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Published: July 10th 2010
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Streets of Jinghong
Nearly all the streets in Jinghong are lined with huge trees, flowers, and shrubs. I think anything will grow here. Beautiful streets. I left Shanghai on an 8:00 flight for Kunming, but that was just a pit stop on my way to the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province. Every time I told someone at work I was going to this region, they would say, "Where's that?" Some of these people have lived in China for 6 years! So I would tell them. And they would say, "Oh, near Lijiang!" Well, it is sort of near, but Lijiang is not in the Xishuangbanna region. I'll just call it Banna. Banna borders Myanmar and Laos and is by far the least populated region of China that I have visited. And it isn't polluted! What a relief!
After a 5 hour layover in Kunming, I was on my way again to the airport in Jinghong, Banna's largest city. I took a taxi for 20 RMB to my hotel. Do not pay more than that! It is not far to the city, so don't get ripped off by the taxis that pounce like vultures outside the airport. The guy who agreed to 20RMB ended up with me and two Chinese people in his car, and we paid 20RMB each. I didn't care because he agreed to my price, so I didn't mind sharing. So he made 60 RMB and the others made nada. The taxi ride to the city proved that Jinghong is indeed growing and under much construction, and it looked a lot like the rest of China - lots of concrete buildings, each with a row of shops on the bottom floor all selling the same thing. But, I didn't come to see Jinghong. I came to see the countryside.
I stayed at Many Trees International Youth Hostel in a four bed female only dorm for 30 RMB a night for three nights. Ninety RMB is about 14 USD for three nights. Not bad, but it was hot and humid and no air con to be found. The beds were bunk beds and they were a good size, and the bathroom was big and had a shower curtain. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't bring myself to shower barefoot, but it was clean enough and the room itself was great, except it was so hot! They had a fan, but on my second night I ended up taking the fan from the common room and putting it directly on me all night. I was alone in the room my first two nights, and on the third night it was just me and another girl, so that was great. The hostel is great for backpackers looking for a cheap place to stay, and I didn't mind that I had to walk about 1km to the 'cool' restaurants.
I arrived around 5:00PM and walked to the Mykong Cafe for a bite to eat. I highly recommend this cafe. The owner is French and has worked as a chef all over the world, and he came to Jinghong to retire, met his wife who owned Mykong Cafe, and after three years of doing nothing, he's now at the restaurant every night. He's kind of full of himself, but he's nice enough and the food is excellent and the price is great. I had Dai lemon beef my first night. Painfully hot, lemony, and so good! I had met a German guy and his mom in the hostel earlier, and they joined me for dinner. He is studying Chinese in Kunming and his mom was visiting. I might see them again in Shangri La. He was a wealth of information about Banna.
After dinner I went back to my oven, uhh, I mean my room, took a much needed shower and went to bed and tried to sleep. I think I lost about 2kg of water weight. Unfortunately, I gained it all back when I took a sip of water the next morning.
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