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A Miao Family and a Heaven-Sent Tour Guide
Friday, August 12, 2005-7:11 AM
I stayed with a Miao family of four in Upper Lang De that opens its doors to visitors to earn a little extra money.
The oldest son was not there. Eight months ago, shortly after he turned 18, he enlisted in the army and is now stationed in Tibet.
The younger son was at home. During the school year, he lived at his school in Kai Li. In the summer he came home.
The younger son told me that later he doesn't want to live in the village. It's too poor.
Their wooden house was originally built in 1945. In the 1980's an addition was added where I stayed.
The structure has three floors, the lowest floor for their chickens and pigs, the middle floor has their living quarters, and the upper floor is where guests stay.
There's no bathroom in the house. Outside the entrance, there's an outhouse style facility. My hosts made sure to give me a flashlight before going to sleep in case I needed to use the bathroom at night. Of course, there are no street lights here.
They only charged 10 renminbi for the bed per night. But, they also charged 10 renminbi for every meal. Room and board ended up being 40 renminbi per day.
I planned to stay two nights at their home. But, late in the afternoon on the second day, someone came looking for me.
It was a tour-guide who noticed I was in the village by myself. She thought it might be difficult to make my way back to the city alone and offered my a free seat in her tour bus back to Guiyang.
It was a great deal. A free ticket to Guiyang in a comfortable tour bus and a free dinner at a nice restaurant in Kaili.
The tour group was a group of government workers from Guangzhou. The only bad part was listening to a group of middle-aged Chinese men sing Karaoke on the bus.
The tour guide continued to help me. She telephoned somebody to inquire about train tickets and agreed to find a cheap hotel for me to stay in once we got to Guiyang.
When we got to Guiyang, it was too late to go to a different hotel. Instead she negotiated an excellent price, 65 renminbi, for a huge suite at a nice hotel.
The only bad part is I only have a few hours to enjoy the room.
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