Small World!

Only in China.

Some of you may think us egotistical jerks after this post. But we are awesome....

Our first night in Dali, Frank and Vinny met a laoban (boss) in his bar. Then on our first full day we grabbed lunch at a restaurant that he happened to own. After calling us over and offering some tea, he asked us to help him write an English happy hour menu.

In China guanxi is very important. Guanxi is like a game where one can gain or lose face. The three of us have honed our guanxi to a science in China's biggest party town, Changsha. By helping this laoban we gained major guanxi.

Some time and several pots of tea later two beautiful American girls sat down at a table at the restaurant we previously ate at. Time for more guanxi. We sent Frank over to make the introductions and before long the girls had joined us at the table. Foreign girls=major guanxi.

They (our new Chinese friends) offered to take us to dinner and we obliged them... although the girls were a bit nervous about hopping into a Mercedes with a bunch of guys they just met. Having foreigners pile out of his car was major guanxi for laoban and we played our part well, drinking homemade baijiu and trying even the most adventurous dishes placed in front of us. A spread of peanuts, fruit and beer (a lot of beer) greeted us upon our return to laoban's bar. We had played our part and now it was time for our reward.

At breakfast this morning we met a girl who lives in Xiangtan (45 minutes from Changsha). One of the workers at our hostel lives in Changsha. A foreigner we met in Kunming also lived in Changsha!!!!

Small world.
C. Johnson

Blue Skies

Sent via email on Friday, January 21

We spent the first full day of vacation walking the streets of Kunming, visiting parks and a few local restaurants and cafes. In our ramblings we came across a street of shops that sold only trophies, plaques, and other awards. We bought a trophy and declared ourselves 2011 "Hide and Seek" champions. Our trophy also makes a great cup.... and we have taken to drinking from it to celebrate our 'victory'.

Kunming is a gorgeous city and seeing a blue sky is unbelievably refreshing. The first park we went to was centered around a pond with thousands of white birds that resembled sea gulls. Pond gulls maybe? There were families all around and I got to watch some old people dancing, which is one of my favorite activities. After another night out in Kunming we were all ready to leave the city behind us.

After a mildly stressful 4 hour bus ride we found ourselves in Dali. It is a beautiful small town famous for three pagodas overlooking the city from a great mountain vista. It was late though, so we went to find something to eat. Yak steak is the best food ever. After filling our stomachs we went back to the hostel and fell asleep. This morning we were greeted with the bluest sky I have seen in 6 months and a massive snow capped mountain in the near horizon.

Time to go climb it...
C. Johnson