Huangshan after successful dinner ordering

Lily and Carolyn went out into the loud evening (competing loudspeakers from local stores blasting in the streets) to see if we could find a place that had either an English menu or pictures of the food. we found the former a few stores up from the hotel and ordered a few things,,,just o.k. stuff, but it served its purpose. It was part of a complex that sold the local green teas and a large variety of wild mushrooms that looked wonderful. The wet forests here provide an abundance and variety of mushrooms, it seems.
We are enjoying a respite from group travel and just moseyed around. We went into a little dried goods and bought a bunch of goodies..pocky sticks, Sultana biscuits (anyone remember those?), peanuts, bottled water, and a kitschy t shirt.

Back at the hotel, we find the shower just sticks out from the wall right next to the toilet, no stall, no curtain, so the whole bathroom gets sprayed with water, and if you forget to move the wastebasket and roll of toilet paper you have another problem on your hands. Getting toilet paper at hotels lower than 4 star seems to be a tricky business..with three women, the half rolls that are supplied don't last long. Maybe this is more than you want to know about bathroom issues.

Back to Wuhu...the orphanage personnel were very kind and willing to tell us anything they could from the kids' records. There were people we saw there whom we also saw in 1995. The place itself is pretty run down; the director said they will be moving to a new facility in two months..perhaps this is so. The children remaining in the existing facility are all special needs..babies to older children. They seem to be well cared for.

AFter the orphanage visit, we ambled around Wuhu...went to a park and pavilion overlooking the Yangtze River and enjoyed a brisk breeze off the water. It was stifiling hot away from the river. While we were there we saw a huge plume of acrid smoke billow into the air a few blocks from where we were. It looked every bit like a petroleum based fire and it raged for some time. Today we learned that it was a street market fire that went up like a torch. We worry for the people who crowd these markets trying to scrape together a living by very hard work. Apparently there was nothing left of the market, which must mean that the vendors lost all their inventory and equipment. Sad to think how this impacts their families. I have often felt afraid while in the middle of these markets, since they're very crowded and people use open flames for any number of things...cooking, repairing things with torches, and the like. The coverings are all plastic (which may have accounted for the black smoke and the quickness with which the fire bloomed) and so many goods for sale are also plastic.

Tomorrow, we go to Tunxi for two days. Wish I had access to some maps to upload...perhaps that'll be the next thing I learn to do with a blog.