The weather was very cold; when I left Liaoyang two weeks ago, the average weather was a cool 14 degrees Celsius. Hence, when I returned there, I was surprised that the day time weather was 4 degrees Celsius and dropping to sub-zero at night. That set me scrambling for additional winter clothings in Liaoyang. Winter clothing there is extremely cheap; I bought a sheep skin pants, 3 pairs of wool socks, a pair of leather gloves, a thick vest and a set of thermal wear; all within S$50. It would probably cost at least 2-3 times more here. (I've never been much of a shopping person, forced to be one this time)
Tried some exotic food: fried caterpillar and donkey meat. The fried caterpillar looked gross; black cocoon deep fried in oil. It was served during lunch by the customer. I was initially hesistant to eat it but after I saw my Dutch colleague Anton eating it, I just went ahead and took some. Hmmm...it tasted good! The donkey meat tasted like beef. I was surprised that it was very tender as I expected it to be tough.
Here are the guys I hanged out with for dinner. Anton is the guy second from left; the rest are Italians and German. I was kind of like the only Asian among them (There was another Chinese guy from Nanjing but he seldom joins us). They were kind and there were none of the snobbish attitudes some europeans have towards asians. We even made a day trip to Shenyang on one of the off-days; going to the Qing dynasty imperial palace and emperor's tomb there. The Chinese there thought I was their translator.
Photos of Liaoyang and Shenyang are posted at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8222755@N06/
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