去白沙村吃饭

Decided to walk over for lunch at neighboring Baisha Village (白沙村) instead of paying horrendous prices for unsatisfying and not-great food in Old Town (古城) and Shuhe (束河). We started from Shuhe. The normally one-hour walk took two hours because we stopped and did jump shots and silly things like that. The route there was tranquil and lovely enough to grab a few photos.

Baisha Village is compact and small and not yet as stupidly commercialized. Definitely a welcome change; I'll grudgingly describe it as 'charming'. Stared at its famous Buddhist murals and frescoes depicting the town's history and development of religion. But I didn't want to see temples with Chinese architecture. I live in Southeast Asia, and Singapore at that. So we didn't bother about seeing anymore places of worship after looking at Fuguo Temple (白沙村福国寺).

Randomly watched a program on CCTV about Suzhou embroidery (苏绣) last night, and was given an explanation on what stitches and stuff to look out for in factory-made and hand-sewn works, especially when the threads used are of the same quality. So it was at least interesting to step into The Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute (白沙锦绣艺术院) to admire its works.

Found a super local eatery right at the edge of town and plonked ourselves there for lunch. Woot. ¥10 (~ SGD 2.18) for a bowl of noodles or fried rice was most acceptable. Way better than the kertok ¥45 and above (~ SGD 9.84) a plate in the Old Town or Shuhe. Those aren't even like the food's served in a proper clean lovely smoke-free restaurant with shiny cutlery and utensils that aren't stained, chipped or covered with a thin layer of grease (because they don't use detergent to wash the stacks of dirty dishes and cutlery). I'm talking about staple Naxi fried rice in a small portion for one person leh, not like it's the strangely-popular western food of spaghetti bolognese or a burger or something, which are usually priced higher than local fare.

We sat outdoors on the little stools because indoors were totally smoked out by cigarettes. UGH. Outside was a much more pleasant experience. Ordered random noodles (肉碎米线) and Naxi fried rice (纳西炒饭). They held preserved vegetables and pickles. Also came with a side dish of pickled chilli. YUMMY. Something about those sour-salty pickles made the dishes most delicious.