Friday, 20th January 2006

The previous evening we had organised a rafting trip for this day. So sleepily I rose and showered and we all met at 9:00am for a huge breakfast at Mei Mei's. Man, I haven't eaten so much western food for about a year now. Out driver arrived in a double cab pickup and off we went. Two of us had to get out and walk a couple minutes as we were over loaded and the police were stopping cars around the corner. The day was extremely beautiful, I think around 29 degrees. The mornings here are usually 10 degrees or so, a tad hazy but before 11:00am the day is changed into a most beautiful day. No clouds over head, just warmth and a deep blue sky.

We began our journey and slowly made our way down the Mekong River.

We stopped to write our names in the tiny sandy beaches. My trade mark has become 'bugger'. The Americans had heard of one of our favourite words and keep laughing at all the different ways I use it. The journey took us around 3 or so hours. We were on a long rubber raft. The river was pretty slow and there was only a tad of white water. We spent our time talking and relaxing and wondering how we could all be so lucky.

The end of our journey was at a town I had visited 5 years ago also. It's a town named Ganlanba.

It has a huge 'park'. Inside are several ethnic villages of the Dai People. They are the majority 'minority' peoples in the Xishuangbanna. Their houses are stunning. They remind me of a Queenslander. Their windows are open stilts but the roof is huge and also makes up for the walls. Summer time here is EXTREMELY hot and humid. We spent many hours walking around. I tried to find some memories from the past and gave up. I have photos of certain places I want to find again but I am unsure where they are. Some I thought where here. We visited many temples etc and took many photos. The girls here are very very beautiful. They have a look of their own and are very unlike the Chinese. Here we also met Gail, an older woman from Canada. She's very cool and very well travelled. She's also teaching in China.

After catching a mini van back to Jinghong we headed to The Forrest Cafe for a huge hamburger and beer.

Then we headed to the Mekong Cafe. This is a great place. Another Dai style house turned into a cafe. The street used to be filled with these houses but they have all been pulled down and ugly Chinese style shops have replaced their beauty. The Mekong is owned buy a German Guy and his Dai wife. They have been married for many years and have two children.

He is so extremely funny to talk to.

This has become my favourite place to relax and drink a long cold beer. Plus they have an awesome dark beer that no one else has. Here Josh No: 1, myself and Uli (German Owner) sat for many hours. Josh left and then Uli and his wife and I sat chatting to an American/Chinese girl and a guy from Holland. She left and then Holland and I left around 2:30am or so.