March 6, 2007
To Zinghong: Peacock patterns
Patrick had left a 50 yuan deposit (in addition to the 50 yuan room price) yesterday and hit a minor obstacle when he tried to reclaim it...upon inspection of our room it turns out that a pair of flip flops is missing! There is only one pair left! We both carry our own for use in the showers, here we used the one pair provided to keep ours dry. Patrick is sure there was only one pair when we arrived yesterday. After a short argument they return the deposit and off we go.
Per advice from the Chinese cyclist in Mengla, we take the road via Menglan to Jinghong. It doesn't look too good at first; relatively flat but the nice asphalt road disappears quite literally under a thick layer of rock and gravel. They are obviously raising the existing road surface by about a foot...makes for very bumpy and dusty cycling. Menglan is a center for the Dai tribe, we see many villages with their traditional past and beam wooden houses with a Dutch hip roof and a peacock pattern in the gable. (In decorative art, the peacock symbolizes dignity and beauty. In China, the bird is a symbol of the Ming Dynasty, representing divinity, rank, power, and beauty.) Many of the houses had modern additions though often a square brick with stucco box bathroom with a solar shower tank and pipes on top. Guess you can't blame them for wanting a warm shower.
Just outside of Menglan is a lake with a "minority" theme park. There are many tour buses in the parking lot, to get into the "park" you need to cross a raised walkway that spans the road and an eight foot privacy fence that has been erected around most of the lake so you can't see what's going on until after you have paid....Large billboard posters on the fence show notices with bow and arrow, blowing in buffalo horns and lines of traditional dressed Dai women smiling. If it smells like a tourist trap, it probably is...
We ride on into Menglan, have a cold coke at a shop and then start following the Mekong River toward Jinghong. It's a pretty road, fairly level above the river with palm trees on both sides. Bad stretches of surface and heavy construction traffic make it a hard ride. From a distance we can see the large new suspension bridge across the Mekong at Jinghong. We ride across and try to find the budget hotel recommended in our guidebook, turns out that a whole city block was torn down to make way for a huge new construction project. The next place we try can only rent us a room for one night, they are full tomorrow.
We ditch the Lonely Planet recommendations and use a copied map we got from the Dutch cyclists we met just before leaving Laos. They had indicated a "backpackers" street with guest houses and good food. We stand in front of the famous Mei Mei Cafe and see the owner of the Peacock Guesthouse across the street holding up his English sign.
Patrick checks out a room, pretty nice and only 30 yuan (About $4 USD). We move in clean up and have a late lunch at Mei Mei. The place is run by a Chinese woman and a Belgium man. We get lots of good advice. After a steak with mashed potatoes for Patrick and Rachel has a schnitzel with salad and fries, we walk to the bank of China to try the ATM. Success! We withdraw 2000yuan at a time, two cards (we each have a different account card in case one of us is robbed or loses a card) so we can stock up to 4000!
Then a bookstore for a Chinese map of Yunnan. With this map, combined with the English language one we brought, we can compare the characters against the road signs we see. Then to a supermarket recommended by the Belgian to see what they have. Not much in the way of western products, no cornflakes or Nutella...
We did more internet and just read in the evening. Six days cycling in a row has worn us out.
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Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 6,331 km (3,932 miles)
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