Tengchong

I was staying in this little town called Tengchong for 5 days. It is near the Burmese border and there are no tourists there at all. The people there are a mix of chinese minority called Lisu, chinese people and Burmese that have managed to escape from their military dictatored country. I met 2 americans there, so hung out with them and had really good fun. We found
this tiny local burmese restaurant where they served burmese food in their front room to the local Burmese men. We ate here every day breakfast, lunch and dinner. If we were going away for the day we would get maasa ( the wife) to cook us a lunch. Sometimes I went to the fantastic fruit and veg market and bought aubergines or karela (yes for you Indians who can't
beleive what they are reading, I opted to eat karela and aubergines!!!) I then took them back to Maasa for her to cook them up for me into a curry while I had a cup of burmese tea which was just like the Indian tea. It was very tropical in this area too...lots of banana trees pineapples, passion fruits, tamarind...it was heaven.
Also met this Burmese guy who spoke perfect English perfect Burmese and perfect Chinese. He had been in prison in Burma for being a political activist against the military government. Anyway he told us about Burma and Tengchong and even invited us to his English class where we met his chinese students.
The volcanoes and tropical surroundings in this town were amazing, and the hot springs we had to ourselves all day as we lounged in the clear springs, cooled down under waterfalls and swam in the pool in the hot sunshine, with only the birds and butterflies and the man giving chinese massages to keep us company. I really thought I had died and gone to heaven. The springs and
geusers ranged in temperature from luke warm to 97 degrees C (230 F). We tried out the local bars and the lethal home made liquer, which only a hardened English drinker like me could handle!! Played lots of cards and had great company....thanks I and Alex for the great time, hope to meet you both again soon...maybe Burma or India?? Hopefully i'll have learnt a few more card games by then and won't subject you to drunken Donkey again. (And I the Himalayas do exist, I had a look on my map.)
Karaoke in the local, I really like Chinese pop music...even find myself humming it all day. But then I do have a strange taste in music.....country and heavy metal!
The Lisu minority had customs very similar to the Indians, they wear red when they get married and the girl has to cry to show that she is sad to leave her parents, if not they pinch her to make her cry. The girl then has to go to the husbands house and drag her husband away from his parents. sounds good fun.
This minority wear tree bark on their backs to protect and support their backs when carrying baskets on their farms.
The nearby town of Heshun which has the oldest rural library in China was very pretty too. Little cobbled streets and 600 year old wooden houses. At the top of the hill was a beautiful temple, with the Buddhist, Confucsion, and Taoist beliefs in one place.Tengching also boasts some amazing wetlands, which I didn't get time to see and has tree climbing fish and two headed snakes!I definately think Tengchiong was the best place I have visited in China, but may not be so nice for long. There are a lot of new hotels being build for the expected huge Chinese tourist boom in this area. Good for the locals I suppose but sad for me. The genuine goodwill of the locals will probably be lost in customer care and commercialism.
Back to Kunming on the sleeper bus 17 hours instead of 14 as usual. Funny that I can only sleep on trains and buses now and have trouble sleeping in hotels. ( I slept a total of 16 hours in 96 while in Tengchong) Well back on a sleeper bus tommorrow to Hekau on the border of Vietnam.
I had a business card made up too so I don't have to keep writing on scraps of paper which are a very precious commodity when you are travelling. Surprisingly the Chinese made a mess of the spelling on the first set so did them again. I now have lovely green environmentally friendly cards with all my millions of letters after my name just in case I really go out of my mind
and decide to work in civil engineering again...