Where will we go today? To a sugar cane plantation! I love sugar cane, I remember it from Vietnam! You can snack on it or squeeze it and drink the juice. I'm definitely an absolute sugar cane fan :D
Having breakfast first
Endlich mal ein Tag an dem wir ausschlafen konnten =) Ganz gemütlich wurden wir durch die Sonnenstrahlen und den immer lauter werdenden Geräuschen des Dorfes wach. Zum Frühstück versammelten wir uns draußen auf der Veranda um die weiteren Pläne für den Tag zu besprechen. Unser Frühstück bestand aus einer Mischung unterschiedlicher warmer Gerichte: Reisbrei, Rührei, Spinat, Dampfnudel mit Fleisch/Ei/Gemüse-Füllung und Würstchen.
The sugar cane plantation
So where to go today? To a sugar cane farm! The best part? Whoever wanted to could get the axe, cut down one of the many plants on that plantation and then enjoy freshly cut sugar cane. For that we got a hatchet in our hands and went deeper into the field. With my little wheelchair the others could easily maneuver me back and forth to such a sugar cane plant. There I got the axe in my hand and was allowed to chop off the plant. In the following video you can see how that looked like:
It was such a cool experience.... aside from almost chopping my leg. When swinging the axe I came against not the sugar cane plant, but the frame of my footrest. Phew...in retrospect I have to say that I was really lucky and nothing bad happened!
Washing dishes and cutlery
Without much time passing, it was already noon, so we made our way to a restaurant. We passed some rice fields, a duck family and some buildings with Chinese characters. You know what was totally weird in the restaurant? Before you can start eating, you had to wash your plates and cutlery. I bet you haven't experienced that either, have you? Anyway, you have to unpack the tableware (I don't know why it was wrapped in plastic) and rinse it so that it is clean. Yes and how exactly did we rinse? With tea, which was ready and waiting on the table. I don't know if this is normal, but we did it every time before we ate. The restaurant was still so nice and served us rice wine with the meal every time.
Two plastic stools as a back seat
For the evening I really wanted to have a look around the village and buy a mahjong game for my parents while the others wanted to go swimming. So we split up in two groups. To get into the center of the village, we drove with a minibus. That minibus consisted of the driver’s seat, the co-driver’s seat, one rear bench seat and 2 plastic chairs in the back and who else fitted into the bus. That was the first time I saw something like that. No joke! You could sit on a plastic stool in the back of the bus. Talk about safety.
In the village I bought a mahjong-set. One small advice, you can always negotiate. Don’t be afraid and don’t feel weird. It is very common in Asia to do so and it is also fun. After buying the present for my mum, we drove to the market of the city. There were lots of fresh fruits and I just had to buy a fresh coconut and drink it right away, because I haven’t sighted it anywhere in Germany yet.
Playing mahjong at the end of the day
When we finished dinner, I brought out the mahjong and asked our partners to teach us. On a side note….those mahjong stones are really really* heavy, so if you plan on buying those, then you should come with an almost empty luggage. Okay, I exaggerated a bit, come with an half-empty luggage 😀
Three things I learned today:
1) You can eat the sugar cane right after you cut it
2) You wash your tableware in the restaurant before you use it
3) “Road safety” is a foreign word in China
