Xishuangbanna (2/6-9/13)

We survived our first overnight bus in China! It was cool because there weren’t many other people beside the eight of us. Plus there was space in a compartment under our heads to store stuff. I thought I’d slept alright but today I’ve been so tired. The bus kept zig-zagging which made us rock back and forth in our beds. I even thought I might get sick so at one point I took a motion sickness pill.  I was fine, but I still don’t understand why the bus rocked so much.

Our first sleeper bus. You can see there are three rows of bunk beds- very narrow beds, but hey, we got our own space!

So cozy! Well, I'm not super tall so I was cozy.

We got to the Mekong International Hostel around 9:30 and we’re hoping to take a nap.  Unfortunately the rooms weren’t ready because check-out wasn’t until 12.  So we left our luggage in the stairwell and walked around to kill time and orient ourselves.  We were able to buy our bus tickets to Dali, but instead of leaving Saturday night as I’d planned, we have to leave Sunday morning because the only bus to Dali is at 10 AM every morning.  It’s too bad that wasn’t more clear online, but things often change so maybe that’s a new thing.  We got the tickets for Sunday morning and luckily we were able to extend our stay at the Mekong another night.

 I use the term “luckily” lightly because it was a pretty lame hostel.  When we came back at 12, the rooms still hadn’t been cleaned, the beds weren’t made, and actually some other girl’s stuff was still on my bed.  So much for that nap! While we’d been walking, I bought an avocado for 5 RMB (less than $1) which for China is super cheap (other volunteers have mentioned spending 30-50 RMB (that’s $5-8 for ONE avocado!).  It wasn’t super ripe but I ate the whole thing on a piece of bread- yum!  My first time having avocado since coming to China, and boy, had I missed that taste!  I also got 4 little mangoes for 10 RMB.

Arriving in Paradise

The worst thing about the hostel was that in the whole place, there were a grand total of two bathrooms.  That’s right. I questioned the lady at the front desk if that was really true, and she yes, because there were only three floors with dorms!  Yeah, and each floor had how many guests?  The hostel wasn’t super crowded but even so there must have been 40 or 50 people staying there.  The shower is just a hose attached to the wall and the floor is filthy.  Also, after washing my laundry in the sink I drained the water and it all came rushing out from the base of the sink and on to the floor. 

I guess we were a little spoiled with the Upland in Kunming because now this hostel seems really horrible. 

But regardless of the conditions of our living quarters for the next four nights, Xishuangbanna is incredibly beautiful.  We the farthest south in Yunnan and are super close to Thailand and Laos, and you can really see the influence here.  There’s Thai writing everywhere and we had delicious Thai food twice on the first day. As I write this, I’m chilling on the patio in shorts, a T-shirt, and flip flops.  When I left Jiangyou back in January, the weather had been in the low 30s F, and maybe even dipping into the 20s.  The weather in Xishuangbanna feels great!

How could you feel unhappy in a place like this??

Thursday

This morning was a little bit disappointing.  Kelly, Jason, Ben, and I had gotten up early to go see the elephant reserve, but when we got to the bus station, they said there were no buses- apparently, the one bus that goes everyday leaves at 7:30 AM.  The hostel receptionist had said we could get there by 10.  I guess I should’ve known better not to trust them.  They just seem really indifferent to their guests’ needs.  It’s not traveler friendly- there are no posters about events or places to go, or maps.  I just don’t get it.  They must get questions like that all the time.  You’d think they’d have more information available for their guests.

After that, we were kind of at a loss as to what to do. We went back to the hostel, and then Kelly and I went to a café, and were joined later by Aaron and Isai.  I got a pineapple stuffed with rice, which was pretty good.

I’ve been spending a lot of money on food on our trip so far, or at least, a lot more than I could be spending.  There are just so many types of food that I don’t have access to at my site, and as much as I love Chinese food, there are certainly some things I’d been missing.  Like I said, we had Thai food twice yesterday, and I’ve been buying dried mango, dried coconut, banana chips, fresh mango, and fresh coconut.  I decided that I would enjoy my vacation, and I even took out some money from my American account to indulge my expensive eating.

Delicious Thai food! Pad thai and Thai milk tea, YUM.

Pineapple rice!

I’m a little worried, though, because some people are getting low on cash and have expressed money or schedule concerns.  I was a little surprised to hear that because I made pretty detailed estimates in the itinerary I’d made before our trip, and I thought people knew what they were getting into.  Then again, I planned it all without anyone with me to consult, and the information online isn’t always reliable (as I mentioned).  I think some people were also surprised that I didn’t have a daily plan.  But I did that on purpose so that we could have freedom to choose our activities based on our moods and interests. 

That being said, the complaints or concerns are really minimal, and in all I’m just grateful at how smoothly this trip is going.  I’d been worried that traveling in a group of eight would just be a major headache, because I thought people would be arguing about where to eat or what to do, but this group has a very good balance of people who are willing to lead and the rest who are easy going and willing to do whatever.  Anyway I’m just trying not to worry much and instead just enjoy being here as much as possible.  I mean, I’m in the tropics surrounded by beauty and delicious food and I didn’t have to pay for a flight to get here!

Friday

Today we went on a jungle trek! We hired a man who works at a café across from the hostel to take us through the jungle.  It was very beautiful- there were banana trees and rubber trees all over and the sun was shining brightly without a cloud in the sky.  Actually we couldn’t see much of the sky for the first half because we were in the thick of the jungle.  The trail was super narrow and we had to push past branches and bushes.  Some points were really steep, going both up and down.  At one point pretty early in to the day, Mike twisted his ankle stepping on a log and I felt bad that he had the whole rest of the day to go.  But he seemed to manage alright with a walking stick.  After lunch, we emerged from the jungle on to a dirt road, which was nice because it wasn’t steep like in the jungle but it also meant we were walking in hot sun with only a little shade.  We walked for several hours, and stopped to wait for our van at someone’s house. I don’t know if it’s common for them to have exhausted hikers slouching and napping in their living room, but they didn’t seem to mind at all.  That was very nice because I was so exhausted and I was definitely one of those people snoozing, head lolling back on the couch and drool most likely dripping out of my mouth.

After the trek, I took my first shower at the hostel since coming there three days ago (because it was hard to find a time when there weren’t many people waiting in line, and also because I figured I’d just delay dealing with the weird shower situation as long as possible).  It felt good to be clean again.  Jeff and I cooked a delicious late night meal in the hostel kitchen. He made tomato sauce and stir fried mushrooms, cauliflower, and zucchini.  I made stuffed bell peppers for the first time, at his directions, which turned out to be delicious.

Night market

Saturday

Delicious Dai minority food

Banana trees

Excited for a delicious meal

Chinese New Year!  By sheer chance, Isai had run into one of his students the other day while walking around, and she invited us to her home to eat dinner with her family.  That was wonderful serendipity.  I had thought it would be too bad that we couldn’t see our Chinese host families for the holiday because we‘d be traveling, but it turns that we were able to have both (vacation and also New Year’s with a family). The live in an eco-tourism village which I’m guessing means they often have foreigners come and visit, because her family didn’t seem that surprised when the eight of us big Americans came into their wooden house.  They had so much food prepared for us, which was all delicious and special because they are part of the Dai minority so they served food that was very different than other Chinese food we’re used to.  There was shredded pork, fried pork skins, and even some sauces that tasted like salsa- it almost could have been Mexican food!  The meat was especially great because it wasn’t a mouth trap of tiny bones like most cooked meat in China- in fact, there weren’t bones at all.  It was also nice because I wasn’t the only foreigner so I didn’t have to struggle with awkward conversation in Chinese. I let the more competent speakers in our group do the talking with the family.  I can understand most things but speaking is still a challenge for me, and I really don’t know a whole lot of words.

Kunming (2/3-5/13)

We are now officially in Yunnan!  We had a 6-hour train ride from Panzhihua, during which I read, wrote in my journal, napped a little, and ended up playing with two little Chinese girls for over an hour.  Which was fun because they were really cute, but also kind of unpleasant because it was already dirty and stuffy in the train so having them crawl all over me made me feel even more gross.  Once they were distracted by their snack, I snuck away and watched four of the guys play cards.  Then the crawled over Kelly and Jeff instead.  Just sharing the fun with my friends, mwahaha!

The little monkey-girl was a bundle of energy.  I played with her and her cousin for a while, and then she crawled over the chairs where Jeff and Kelly were sitting.

I had printed directions from the train station to the hostel but we found out when we tried to follow them that they were kind of vague.  We had to switch buses at one point, and it was confusing as to where the next bus stop was.  I think everyone was a little tired, hot, and hungry, so there was some mild crankiness going on.  I even felt pretty light-headed from it all.  We felt better after we ate lunch and showered.  Plus, the Upland Hostel is amazing.  There’s a bar area that’s really chill and is a nice place to hang.

The next day, everyone but Mike and I got up really early to go to an Irish pub to watch the Super Bowl.  We joined them around 10:30 in the morning.  I really could care less about the Super Bowl but I wanted to hang out with my friends.  I actually left the pub for a few hours and just walked around and bought some things, like a cup of tea and randomly, a donut (which I was pleasantly surprised to find tasted like an American donut). When I came back, we experienced our eventful thing for Kunming.  So, Jason was trying to put a plate down on the table but he had to navigate his hand between several glasses and when he pulled his hand back, he did it a little too sharply and accidently smacked a beer glass over.  The glass snapped in half, cutting his hand in corner between the thumb and forefinger.  Suddenly there was so much blood, and I swear I could see bone.  We were all kind of struck dumb at the suddenness of everything and weren’t immediately sure what to do.  Jason ran to get some napkins to stop the blood. Then out of nowhere this guy appeared with a backpack and a first aid kit.  Apparently he was heading to Thailand or Vietnam right after the game so he had all his stuff with him.  It was really lucky that he was there- he was like a guardian angel. He helped Jason wrap up the wound with some gauze.  It was also lucky that the bartenders spoke English so they were able to direct us to the nearest hospital.  It actually wasn’t too bad so we waited until after the game before heading there.  We decide it didn’t make sense for all eight of us to go, so I went back to the hostel with three others.  Three or four hours later, they returned and Jason had five new stitches to share.  Definitely didn’t expect to have to take one of us to get stitches during our trip, but I’m grateful to say that was the worst thing that happened on our trip.

That guy on the right was Jason's guardian angel

Keep it elevated!

While the group that had gone to the hospital rested, Mike, Kelly, and I went to walk around Green Lake Park.  It was very beautiful, with many colorful flowers and red lanterns for Spring Festival.  When we were walking past a restaurant, some Americans came out, and one of them asked who were.  When Mike said we’re with Peace Corps, he said his brother was also a volunteer, up in Gansu. Turns out his brother is a China 18, like us. Small world!

Beautiful sunny day at Green Lake Park

The next day, we decided we should buy our bus tickets to Xishuangbanna because it was going to be a 14 hour ride and we didn’t want to show up at the station when we wanted to leave without having tickets.  So Mike, Jeff, Ben and I went on an adventure to find the bus station, which for whatever reason is really far (like an hour) outside of the city.  When we got off the city bus, we were surprised that it didn’t drop us off right in front of the station like we’d been told it was.  We had to walk for like fifteen minutes to get there, after asking for directions from several different people (I’m so glad the other three speak better Chinese than me).  It wasn’t that big of a deal except that it was really hot and I really really had to pee.  Of course the ticket station didn’t have a bathroom, and by the time I finally found one I was pretty cranky.  I even snapped at Ben for answering my rhetorical question (something like, Why does China not have conveniently located bathrooms?) which is one of the worst things someone could do for me when I’m about to pee my pants.  To my credit, though, that was the one time in the two weeks that I actually snapped at someone.  Nothing like a bursting bladder to test your patience.  I still can’t believe how far the station was: we’d originally left the station at 12:30 and didn’t get back to the hostel until 5:30.  I mean it was good that we went because then we knew how to get there and to plan for the ridiculous amount of time it takes.  But I couldn’t help feeling that it was something of a waste of a day, not to mention a waste of a beautiful sunny day in Kunming!

Isai getting a shoe shine at the bus station before our ride to Xishuangbanna

Panzhihua (2/2/13)

After IST (the day it ended), I left on a train with the group of volunteers I’d be traveling with for the next two weeks: Jason, Ben, Jeff, Kelly, Aaron, Mike, and Isai, as well as Sydni because we were passing through her site, Panzhihua, and we spent a night there before the rest of us went on to Yunnan (the province directly south of Sichuan province).

Chilling on the beds in our first night train

We took a night train from Chengdu to Panzhihua, which was my first night train in China. It was pretty loud and rickety, so I didn’t sleep super great.  It was funny in the morning when we were starting to slow down, and Ben said “This isn’t Panzhihua, it’s some other town.”  And then right as he finished saying that a stewardess walked by and said, “Panzhihua dao le,” which means arriving in Panzhihua.  Once we got off the train, we rode a bus for about 40 minutes then walked for a little while before getting to Sydni’s apartment. After our long train ride, we were content to chill there for a while.  Then we walked to her school and a park on a hill above it.  We even stumbled upon a zoo and weren’t charged to walk through.  There weren’t too many animals but it was cool to see red pandas (one of my favorite animals).  We went on bumper cars and this ride that’s like a wheel that spins you around.  Nothing beats going on amusement park rides of questionable security and safety in a developing country.

Walking up to Sydni's school

Red cutie pie!

Never too old for bumper cars

Later we met up with some of Sydni’s friends, Richard (a teacher from Hawaii) and some students.  Then we had our first semi-major mishap of our trip.  Sydni kind of has two apartments because the first one she lived in had bad plumbing problems so she moved to another place one complex over, but she stills has the key to the first one.  We realized some time that afternoon that the one key had been locked inside the old apartment.  About half of our group had left bags in there, and we had to leave for our train really early the next morning.  So it was pretty important that we get that door opened ASAP.  Since it was basically the holidays, Sydni’s waiban and school leaders were out of town so she couldn’t just ask them for the spare.  So she went off with Jeff to hunt down a key.

In the meantime the rest of us went to dinner, and then another place to drink and eat snacks.  As with any occasion where there’s drinking and foreigners, the Chinese hosts went around and toasted everyone.  Which usually for me is kind of tedious because it interrupts when you’re trying to eat, but with so many of us there together it wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was pretty fun.  It was also interesting to see how other volunteers interact with Chinese people. At some point, Sydni and Jeff returned with the key (I think she found a friend who had a copy).

Sydni's friend Richard gave us some very good massages!

I’m really glad we got to stop in Panzhihua, even if it was for only a short time.  Although it’s part of Sichuan, it’s so far south that it might as well be in Yunnan.  The weather was so warm which was a pleasant change from the chilly overcast weather in the Chengdu basin.  Several times I felt like I was in SoCal.  I’d been looking forward to blue skies and sunshine again for a long time, and it was great to experience that again!