is this hot pot or salted vegetable stew with fish in it. You dip the fish in this sauce which has salted vegetables and peanuts and nuts. We've had that like twice already in the 'best' restaurant in town. I used the toilet at the restaurant and there was like bits of ham and pork part hanging all over the bathroom and in the bath tub. Nice.

The village is like 2/3 streets and its all muddy and dirty and everyone walks and spits on the street. People here also chew sugar cane and spit the fibres on the street. They also drive and ride their motorcycles with the horns on all the time because people here walk all over the places. Its get irritating to walk on the streets especially when a bus comes by and blares its horns.

It's a rural country town- everyone knows everyone- everyone says hello on the street and offer each other food and fruits. There is a abundance of fresh fruits, mandarins, bananas and pomelos are on coffee tables to eat as you watch tv. They have 60-80 plus channels - all in Mandarin Chinese of course except for 1 channel which is CCTV the official state tv which has news and programmes in English. There is 1 sports channel showing the Australian Open tennis so I can watch people sunbathing and being in the heat like a typical hot January in Australia. I don't miss those days.

My bed room is about 6 degrees just before sunrise and the house is about 8-10.5 degrees. They like to leave doors open for some reason and it gets drafty. They made me wear this Chinese Army jacket indoors and thick slippers because if you foot touch the cold floor or your skin is exposed to the cold air- "you'll get sick". I'm getting sick of getting nagged about "getting sick" and at the same time they walk in and leave the doors open and let the freezing air in.

I had a bad back ache because the bed i slept in was too flat- but they said that its because i am sick and that I have a cold. On of the uncles is a massage acupuncturist and they made me go see him. He poked and prodded and put his elbow into my back and really went full on into it. The pain from the punching and kneading was worse than the back ache so to me- that made the back ache seemed like nothing.

What is the paintball link to this post? When my American team mates told me that they played Paintball in the snow and that they prefer playing in the heat in KL and Singapore. I said I'd like to try playing in the cold weather. Well I take that back- it's only 5 degrees above freezing and I shit hell wont want to be playing paintball in this weather.

Anyway its Chinese New Year Eve in rural china. There isn't anything to do.*
I'd like to wish everyone and Happy and Successful Chinese New Year.

*ps well we have this big box filled with all sorts of fireworks and fire crackers we bought last night (RMB850 worth) to light up and everyone plays mah jong all day - which fortunately I know how to play.

[will post photos from my phone when i get home and download them]