Mama Naxi's
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
126
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Lijiang,
China
Thursday, March 6, 2008
The central personality here is Mama Naxi herself. Everyone just calls her Mama. From the very first time you meet Mama you can tell that things are never dull here. She is a small woman with short hair and a deep, husky voice. Her English is good enough to have a conversation but still very flavourful. She is always moving around in a flurry and generally acting exactly like the "mama" she is.
We first met her while relaxing upstairs on the deck a couple of hours after we'd checked in. She came in like a whirlwind and seemed almost offended that we hadn't come over for breakfast. "Big banana pancake!" she exclaimed making a giant circle with her hands
Mama, Baba, and us
. "Only five! Why aren't you hungry?" Erin wasn't feeling well so she had decided to skip breakfast and I had just put some peanut butter on a slice of bread as sustenance. She found the jar and lifted it critically, decided it wasn't as good as her banana pancake, and scolded me for not eating a proper breakfast. Hoping to deflect her, I pointed out that Erin wasn't feeling well. She immediately went off and rummaged through some boxes, returning with several horse pills, and practically fed them to her. "You feel better tomorrow!" she repeated a couple times, as if daring her to object. Then she was gone.After I came back, we were heading out to find something to eat when we were intercepted and told that Mama served dinner at 6. There didn't seem to be any reason to object, so we followed meekly. It turns out we had been staying in one of three places run by Mama. Mama No. 3 served dinner. We were seated 8 or so to a table, throwing travellers together for the meal. The servers constantly top up your cups with tea and keep your bowl filled with rice. Then dish after dish began appearing at our table. A large dish of (amazing) chicken, a beef dish, and a pork dish. It was soon followed by chickpeas, broccoli, and a couple of other vegetable dishes. Everyone dug in. It was a buffet feast. We fell into conversation with the couple next to us, and with good food and good company we sat there for a couple hours until we could no longer eat any more and had to cover our tea cups and rice bowls in protest
Mama Naxi and Baba
. This wonderful meal cost 10 yuan ($1.50) per person. The best deal in China. A sign posted up in the dining room regretfully informs us that due to the rising cost of meat and vegetables the dinner price has been raised from 8 to 10 yuan. We came back four times and the set of 8 or so dishes changed every night (except for the famous chicken). The server comes round at the end and cheerfully demands "You pay now!" She scolds you if your bill is too large. At dinner Mama showed up and was in the process of trying to force the girl sitting next to us to swallow some pills when Erin rescued her and pointed out that she was the sick one. Later she came around with yet more pills to help her sleep. The long-term residents treat her with patient amusement, and sit back to watch the newbies attempt to ask her something. Mama can arrange pretty much everything. She does most of it for free. Every hostel in China charges between 40 and 60 yuan ($6-$8) per train or bus ticket they book for you. Mama does this for free. She will even book flights to anywhere in China. Just be careful you get what you want and that she doesn't tell you when you leave. For our bus ticket back to Kunming, Baba went to the bus station, got us a ticket, gave it to us at breakfast, and arranged a van for 4 yuan to bring us to the bus station. This is a wonderful place.
The 5 yuan pancake breakfast is actually an enormous disk of fried dough topped with a bunch of bananas and honey. I tried a couple times but could never finish it. Tea was set in front of you whenever you sat down. Mama would also occasionally go around and hand out bananas or oranges to everyone as well.
I planned to get a picture with Mama at our last dinner together, but she was mysteriously absent. We hung around until it was time to go, then sadly walked back to catch the van. Mama was there waiting for us, and even Baba was there. We took pictures with them, and they were tickled pink. She also handed us a bag of oranges and sachets to hang around our neck for good luck. We were sad to leave, but hopefully we'll be able to come back to Mama's one day.
~Travis
