Not every place we go is a UNESCO World Heritage site, that’s for sure. Yesterday afternoon, we went southwest of Jinghong about 70 Km to the town of Damenglong. There is definitely a Thailand/Myanmar/Laos feel and look to this area. It’s dusty town not far from the Myanmar border. In the rainy season it must be a real mud hole. They seem to be gearing up to pave the road through town, though. Maybe they will get it done before the rain starts in June.
We felt like getting out of the city, though Jinghong isn’t bad except for the air polution. It’s derfinitely slow around here. We came here because Lonely Planet said it was alive on market day. We figured there would be lots of minority people, and there were, but they weren’t particularly photogenic. I think traditional dress is going quickly. Here are some shots of the market today.
Here’s a guy selling local medicines, even literally snake oil. Of course, maybe it DOES cure everything from hair loss to tuberculosis.
This town isn’t much for restaurants. You’re best off just eating at the stands. Here’s a woman kneading dough while the other fries the bread up.
Here’s me having noodles for breakfast. Noodles, rice porridge, fried bread in various shapes and boiled chicken or duck eggs are the most popular beakfast items in Yunnan.
Just outside of town is a Buddhist temple. It’s a shame they can’t keep it up well. This place looks like a very few people are working hard to get what they can get done done. Still, it’s kind of nice in a neglected sort of way.
Yesterday evening we walked away from “downtown”…
…..and had some dinner in a just opened restaurant. I don’t know who they plan to have as customers, but it was good enough Dai food. Here’s Myung picking out what we wanted. It’s typical to look at the food and decide. I haven’t seen a place yet in China where the veggies are more than a day old.
You probably noticed I was above the ground floor when I took that picture. Almost all the buildings are open on the ground floor and activity happens on the second floor. This is typical of Southeast Asia. It’s so hot and wet that being upstairs is cooler and drier. We were the only real customers, I think, but here are lots of locals chatting and eating up there. In Asia, “restaurant” is a vague term. The ladies in this first picture have black teeth from chewing betel. They think it’s beautiful.
After going to the market this morning, we took the bus 15 km to Xiaojie. It’s even less impressive than Damenglong. We walked through the village, then up through the rubber plantations.
It must have been the temple in Korea that got me into roof lines.
Speaking of roof lines, probably 3/4 of the homes and buildings solar heat their water. So simple and cheap. You just can’t luxuriate too long in the shower.
That’s it for now. This tells you how many pictures we have. Here, we’re having a mundane (for us) couple of days, yet we probably have about 40-50 pictures. Tomorrow we’re going to another area, this time southeast of Jinghong. Then we’ll go west of Jinghong. See you later. Be well, all of you.
Oh, here’s one more I took off Myung’s memory card. It’s up by Dali where it was a lot cooler.
