For such is the Kingdom....

Day 18: Xishuangbanna -- Mandian waterfall

You all know that I love waterfalls. I love finding them in the middle of a forest or jungle. I just think they're really beautiful. In fact, I love just about all running water. Lijiang had a lot of streams running through the city, and I loved that too. So today we went to a popular waterfall in the middle of a jungle. Getting there was an adventure. I don't know if I've ever been on a bumpy road for so long. We were in this little van (called "bread vehicle" in Chinese because it's shaped like a loaf of bread....clever language!) with a couple from Sweden. So one of the things about this area that's unfortunate is that the government has redirected a lot of the water that used to go to the falls into a power plant or something. The prices we pay for development.... so we arrived in the village where we were going to get the trail to the waterfall, and as we were trying to find it we saw some village girls and waved at them. They started "leading" us to the falls, and Connie and Mei ended up talking to them for a while (I was only able to ask them if they were tired). These girls were absolutely precious. I can't even begin to describe them. I'll try to post a picture of them on my other site. They're in 3rd grade, I believe, and they were just beautiful. They were so sweet. They've been going to the falls everyday during their vacation, so this hike was nothing for them. They were running on this slippery, muddy dirt trail that was only a foot wide and played in the trees like monkeys. The hike to the waterfall lasts about an hour, and you're really walking through the jungle. I loved it. I loved the hike, I loved putting my feet in the water, I loved the girls. The falls were neat, but I could tell it must've looked much better before the water was diverted. I had my swimsuit on because I was planning on getting actually under the falls. But the water was a little deeper than I thought it was going to be, and the girls said there were snakes in the water. I could only think of copperheads (yeah, I know I was in China) so I decided not to chance it. Instead we just settled for sticking our feet in the water and taking lots of pictures with the beautiful little girls. After a while we went back to meet our driver (who was really nice and didn't even smoke during the drive there or back). When we got to the village, one of the little girls (my favorite) invited us into her home. So, we did get to see the inside of a Dai home. It was really eye-opening for me to see it. I think I'd like to live in one of those homes for about a month, but then I'd want to go back to my old comforts. Once you go up the steps, there's this long hall with a long wall on one side. On the other side of the wall is the living area. Basically it was one big room. You could see where they cooked their food. There was a cabinet in one corner and a TV in another. There was a blanket on the floor in front of the TV and a smaller wall at that end of the room. On the other side of that wall were the beds. They were all together, but divided by mosquito nets. The thing that was so striking was that these girls were just so excited to have these new friends coming into their home. (the parents were away) They were so hospitable and so....happy. I just wanted to stay with them. Connie wanted to stay and teach at their local school. In the Bible, Jesus says, "let the little children come to Me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." That could be easily seen in these girls.

That night we went to another show in a nearby park. We bought the tickets and walked around. It was a really neat park. They had this cage with a lot of peacocks in it, and some of them had their feathers spread when we were there. The thought that came into my mind was that guys are so similar, even across species. :) They'll do just about anything to impress the girls and get their attention. The funny thing was that this was even played out during the show we went to. The show was alright. It was really similar to the one we saw in the park yesterday, but it was a bit nicer. They even had dinner included in it. One of the dances (going back to my point about guys) was about one of the minority groups where the guys actually go looking for their girls at night and "catch" them. It was really funny, because they pulled volunteers from the audience. I didn't understand anything they were saying (all Chinese), but you could still get the general idea. :) It was a great way to spend Valentine's Day -- dinner and a show with two Valentines. ;)

Culture shock: I had to shave my legs, so after my shower I went outside and tried to find all the spots I missed. These little girls who also probably lived in the hostel started watching me. Up close. That was a little unnerving. They left after I wouldn't let them touch my razor. Go figure.