Certain cities do get all commercialized about Christmas, but I think that is mostly the Big cities and definitely not mine. I saw a few christmas trees and signs and santa faces but it was more of an oddity than anything.
With that said, Ling’s hometown Daijie has a festival that has been going on for years called the Fishing Festival. They have two lakes in the town. She invited me to come with her to her families house and have a good time with the festivities.
Several other co-workers grew up in the area and my grandparent age roommates all wanted to go as well. The old couple (roommate) was able to secure a work car and driver from the boss.
Pretty much they are important to the company and old so they benefited us all by a free ride. Six people in a 5 person a car may not be the safest for a 2.5 hour ride but it still beats 3 buses.
((CULTURE TRADITION: Christmas day you give apples to people. Apple and Good Health are very similar in chinese. Much like 4 and Death…which is why 4 is superstitious here. All over the city streets you can also find these multicolored plastic wrap crimped and folded every so nicely with an apple on the bottom as the anchor. These of course cost more but give a much better presentation.
The morning before we left I bought 30 regular apples and ran around the hospital giving apples to all the familiar faces. People appreciated the effort and understood I what I was trying to do. I got a fancy one from a friend Chew and Lee ))
Our first stop was to drop off one of the lady co-workers. She wasn’t supposed to get off work but she did anyway. This is relevant because we were then going to lunch at the bosses house (not lee but the other one Singer). Arrived at Singer’s and we had to wait a while for him to arrive, he went get food and fish.
After a while the food was cooked, lunch was served, food was delicious and then instead of being able to leave to go be with family…we had to wait around and do the obligatory extra hour of talking business. At least this one made some sense because it was a planning session for what was to come while I was stateside during January.
Anyway, I don’t really like being around this guy so I was sure ready to go. He just isn’t very trustworthy and has power trips and I don’t quite care for how he runs the place or treats the employees. I regress.
Next up we get dropped off somewhat near the festival. We walked a ton that day. We head toward the lake, which takes us through a couple of fields. There was a stretch of road that had carnival games. Shoot a balloon, take a picture with 2 live peacocks or a camel, special food like dried fruits and nuts and homemade spice/sauces, and throw a sandbag at a bottle and if it falls off you keep it.
One guy had a microphone and was selling knives, but his big draw was this gigantic snapping turtle. It worked, he had a crowd looking at it and he was able to demonstrate his amazingly sharp knife. We had just missed a performance but oh well.
If you follow me http://www.flickr.com/photos/cajunchiro/ , https://www.facebook.com/justin.trosclair5 , https://twitter.com/cajunchiro then you have probably already seen the photos from the past month, but a little story behind it makes it more interesting …right?
Next up, we decided to walk to the actual lake. WOW! The amount of people that were walking on this street was incredible. It really made me realize just how many people are packed into each town.
Lining the streets on both sides were fish salseman/saleswomen. A tarp was laid down and 5-11 pound fish were pilled on to it. Some people had fish stacked 10 inches high and for five feet long.
You could literally just push the half alive fish around and truly pick the one you want for dinner. They even smash the head for you, how nice. The lake was beautiful. I wouldn’t say the water was clear, but the background was tall mountains and it was reflecting the blue sky and clouds.
We were sitting on a cement pier/levee type platform and the wind was strong and crisp. I got to watch 3 fishermen clean and wind up there gigantic fishing nets. It was like a big weave of normal fishing line and somehow they were able to untangle it with ease.
Also in the background there was a big tree that reminded me of a southern oak, and I think it made for a nice background of a few of the boats coming and going into the dock.
These boats were like oversized pireaux’s and they still used paddles to get themselves out there. Kind of primitive but hey it’s working for them..they are using nets and not poles at least.
The night was really cold and Ling’s house captures the cold. I slept with two jackets and 3-4 blankets. BRR. That was probably the only drawback of the weekend, being cold and not being able to truly warm up.
Besides that though, we ate 3 different fish dishes for 4 meals straight. OH MY it was good eatting. One was like a clear soup style, one was in a spicy fluid with a gorgeous orange/red hue, and salty somewhat dry fish. Man o man they can cook some fish out here. Well that was about it . Enjoy the pics.
Now I want fish for dinner! 🙂 I really like the giving of apples at Christmas, too. Reading about food in other places and how it’s used is fascinating to me. And you are not kidding that place is packed! I’m glad you had a good time, though cold. I had to look at this and see the date; I was wondering if that’s why you were sick. Also, is that a real snake by the snapping turtle…what’s up with that?