The "Da PuBu"

A couple of weeks ago we went with some friends to famous tourist spot a couple of hours away from where we live. We might be biased, but we think that we live in one of the more beautiful parts of the country. 

"Haley, DaPuPu is waterfall, PuPu is poopoo." Insightful words from a 3 year old as he stared off into space pondering his newly acquired {yet slightly off} vocabulary. My friend's son Grady speaks the language here exceptionally well, especially for a 3 year old, so he adds to his Asian vocabulary pretty quickly. He was a little off on this one though- PuBU (pronounced PooBoo) is how you say waterfall, BUT when you say it fast with the correct tones it really does sound like PooPoo. "Da" means big, and we had been differentiating between different waterfalls this way, which led him to understand that DaPuPu was waterfall, while in fact PuPu was, well poopoo. Makes sense.

So here are some highlights from our trip to see the "PuBu"...... 

There was a little bonsai garden that we walked through to get to the hundreds of stairs that we walked down. 

As we walked down, the waterfall came closer into view so I switched lenses to my 70 mm lens and got some close up shots. 

This little guy was such a trooper all day. 

He endured lots of curious AiYi's attention with lots of smiles. At times I think he was a bigger attraction than the waterfall itself. 

The people here dress according to season and not temperature, so for a child to wear short sleeves in April is unheard of.... regardless of how hot it is outside. At this point, local babies were still dressed for a blizzard. I think Ash had to tell 100 people that "No, he wasn't wearing too little clothing and he in fact was hot, not cold."

One really amazing thing about this huge waterfall is that there is a cave & path that stretches all the way behind it.

I took advantage of being at a waterfall to practice my novice photography skills, using all 3 lenses. 

Here are some pictures I took, taking the same shot at different shutter speeds, aperture & iso. I am enjoying learning to shoot in manual but have a long way to go! 

This was a great time to get more practice. Now I've just got to learn to use photoshop. Everyone says the learning curve is high, but no stinking kidding. I have watched tutorials and feel like I understand less now than I started. Sheesh. 

After we went to see the "Da PuBu" we went to see the "Xiao{small}PuBu"

It was fun to get out of town for the weekend and enjoy nature with friends. 

Joyfully Refreshed, 

When You Go Camping in EA.....

It's kinda not really like camping in America.

If you live like we do, there are no cars for any part of your journey. 

You walk outside with your pack on and walk to the bus stop and get on a bus and take it to the middle of no where. Then you get off the bus on the side of the road next to a mountain and you start walking. 

Lucky for us, an hour in looming black clouds rolled in, that erie wind started blowing, and we knew what was coming next. And come it did with no shelter in sight. It monsooned.... and the thunder and lightning were happening at the same time.... ya know, like not even "1 mississippi" so you know at any moment you might be struck by lightning. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared hunkered down on the path in a ball inside my raincoat. Thankfully, this was a scattered storm and it passed- but of course not before we were drenched to the bone. 

Thankfully this well prepared girl scout planned for the worst and put EVERYTHING in my pack in plastic and dry bags. So while every one else was drying out their sleeping bags, I only had to dry my clothes I was wearing and my shoes. 

As seen here. 

So back to what to expect when you go camping in EA....

First, you gotta make sure to take your favorite cute 2 and a half year old for everyone's entertainment. 

Once that's taken care of, you can plan for your friends to bring enough food for an army that would last for way more than 3 days. 

Like several pounds of meat....

And a whole farm full of veggies...

You wont eat like you do when you go camping in America {ya know... potatoes wrapped in tin foil to cook in the coals, or your dried food that you put into boiling water}... no, no you will eat like EAians {especially those who live in the part of the country we do} do every single day- eating Hot Pot with rice, or noodles.  

You'll Asian squat around a large sheet of plastic watching while one person uses a giant meat cleaver to start chopping and maybe help by ripping apart tou fu or cabbage. 

Or maybe, you'll try to get the fire going in a little path of erosion while the others prep the food. 

OR MAYBE you'll try to get {in perfect EA fashion} the RICE cooked over the fire....

 because what would an EAian meal be without rice?! 

Soon, your meal will be ready.  And you'll all squat around the pot picking out your food.

Or if you're me and your pretty weak-sauce and can't handle the feeling of fire in your mouth for the next several hours, then you'll go for the less intense sour hot pot. 

mmmmm tasty. 

But no evening meal is complete without Shao Kao {EAian barbecue}

mmmmm goooood. 

After dinner is over, you gotta make sure to call home and tell mom you're doin just fine! 

Once it's time to go to bed, you don't have to worry about not bringing your noise maker, because you have natures' own with this right next to the camp site.... 

as well as big rain showers off and on all throughout the night. 

When you wake up you can head on down to the river to wash your face

and do whatever else you need to do to get ready for the day. 

Then, you can expect to repeat the same meal process from the night before a few more times. And maybe this time, you wont have anything to do while everyone else cooks, so you just squat around and watch in the middle of the smoke. 

After lunch, you can head down to the river to go fishing...

or you can hang out with the girls in your cute floppy hat and play lots and lots of UNO. 

But soon, it'll get too hot to sit around without your umbrella and since you live in EA, you definitely use it way more to block the sun than the rain. 

If the going gets tough and you can't handle the heat too much more....

Just head down to the river for a swim... but make sure you were your itsy- bitsy EAian swimsuits boys {I'll spare you} since you're friends will just take a dip in their undies. 

You may even get to give your EAian friend who doesn't know how to swim a lesson in the river...

or you might just watch from the shore because you are certain that it will be entertaining! And that it was.

Regardless of what you do, you'll have an absolutely amazing time with your wonderful friends. 

And when you're hiking out, you'll see an 80-ish your old woman herding goats of all sizes. 

Or you'll get stopped by groups of people who have never seen a foreigner before and want to take your picture with their child. 

But you wont mind at all because you'll take any excuse to hold a CUTE little 3 month old peanut any day! Is she not just the cutest!? 

THE END. 

So that was our fun little holiday camping trip last week. It really was one of my favorite things I've done since we've been here. I loved being able to hang out with all of our friends and have a great time together in the beauty of creation. 

Joyfully Camped-Out,