After lunch, there were a few speeches including one from me, then things started getting rather emotional. It suddenly struck me that it wasn't just me they hadn't seen for 17 years - many of them hadn't seen each other. For three years, they worked closely together on a fairly stressful project, lived together, then went their own ways when that was over. Tears were shed that night 17 years ago when it came to an end.
Now most of them have families of their own, but the tears came flooding back on Sunday afternoon. Again, they don't know if or when they will see each other again. Wine had been consumed and they had been up half the night talking, so perhaps their emotions weren't totally under control.
The official organised reunion was over and people began to drift off. We all checked out of the hotel as we had to, but one room was kept on for another 12 hours to allow those people still waiting for their onward travel to hang out. For the first and probably only time in my life, I got to hang out in a Chinese hotel room with 16 Chinese women!
Slowly, in ones and twos, people left to catch their trains. planes or buses. I was staying one more night, but moved to another hotel nearer to the train station, more convenient for an early departure in the morning.
That evening, I had dinner with the people who still live in that town, so didn't need to make any real journeys. This meal was taken in a restaurant specialising in organic and "healthy" food.
I forgot to take my camera or a notebook, so these pics are from my cellphone and what remains of my memory.
This is one of my favourite Hunan curiosities. It is simple coriander/cilantro stems fried with chilli. Utterly delicious
Dried tofu with
Roast pork with flat bread, cucumber and scallion. A Hunan version of Beijing Duck!
Can't remember - some kind of vegetable
Cauliflower with
Greens
Fish Stew with
Cabbage with
As you can see, these had nearly all gone before I noticed them. Preserved egg (century eggs) with green chilli. These were possibly the hottest thing I have ever eaten and I ain't no chilli wimp.These gentle, beautiful women had scarfed nearly the lot before I got into them. They were killers! But delicious.
Winter Melon
Potato with
Did I mention that they like their chillies there?
In fact, the local women are known throughout China as 湖南辣妹 hú nán là mèi, which has two meanings, as can an English translation. The literal meaning is "Hunan Hot Sister", often rendered as "Hunan Spice Girls", with "hot" meaning spicy, but of course with the same innuendo as English.
After dinner, Long Lihua and another colleague took me on a tour of old haunts. I visited my old apartment and some other hangouts, then returned to the hotel. Next morning, Long Lihua and her husband picked me up and took me to the station to catch an early train back home. At least, it was scheduled to be early (07:00), but was an hour late. Normal. Again, it made up time and arrived on schedule in Liuzhou. By 4pm I was home.
It was an utterly wonderful weekend. Exhausting and emotional, but wonderful. It only took 15 minutes with those lovely people for it to seem like only a few days had passed, not decades.
I still feel kind of happily overwhelmed.
And very happily overfed!