A Short Letter Home

Welcome to the Jungle

The rest of my vacation is a bit lacking in blog material. By the time we got down to Jinghong, we had been sated with sightseeing and were ready to kick back and relax. This was a company retreat, so we were kind of required to go on outings, not to mention having meetings and all that. Of course, it's a lot better when other folks are doing the planning and all that.

Jinghong is down in the southernmost prefecture of Yunnan, Xishuangbanna. It's at a lower elevation than most of the province, so it had the tropical temperature that is common in this latitude. The warmth was a welcome change from climate of Kunming and Dali. Just as in Dali everything is Bai, so in Jinghong, everything bears the touch of the Dai minority. Women were wearing the long, colorful dresses and the street signs all had Thai subtitles. Even the taxi drivers were more apt to soak us for a trip from the airport.

We spent the morning of our first day catching up with our fellow workers and generally taking care of company business. As noon approached, we then hopped aboard a chartered bus and headed north to the Wild Elephant Valley park. It was a nice little tourist spot where supposedly one can see wild elephants. Of course, elephants don't tend to be active in the heat of the day, so we didn't see any. We did enjoy a cable car ride over the jungle and then a walk along a paved trail back. We also got to watch a show featuring trained elephants. (I even took part in a tug of war between an elephant and about twelve other guys.) (The elephant won.)

Day two was all talking and down time. Like us, another couple on our team is planning on returning to America at the end of the term. So we talked a lot about reverse culture shock and resuming life in the States. Hopefully, the rest of our teammates didn't get bored. After lunch, the wife and kids headed back to the hotel to swim. I strolled along the river and then wandered about the city a bit. I didn't find too much that was real interesting. I think part of me was looking for a Burger King. Anyway, my Jinghong road map and the stylized map on the back of my hotel business card didn't jibe, so I ended up grabbing a taxi back. It was a pleasant walk, even if I didn't take many pictures.

Day three featured another outing, this time down to a Dai "Culture Park" near the town of Ganlanba. Basically you have a Dai village that turned it's town into a theme park. Folks take turns turning their houses into an exhibit where visitors can see an authentic Dai home and learn about their culture. Like any tourist spot, it was filled with gift and snack stands. But it also had a bit of authenticity with people passing by truly going about their daily business.

And that was that. The next morning we packed up and headed home. Like I said, from a blogging perspective, the journey was lacking. But we had a great time relaxing and visiting. Isn't that what a vacation should be all about?

posted by John @ 12:47 AM