It's the Little Things, part 六

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Greetings from Yunnan province in SW China. It's a different world here than in Shenzhen, and there are still plenty of things to make me smile.

1. Grandparent-aged people running up and down steep and rocky trails with baskets on their backs, sometimes empty, sometimes full of greens. It's how they farm.

2. The same people leading donkeys up and down the same paths.

3. A man sitting in a little store, watching it rain (thus keeping the tourists away), singing to his baby.

4. Tractor + wagon attachment = mode of transportation

5. In Dali there's a bar called Bad Monkey. It's mostly for foreign travelers but a few Chinese will stop in as well. The walls are red and in the back room there are sofas and a huge, half-finished mural of Bob Marley. At about $3 a liter of good Beer Lao, and fabulous french fries (with real catsup and mayo) it makes for a good, relaxed evening with all my new friends from the hostel. Some of whom I'll never see or talk to again, and some of whom I'll probably keep in touch with for years.

6. Cheese. They have real cheese here. Local cheese. And it is marvelous.

7. I was sitting in the main room by the bar eating my dinner and writing in my journal when suddenly I heard a loud yell (in Chinese). The girls behind the bar yelled back obviously startled. One of their male coworkers had gone out with the trash and decided to yell in to scare them.

8. When I went to the Stone Forest 2 young boys wandered in through a back entrance. With them they had an umbrella, which they were filling with flower buds. From the looks of them, I'm guessing the flowers were for eating. Not exactly the happiest thing I've seen, but their perserverance was touching.

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Comments

[Gwen]

Cheese
I'm happy you got to eat some cheese. That must have been really nice!!!