Happy Thanksgiving

Where Halloween was beyond explanation, explaining Thanksgiving was a piece of cake. Just about every culture has a "harvest festival".

Mid-Autumn Festival- China                                             Sukkot- Israel
Têt-Trung-Thu- Vietnam                                                   Homowo Harvest Festival- Ghana
Ladainha- Goa                                                                Chu  Suk- Korea
Lughnasadh, Celtic Harvest Festival- Ireland                     Kadazan- Malaysia
Lohri- Northern India                                                       Onam- Southern India
Festival of Min, God of Vegetation and Fertility- Egypt      Martinmas- Holland      
Festival of Thesmosphoria, Goddess of Grain- Greece       Lammas- Scotland
Kinro Kansha no Hi- Japan        

You get the idea

So on Thursday, we celebrated American Thanksgiving at a local 5 Star hotel where I spent almost 10% of my monthly salary for the opportunity to tuck into the freshest turkey I have ever tucked into.

I am sure this baby had been strutting around the streets of Harbin just the day before. Given its pedigree, I am not sure we could call it a "free range" turkey, perhaps "freeway" or "boulevard" turkey might be more appropriate. But regardless which side of the tracks it grew up on, it was delicious.






Some illicit plastic baggies and voila, turkey sandwiches were available the next day. No cranberry sauce, so some  enjoyment was lost for Nonie. She sucked it up and still managed to make a few trips to the buffet.

The turkey came with all the trimmings, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, stuffing, whole crabs, squid slices with garlic shoots, mouth watering spareribs, pork steak, beef steak, smoked salmon and various amphibian parts, just to name a few of the 100+ dishes available to compliment our turkey.




For a finale, I marooned my self on the dessert island, intent on trying everything there. My buffet pants let me down and I had to be rescued about half way in. I think the cheesecake did me in.

Another successful Chinese Thanksgiving.

Spoooooky Gourds and Halloween Explanations

Explaining Halloween to our friends and our students at HIT has always been a challenge. It is a holiday that defies a simple explanation.







How can you explain:

• Dressing up in silly costumes. 

Nonie came as a Jacqueline-o-lantern while I came as a poisonous, endangered tree frog. What's silly about that. 

• Carving up a perfectly good pumpkin, then not eating it. 

New technology provided digital design suggestions for those pumpkin faces. I Pad to the rescue.

• Going from house to house threatening homeowners with tricks unless they give you treats

Here is Justin trying to look threatening and doing a very poor job. He did however receive his treats for placing second in the scariest pumpkin category. It should be known that the pumpkin judge had been taking pain medication for his bad back when he made that decision.


  

• Scaring the bejeezus out of people.

Irina trying to look scary. Not!  

Her pumpkin could be your best friend.


  

 

Most of our friends do not have a festival that remotely resembles Halloween so they had little to relate to.  It didn't stop them from having a good time.



 

All went home with a spooky gourd. Some of the gourds had a decidedly friendly demeanor but we didn't have the heart to tell our friends. After all, spooky is in the eye of the beholder.

A Quiet Trip To 香炉山

Our local tour guide, Mr. Doctor J, billed the trip as a tranquil hike in the mountains (snicker, snicker) near Harbin. But as savvy Chinaphiles, we know that quiet is a condition not easily found in China, so no surprises. Our destination was 香炉山, or as it is known in English, Mount (snicker, snicker) Incense Burner.

I



It was an early start to the day. Meeting Mr. Doctor J at 6:40, then a 20 minute walk to where we were to pick up our bus for a two hour ride to the mountain. (snicker, snicker) We arrived to find the street teeming with people and dozens of buses parked willy-nilly every where. No signage indicating where the buses were headed, our only clue to finding the bus was its license number provided by the tour company. We split up, going in different directions in hopes of finding it before the scheduled departure time. Eagle eyed Nonie was the first one to spot it and with a few cell phone calls got us all back to the right location.

We were scheduled to depart at 7:20. At 7:19, the bus was loaded and ready to roll.  The tour lady made a few announcements in Chinese and suddenly people were streaming off the bus and disappearing from sight. The cause for this exodus was her announcement that the trip would take about two hours with no bathroom breaks. We departed 20 minutes late, but with empty bladders.

The trip was quick with the emphasis on quick. The driver handled the 40 foot bus like an Indy car driver.  Two lanes magically became three lanes, anything smaller than us got the hell out of the way. The driver became one with the horn, honking at anything that moved or looked like it was going to move. Learned the Chinese phrase for "Aw shit". "Wa Choo!"






We arrived at the mountain (snicker, snicker) parking lot to find ourselves stalled behind a long line of buses waiting for their turn to park. The parking lot was a harbinger of what was to be our experience on the mountain. My two hour bladder required a trip to the public washroom before we shouldered our packs and waded into the crowd. It was the national holiday so it was going to be a crowded hike.









Our first view of the mountain (snicker, snicker) was impressive. The trees were just starting to change colour, with hints of yellow and red visible in scattered areas around the mountain. (snicker, snicker) We found that the mountain (snicker, snicker) was home to a large number of maple leaf trees which were providing these hints of colour.



I need to confess something at this point so I can quit using (snicker, snicker). I have been using the term, mountain (snicker, snicker) with some reservations, because living in B.C., I cannot honestly call Mount Incense Burner a mountain (snicker, snicker) but it is a darn fine hill.



The trail from the parking lot started out nice and wide with lots of room for the crowds of  mountaineers (snicker, snicker)(last one) that were here to tackle the mountain.

We discovered a newly constructed Buddhist temple about 15 minutes  into our climb. (snicker, snicker)(really my last one) Hence the name Mount Incense Burner. The temple was nice and shiny new, recently built as they were still finishing some patios and walkways surround the freshly painted shrines.

As we wandered about the mountain/hill we came across a number of other shrines, all considerably older. We have run into these temples and shrines  in other places. They don't really function as  temples anymore but are mostly maintained for the tourists who visit the sites.

A few tourists are practising Buddhists so take advantage of the shrines to burn incense and pray.

As we moved upward towards the peak, the trail started to get smaller. In many places, only room for one person on the trail.  Bottlenecks were becoming common. The trail started to follow a pretty stream that was as clear and clean as you would find anywhere. A definite anomoly in China.

The stream was crossed by several imaginative, concrete bridges. One was a  hollowed out log, another consisted of interlocking leaves.

One bridge that would have been a "law suit waiting to happen" in North America, was greatly enjoyed by the Chinese, with lots of yelling and laughing as they moved from swing to swing.

We summited about two hours into the hike and were rewarded with some great views of the countryside. Looking one way, you saw nothing but nature.

Looking in the opposite direction, the view consisted of thousands of acres of cultivated farmland dotted with small villages. 

Despite the crowds, the peak was very serene. I think the view took their breath away. Or perhaps it was the last  seriously steep 500 metre climb to the summit.

After enjoying the view for a few minutes, we continued down the mountain looking for a quiet spot to enjoy lunch. We became a topic of conversation for the hundreds of Chinese who passed us by as we ate our lunch and became a highlight in many Chinese family's holiday photos.The trip ended enjoying a Harbin Beer fresh from a mountain stream all the while fending off thousands of ladybugs. A number who attempted to commit suicide in my  beer.

One of the highlights/lowlights of our trip was the "ladybug" experience, something we have never seen before. The mountain/hill is home to a huge ladybug population. I could use the term "a plague of ladybugs". The air was so thick that you dare not open your mouth for fear they would fly in.