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Published: January 18th 2009
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Mekong River a la China
Not quite as mighty as I remembered... Kunming is awful, just awful. Our entire experience was made up of trudging around for HOURS with varying multitudes of kilograms on our backs, finding out our destinations were shut down, or moved, or wrong, or not where they should be on the map. First there was the debacle in finding a place to stay, which was such a spirit breaking experience (our rabbit proof fence), that I do not wish to repeat it. Actually, I have similar feelings about the PBS search. Scrap any retelling of experiences of Kunming, I just hate the place that much. In the end Lex and I just did an 8 hour campout in a macdonalds until the bus came to get us out of there...
And into Jinghong. Despite spending a good week and a half in Jinghong, there's not much I can say about the place. The weather was divine, in the mid 20s, which was a welcome change after the more wintery weather everywhere else we had been. All the streets were lined with palm trees, and all the hotels seemed to be decorated with giant statues of people riding elephants. Once again the overnight bus dropped us off at an
Typical Jinghong
Palm trees and thai style elephant statues. odd hour before dawn, and with the particular bus station that we were dropped off at not being on the map provided by Lonely Planet (lonely planet did a bit of a dodgy job on china i think), it was a long walk, in which some painful blisters on my feet popped. I was in some dire need of rest and relaxation.
But we made it. And it was nice. You can definitely tell why it is known as Chinese Thailand, because that's probably how I would go about describing it myself. The only things to really do there are trekking and visiting minority villages (which Lex and I did none of...), and there was a strange prevalence of women in Thai garb, a really nice thai restaurant and banana pancakes on most travel cafe menus.
There were a few unfortunate circumstances however, that meant that we didnt end up getting to do much in Jinghong. Firstly, our hotel happened to be a good 30 min walk to the nearest restaurant with an english menu, or with staff with any understanding of what 'vegetarian' means. Secondly, the whole reason we'd gone down there and not to a town like Lijiang (which is supposedly Tibet for people who aren't actually going to Tibet), was because Lex needed to cross over into Laos because of requirements on her visa. Seeing as the earliest she could cross over was the 23rd, this kind of left us stranded there, because the weekend before chinese new year started on the 24th and every chinese person supposedly is on the road at this time to visit family. It was also around this time that I got the worst food poisoning of my life.
So I was a bit too sick to really do anything for about 3 days. I had no appetite, which was probably a good thing, because the 30 min walk to a restaurant was definitely out of the question when I was struggling to make it to the bathroom. But I stayed nice and hydrated, and got plenty of bed rest, and it eventually, slowly, got better. Sadly it's taken my body quite a bit of time after that to really recover, and so for example, of the night of chinese new year i had to leave the bar early to go to bed.
I was however, woken at chinese new year midnight by the sounds of the world ending, that's how crazy the firecrackers were. It had been building up for days, with kids (and adults) letting off firecrackers (which seem pointless to me, as they just make the noise of a automatic machine gun with slight flashes and smoke) willy nilly on the street. During the nights it was hard to sleep in the days leading up to chinese new year because of the noise. But on actual chinese new year, at midnight, despite being tired and being able to sleep, I was woken up at midnight. It was that loud, it's hard to even describe. There wasnt much to see (unless you count a couple of travellers coming out in their pajamas confused as to what was happening) except for the occassional firework, because most people just stuck to things that were noisy, not visual. But the smell of gun powder was strong, and the noise was just overwhleming, for a good 10 minutes. After that it died back down to the gentle chaos that had been building up for days before, but you could certainly feel (or at least hear) all the celebration around you.
The only other thing I can really mention is based back in the bar I was at earlier that night. Basically when we first arrived, Lex and I had been handed a flyer for a live music gig that was playing at a new backpackers bar 'George and Dragon'. Sadly it was a night that I was too sick to leave the room, but Lex went and met some great people, including the owner, a British guy called John. So, while chinese new year tends to be a family affair, and all the bars were closed (how very different from our new years), we stayed in george and dragon with the owner and a few other frequents, just sitting around talking with 'the show' in the background. This show is apparently the must see chinese event for new years and all the families watch it. It was a bit ridiculous, with men in panda outfits dancing around on a stage, that sort of thing. But the people at george and dragon were fantastic people, and really the only thing I feel I can take away from jinghong were those good people and good conversation, except for memories of food poisoning, and the craziness of chinese new year.
We did visit the mekong, but it was thoroughly unspectacular. It was more of an industrial park next to a stream. More impressive were the monday night waltzing class in peacock lake park, the night tribal style dancing circles, the many kids with helium balloons celebrating new year, and the roadside vendors, than anything else. I dont really feel that i missed chinese new year, because its very different to our experience of new year, more akin to christmas or easter where the greatest celebration is a family meal.
There was a good spirit about the place, and if it hadn't been for some oppurtune, uber-cheap plane tickets to beijing, I was considering staying a while longer (especially to avoid kunming), and start getting into the things to do. I'm a bit disappointed that there wasnt really an oppurtunity to do the stay in a treehouse in banna elephant sanctuary, but oh well. The place isn't really what you would call 'real china', especially with the Thai feel and southeast asian type activities on offer, but it was good being able to just wander around for a while, and letting the body rest up after long days of travel and cold. But the moment I realised I was going to beijing, I think I realised I was definitely ready to get something done with the trip, we were 3 weeks in and hadn't done more than try to settle in and get used to things. While we'd definitely gotten a feel for the south, which is not something most people get in a trip to China, i must admit it was a bit exciting to have the prospect of solid 'must see' things to do...
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Frank
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Banana Pancakes
I'm eternally puzzled by people who come to Asia and put banana pancakes on the top of their lists of things to eat. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Asian dishes that are part of the package you get when you come here. As for cheap guesthouses, one directly across the street from Mei Mei Cafe rents double rooms with hot water, fan and squat toilet for 30 yuan per night. No need to walk 30 minutes for an English menu -- how about 1 minute? LP's guides on China are truly inaccurate, but give them some credit. China is changing faster than they can produce new editions; like more in 6 or 7 years than most places in a generation or two.