Spending holidays abroad

How did you spend Mother’s Day? I had a conventional day this year but last year I spent Mother’s Day in Kashgar.

Kashgar is in western China about four days train journey from Beijing and about 250 kilometres from the border with Krygzstan. Kashgar is a city of 60,000 people of whom 74% are ethnic minority Urygurs. They are Muslims. However more Han Chinese are moving into this region. The faces are different, the clothes are different, women wear scarves and outfits with lots of bling, there is Arabic script on all signs and the food is different.

Our hotel was a decaying Russian Consulate built in 1840s, very grand in its day. We also saw the old British Consulate, more of a hill station building, both part of the Great Game between Russia and Britain.

We went to the largest animal market in Central Asia, where goats, sheep, cattle and horses were being traded. Then to a very large market which was somewhat over whelming. I am quickly bored with things but I love food markets. So while some on our tour shopped yet again I strolled around the food market.

I am aware of the tension between the warning of not to eat street food in foreign parts and the wish for the real experience. So I opted for a vegetarian meal of noodles where there were many locals eating so the food was not just sitting.

I had a lunch of noodles, veg and bread for four yuan, the equivalent of about 68cents, and shared the table with three generations of a Urygur family. Of course I dropped my chopsticks so my table companions summoned a clean set from the stall holder. I enjoyed my meal and the people watching. It was at the end at I discovered that the chopsticks were washed in a basin of cold water. However I survived this experience.

It was a very different Mother’s Day but quite a fantastic one. Have you celebrated traditional holidays in interesting ways? Have you chosen to travel instead of spend time with the “big family” before? Tell us your stories in the comments below…