A Short Letter Home

If I had a boat

After our outing at the Butterfly Spring Park, we grabbed lunch from a noodle vendor and then headed down to the lakefront. We were going to take a boat down Erhai Lake to Xiaguan. This was a nice little tourist ride, featuring a show of Bai music and dance, along with the "Three Tea Ceremony". I don't know what we were looking forward to more, the show or a nice cruise. The only drawback to the whole plan was that we had to schlep our suitcases along. Ever since the first day in old Dali, our student tour guides had found ways to have our suitcases hauled from place to place with us having to do as little lugging as possible. This time, however, we had no choice but to lug. The first order of business, of course, was to find a place to stow the bags. While we didn't have to pay for the boat ride (connections again), we did get the "cheap seats" on the outside deck. Obviously we wanted to keep the bags a bit farther from the railing than that. The place we found--up against the wall in the gift shop--was unusual for us Americans. Back home I might be worried about someone walking off with them, or the shop would be concerned about them being in a customer's way. Here at China, it was just a practical place to stow them. Any local who would try to take such a big honking suitcase would be conspicuous. As for the suitcases being in the way, well, folks can always walk around them. Why can't we mei guo ren be so practical?

Anyway, the boat sailed and pretty soon they announced that the show was starting. We went down to the first level of the boat, where there was a nice sized dance floor with seating on three sides of it. There were about a dozen performers, all in the traditional dress. The first dance number was performed to live music, but the rest used pre-recorded songs. The tea ceremony was interesting, though a bit less exotic than I would have imagined. Each course was simply served up in paper cups between musical numbers. There were three flavors of tea: the first was bitter, to represent the hard work of youth. The second was sweet and contained wafer-thin slices of cheese and walnuts. It was supposed to symbolize the sweetness of middle age. The last cup was spicy, to evoke the spicy memories of the aged. ("In spite of it all, I'm able to grin, and think of the places my get-up has been.")

About two-thirds of the way through the show, I could feel the engines reversing. I was surprised that the trip went so quickly and briefly wondered what how we'd spend the rest of the afternoon in Xiaguan. (A nap would have been welcomed.) By the time the show was over we had definitely docked. However, when we stepped out of the room we learned that the boat had a scheduled stop at an island off the east shore of the lake. It was called Nanzhou Style Island on my tourist map. There were a number of sculptures and fountains on the island, along with gift and snack shops. We had dined well, so we didn't indulge in any food. Rather we just strolled around and then headed back to the boat.

Eventually the boat took off and we slowly made our way south. Other performances were announced, but of course, we had already seen our assigned performance. The trip was rather quiet, with minimal conversation. I don't know if we were all tired from our touring or if the students and the foreigners had just run out of things to say to each other. As we sailed on, the clouds struggled to overtake us. On the island, we had seen a large cloud bank making its way over the wall of mountains that border Dali to the west. It cut down on our sunlight and at one point, after it had overtaken us, it drizzled a bit on our heads. Despite that, it was an enjoyable ride. But at the end we were quite ready for dinner and a warm hotel room.

After the boat docked, we grabbed a couple of taxis and headed towards the bus station. Gail and Whitney told us to wait on the street corner while they rustled us up some hotel rooms. The secret for getting good rates, you see, is not to let the folks know that you're seeking accommodations for rich foreigners. While they were gone, Yau Neih announced that she really wanted a heated room that night. When the girls came back, it turned out that the place they found didn't have heated rooms. They offered to check another place, across the street, which we agreed was a good idea. That one didn't fill the bill either, as they soon emerged and headed down the street. Now we felt bad, because we hadn't meant for them to search far and wide for an ideal place. About fifteen minutes later, they came back. They had found a place, but it was expensive. Of course, for us that was no big deal since we had budgeted for four nights at rates that were higher than the "expensive" hotel was asking. The girls might have thought we were crazy, but we splurged on the fancier hotel.

We offered to get them a room there as well, but they said they had already booked their own room at the first hotel. We didn't argue. I don't know if changing plans would have caused a loss of face somewhere or if they were trying to save us money. They did however, let us treat them to dinner. We dined at a hot pot restaurant in our hotel. If you haven't experienced it, hot pot is where they have a kettle of boiling water in the middle of the table and you order a bunch of uncooked meats and veggies to toss in there and cook for yourself. I've never encountered such a place in America, but then, my culinary adventures in America were quite limited. The food was pretty good, what with Gail and Whitney ordering and all, but not quite as tasty as the hole-in-the-wall Hui restaurant we patronized in Dali. After dinner, we said goodnight to the girls and headed up to our decadent, heated hotel room.

The next morning was almost uneventful. We checked out, bought our bus tickets to Kunming and then went foot shopping. Siu Wan's shoes were literally falling apart, so buying her a new pair was a necessity. I also needed a new shoelace and Ga Dai wanted a new pair of socks. So we strolled along Xiaguan's pedestrian mall and found all that we needed. We then stopped at an internet cafe to check our e-mail, went to lunch at a noodle restaurant and finally bid goodbye to our hosts. Our visit to Dali was complete, but our vacation was only half over. Now it was on to Kunming to meet up with our co-workers and head down to Xishuangbanna.

posted by John @ 5:29 AM