Last days in Xishuangbanna

I almost felt like canceling the guide today. I couldn't imagine that it would be more interesting or fun than yesterday. I had previously asked if my guide could take me to Nannoushan instead of the Hani village two days ago. He told me it was impossible. It would cost a lot more money, we were going to have a different driver, etc.

The way I left it was that I would contact my travel coordinator in Shanghai if I wanted to make a change.

Because the stars had been aligned, somehow I was able to do this on my own. So I never contacted Shanghai. Tony asked me how my day was. I said I met a friend and went to the tea trees yesterday in Nannoushan.

He was surprised. He said we could go there today if I wanted. I said I went yesterday? Today we were going to the Hani village and the tea plantation. I said my friend might be joining me, could we please wait 5-10 minutes. Nikita never came, so we left.

He told me that we would go to the Hani village there first. They had a market. Then we would go to the tea plantation. The Hani people had homes similar to the Dai. The downstairs was for the animals and the upstairs was the living quarters. The men and women had two separate fireplaces in their houses too. The men's fireplace was for entertaining his friends and making tea. The woman's was for cooking. In addition the man got to sleep on the bed and the woman had to sleep on the floor.

There are different villages where Hani people live. Tony told me it is based on religion. In this village the people believed in animism. There were other villages where the people were Muslims or Christians.

Then we drove a little further to Menghai and went to the local market. We stopped off for about 45 minutes and then we were heading to the tea plantation.

When we arrived at the tea plantation it was nothing like other tea plantations I had ever seen. It looked like we were at a theme park again. But this time all the people were missing. There was a huge gate and ticket booth. And you could tell there was probably a lot of tea growing on the land. It was very interesting. So Tony went to buy the tickets.

Little did I know that this was a tourist trap and not a Tea Plantation where you could actually see the tea being made. If the tea was being made here it was far from where, me, the only tourist, could see.

If you didn't know anything about tea, the history of the tea horse road, it was all explained in English and Chinese. You could walk along at your own pace and look at the replicas of the Han Chinese houses during that time or Merchants homes. Or you could look at the stones they used to make the puerh cakes.

All of this was a re-creation. They also had a fictious examples of some Tibetan temples and a re-created section of the tea horse road. They did have a lot of cultivated tea bushes all around so if you never saw those before you could see the tea plants. There was also a section where they grew black or red tea. The leaves were different.

We saw a man sorting through and removing the stems from some tea that had been made from tea trees. I asked Tony if we could see those trees. He said no. What was even more ridiculous was the area where you could taste the tea was not even open. I was just sort of laughing to myself. So we left. He asked me if I wanted to a local tea house and taste tea. But I told him that I could do that on my own in Jonghong City. So we went back to the town.

On my itinerary, it says "this client is interested in tea and wants to see real tea plantations". Obviously he was not listening to anything I had to say. He did not understand English very well. But either way, he did not get the message.

To be honest, I didn't really care. I was glad to have the rest of the afternoon free and all day tomorrow free. We organized pick up to the airport for 10 am in two days.

I went to the section of town known affectionately as tea alley. It was where we tasted tea the other night and right behind MeiMei. I didn't know if I wanted to taste tea or what. I walked in a shop that had tea stuff and not just tea. I was looking for a ceramic tea strainer.

They actually had some there. I was looking at one. Then I walked over to the tea table. The woman making tea actually spoke English. I sat down and had some tea. I asked about the sheng cha and if she had any from Yi Wa (my new favorite place). She said she did. She said the Yi Wa this year is expensive. We first tried the 2010. We drank it for a while. She said there was a Russian guy in here (I couldn't figure out if she said yesterday or today). But he showed her the google translate page on her computer. She had a computer right next to the tea table and she checked something on it. Her computer had speakers so it translated and said the English words very loud, but with a Chinese accent. Funny!!!

So I asked if we could drink the 2011 Yi Wa. It was a lot softer and tasted more like green tea than puerh. I wasn't quite interested in buying any of the tea, just the strainer. So I took off.

I went over to Mekong Cafe for dinner afterwards. It was an early dinner. I was hungry and it had just stopped raining. I had a beer and spicy fried eggplant with rice. The beer is 6 yuan (less than $1 for 500 ml). I mean you can't beat the price. Tea is too expensive so it's better to drink it for free at the teahouses or drink it in my hotel room. I went to the hotel and did just that. I wrote and drank tea.

I woke up and I had a free day. I have been enjoying the buffet breakfasts at the hotel. I try to get there before 7:30. Otherwise it's picked over. Today, was the smallest amount of people, but the food was totally picked over. I always get the fried rice. They typically have 4 or so veggie entrees. Then every once in a while the meat dish is good. Today was a dai fish dish. Even having to pick out the bones was worth it. I always get papaya or watermelon. Then there are some sweets but in China they typically are not too sweet. I fill up so much so I don't have to stop for lunch. But this way, it's usually an early dinner.

I wanted to head over to the new bridge over the Mekong River. Supposedly restaurants, cafes, shops, and bars line this side of the river. I walked over there and it didn't take much more than 10-15 minutes. I was surprised.

Down past the new bridge there were mostly bars. Then I headed under the bridge and walked a little towards the old bridge. I saw a small motorized boat cruising along the river towards the Dai village I had seen on the first day. That looked fun. It was so hot out.

I kept walking. It looked like there were more shops and restaurants instead of just bars on this side. I saw a group of three young guys get out of a taxi here. I was wondering what was here for them. Nothing was going on by the river at this time of the day. There was also a young couple walking. They headed down the stairs too. I checked out what they were doing and they were both going on those motorized boats along the river. I went down to check out the price. It's a one hour cruise down the river and then you get a ride back in a car. They give you plastic bags for your stuff that could possibly get wet or damaged. I asked the woman that spoke a little English if I could have her hold some of my things. She said as long as there is no money inside.

So I just did it. That was a spontaneous decision??? I got my ticket and they handed me a life jacket and a couple plastic bags, one for my purse and the other for my shoes. Next I walked down the path to the boat. They were already on it and were waiting for me. There were five on the boat. I squished in between. Then we were off. It more closely resembled tubing. There are two tubes roped together and enclosed in a seaworthy raft with a motor. Each person sat on one of the tubes. There were hand holds and foot holds. The driver sat in the back. We started off slow until we navigated underneath the bridge and then we went pretty fast. It was definitely way cooler than being out in the hot sun walking. I wondered how far we would go. It was a different view of the city and river this way. At about 20 minutes into the trip we went ashore towards the right side. There was a tiny little hut on the beach. We all had to get off the boat and check out the hut. There was a woman there selling some jewelry and other stuff. Then she had mango and some other fruit that we could eat. The three young guys were goofing off in the sand on the beach. The rest of us were biding time until we could get back in the boat. It started sprinkling a little bit. But it felt nice. We got back on the boat and then the ride ended shortly afterwards. We all got out. I was starting to take my life jacket off like everyone else. The driver motioned for me to get back in the boat and to put my life jacket on. I didn't get it. Why was I getting back in the boat and everyone else was getting a shuttle car ride?

The driver was adamant. One of the young guys said to me "Go". So I got back in the boat and put my life jacket back on. I went to sit in my original seat and he had me sit on the other side. Ah, so maybe he needed someone to sit in the boat on the way back so it wouldn't flip. That is the only thing I could think of. It started raining now, and had cooled off some, but it was still sort of fun being in the boat with only the driver. This was certainly a lesson in trust. A larger boat passed us and I braced myself for the large wake. It was very wavy. Then the driver slowed down until the waves stopped. He was definitely going faster than he had with all the people. We were to the dock in no time at all. We probably beat the others as well.

That was a fun little afternoon. It was so random. I was walking back along the river and walked by a tea house. There were about 4 or 5 people drinking tea. They said hello so I walked in. They poured me a cup of tea. I said sheng cha? They smiled and shook their heads, yes.

One of the guys spoke a little English. He was asking the typical questions of where are you from, are you alone, are you married, how long are you here?

I feel like I should have made up cards before I left with a short little bio. It would have been helpful in English, Chinese, Hindi, and Nepali. Then everyone could read your info first. After a while it does sound like a broken record when you are telling your story.

I had to get to the bank this afternoon too. The Bank of China was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. I had been looking for one on the way back from the river but there weren't any.

I got to walk by a new area of town. I stopped in a lot of tea shops. This time I was looking for gaiwans and clay tea pots. I didn't see anything worth buying. I really wish I could carry one of these tea trays back. They are gorgeous but very heavy.

I went to MeiMei tonight. I got potatoes and carrots in a curry sauce. It was definitely the Thai curry versus the Indian curry. I of course got a beer too.

As I was finishing up my beer I met an American from Boston. She was working at Babson College for 9 years and had an MBA. She decided to take a year off to travel in Asia. She had just arrived in China and would have two months to spend here. She had already been to China to see the large cities several years ago. She was planning to spend time in the smaller towns this time. She had already been traveling for 10 months. I asked her what that was like. She said there are good days and bad days. She said she had some friends meet her at different points along the way. She said every week she took one day off to just hang around, relax, and read.

We exchanged a few stories. I told her I was going to go drink some tea this evening but before that I had to pick up a dress. They didn't accept US credit cards and I finally had cash. I told her she was welcome to join.

I liked one of the Yi Wa teas I tried a few days ago at the teahouse. I wanted the woman to re-pour them so I could buy one. Since the woman didn't speak English, I gave Lynn a quick lesson in tea as we were drinking it. She had not had puerh tea before.

She poured one Yi Wa and this one smelled very floral to me. Then she poured the 5 year old fermented tea from bamboo that had gone bad. This was just for Lynn to compare a good and bad tea, but also a taste a fermented one. She wanted me to sit in the tea making chair and practice making tea (while she played a little marjong in the other room). I practiced for awhile and then she checked back in from time to time.

Then she came back to sit down. She poured the 2011 Yi Wa. That was still loose and not in cake form. It smelled like perfume. It was so floral. I had to buy a little of that.

Then she poured the other Yi Wa from the other night. This one was more spicy versus perfumy. After the first couple of steepings it became more complex. I liked it better than the first one. I bought a cake of this too.

It seemed like she wanted us to try more teas. I told her no, it wasn't possible in my best hand motions. I was tired. Lynn had tea overload. She pulled a liquid out from underneath the counter. She cleaned some new cups for us. She poured a small amount in the cups. It was thick. We smelled it. It smelled like sugary, tea whiskey. Sure enough. But it was so sugary. She motioned we should drink this and then we could have more tea. We drank a little but we didn't want want tea at this point. We communicated that we couldn't drink more tea. Then she poured our left over tea into the thick mixture. That tasted nice. It was now slightly more diluted and warm. She also made me a plastic bottle of the tea I just purchased to take with me. We thanked her and then left.

I wished Lynn a fabulous two months in China and whatever lies ahead for her. She wished me the same.