In the late morning I was called to go to "Mangguo Country". Luckily "mangguo" is one of the few words that is pretty much the same in English: mango. And the country was still China. At around 11am A Hua and her alcoholic husband came to pick Leilei and me up in their 4x4. He is known as "Lo lan", which in the local language means "alcohol addict" (I think). Well luckily he wasn't drinking at that time as when we got in the car, which had their son and two other young girls of around 8, we proceded to drive for an hour and a half to Tiandong.
It was a severely hot day. Temperatures were topping 40c by the time we got there but it was worth it. There were acres of mango trees, many of which had paper bags tied around the actual mangoes for a reason I didn't get an answer to (at least that I understood). There were around 25 people there in total including kids, and we were offered "baby" mangoes when we got there. I didn't expect the amazing sensation that hit my mouth - I can just imagine a famous tv chef trying one of these and being lost for words trying to describe it.
Sumptuous baby mango
Mangoes in bags, and a rather mad lady trying to shade herself with the help of two cucumbers
Needless to say there were plenty of crates of beer. In fact someone had brought a crate of cans of US-style beer, but managed to drop them all, causing minor tears in the cans and a beer shower for everyone else. But when the food actually started it was amazing as always. Leilei went off to eat with the other kids so I was able to enjoy a meal with a number of blokes I hadn't met before. Interestingly there were a couple of women at the table - I soon found out why. They were "cai ma" masters (or mistresses), and took delight in beating the blokes - and could hold their own in beer when they lost. I didn't fare too well and mostly lost against them but was glad of the liquid refreshment under the scant shade of the mango tree.
A US-styple beer can spraying its wares after having been dropped 4 feet
Ladies
Leilei started to get fractious under the heat so I took him and the girls into "Lo lan's" 4x4 where we started the engine and turned on the A/C. It took 40 minutes to go from 40 down to 30c, but was worth it as it was around 3pm and people's skin was starting to melt off their bodies outside.
We drove home, shattered, around 5pm. I didn't really want Lo lan to drive after a few bevvies but didn't have much of a choice. Anyway he drove no more than 40 mph for the journey.
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