Hot Pots

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Geo: 29.5011, 103.391

Although we are in Emeishan (famous for trekking up the mountain with monkies and monasteries) I have no intention of voluntarily climbing giant mountains with a baby! Instead we've been hanging around 'Hostel C' just like in the old days when we first met except this hostel is pretty empty! Did meet some lovely travellers from Dongbei who understood my Chinese and said Isaac looks like the offspring of two celebrity super stars. I liked them a lot!!
We headed towards the university as I was craving nai cha (milk tea) and Chinese universities always sell it. Mission accomplished we then went on the search for food. We ate 'gan huo' (dry fire pot) A delicious new find. It's a giant stir fry with a bit of everything in it plus a lot of oil which is then kept hot over a fire. In the evening we went out for another type of hot pot, extremely popular in sichuan. Everything is put on sticks which you cook in the giant oil cauldron in the middle of the table. A lot of hassle! Each stick only has a tiny morsel skewered on it which is dipped into boiling oil and then dipped into an oil based sauce before eventually getting to your mouth! At the end your used sticks are counted to find the price. We had 130 sticks. Thats an awful lot of dipping in and out! I'm sure all the oil I've eaten today won't do me any good!

Another day in emeishan. Not the most exciting of places when you're not hitting the tourist spots but considering the entry ticket is nearly 300rmb each, I shall just continue to pass the time eating! For breakfast we headed into Emei city and had a yummy dofu soup with bings followed by pineapple on a stick. Ed wanted to buy some new plants to replace the neglected dead ones outside the hostel and make the most of Bill's gardening expertise so we headed for the flower market. You can actually buy plants for less back home! Isaac experienced his first chinese bus ride. The time passed quickly listening to sichuan grannies telling us how bad the baby bjorn is for a baby's health then contradicting themselves by saying how healthy Isaac looks! Apparently it's much better to wrap a baby's legs together in layers in order to keep them completely straight. Don't think baby bjorn has anything to worry about! Had a lovely lunch by the university. I was reunited with my favourite Yu Xiang qiezi (aubergine in a fish sauce) Was nice to eat with just my family away from the incomprehensible sichuan hua. Unfortunately spent the rest of the day stuck in our room like a prison cell whilst Bill had sichuan hua galore.

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