Wednesday, 18th January 2006

We arrived in the Xishuangbannars main city of Jinghong around 8:00am and sleepily walked up to my favourite cafe 'The Forrest'. It wasn't open so we then walked across to 'Mei Mei's'. HHHhhhhmmmm, it was gone? We found it across the other side of the roundabout. Last time it was a tiny cafe but now it takes up 3 shop sites. All bamboo etc. Much more comfortable and flash. We sat to relax our shaken bodies and clear ourselves with coffee. After checking several hostels, around the corner from The Forrest Cafe we found a little Chinese hotel for 30 Yuan a double room. That's 15 Yuan each...2 dollars and 50 cents with a bathroom and hot water. Funnily enough, the hostels were more expensive and you had a shared bathroom and toilet. The rest of the day we spent walking around. I tried to remember certain places but it was too long ago.

In the afternoon Hannah and I visited the Botanical Gardens which are the most beautiful gardens I've been to in China. So quiet and clean. We stayed for a couple hours and continued our city walk. That night we went to The Forrest Cafe for dinner and many beers. It is still owned by a little Chinese gal named Sarah. It hasn't changed at all. Not one bit! I asked her why. She makes more money with her trekking so she doesn't want to build up her business but funnily, everyone last time went to The Forrest, this time everyone goes to Mei Mei's. So if you don't have many customers then how many treks do you actually do? We didn't go into it much further.


Thursday, 19th January 2006

Thursday we all decided on Biking around the outer parts of Jinghong. The others left for a bike ride to the next town and Judy and I headed out into the fields. Within 100 meters of being 'off road' on a more than bumpy dirt track she was over the handle bars with blood gushing out of her elbow. She's a tough one and she pretty much got straight back on with an elbow that was the size of a tennis ball. We tried to find the ferry I took 5 years ago but couldn't find it anywhere. So back we went and after meeting up with a Swede we all headed off towards the airport where we road through several little villages and ate pineapple that you almost bathed in. Oh, the pineapple is so juicy; I've never had anything like it.

When we got back to town the others gave in and I continued for another few hours. We all met at Mei Mei's and sat for ginger and honey tea. That night we headed out for Thai food at a beautiful Dai Style House/Cafe. The food was just awesome. Then we headed across to the Dai Style food cafe with a huge balcony and sat and chatted for many hours. After the others left I sat with a guy from Chilli that had been on the road for the past 10 months, many of them in New Zealand. He was a very happy and interesting person and I was happy to be here chatting about his life at home and his future plans. He was making his way to Thailand and then back to Chilli. I think I got home around 3:30am or so.