I was hanging out with Min Dan one day and we were
talking about the must-see cities in Yunnan Province. The biggest ones were
Lijiang, Shangri-la, and Dali. She has made the trip to these cities very often,
pretty much every year. I express my fascination and tell her that I would very
much like to see them, but I just haven’t had an opportunity to go. But later
on, she says that she and her family are traveling to Lijiang and Shangri-la at
the end of the month, and invites me to join them. Of course, I immediately
jump on that opportunity and at the end of the month during the long weekend of
the Dragon Boat Festival, I meet up with Min Dan at her house to go to Lijiang.
At Min Dan’s house, I met Min Dan’s mother who at
first glance looked like just another of Min Dan’s friends…it was kind of crazy
how young she seemed. Min Dan told me that we should all just call her 美女
(mei nv- v represents the u with the two dots on it…literal meaning is “pretty
lady”). Then I met her little brother, Wuyi, who was 16. He was DEFINITELY a
shy one from the beginning and wouldn’t talk to me at all. The fact that I was shy
and not speaking a word because I get nervous around friends’ families was not
helping either. We hung in the house for the entire day because our train left
at night (I’m so upset I didn’t get pictures). During that time, we also went
to dinner, where Min Dan and Mei Nv spent the entire time scolding poor Wuyi
about what kind of job he should get in the future…boy do I know how that
feels. I was actually quite surprised because they didn’t seem to mind me
sitting there while they had that conversation. I was glad they didn’t mind though,
because hearing their conversation gave me more insight into the mindsets of
Chinese people and Chinese families. I found they were very much like my family
and like other immigrant families of America…working hard to earn a good job is
very important to them, even if they have to leave their home and go to a
bigger city to find work. That’s what Min Dan did, but I’ll tell you about that
later.
Anyway, by this time they were pretty much treating
me like one of the family and I felt like it, haha…well, as much as a person
who has a bit of a language barrier could feel. So after dinner, everyone packs
up the remainder of their stuff and we head off! I’m soooo excited I’m
practically dancing out the door, haha. So we head off to the bus station, arm
in arm (I told you…they treated me like a member of the family J)
and we hop on the bus that’ll take us to the train station. I’m grinning ear to
ear. But we have a problem.
It’s 9:30 and the train leaves at 10. The bus ride
would have been about half an hour long, but 15 minutes into the ride we hit
some MASSIVE traffic. I am very silent…I’m not quite sure what to think. It’s
obvious we’re not going to get there by 10, but I’m hoping maybe the train will
be a bit late leaving and we can possibly get there before it leaves. But at
the looks of the traffic, it’ll be probably at least an hour before we get
there. Min Dan and Mei Nv are talking amongst each other about what they’re
going to do, and I’m there thinking, “Why are you talking? There is nothing to
do. I mean, we could hop a taxi, but the taxis are all stuck in traffic too. There’s
nothing on this road that is going faster than this bus, except for those motor-bikes
that are swiftly weaving their way past us…and seriously, what are we going to
do? Hop on the back of four of those motor-bikes and book it to the station?”
Well, you better believe I spoke too soon.
Min Dan is one of the craziest boldest friends I’ve
ever had. My thoughts are cut off by her yelling at the bus driver, “Bus driver,
open the door! We’re getting off!” And we four climb out of the bus and walk
down the side of the road. I’m thinking, “What is Min Dan gonna do? She’s not
seriously going to ask four motor-bikers to give us a ride?” Next thing I know,
Min Dan is talking to one of the motor-bikers who’s parked on the curb of the
road next to some vendors frying vegetables. She asks him if we can get a ride.
Before I know it, she’s got four motor-bikers in front of her and tells me to
hop on one, hahaha. Well that’s the first time I’ve ridden one of those things,
and it was pretty awesome. And we’re there cruising down the side of the road,
past all the traffic, weaving past other motor-bikers and other stuff. The wind
is blowing past me, and the warm Kunming night sky is above, and I’m there
thinking, “Hopping on the back of the motor-bike, racing through traffic to
catch a train, in a foreign country…well that’s a pretty awesome thing. What a
start to our Lijiang trip!” To be perfectly honest, it was so refreshing
because though Kunming life lately had been filled with interesting adventures
and stuff to do, this was a different kind of adventure, and an opportunity to
get away and see something new. It was nice.
After having a nice conversation with the
motor-biker and running off to find Min Dan, we all met up with each other
again and rushed through the train station customs and on to the train, where
we could finally relax. Min Dan offered me some duck feet (her family really
likes chicken feet and duck feet, and they’re not bad if you cook them the
right way), and being the brave person that I am (if it’s offered to me, I
never say no to something that’s regarded as really tasty in a culture, even if
it may seem strange to me…I always give it a chance and boy have I tried
strange things in the past) I munched on one. Not bad, but not something I’ll
eat every day.
More about the actual cities of Lijiang/Shangri-la
next post.
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