Saturday, 21st January 2006

Today we rose early and met the Americans at Mei Mei's for a huge breakfast. Then it was over to The Forrest to meet our driver for the day. He took us 2 hours along some of the bumpiest roads. Finally we arrived in a tiny little Dai Village. Scruffy little town. Here we hired a guide and off we went. It felt so strange. If someone dropped me here and I woke up I would believe I was in Queensland. Many of the trees were the same and it was just so beautiful! We walked up and down the tracks and over fallen trees etc for over two hours and made it to a stunning waterfall. Not the biggest waterfall I've ever seen but it was so beautiful. We sat and shared biscuits and didn't really talk much. Just looked. Our guide was very happy too. He pointed to many things but never said a word. He was a funny little man. All too soon we were heading back to the little village. Then it was back along the bumpy track to Jinghong.

Once home we filled our stomaches at the 'Dumpling Cafe'. MMMMmmmm, joutsa! My favourite Chinese food. Little veggie or meat filled pastries. I can eat them by the plate full. Here we decided on BBQ Street for dinner. We all met up at 6:30pm and off we went. The selection was huge, unlike my Tianyang were it is all meat sticks and the greens are a grass like veggie on a stick. Here you had a choice of everything vegetable. We chose and chose well. Hannah and Judy stuck to vegies and the guys and Gail chose everything from fish to ducks tongue and from mushrooms to bamboo. There were a couple of beers included in there as usual.

Soon a group of girls came over who do massages whilst you eat. So for under two bucks we all got head, neck, back and arm massages. Not bad, not bad, not bad at all. And now 11:00pm finds me here at the internet place under the Mekong Cafe. After this I will head upstairs to sit with Uli and whoever else wishes to share stories of their past and futures. On the way here we met Uli running up the street. He was trying to find more beer for us as we have nearly drank him dry in 3 days. Well, not only us but we stay the longest etc. He knows we don't like Dali beer and neither does he so he's trying his best to find the German/Chinese beer 'Tsingtao' for us.