Pu-erh tea sanctuary

Lahu-village

We are in south-west of Yunnan going to some remote La Hu Zu ( Lahu people ) village located deep in the mountains at 2000m alt. The old muddy zig-zag road is too long and we have to transfer in another village where we are waiting almost 4h for the next bus which of course goes only once a day and we are lucky to have a seats.

After few hours the engine of local coach gets overheated and we stopping somewhere in the middle of the forest.

engine   Starts raining and burning engine smoke fills the bus ( driver opened engine cover inside the bus but didn’t bother open the door to get some fresh air in ).

Tea village
Lahu tea village near to the Myanmar ( Burma ) located in mountains at elevation around 2200m.

We are getting in the village late evening and looking for some food, finding out there is nothing except plain noodles with chili and grilled sausage in local «restaurant» built from wood planks and plaster boards.

Lahu restaurant
Small restaurant in Lahu village.

Few local drunks at the table and some teenagers having a few beers makes it really authentic. My wife is about to cry and with giving up voice says she wants to go home. To cheer her up a bit I’m replying with sarcasm: “We didn’t have any honeymoon, so there is one now 🙂 ”, and munching on my noodles without considering the fact we have been eating them 3rd time today.

Instant noodles
Very simple dinner. Instant noodles with sausage.

Its not only us who came for the tea here, some tea businessman from He Nan is getting winded up by some drunk guy from Lancang who claims to be a tea farmer possessing an old tea trees and offering ridiculous price for whatever tea. The  businessman gives him detailed questions about his garden and trees in there, but man just keep rolling the same sentences as before.

Many “chancers” are here like that. Siran is not bored either, local drunk women is trying to wind her up as well but she is better prepared then her competitor , showing photos of her self with some old tea trees from different area ( as we learned later, not more then 100y old trees around here ). The drunk young ones are laughing at her, hearing when she makes up the stories about having her own tea plantation.
Suddenly, out of nothing, those teenagers starting to fight with each other, without any previous shouting. Since its not a real fist fight , looks like 10y old kids pull and push each other, rolling down on the ground and knocking down the furniture, Im not paying attention to much and having a laugh when Siran gets freaked out.
The fight is becoming like a snowball and gradually more and more people are getting involved , including the seniors and it escalates to the smashing bottles stuff. It stopped to be funny anymore and when one of the young ones grabs the timber log and starts smashing things around, it just time for us to pay and run.
Getting in the tea house of the family we are staying in and trying various teas they have collected from the locals. Many of them are very smoky, too smoky. There is only one which stands out and we take it, but unfortunately they have last 1kg left. – Nuo Fu Lao Shu

There are few more to try but we are so tired and its too messy in my mouth after tasting all those bed teas before. There is only one bus a day which is 7:30 am and we don’t want to stay another day here, so have to get up 6am to try some other teas.
Its a 1st I’m drinking sheng pu so early morning. Finally we are taking some small ( Nuo Fu Xiao Qiao Mu ) and big trees ( Nuo Fu Da Shu ) batch  and we also really liked their autumn Gu Hua  ( Nuo Fu Xiao Qiao Mu – Gu Hua ).

Getting also some black tea , shu pu samples and more importantly, connection with nice people making organic tea.

YunnanCraft.com

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