Maggie, the Bai beauty who was our guide in Dali, was a warm, cheerful and hardworking girl. Of the 4 guides that we had had in Yunnan, Maggie spoke the best English. The natives of the Dali, Lijiang and Shangrila districts were definitely more hard-working than the Han Chinese guide in Kunming. They all stayed with us until midnight and was at the hotel again early the next day. In Kunming, the guide appeared to be working strictly within her specified hours. And surprisingly the 'native' guides also seem to have mastered the English language better than the majority Han folks. Ms Liu, our Han Chinese guide in Kunming spoke an English which we could only understand less than half of what she said. Our driver, Mr Yang, also a Han Chinese, spoke no English at all and it was obvious that he was more concerned about how much tip we would give him at the end of the tour. When we offered him to earn more from us by taking us to the Butterfly's Dream Show instead of us going by taxi - he was reluctant to do it and it appeared to pakdokter that he was worried that it would affect his tips at the end of the whole tour. In the end he sent his father who earned what it would have cost us to hire a taxi for the night.
Maggie is a single mother with one little school-going child who most probably was looked after by the grandparents. Pakdokter and Ravee joked to her that if she dressed up in full "Bai' gear we promised that we would look for a 'handsome Malaysian gentleman who is rich, loving and kind' for her. She said she liked that and promised that she would come dressed as requested. We thought she was joking too, but come the next morning when she was to take us to the Dali airport for our return flight to Kunming - she was there in full Bai costume. Now pakdokter and Ravee will really have to look for an eligible rich, handsome,loving and kind Malaysian gentleman for this Bai beauty.
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