Jinghong
on Tina's Journal (China), 15/Nov/2009 14:08, 34 days ago
I spent the weekend in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna's capital. It's only a two hour bus ride from Simao and lies close to the border with Myanmar. I have been meaning to visit for some time and this weekend was a perfect time to go, so I set off with Jayne on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised by how pretty the town is. It is developing at a very fast rate and being done so quite tastefully. Along the Lancang river bank, new Dai style bars have been built and set in a fabulous location over looking the river. Sitting in one of the chic bars on Saturday evening felt very relaxing in an idyllic, perfect setting. The Lancang River winds downstream, runs through Laos and Thailand, and is more famously known as the Mekong River. A large percentage of Jinghong's population are Dai and the women wear beautiful long skirts with matching bodice and wear their hair tied up. It feels quite different to other parts of China, especially as the vegetation in the area is very lush, tropical and full of banana plantations. The streets of Jinghong are attractively lined with palm trees and hibiscus plants. I love it there! One of the highlights for me was Mei Mei's cafe, a bar catered for westerners. Getting good coffee, cheeseburgers, apple pie, muesli and toast was a real treat :-) You can't get anything like that in Simao! We were lucky to meet up with some of Jayne's friends there. Joe is from Xishuangbanna and is currently setting up a business with a Canadian guy called Bill. Bill is blind so Joe is sort of his assistant too. The interesting thing is that Bill, who is 63, has recently moved here and decided to spend the rest of his life in China. He feels he can have a good life in this part of the world even with his disability, especially because the cost of an assistant is much cheaper than back home. I wish him all the best, life is challenging enough and much more so in a country where you don't speak the language. I admire him, he's doing the things he wants to do and being blind isn't stopping him. Jayne and I took a bus out from Jinghong, to Galanba where we explored the surrounding Dai villages. Whilst there we met a Norwegian lady travelling on her own who had just come up from Thailand. As soon as we see any'foreigners' we have to say hi because we don't meet other'westerners' very often and it's great to share experiences. It was glorious weather in Jinghong, hot and sunny. Despite the short distance from Simao, there is a noticeable difference in temperature, Jinghong always being slightly warmer. Wandering around the town in the hot sunshine, we stumbled across the farmers' market. I was very impressed with the quality of fresh vegetables but not so impressed to see people buying live fish which may possibly be cooked whilst still alive. Apparently, there are some Dai recipes where this is done. I'd rather not experience that.