Enjoying Hailaer

Thursday, June 3, 2010--Hailaer   This morning I took the bus to the edge of town and then walked another kilometer (0.6 mile) to visit the Ewenki Museum.  The Ewenki are the native people of this area, and there are still about 20,000 of them living in the grasslands and the woods near Hailaer.  They are much like the Eskimos in Alaska in terms of their clothing, since this area is very cold in the winter.  The museum is a beautiful, large building that is new.  Inside are large halls with very nice exhibits of their artifacts, their folk life, and the ecology of their area.  Each area had large diaramas and huge exhibits showing complete homes and people going about their daily lives.  Even more interesting was observing the few elderly Ewenki people who were there to see the museum about their culture and their lives; they were obviously very proud.      When I returned to town, I stayed on the bus until it brought me to the large park where I spent part of the day yesterday.  I went into the mall next door to buy a drink, and I passed a hair stylist shop that had one young man working in it.  He looked up at me and smiled.  I had been wanting to get my hair cut and had avoided stylist shops because I prefer a man to cut it; usually stylist shops have both men and women, and I find that women tend to want to leave the back hairs too long and feathery on the neck.  Knowing I would get him as the stylist, I went in.  For $2.25, I got two shampoos (before and after) and a cut.  He did a good job and was a nice young man.  What a relief it is to have it cut now.   From there, I took the cola I bought and went to the park.  Fortunately, I found a bench in the shade and sat and read for a while.  Around 14:00, I left for the river.  I choose a section of the wall steps where there were men mostly 40 and older and took a seat.  Again, I was the center of attention for being a westerner and especially for taking off my shirt to sunbathe.  They all asked where I was from (in Chinese, but I've learned to recognize it).  They encouraged me to go swimming in the river, but I did not have a suit with me.  A new man arrived and changed to his swimsuit near me.  He smiled and reached up and gave my leg a rub.  They all want to feel what hairy arms and legs feel like, since they have only smooth skin.  Another one later rubbed my arm.  Then one of the men about my age pulled out a pad with sheets of paper on it and indicated he wanted to draw my picture.  He put me in a pose which I had to hold for maybe 20 minutes while he sketched.  It is a very good likeness, and he gave it to me.  By then, I was hot and had gotten enough sun rays, so I said good-bye and left them.   I stopped by the nearby park where many men play a card game every night.  I watched for a while trying to determine the rules of the game.  It seems to be sequential with a person putting down cards and the others having to put down something that beats it.  For instance, if I put down two 2's, then you must put down two cards that are alike but bigger than 2's.  Anyway, it was just nice to be in a crowd and seeing what was happening.  No one really paid any attention to me.  Maybe they are used to foreigners being around and wanting to see how the game is played.   I've been losing weight as usual on my trip.  I'm feeling satisfied with myself right now.  I want to lose more weight, but my guess is that I weigh about 175 lbs (79 kg).  By the time I am back in Texas, I hope to weigh about 157 lbs. (71 kg).  At least I am not embarrassed to take off my shirt at the river!  But this is all guesswork.  I have not found any place to actually weigh myself here in China.  One hotel room had a scale, but it was broken.  And there have been no scales on the streets or in the pharmacies.    Today (Friday), I will go back to the river for the afternoon after checking out of the hotel at noon.  Then I will return for my luggage and take a night train to Harbin.  The China adventure continues.