(jotted on my blackberry while out...)
OK - I'm in TW having lunch out alone and a very nice, poppy song is on the radio...it's in Mandarin I'd assume... But the chorus is partially in English and sounds like

“you're like a fart on the wind.”

I am wracking brain trying to figure out what the heck they're shooting for here!
Very funny!

Hello all!!!
Thought I'd share my fun morning in Dongguan, China...

What a GREAT morning! Got up early and I rode along to the Chinese food market area. WOW! I took a bunch of photos. Apparently they hadn't wanted to take me for fear that I would loose my appetite in seeing the whole or live fish prior to eating them. I guess many Westerners have this trouble... I can say for sure as curious as I was about the product being sold is as curious as the patrons and sellers were about me -- a million eyes on me at a time. (And the digital camera got many an oooh and ahhhh!)

It's early but already 75F and very humid... the air is THICK!
Each group (fruit, sea fish, shellfish, veggies, meat, sausage, cooked foods etc.) were in a section of their own, whether an entire street dedicated to this (fruit) or just a section of a series of connected warehouses. First we stopped by the fruit stand of choice but decided to come back at the end as they were unloading a truck of fresh fruit and since it's loaded in from the street... there wasn't any place to stand that we weren't in the way!



Heading toward the next stop I pass BAGS of dried peppers and peas and beans. The colors -- amazing! I wish I could bring some home!



And snakes...

We walked over to get the fresh, live crabs for lunch. As we rounded the corner you are struck by the wall of...of... stench. I could detect Fish (strongest) followed by earth and body odor. It may sound gross but it isn't, it's rather shocking and intoxicating at the same time.



Being a crab expert, A-sau (head of all of my trimmers) came along to select them herself. Their legs are tied up with bamboo and they are stacked, live, in bins.



Next to this bin you can find a bin of live eels swimming around in water, a bin of live turtles all climbing about trying to escape,



a cage of hopping frogs and bins of live swimming shrimp waiting to be brought to your kitchen.



We pass the bins of tripe and live fish and walk to the sea fish area to select a "golden thread" fish for lunch, apparently highly sought after in Japan now...but an everyday fish here. The variety of fish is amazing! I want to cook!! :-)



We then walked to the meat area -- basically it's cuts of meat lying out on cardboard on a makeshift table. You can touch the meat to select what you want. It isn't understood how we can buy meat in our markets without being able to inspect it and touch is to make sure it's good. Two bits of meat are selected...pork I think.



Onward thru the hall of cooked food...piles of pig ears cooked as a local delicacy, whole roasted ducks and chickens...one of the ladies asks me if I want a pig ear or snout. They are "good snacks" since they last all afternoon!


On we go to the vegetable room in this warehouse. Picture an amazing farmers market! Many vegetables I recognized, others I did not. I selected the vegetables for lunch and learned how to select good, ripe items. So many types of spinach and bok choi etc. The colors - amazing! And the smell -- earthy and warm -- it changes as you pass from stand to stand.



The tofu and soy available is amazing!



Finally we head back to the fruit market and it's twice as full! We bought hairy leche (the spiny looking little fruit), the queen fruit (purple with thick looking rounded leaves on top) and a local melon. I could have spent hours there learning about the different fruits and veggies alone! :-)



We didn't buy this - a Durian fruit -- so STINKY once cut open, that many hotels will kick you out if you are found to have one while staying on their property.

Now I can't wait to see how Futsi cooks it for lunch!!! I can't tell if I'm spoiled or just REALLY fortunate!

A view of what I see...
The sun finally won the battle again the torrential rain that has been falling for days here. You can almost see the lush green mountains through the haze. Although it has rained for days, everything is very dusty.

The traffic on the 30 minute journey to the factory from my hotel is increasingly busier as more and more people trade their mopeds up for a car. The 3-lane motorways are bustling and cars enter and exit with reckless abandon... there are few if any signal lights from both the vehicles or the street... just a fend for yourself and your right-of-way mentality. Thankfully the factory insists that I ride in a car with their driver. (Even the folks from Hong Kong don't dare drive here.)

Mopeds share the road with the 18 wheelers, cars and box trucks. Few of them have helmets... seeing a small shoeless child riding on the back with no helmet and clinging on for dear life is a usual sight.

The markets are overly busy being that it's Sunday... everyone racing to and fro. The groups of young boys flirting with the groups of young girls... looks like a giant 7-Eleven parking lot.

Pulling into the factory I see that they must have finished tearing down the last house on the land across from the factory this morning and now it's simply a big brown dirt-filled lot...
on my last visit it was still a lush field full of crops and small huts where families had been living for the last 10 years. The government took this land back and resold it to a developer who will build a factory upon its grounds. I expect the factory to be finished by the time I return in August... things here move so fast...

Happy Thursday! Things are busy busy busy! I'm getting ready for ANOTHER 3 week trip thru the Orient for work...and yes, feverishly trying to plan the best projects to bring for the journey. THe days ahead will be LONG! I work Friday (someone has to in my office and I'm not Catholic/Christian, so I gave the rest of the office their holiday!) The weekend will bring many hours of laundry, packing and knitting prep! China isn't always the best place to find that needed 4th or 5th needle for a sock when you loose it along the way!
Off to work!

I haven't yet heard as to whether either of my submissions to the publication have been selected or not...
the WAITING!
The weather here in NYC is COLD again --- and I'm hoping to sit here and finish my lacey/fuzzy openweave knit poncho tonight. Then I have to make a baby hat for another girlfriend who's due end April. Wow! All of these Babies!
The crocus are in blossom in the garden and the narcisis are opening daily. :-) I'm off to knit!