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Yunnan Province; China

Mar
2004-09-14 15:37:29

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stops raining and the fog slowly moves up.

A communist meal

It is not so cold after all, but we are descending already for 20km and we haven’t really dressed up for that. Our t-shirts are still wet from the climb in the drizzle. ‘Noodle soup!?’ screams Raymond as we descend with 40km per hour. He has spotted a restaurant next to the road. On the gravel of the parking lot are a couple of 4WD pick-ups. From the outside we can see there are two large round tables in a rectangular shaped room. The long side open and facing the road. The kitchen is on the left side of the building in a separate room. Raymond is directed to a table on the outside of the building. He makes clear he wants to be seated inside, because he is wet and cold. Raymond walks first to the kitchen to order some food and to wash some of the dirt from his face. An English speaking man from one of the tables offers if he can help with ordering food and tells us to ‘please sit down’. The table on the left is occupied with twelve men and so we choose the other. The English speaking men stands up, ‘do you mind if I join you?’. Apparently he is the English teacher in a nearby village and is very eager to talk with us. While we introduce and explain our route, several questions are raised from the other table in Chinese. The teacher translates patiently ’What do you think of our astronaut?’. When Raymond asks if they are all teachers he replies ‘no, they are all party members’. Our question and the answer are not translated to the group. While we are eating a person from the group tells us he wants to tread us the lunch. Our natural reaction is that we can not accept it and that it is not necessary. The teacher does not translate our answer, but replies instead that the offer comes from the highest party member present and that ‘they will not be pleased if we refuse the offer’. So who are we, not to accept this generous offer. ...