Visas and Va-ca

Here are a few pictures from our trip to GH. The first is Hannah and I in the back of a tuktuk. It's kind of like a rickshaw, for all those who've been to India. It's a three wheeled motorcycle with a small cabin in the back that could seat up to six, if you squeezed really tight... We hired the tuktuk for 10 kuai to drive us less than a quarter mile to the Laos side of the border...the only reason we thought it might be further is because the road curved... But now we can say that we rode in a tuktuk and took our picture! You can see the Laos border over our driver's shoulder in the next picture... It's a complicated border crossing procedure. First, you have to get out of China. They look at you picture and look at you and say "Keyi." Then, you get in a tuktuk to ride the quarter of a mile that's almost faster if walked. She'll let you out in a mud puddle. Step over that. Then, you may want to use the public squatties, because this may take a while (as a matter of fact, was that even mud?). Don't forget to pay 1 kuai for the usage of said squatty. Man, prices are steep here. Next, go to a window and buy a Visa. It's $37 a pop, and you better have American dollars! The guy will take a while, and then his comrade will whisper under his breath "hen piaoliang," which means "very beautiful." After both men duck their heads and look away, they will give you back your passports with brand spankin' new Laos Visas in them! So proceed two feet to your left, and you will come to the window where they look and the new Visa just adhered and look at you and then stamp your passport about eight times. He'll hand you back your passport and you'll walk ten feet to your left, where a man in a guard booth will say "Passports Please" (which is all the English he knows) and will again look at your passport and look at you and then let you into Laos. It's like, this foot and a half rebar "bridge" over a drainage ditch...very enchanting... Be sure to peruse the curios at the border. There are about twelve different kinds of cigarettes and even more brands of beer to choose from, so choose wisely. Then you walk to the other side of the same building (about twenty feet wide) and go to another window. Here, the guy looks at you, and looks at you picture, and gives you back your passport with eight more stamps in it! Ten feet to your left, you repeat the guard thing and then he lets you out of Laos! We walked the quarter mile back to China, discussing along the way which country we were actually in, since we had left Laos but not yet entered China... It's still up in the air. But we did get officially welcomed back into the country by a blue elephant bearing gifts! So basically, it took more time for you to read this post than the time we actually spent in Laos. But the fun part about the ride there and back was the really long tunnels (think 4000 meters broken into three tunnels, with not much open air between them). WE talked about how cool it would be to scream and honk, but since our driver was Chinese, we didn't want him to think that we were dying in the back seat. So we just sat quietly and wished... After we got back, we went with a really cool family, the J-Mans (named changed for spy reasons) to a Dai (pronounced Die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) restaurant for dinner. We were teased with stories about how good the frogs (not frog legs, but frogs) were there, but, alas, they had none. Instead, we got heaping portions of pork ribs, fish, pork skin (like pork rinds), fern (which was really interesting and tasted like you'd think a fern would taste when cooked), noodles, cucumber, shredded dry beef and lots of cold water. We had a great time.
The next day, after our visit to the orphanage, we went to the home of a new sister, and talked with her daughter in English for a while. Well, Hannah talked. I took pictures, and tried to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Then I went and sat in the living room and tried to translate the conversation the adults were having. I did pretty good. Way better than I would have done three months ago. The girl's mother was very excited when she heard her daughter say "I am drinking water" with perfect enunciation. Pretty cool.
On our last day, we did a little shopping. We went into an army discard store, and were trying on jackets and sunglasses and looking all thuggish. Then I saw the awesome knife with dragons on it, and asked the lady how much, and she refused to sell it to me. She said it was her friend's, except it was in a display case with all the other stuff for sale (like Zippo lighters and pocket knives). So we left. We went shopping at the Jade Market, and then went back to the hotel to swim with some of the J-Man's kids, Maddi, Silas, and Jack. It was fun, except I didn't bring a swimsuit to China. I tried to swim in a t-shirt and shorts, but was told to get out of the pool. I started to wonder if one could get kicked out of China for swimming in a t-shirt.
To top off the whole week, we went to see a Minority Dance Show, supposedly showcaseing ten local minorities from Xihuangbanna, but it really turned into a Dai show after the first scene. It was still great though. They did the Water-Splashing Festival, and we were close enough to get wet. And there was these acrobats that flew from the ceiling, and jumped on drums and danced a lot. But the coolest part was a pre-teen girl whom I'm pretty sure doesn't really have a spinal column. She twisted and contorted all different ways, and she was holding five candelabras, one on each foot, one on each hand, and in her mouth. It was insanely cool. And they were actually burning with wax dripping off. That was the craziest part. And then, after all that, another girl came up, put a brace in her mouth, and the little pre-teen put her mouth on the other end, and she did a "hand" stand with her teeth! Crazy!
Then we got on another bus a rode home, but you've read all about that already... So, that's our trip in a nutshell. Maybe I'll get around to posting about that wedding next...