We're travelin'
Well, we did it. It's taken a year and a half, but we've finally done what all the other expatriates have advised us to do--venture out of our comfy little town and visited some other parts of Yunnan. (Besides Kunming, that is. Kunming doesn't count because everybody travelling to Yunnan will probably pass through Kunming.)The genesis of our trip occurred last year. The stage was set by the aforementioned friends who advised us to visit around. Then a couple of Yau Neih's students, Gail and Whitney, asked her to visit their hometown of Dali. That in and of itself wasn't unusual. Every student (and a teacher or two) invites us to visit their hometown. The phrase, "Welcome to my hometown," must be in one of the early English lessons. So Yau Neih got the old, "Welcome to Dali." What made this invitation different was that the girls kept asking. Another factor is that both girls have been very helpful and friendly. We started to feel like rats for not visiting. By the time the end of last school year rolled around, we started thinking how we might arrange an excursion to Dali. It never really worked out until we decided to pack it in during the winter break. We already had a "business" trip scheduled to Xishuangbanna, the prefecture in the south of the province, so we figured we could just pack some extra underwear and add Dali as well.
Planning the trip turned out to be incredibly easy--the students took care of all of the details. We had to get the bus tickets ourselves, as the girls had already gone home for break, but even then Gail provided us with a bilingual note we could hand to the ticket vendor. It was part of the packet of information they gave us before they headed home. We even had a hand written itinerary for our five days in Dali.
Of course, the situation wasn't perfect. We had to make some adjustments, the first one being our lodging. The girls had generously offered to put the four of us up at their homes for a few nights of the trip. With some embarrassment Yau Neih pointed out that we really needed to have Western style toilets wherever we were staying. We can only manage the squatty potties with great difficulty. So we made that specific request in our accommodations. I had a slight worry that they might start remodeling their bathrooms, but apparently there was some limit to their hospitality. Not much though, as it turned out.
But that, since I can milk this trip for a number of blog entries, is a story for another time.
posted by John @ 6:57 AM
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