Weekend in Guizhou - Monday

The nicest hotel in Anshun also happens to be the only hotel in Anshun. And being such, it does not offer many of the amenities that we are used to. For instance, this particular hotel did not offer a clean bathtub, functioning air conditioning, or an outdoor view through the window. But it did offer a clean bed in a dark and quiet space, so we all eventually slept.

Up early to stop at a village on our way to the airport for our noon flight, we were all a bit groggy from our frontier village dinner the night before and our sticky hotel room sleep. There was plenty of minor fighting and groaning over whose turn it was at the toilet.

And then L-- retched on the bed. Dave and I turned our parent mode to full gear, caring for a sick child, quickly facing dehydration as no liquids would remain in her body, while trying to keep everyone in good spirits and guided toward the door for check-out.

At the hotel's buffet breakfast, we stocked up on white bread and clean water for the backseat of the car where L-- slept and I served as caretaker. S-- and Dave grabbed steamed buns and boiled eggs as well, making a nice picnic for themselves in the front of the van. As L-- rested and began to hold down her fluids, we made some quick decisions. Were we to head straight to the airport, we would arrive 1 hour early. A few phone calls learned that we could not change our flight, and so could not arrive home any earlier. The airport had no useful amenities - nowhere to lie down, no Pedialyte or even Gatorade for sale, and certainly no fresh air. So, we thought, why rush? The last stop on our itinerary was only a few miles off the road to the airport, and so we stopped at 8:30am to tour Tunbao Ancient Village.

L-- spent her time snuggled into the stroller, holding her water bottle close and never more than a step away from one of her parents. We hit the village at a wonderful time, when the shops had yet to open and the children were making their way to school. Rather than being hassled by pushy trinket hawkers, we received simple smiles as shopkeepers set up their wares. Rather than being pushed by other tourists, we were the only guests in town and simply watched as people readied themselves for the day.

This made the perfect setting for me to hang back from Dave and the tour guide, and focus my lens on the town and its people. As I skipped most of the tour, I don't have much narration to provide for the pictures. The location was beautiful - Tunbao is a very small village located among the karst hills and rapeseed fields of Guizhou. The stone village with slate roofs has a lovely green backdrop in many directions. And for your interest, the people of Tunbao are not a minority. They were originally a group of families who moved to Guizhou from Nanjing during a wartime hundreds of years ago. These families kept close to each other, maintaining their close family ties and their way of life inside the walls of their village.