We are in Mengla 勐腊, Xixuangbanna 西双版纳

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Today is Nov 21, Monday at noon. We are in Mengla 勐腊, Xixuangbanna 西双版纳. It is 2 hours north of Laos.

On Nov 18 Friday morning, we left GuangNan 广南 and took two long distance buses (about 20 seaters). On trip we went from GuangNan 广南 to Yin Shan 砚山. Then, we took another bus to Kai Yuan 开远. We stayed one night in Kai Yuan.

In Kai Yuan, we were almost refused accommodation in that particular guesthouse as they thought we were foreigners (with our big backpacks). Nothing special in Kai Yuan.

Next day, on Nov 19 Saturday, we wanted to go to Jian Siu 建水 to visit the old town. Unfortunately, there is some kind of worker strike and the road may have been blocked. There is either no information or misinformation and so we did not want to take a chance and get stuck. We have enough experience with Chinese Traffic Congestion (CTC) which can last for hours and hours.

So, we took the bus from Kai Yuan 开远 to KunMing 昆明, which is a 4.5 hour trip.

From KunMing 昆明, we took the sleeper bus to JingHong 景洪, situated in xixuangbanna 西双版纳. The bus went from 4:30 pm to 9 am the next day (Nov 20 Sunday), pretty good and 2/3 the distance on the freeways, but 3/4 of the time for the balance of the distance.

On the bus we met Shane from Ireland who is on his 10th month of his 1 year journey.

With some confusion, we got a free ride on a crowded 20-seater bus from JingHong 景洪 to Mengla 勐腊 and saved RMB$50. The ride was on 160 km of really winding hillside road and took 4.5 hours. We arrived in Mengla on Nov 20 afternoon and stayed the night.

We did not want to carry too much Chinese money and thought we can get the money from the ATM's. Yes, there are ATM's in Mengla, but none that connects to the international system and therefore unable to get Chinese cash. The receptionist at the guest house told us there are no money exchangers in town. (misinformation, again !!)

Wow, if we were unable to get Chinese money, we would need to leave China as soon as possible to go to Laos, where we can use our US cash.

Fortunately, the Agriculture Bank in town did have a foreign exchange department and we were able to change some money and therefore we can stay another day in Mengla, (because yesterday we washed our clothes and they were not dry).

Tomorrow, we will take the bus from Mengla 勐腊 to Luang Namtha (Laos) where we are supposed to be able to do some bicycling and trekking. From Namtha, we will go to Luang Prubang (Laos) which is a UNESCO site, and where perhaps our next journal entry will be written.

For those interested in the Chinese tourist info, you may wish to visit www.ctrip.com where we extracted all the Chinese place names. It has an extensive description in Chinese, and somewhat limited descriptions in English.

For the photos, I have been carefully saving them in my digital wallet which has 40GB of storage, and would be more than enough for our entire trip. Problem is, it is difficult to found a cyber cafe with a USB and proper software to creat an album to share with you. So please be patient.


Tidbits:

--We had two 1/2 day of fresh air. Everywhere we go, the air pollution is pretty bad. Even in the country the air is bad due to burning garbage. The two fresh air places were : Yangshuo's Yulong River 阳朔 遇龙河and 世外桃源坝美

http://destinations.ctrip.com/Destinations/Sight.asp?Resource=22081
http://www.ctrip.com/Community/ItineraryWri/ShowWriting.asp?writing=861240

--Of all the overnight sleeper bus trips, traffic jam seems to start around 2-3 am and then start moving just before daylight. I believe the jam maybe caused by truckers parking and sleeping on the road (as there is no shoulder).

-- All the internet cafes that we visited were filled with young people, whether day or night. I guess the unemployment rate is pretty high. They either play computer games or use QQ, a popular version of messaging software.

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Comments

[Ernie]

Thank you for the Chinese names
The Chinese names really help me to follow you trips. Without the names, I don't have a clue where have been and where you are going. Reading your travel log make me feel I am there with you. Keep them coming!