-Definitely not Huaihua. Hiking in Xishuangbanna, 2006.
If there was any doubt before whether or not it’s winter in Hunan, today was your answer. Walking to class this morning at 8 there was a thin sprinkling of powdery snow sticking to the wooden walkways and the wind was blowing hard. Not much has changed since the morning, it has been continuously absolutely freezing cold. Right now I am practically spooning with a new portable heater that I bought today at the Better Life Mall (it could be described as a glorified toaster) and wearing about half a dozen layers, yet I’m still so very cold.
Even though it has been the first amazingly cold day this winter (December was in general very warm here) I still managed to get a lot done. Most notably squaring away my Spring Festival travel plans, which had remained rather loose for a long time. I will be staying in China, a change of plans from what I had planned only a week ago though one I’m very happy with.
My four week long vacation will begin with me taking a train to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province and the city I studied in two years ago. From there I will take a bus down to Xishuangbanna. Xishuangbanna is a lush tropical swath of rainforest along China’s border with Burma and Laos, it’s also one of the places in the world I am happiest. This will be my third trip to the area. I was there last in August 2006, hiking with my friend Dave (blog post). The people, food, sights, religion, language, and climate are all different from the China we all know and love, all good in my mind after living in Hunan for over 5 months.
In Xishuangbanna I hope to do some trekking and visit some Theravada Buddhist temples (my Chinese religion professor at the University of Vermont studied religious practices in Xishuangbanna and I wrote about them as well while I was a student there) as I make my way lazily down towards the Laos border. I may even cross the border and chill in far-northern Laos for a few days. Did I mention I’ll be tasting and photographing the food? The recent article in the New Yorker about Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, who together are a pair of intrepid travellers, photographers, anthropologists, and cookbook authors. My last trip to the area gave me one of the most memorable meals of my life – menu: wild boar (freshly shot), wild mountain onions and wild tomatoes, and all washed down with homemade liquor – so it’s fair to say I’m excited about what I’ll find.
From the warm tropics of Yunnan I will fly to Beijing where I will arrive just in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year with friends and my old host family, though most importantly this means I will be able to see my little sister who is arriving in Beijing to take part in an student exchange program for the spring. I’m really excited. My last trip to Beijing, which was only two months ago, was so much fun I almost never got on the train back to Hunan. I’ll get to enjoy this most amazing of cities for nice long period of time. I can’t wait!
While this itinerary will cause a packing nightmare (hitting up both the humid tropics and dry frozen north in one month using only one backpack, whoopee!) I am thoroughly excited. I’m also ready for a change after a semester teaching in Huaihua and can’t wait to see my sister and many other friends. To add to my vacation plans I will also spend five days with friends in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China, for the New Years.
To make this all work I will be teaching everyday this week, including Christmas. This will be a first for my life though not as difficult as some Americans may think, here in Huaihua Christmas is, after all, just another day. After this week I will have a whopping 6 days of teaching left. Woah.
