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Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

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• 4 •<br />

HOW HAPPINESS<br />

FOUND THEM<br />

At dinner, my twelve friends walked a few blocks into the old<br />

historic part of town, to Bountiful Valley Restaurant, which<br />

they had rejected only that morning. Now they were resigned<br />

to the menu I had called “A Taste of Winter Delicacies.” No one was<br />

in the mood to search for alternatives that were either more “sponta­<br />

neous” or more “authentic.” They were just glad that their ill-omened<br />

trip to Stone Bell Temple had not yet infiltrated the word-of-mouth<br />

network of Lijiang. Not only did the restaurant send a message to the<br />

hotel that they could enjoy the same menu that evening, the owner had<br />

offered a bonus, “free surprises,” he called them.<br />

The first surprise was the restaurant itself. It was enchanting, not<br />

touristy at all. I knew this all along, of course. That was why I had<br />

chosen it. The building was charmingly cramped, a former dwelling<br />

whose outer courtyard had been converted into dining rooms facing

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