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Alex Mumzhui with his Brompton on Silk Route to China.

Silk Road

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-20 17:44:21

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for resale) get publicly executed when caught. To prevent new wives from running away their Achilles tendon sometimes get cut. After all of this you may think that it is terrible place. It is not. Shamian Island (Guangzhou) where I stay is really very nice and civilized place.

Alex Mumzhiu
Guangzhou China
Nov 1 2001 8:18pm

In my last letter I promised to tell you what food I selected. I always like to order "the specials". "Today special" was a juicy young baby snake, just 88 yanes per half a kilogram. ($9,99/lb) See attached picture.
Traveling with Chinese. I already wrote to you about Chinese trains. They are very clean. The stewardesses in a crispy new blue and white uniform serving food and drinks. However, there are some problems there. The tourbooks call it staring. Like we may stare shamelessly at horses or dogs, the Chinese are staring at us because we are so different that it is not clear are we belong to the same biological specie or not. Man are mostly OK, the old ladies are worst. On my way from Mongolia to Beijing the old lady in my compartment was staring at me all the time when she did not sleep, like cat at mouse. She obviously did not understand my body language ever. When I move in my compartment and she was on my way, I try to move slowly and expect that she will let me go to where I want. I cannot tell her "excuse me please". She did not move and when I eventually touch her, she screamed. On my way to the Guilin all my compartment watched for me and comment. I do not know what they tell but probably it was like this:
"Look he lay down on the bench!"
"Look he open the book!"
"Look he turn the page!"
After the fifth page, the attention to me diminished a bit. But when I did something unexpectable, for example instead of turning the page, open my backpack, everybody get on alert again. With such remoteness, you may not expect much hospitality. Like Vietnamize, Chinese ...