On the road again

For the last two weeks or so, some friends, fellow teachers, and I have trekked through Yunnan province in S.W. China, boardering Tibet, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos. It has been amazing beyong words. First we hiked through the mountain region called the Tiger Leaping Gorge (China's Grand Canyon, often mentioned by Tom Friedman) and it was not for the faint of heart. At one point we were hiking at almost a 75% slope through crags and mountain rock. It was great! The map said that there were '28 bends' or turns on the trail, but they cruelly lied to us. It was more like '48 bends.' The sight at the top was as breathtaking as the hike, however, and it made the trip all the more worthwhile. That night we met some British guys (also teaching in China) who's path we seemed to cross at every stop. Good fun.

After that, we relaxed in the town of Kunming for a few days before heading south to the XiShuangBanNa region on the Chinese boarder with Lao and Myanmar.This invloved staying in minority villages tucked into the jungle. It was an amazing experience. We didn't have a map, so we had to reconfirm our path with every passer-by. That made it all the more exciting. By night, we were invited into a villager's home for a meal and a sleeping pad. Over dinner we spoke in (my) broken Chinese. If the individual words did not come across, at least the meaning did, as we were all fascinated with each other. I felt like I was on a National Geographic tour!

Village women painted their teeth black, which they believed made them more attractive, and wore traditional clothing. Most men joined a Buddist monestary for a year or two during their youth... much like my CCD except that St. Odelia didn't shave my head. Like us, religion and family play paramount roles in their lives. They had never seen a map before, so they had many questions about Chinese geography. They also had no concept of an int'l time difference. (Which I explained as: "Right now, we in China eat dinner meal, after, go to bed. Right now, my Dad in USA eat morning meal, after, go to work. Now, here, sun goes to sleep. Now, there, sun wake up.") Yet, they settled all of our differences in one easy question: "Are your stars the same as ours?" Instantly, the 5 year old came out in me and I thought of the cartoon American Tale, when Feivel looks at the stars and sings to his sister looking at the same stars. Sappy, I know, but it was a moment... In the morning they treated us to a simple meal of ramen, rice, eggs, and vegetables and gave us a warm send off.

Although both the Gorge and XiShuangBanNa are 'protected' as UN World Heritage sites, development will vastly change this area in the coming years. The Gorge is being surveyed for a dam (terrible idea) and XiShuangBanNa will soon become a commercial land passage to S.E. Asia, so the trail we were on will soon be a 2 lane paved highway. I'm just happy I was able to have seen these sites before the dynamite does...

more to come, more to be added later.

paul.