To the hills via a soup kitchen and a cup of tea

Today we are off to the Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces – Google it and you will see why we opted for two nights there.

Helen collected us with our lovely but slightly mad driver and we set off for the journey to the rice terraces.

First a tea plantation which proved really interesting and gave us the tea ceremony we had missed previously.

As you may know tea is taken seriously here in China and the guide at the tea plantation showed us first how they make various sorts of tea and then took us to the tea ceremony room

It was a lovely opportunity but it was clear in this government run set up that it was hoped that we would buy some of the most expensive tea. It comes in a black block and has been fermented for more than a year, two I think but can’t quite remember. And it tastes like nothing on earth!

So don’t worry,  you will not be getting this if you take tea with us this summer. We did get some Jasmine tea for Cath as she drinks it all the time but we resisted all else and after a really lovely hour (except for the old squashed tea) we set off for lunch which was pricey!

We were asked if we would like a local speciality rice noodles and although you might have picked up the fact that this local speciality is local to everywhere we have been in China except where the local speciality is DUMPLINGS we said “Of course, lovely!”

And they were.  It was little more than a soup kitchen. Formica tables, a queue to buy a ticket off the man at the door, a choice of round or flat noodles and “do you want an egg?” With a large bottle of beer and noodles, no eggs, for four Tone was asked for 20 Yuan (£2) !!

So our faith in local specialities was restored as were our grumbling tummies and off we went to the mountains.

We did actually go via the Reed Flute Caves which were lovely but by now Tones caught had caught up with me and I was not feeling too well so may not have appreciated the caves as well as they deserved