A Breath of Fresh Air (or: A Return to SE Asia)
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
80
147
Trip End
Ongoing
Jinghong,
China
Monday, February 5, 2007
I'm sure you've imagined the toilets in China as squat toilets, perhaps with a flush feature, perhaps not. True, these toilets do exist. And there are worse as well. I won't go into great detail, but the toilets at bus rest stops and in smaller towns are often just a trough without any dividers or any degree of privacy (yes, I know you men are used to this). There are also what I like to call squat pit toilets. These are similar to the toilets one might find while camping, which are just a toilet with a big hole underneath them.
Mandian Waterfall
Only these are squalid cement squat toilets which clearly have been neglected for perhaps centuries. Fortunately, these toilets have not been the norm throughout our travels; all the hotels we've stayed in have had flush-style western toilets which appeared to have been cleaned within the last week. However, hotel after hotel that we checked out in Jinghong all had squat toilets. I began to fear that all the hotels in Jinghong were this way, and rather than wander about for hours searching for the golden ticket, we set up shop in a new hotel with a squat toilet - apart from the bathroom, it was a really nice place, and only cost 60Y a night (about $7.50). While we'd squeezed in some snoozing time on the bus, we were about twenty winks shy of a good night's sleep, so we immediately fell into bed and dozed the morning away.We awoke to a new world. We'd finally chanced upon some sunshine and warm weather. And while the map claimed we were still in China, we weren't so sure - it seemed without knowing it, we'd somehow missed customs and gone straight on through to Southeast Asia. Jinghong is the capital of Xishuangbanna prefecture, an area known for its tropical climate and laid back attitude. We were back in the land of giant palm tree lined streets and banana plantations. And all the signs were in Mandarin and a language that looked a hell of a lot like Lao (turns out they're written in Dai, the local dialect, which is more widely spoken than Mandarin - especially among the older folks).
The Girl in the Bubble
And the temples? They were definitely more Southeast Asian than Chinese: golden stupas and skinny Buddhas. It felt like home to us, and we were happy to be here. So happy, in fact, that we stayed much longer than we'd expected to. We spent the first two days just lazing around, soaking up the sun, and exploring the city (which isn't really all that interesting, to be honest). We visited the markets and were dazzled by the dress of the various minorities, each sporting very colorful clothing - some adorned with sequins. But Jinghong isn't home to just local minority groups - there are also loads of Burmese, donning their traditional dress, as well as many other people of Southeast Asian descent.
On our third day in Jinghong, we tried to cross the Mekong by ferry. But we never managed to find the ferry. We walked around for about four hours, soaking up the sun and generating some much needed Vitamin E, negotiating paths through immense farm fields, dipping our toes in the icy waters of the Mekong (known here as Lan Cang Jang), and scrambling up and down giant rock piles. Even though we really didn't get very far, it felt like we'd gotten out of the city and explored the surrounding area - plus we exposed our blindingly white bodies to the sun for the first time in months (such a nice change after constantly being bundled up for a month straight!). We planned to continue our journey south the next day, but that evening, we ran into Candice. She invited us to join her and a few other people on a rainforest hike the next morning. Since our improvised hike hadn't really gotten us anywhere, we decided to take her up on her offer.
We set the alarm and sauntered up to the café a little before 9:00 to meet the group. We'd hoped to grab some breakfast before the hike, but the café still wasn't open. None of them were. Like I said, they're very laidback in Jinghong - morning doesn't officially start until around 10:00. The hired car finally showed up at 9:45, we piled in and set out for the country. On the journey out, we acquainted ourselves with our travel companions: Candice, Christa (an American from Northern Cali, teaching in Xi'an, China), and Stephen (a Brit who'd started teaching in Changda, China five months ago). The drive took only about 45 minutes, and then our driver showed us to the path and sent us on our way. The hike wasn't terribly arduous, but was made a bit more complicated by the fact that: 1) it had rained a lot the night before (ergo, lots of slippery mud), 2) it was a rainforest (so there was always slippery mud), 3) we had no map, and the trail didn't appear to be heavily trodden upon (meaning it was sometimes tough to tell which way to walk), and 4) Konrad and I were wearing flip-flops (we'd finally gotten rid of those damn tennis shoes and didn't want to put them back on!). Despite all these obstacles, we made it to the waterfall with relatively little trouble (only one of us wiped out in the mud - and it wasn't me!). Once there, we met another hiker, Ann, the coordinator of an NGO in Nanjing, China, who has lived here for eight years. She was stranded until the next public bus arrived later that afternoon, so we invited her to join our group. Now six strong, we relaxed for a few minutes, and enjoyed the waterfall. On the way back, nearly back at the trailhead, I slipped on some mud and down I went (surprise!) - fortunately, I didn't get very muddy at all. We drove back to town and enjoyed a nice lunch together. In fact, we enjoyed each other's company so much that we met for dinner that evening and breakfast the next morning.
But Laos was calling, and, while tempted to stay in 'Banna for an indefinite period of time, we knew we wanted to get back on the road and add another stamp to our passports. With that decided, we bought tickets onward to Mengla, crammed ourselves on the tiny bus, and waved goodbye to Jinghong.
