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.
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| Our first sleeper bus. You can see there are three rows of bunk beds- very narrow beds, but hey, we got our own space! |
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Delicious Thai food! Pad thai and Thai milk tea, YUM. |
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| 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.
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| Night market |
Saturday
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| Delicious Dai minority food |
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| Banana trees |
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| 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.
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