Quest for the Supreme Bean- part one

On Thursday I traveled west to Baoshan, so that I could visit a local coffee farm. I have been meaning to do this for quite a while but coffee is only in season during the winter so this was the first chance I have gotten since Chicago Coffee was opened. I plan to post more on the trip over the next few days so check back more this week.

It was a fast trip (1.5 days) but it wouldn't be a trip within Yunnan without the obligatory flight delays or cancels. I took a Lucky Air flight, a local Yunnan airline, that was delayed 3 hours. I knew we were doomed once we boarded and began to crawl towards the runaway when they started to move the stairs back up to the airplane door. Sure enough, our plane was broken so we just needed to hop onto a different before we could take off.

Side Note: Lucky Air
Most translation errors or mistakes are funny and sometimes understandable. But come on. Lucky Air. I will grant you that in Chinese everybody loves Luck and it has a little bit of a different meaning than in English. But please I don't want to cruising at 30,000 with a company that just considers themselves lucky. Not exactly a vote of confidence.

Side Side Note: E-cigarettes
Apparently I missed the announcement of the invention of electronic cigarettes. I was baffled when the folks at Lucky Air informed us that cigarettes, cigars, and electronic cigarettes were all banned on board the flight. I thought it must an error in translation since I had not even imagined such an invention was possible. But then I wikipediaed it when I got home and sure enough, the electronic cigarette.

The flight to Baoshan is only an hour but the coffee farm village is about 2 to 3 hours further into the mountains. In fact, it was very close to the Myanmar border, as the Chinese man with the machine gun pointed out.

Upon arrival at the farm, we waited for the tractor to pick us up and take us up the mountain.

These pictures don't do the 40 minute ride justice but hopefully you can get some sense of it

At the top of the mountain it became clear that this was truly in the middle of nowhere. You know you have gone far if even Coca Cola has not yet arrived.

more of the quest tomorrow...