This past weekend, I took a break from Anshun and took a trip to the south of Yunnan to visit our friends Roy and Faye for the Hani New Year. This was something I have wanted to do for a long time and so I shuffled my classes (no Friday class and I gave my Monday class a project to do) so I could go for a few days. The only bad part of this is that it takes forever to travel to LuChun from Anshun. The first leg of the trip is a 11 hour train ride--I got on at 8pm and arrived there at 7 am. The train ride was surprisingly good as I was able to sleep some and relax and when I arrived I went to the bus station to get a bus ticket, expecting to have to go to numerous cities to arrive in Luchun, but was again surprised to find they had added a new bus and I could leave at 7 pm. That meant I had all day to walk around with my big hiking bag. I thought I would adventure out to some new places and see if I could get lost. This time I was incredibly successful--I got myself out to the outskirts of Kunming and could not find my way back...I even ended up in the countryside and following the 3rd loop around the city. People I asked only got me further away, so it was about 10 hours and many, many miles of walking later and I made it back to about where I started. Then I had to find the market to buy our Christmas presents. Eventually I did find it and could relax...I found some of my friends from travels there and met with a number of unexpected people and got the presents we wanted for family and friends.

I was so tired when I walked back to the bus station (I could barely walk by now), that I was ready for the second part of the trip, the 11 hour sleeper bus ride through the mountains to LuChun in southernmost Yunnan. When I got there it started to pour and I could not find the correct bus, and asked the manager for help. He showed me the bus and followed me to "help" me. It turned out he followed me because this meant he could ask me for money/ a bribe. He said I had to pay a gas tax, but it was more of a foreigner tax. I was willing to give him some money just to be able to sit down and start the second part. His English was not good enough to try to fight with him and I did not have enough energy. We left around 8 after lots of delays and I slept on and off and arrived early around 6 am. I stood out in the rain as everyone stared at the foreigner in the village for 30 minutes waiting for my friend to come on his scooter. By this time I had quite a few bags and had to balance them to ride on the small scooter (funny experience).

It rained on and off throughout the day, but I was blessed that almost all of the time we were walking it was clear or even sunny. I got to get together with Roy and Faye and her son Li Chun Hui to go hiking and to meet with some important people who came for the holiday. The terraces were amazing in the mountains as the rice has been harvested and some of the tea fields are a brilliant green color. It turned out that it was Li Chun Hui's birthday, so I got invited to his birthday party before the big celebration. In the morning, I got to go shopping in the market right before the festival. This was a crazy affair as everyone was stocking up for the huge dinner they will have the next day. They had every kind of animal and everyone had on their minority clothing. The sad part was seeing them kill the dogs (quite inhumane), as my friend sent my down the hill to take some pictures. We got chicken, fish, duck, beef, and pork along with numerous kinds of vegetables for lunch. They always go all out for guests. The birthday party was very short as lunch took ages of eating. They had a cake and lots of fruit and they do not play games, so I decided to make a game. I brought some American coins and had the students put their names in a hat and draw out 3 winners of quarters and the rest got pennies. They were overjoyed to get American money!!

At night, I was given a guest pass to sit in the front row of the welcoming celebration with dancing and singing. It turned out that I was allowed to be one of the photographers in the way front, so it was really fun. I took numerous pictures of the different dancers and the acting. This was the best show I have seen in China--usually the music is too loud and the sound people are awful, but this was different. They had dancers from all of the minorities in the area, Yao, Yi, Dai, and Hani. They even had a group that carries tables in their mouths as they dance. The show ended at 11 pm and that was day one in Luchun.

There was so much more to come in day two...but I should leave that for later. I will also show some pictures of the different minorities and a brief summary of them. Many blessings to you!!