Xishuangbanna daze - Mekong welcome

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Xishuangbanna thoughts

12-10-2010 [written on 12-13-2010]

Jinghong has surprised me - at first it looked like a regular over-crowded Chinese city and I thought I would just spend a night there....until, following a suggestion of my newly-found no-nonsense kurdish friend, I got to the Mekong River and wandered along a lazy multi-mile malecon at night. A steamy summer evening filled with cozy yellow boardwalk lights and the neon glow of the bridges reflecting in the river have embraced me and lulled me into staying for a few days. 

I'd start a morning journalling at the friendly Banna Cafe, an open-air "living room," as most of the local ex-pats [both Chinese and Western] call it. It is located at the confluence of 3 semi-busy streets, which makes for an entertaining people-watching spot, and, it turns out, the owners are a gold-mine of the useful local info. 

In an hour or so, my fellow travelers would come for their breakfast, and we'd end up debating about life-universe-and-everything with the passion that only a mixture of Kurd-Israeli-and-Russian can conjure up [that was quite a change from an American-style conversation!] and lazily people-watching, fueled by chocolate-banana pancakes with tea. We did solve a few of the burning world problems ;O) 

Also, I've discovered that Xishuangbanna is one of the best-kept secrets [according to the American & Canadian ex-pats who now call it home] in China, or, quite possibly, the world. There are very few western tourists that come here, which makes it a rather authentic place to be. And, I've found that there is not a single half-decent guesthouse on the Mekong boardwalk! Of course, I then met a Dutch lawyer who was planning to open one up. Looks like a neat little business niche. 

So went a few lazy days, and, honestly, that warm break was welcome after the nippy climate I came from. Then, waking myself up from the Xishuangbanna daze, I finally headed off for the Lao Land. 

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