Yunnan Culture and another School Visit

Yunnan is the most diverse province in terms of ethnicity and culture. It's known for many novelities, including cigarette bongs which are massive bamaboo bongs that seem to cover one's face, used to smoke just cigarettes. Seriously, in the first time in bong history, they're strictly for tobacco use. They smoke them on the street, in the restaurant, the bus driver even pulled over to smoke. The one below is the slightly more common steel bong. I wonder how long this has been going on, any why they don't chew tobacco, it would combine two of their favorite things: spitting and tobacco.

The upper half of Yunnan is a major tourist destination such as Dali. It's known for the incredible landscapes and Buddhism presence. The lower half is toured almost never. Lonely Planet had nothing to say about anything close to me, there is pracitically nothing on the internet, and I am constantly stared at as I am one of three white people in the region.

The Food:

Breakfast, like much of China, is noodles, and a very small meal. You walk up to a stand on the street, point out the size of bowl you want, one of three noodles you want (flat, and two different round/spagetti types,) which are then dunked in not quite boiling water for maybe 10 seconds at most. The bowls and chopsticks are kept in a steaming basket, possible to sterilize them a little since they're washed in a large bowl with a hose by the gutter. After the noodles they put in a broth, fresh chopped chives, hacked chicken or duck bits, and what I thougt was purple tofu (pig liver or kidey probably.) It was good. Lunch is rice with simple vegetable and meat fried dishes, and dinner is more complex similar dishes.

Then food poisoning struck.

It's rather mild, as in not like the time in Thailand. But still, I'm cleaned out, and my gut hurts like hell. My body is exhausted. I was lucky though, it only came out of one end, so far. Food is not clean, nor can I really keep myself or my hands clean. I wish I brought a crate of hand santizer, as bad as it is for your hands, I can't wash them. Restraurants don't have bathrooms, or even sinks (like in India.) Surprisingly in India you can find hand sanitizer in heavily traveled tourist areas. However, I am neither India nor a tourist destination.

An adventure to a neighboring village:

It was 7:30 in the morning, raining, and Caitlin and I were trying to share an umbrella walking down the street. We stopped and got some red bean buns which were really good. Then we got a bootleg taxi, paid $2.20, and were delivered an hour and a half a way in Yunxian. From Yunxian we met up with Christine, a young Chinese-American woman doing the same program as Caitlin. She was an absolute character and constantly cracking jokes, which took a lot of stress off the situation. We took bus from Yunxian to 40 minutes away in the town Christine taught at.

The bus took a steep dive off the main highway onto a narrow dirt road that snaked along the moutainsides until it at last it came to a village perched in a pass that gave way to steep slopes on either side. Tea, rice, corn, and other vegetables filled the thousands of terraces that went all the way from the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain. Across the valley perched on the closest peak was an old monastary that was mostly abandond after it had been used as a military base during the culutrual revolution. Perhaps a few hermits occupied it now, there was nothing else on that mountain.

Christine was housed in a tradition Chinese building made of earth and wood, it was absolutely beautiful. The neighbor, or possibly owner of the house maintained an incredible garden with chickens and one duck (the chickens had accepted the duck as their own,) tucked in the back. Below is one area where staff is housed. The open first floor area is where a coffin maker stores his coffins, chickens, and anything he farmed.

The village itself was tiny, maybe a thousand or two at the most, and certainly almost all farmers. The elementary/middle school (known as a complete school in Chinese,) had about 800 students. To go to high school one must apply from middle school, pretty intimadating for an 8th grader. Unfortunately most of their futures were determind long ago by the government.

Today there was a competition between the boys and girls with using pronouns, which is pretty tough coming from Mandarin. I think the boys won, but not by much. All the girls are super shy in comparison. This girl was looking for a hint from her classmates.

The kids love their photos taken... this looks like a wolf pack.

Later we went on a walk through the village. It was super cloudy, this was one of few photos where you can see some of the village.