Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Basically over the whole year I went to Xishuangbanna so many times because it was the closet place for tourist to Simao and it had great things to see. So I thought instead of writing about it each time I would just make on entry with all the occassions.
1st time
The first trip to Xishuangbanna was with Jayne and Amy as we went to the water spashing festival along the river banks of the Mekong Delta. It wouldn't stop raining the whole time we were there which was annoying but we still managed to eat and eat and have a great time. We ate barbeque whilst watch the local Dai people dressed up in their traditional Dai outfits. We basically spent the whole time eating and eating. The festival was huge and as the festival goes for 3 days we would be staying for the latern festival section. So what happened was at night the locals would put lanterns into the mekong delta (which looked amazing) and this had some signifigance but I can't remember. We met up with some of the police locals and had dinner with them before our drive back to Simao. On the way
back we ended up blowing up the car tyre, so at night with no lights and no directions I managed to fix the tyre as the giant trucks went pass. It was great though.
2nd time
Was with the school as they took us to the offical water splashing festival day which was CRAZY AND INSANELY AWESOME!The teacher's said don't take any valuables out of the car and there was good reason for that. Basically trucks and truck of water and people inside the back were throwing water all over everyone. It was a traditional festival of the Dai people and it was meant to cleanse you. It was a full on water fight and the whole town was involved. It was just amazing. Traditonal women walked around the streets in their traditional dresses and also a giant water pistol. It was just simply one of the best things I had seen and participated in.
3rd time
Was with some other Gappers, Sarah, Brianna, Iz, Catie and Caties parents. We arrived and spent the day at the national park there which was great and lovely. It was very touristy but still was great! We then had
Palm Trees
They looked like we could push them over dinner and Sarah and myself went for a 'walk' which ended up us going to the night clubs! It was frecking amazing!! We ran into these locals who ended up shouting us to beer. Agdm was one of them and they all then took us to a mid-night bbq. Whilst at the club we also met these other backpakers. One of them was from South Africa and the other was also from Melbourne and the same suburb as me which was bizzare! We all went with the Chinese people and had this amazing time. On the second day hang over we went to the Burmese market and generally wandered around the town. Me and Sarah and Bri went back to the club again but it wasn't as good as last night, Bri went back to the hotel and me and Sarah went to for another 'walk' and found this amazing club and basically met more locals and it was even better. We thought it was a bit dodgey at the start but it ended up being amazing. Again the locals drank with us, danced and then took us to BBQ. The locals from Xishuangbanna are the nicest!
4th time
Fire eating
At Top 1 Club in Xishuangbanna! This time was the second half of the year and the new volunteers had joined me. We decided to go to the Elephant reserve, which is a complete waste of money and time. The elephants were poorely treated and it was confusing to get there. I wouldn't bother going there again. That night me and Justine went for a 'walk' and ended back at the club me and Sarah had previously gone to. And to our disbelief some of our friends from Simao were there as well some of my students. By this stage I was so use to seeing students drunk everywhere it didn't bother me. So the next day hang over we went back to Simao! And it was the last time I went to Xishuangbanna.
Xishauangbanna is an awesome place though and I would love to go back there in a heart beat!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.053s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0239s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb