Thanks for the feedback, here is how thing unfold the next days. I realize this is a good “exercise” to me; it will help me with remembering details about the trip. Bear over with me if I add some details that may not make sense for you. I was not able to add this to my first post, so i just continues with a new one.
We have a good night sleep in our twin bed’s. It’s Monday morning (may 10) I had heard her snore like she promised; she pretty much snored as a guy. During the night I had turned up the AC to keep the room a bit warmer, she was not that happy with that, just a brief mention of it. Jinghong is a tropical area, close to the Vietnamese boarder. I felt better from the cold, but still far from good. We went out in the hotel garden and had good fun of the warning signs on the coconut palms. To my surprise we laughed pretty good of that, like two old friends who have same kind of humor. “Stay away, nuts may fall in your head”, with a picture of a matchstick man getting a coconut in the head. Picture will come. Shortly after we are off to the lobby and she talks to the receptionist about how to find the local bus station. The plan for the day is to visit a small village called Menghan and se the Dai minority park. This turns out to be like a 1 hour bus drive from Jinghong. Receptionist call for a taxi for us, which takes us to the bus station always surprise how affordable it is to use taxis in China. Took like 10-15 minutes in traffic and I think I payed something like 5-7 rmb. ( approx 1 usd/ 1€). As we all know when you is on a western European salary it is a very small amount. After buying the bus ticket, did some people watching, like checking out the one legged taxi driver, and visiting almost every stall there for water and snack from the right brand. We entered the bus, which as often before it was more like a minibus or a van. We got a pretty good seat just behind the driver so we could see how the traffic unfolded in front off. Jinghong is not that big city and as we moved out of the center the traffic got soon lesser. To me it was much to see and I like to watch around me and see all the small everyday activities. Like that small health clinic gave IV drip on the pavement, about 2 meters from where the diesel fuelled buses and truck’s drove buy. There the moms sat with the small children which got their IV drip. Always fun to watch the “scooter” driving. Not much there surprise me anymore, but this time I had two look twice. They were only two on the scooter, but I can swear that the girlfriend had a nap on her boyfriend shoulder while he was driving. She was so relaxed leaning forward on his back, talk about trust. Later the bus came to a stop for no obvious reason, next to the bust stood a small engine, no one to see. The driver just sat there silent. A little further in front of us a guy sat with his meal and bear, gave a short signal to the driver, emptied the bear and started to walk over to the bus. Then the small guy lifted this engine inside the bus and placed it next to my seat. We soon left the city and drove over the Lancang river. (Lancang river is called Mekong when running into Vietnam). As mentioned before this tropical area, almost like Thailand. We drove through a very green and lush area, small farm houses close to the roads. Pigs and chickens were walking roadside, rubber tree, nice view to the big river, a bit exotic for us western people. After on hours we drove into the little city of Menghan, bus drives into the little bus terminal. Then private “enterprise” shows itself again. Driver turns to us and says something in mandarin, get an answer, everybody els get off. Eventual I have to ask if this is our stop. My girlfriend smiles and says to me that the bus driver will drive us to the Dai Minority Park in the bus, for the cost of 4 rmb we are taken directly to the village/park.
After we have left the bus there she starts looking at the price list for entering the village/park. A little on the pricey side according to her, (90 rmb) and all it is to walk around and look at houses and look at people. To be honest I like it when she thinks about the cost and if it gives us value for money. Then the cell phone appears again and she calls her friend which has travelled a lot and is a trained guide. A few minutes later I basically get the message that it is not worth the money, lets go for a walk in Menghan itself. So we start to walk back were we came from. A small sleepy village, almost none Han Chinese, mostly people of Thai, Burmese origin. After a while we find a small restaurant which she thinks is good. Menu is off course in mandarin only. So she orders something to eat for us, since the restaurant has no electricity for the moment not all the choices are available. Some fried rice and vegetable are orders + something that is on all tables, think it was mango with chili pepper. It tasted pretty good in the heat, but a few minutes later it really started to burn and I broke more sweat in the heat, to great amusement off course
After the meal we walked further in this village, looked at the thai houses and checked out a couple of small shops. In the end she finds a small shop where she buys us fresh coconut, which we drink with a straw. I get to sit in the only chair in front of the “counter” she makes her self comfortable on a small stool. We sit there for a while and she chats with the couple that run’s the small shop. I start to learn what a great people person she is. The couple tells about their life and I get it translated in English. This is something I get spoiled with during to weeks of travelling. She get the people to talk and she always have the patience to translate it to me and translate my questions again. The people running the shop is from Sichuan and had settled in Menghan due to the nice climate and that it was easier to make a living there. It is a small shop and for the time we sit there they only sell two more coconut to some local. So not much business, but as they tell us that they make it ok, they have what they need. They also tell us that they have sent away their only daughter to live with her aunt in Sichuan, since the school system is better there. So they only get to see her once or twice a year. Sitting there in very simple surroundings and with these happy smiling people make you think. We come from reach “west” and are never happy with all the things we have…..
After an “educational” hour or so we find our way back to the bus station and get on the bus back to Jinghong. The bus fills up and one of the last guys entering is a middle age guy with a suite, pc bag and a small bag. To my surprise the bag makes noises, it turns out that it contains chickens. It is placed under my seat and the guy light’s a smoke. Smoking and spitting are among the things I never get used to in China. This poor guys must have a serious problems, he pretty much smoke all the time back to Jinghong. Several people try to give him the evil eye, but he continues to smoke all the time. When he finally leaves the bus he manages to leave the burning cigarette inside bus. We get off the bus and start to walk around in Jinghong. There are a lot of fruit around and we start to talk about that. I like to sample different fruit and she really want to taste something called Jacks Fruit. She used to have this a lot when she lived in Singapore. Finally she finds a place selling this, after some negotiating they agree on the price and the fruit is opened and tasted. It turn out that it is not ripe, “discussion” starts and I can just stand there while these to woman have a go at each other (verbally). Aggressive mandarin is talked and I get some instructions in English, not to taste if offered etc. This goes on for some time. The fruit was not ripe and the seller refused to admit it. As we walk away I dare to say to my girlfriend. “Remember me that I shall never get you angry” to my surprise the answer is “..no, you better not..!.” Not the answer I expected, but I did not read much into it.
After some time we find our way to a nice little park and promenade along Lancang river. We sit there and chat and enjoy the warm evening sun and view to the river. After some discussion we agree that we shall try to change our flight ticket to LiJiang so that we already leave the next day. Several phone calls later it turns out that we have to pay a fee to change the ticket and that we have to do that in bank. We make our way back to the hotel shower and walk out for dinner. After asking around we find our way to a area with some restaurant. I love the way these girls are not afraid to ask for direction and information. We walked down the street where the restaurant’s was and there are 3 or 4 outdoor type of restaurant’s beside each other. There is only one that is almost full the other has pretty much none customer. So it is an easy choice, we find us a table at the one that is practically full. Go over to the table were the food is placed, are handed a plastic basket and together we pick our food, hand it over to be cooked. I ordered an excellent fresh squeezed lemon jucie, tasted really well that warm night. Also had a beer and some tea no “rules” here, just drink what you desire. Think we paid something like 80/90 rmb, we had the drinks mentioned and 3-4 different courses that we shared. It was a very nice night, people sang and it was warm and nice, relaxed atmosphere. After that we walked back to the hotel.
Tuesday morning it is off to the bank to pay the fee for the ticket change. That turned out very difficult, after she paid, it required a lot off phone calls and argument before the airline “found” our payment and made our new ticket available. This took us 3-4 hours and two visits to the bank; the bank was very helpful though. We have a afternoon flight and while waiting for the flight we took new walk around. We found new fruit marked where they had the infamous Jack Fruit this time it is a young guy selling. He has one opened and offer us a taste before buying. They fruit is ripe and are accepted. I think it tastes a bit sweet with a kind of rubber consistence, but still good. We stand there and chat with the seller, off course she does, I eat. Then we walk away a few minutes later we ask each other “did you pay the guy ?” both say no. On the way out of the marked we find the seller again and ask him if we paid, he says yes. I’m still pretty sure we never paid this guy.
Time for the plane is approaching so we go back to the hotel and get our bags out of storage there. We do have the complementary transport to the airport and we claimed that. This arrived on time, I recognize the car. The driver never leaves that front seat he sends the bell boy for us. Off course is the same guy that picked us up, not so happy and chatty this time. Basically pretty pissed. After some problem with the trunk he asks us to leave the bags in the front seat and we get in, he hit the pedal to the metal and drives like hell. Not a word is said, just a grim face, we look at each other and giggle discrete. We reach the airport in record time ! We check our bags and get something to eat. We had such a good talk that we almost were too late to the security. This is a very small airport and when we finally approached the security check I hear something yelled in mandarin, my girlfriend smiles and tells me that they just shouted that the two last one is coming so not close yet ! We enter the plane and are on our way to LiJiang.
