We continued to drive through the glorious countryside of Yunnan Province towards Mohan on the border with Laos. The road passed tea plantations on the terraced hillsides and through huge banana plantations. The massive bunches of bananas were wrapped to help them ripen and covered in blue plastic bags to protect them from the rain. We ate lunch at a small restaurant in one of the many small towns on the way, and were invited by one of the owners to their home some way out of the town. They own a tea plantation and wanted us to try some of their famous Pu’er black tea. It was a delightful experience and, when we wanted to buy some tea, they insisted on giving us a bag full of tea for free. Jim gave them a bottle of whisky.
We stayed in a 4-star hotel in Mohan for £5 a night each, and had a meal at the restaurant on the other side of the main road. A strange experience because there was a power cut and only the hotel and the restaurant had electricity from their own generators.
