Sichuan, China

Speaking of rioting (Benji made it safely out of Cameroon after being stuck for over a week), I got back last week from Sichuan, China, where troops have recently moved in to squash any new protests that might arise in the Tibetan areas of the province. Incidentally, these areas were my favorite from my recent trip, an area of striking natural beauty and wonderful culture. The houses are all made of stone and prayer flags are abundant.

Apart from the birds, the food was the most interesting part of the trip. With the exception of a few breakfasts in Chengdu, all of the food was Sichuanese--delicious, spicy and, occasionally, rather strange to my western tastes. A few of the more interesting foods that I ate were duck tongue, duck stomach kebab, yak, yak entrails, pig's throat, chicket feet, frog, rabbit....

Here are a few photos from the trip. I'll post some bird photo soon.

Eating hotpot in Chengdu. In the center of the table is a pot of boiling liquid, split in two, half with a very spicy combination of oil, water and huge block of chili paste (the longer it boils the more of the chili gets mixed in and the spicier it gets) and the other half is a soup. You take the meat and vegetables and dump then in the liquid to cook them. On the left is my guide Ginseng, on the right is my driver Mr. He and my other guide Maggie.

Me eating a duck's tongue at hotpot.

A statue of someone riding a yak on a snowy morning in Hongyuan on the Tibetan Plateau.

And someone actually riding a yak.

Digging out of the snow.

A couple of Tibetan guys stopped to see what we were looking at.