Burma Border
So last night was kind of cool. I walked home from the internet cafe to find Robert (who left before me). He wasn't in the hotel room, so I went downstairs to this courtyard where these Austrailian, British and Scottish chaps were loudly drinking Gordon's Gin. I asked them "Have you seen a guy that looks like a bum? He has a white collared shirt that hasn't been washed once...let's see...hasn't shaved...probably drunken..." They knew exactly who I was talking about and told me that he left just a bit ago; so I sat down and joined in the conversation and drank some gin. We then toddled off to the local pub and eatery where I drank a few more beers and talked to another English teacher from Austrailia about this and that. The dudes that we were with kind of turned out to be douchbags because when the food came they started yelling at the helpless Chinese waitress who didn't know a speck of English. The guy who I was talking to fortunately spoke fluent Chinese as he'd been studying for 8 years remedied the situation. I don't think he fancied the group too much anyhow. I talked to him today with his rucksack on. He said he was going up north, putting his stuff somewhere, and riding his bicycle up to Russia. That guy is hardcore. I mean hard. It's freezing balls up there right now, and he's taking a tent and some cash and leaving for 6 months. When I went to Tibet I didn't really enjoy being alone. I mean, I'm not scared to be alone, but you kind of just go crazy after awhile. This trip has been the coolest yet. Robert and I have such similar taste in what we want to experience and what we want to avoid... basically we agreed that historical crap was boring and touristy places were shit; we want to experience the local culture and do some hiking but at the end of the day get rowdy and loud with a bunch of foriegners. We've gone a long time since we've talked at a normal pace or ate pizza, so this has been really rad. I don't feel so compelled to be hardcore about trekking and all that - this trip I've just been lazing about enjoying myself. The actual travelling part is stressful.
So anyway, the big rowdy group left that place and walked along the canal. The city is really cool because it has crystal clear water running through these small canals filled with goldfish all over the city. People dine and drink along them. The foreigners have a saying that I've heard a lot : Dali is the city westerners go to get ridiculously stoned and Le Jiang is the city Chinese tourists go to party - and I've found it pretty true. These drunken Chinese people were sitting on one side of the canal singing Chinese pop songs loudly; and the other side were yelling back and singing louder. At one point there was a tune that I knew a few words to and I yelled them along and got applauded. I think our side won. We then went into a bar with some girlies dancing and such so I boogied down to Love Shack by the B-52's for about 5 minutes and sat down by this Austrailian guy Brad that I knew from way back in Kunming. The travellers here are really predictable because most follow each other's news about an area, and everyone uses the Lonely Planet China Guidebook. You'll see the same travellers over and over again. I think that's one of the coolest things about Southern Asia - the family of backpackers. So I sit down by Brad and they're gambling or something stupid and start chatting with him. His friend comes back from getting a beer. I asked him, "Do you want me to switch places with you?" Before he could answer this dickhead from the other side of the table said, "You move. He's playing. You are not." So I left that bar and continued down the thin strip of places beside the canal and met up with these awesome Israeli guys that I met a week previous at the Hump. These guys were majorly into hallucinogens - and from what I've taken from the Israeli travellers I've met, Israel is a happening place for nightlife. I know that I'll have to go there at some point because of the amount of it's raddness. So we're talking about politics a bit and the war in Iraq and Bush and all that stuff; I took some pictures, and then we went for kababs. The kabab stands here are off the chain. Most of them are operated by Muslims for some reason. At this point I had already drank too much beer...and of course, the spice calls for more beer and beer calls for more kababs. It's a great cycle. One cool thing came out the experience - Rob and I now have direction. The Israeli guys handed me a flyer and told us it would be off the chain. We're going to the border of Burma for Spring festival. It's gonna be sweet. I went home after kababs and today I, as I type this, have a vicious hangover.
This map is the Yunnan Province. I flew into Kunming, then to Dali, now in LiJiang. Tommorow we will go past Luxi to the Burma (Myanmar) border.
So anyway, the big rowdy group left that place and walked along the canal. The city is really cool because it has crystal clear water running through these small canals filled with goldfish all over the city. People dine and drink along them. The foreigners have a saying that I've heard a lot : Dali is the city westerners go to get ridiculously stoned and Le Jiang is the city Chinese tourists go to party - and I've found it pretty true. These drunken Chinese people were sitting on one side of the canal singing Chinese pop songs loudly; and the other side were yelling back and singing louder. At one point there was a tune that I knew a few words to and I yelled them along and got applauded. I think our side won. We then went into a bar with some girlies dancing and such so I boogied down to Love Shack by the B-52's for about 5 minutes and sat down by this Austrailian guy Brad that I knew from way back in Kunming. The travellers here are really predictable because most follow each other's news about an area, and everyone uses the Lonely Planet China Guidebook. You'll see the same travellers over and over again. I think that's one of the coolest things about Southern Asia - the family of backpackers. So I sit down by Brad and they're gambling or something stupid and start chatting with him. His friend comes back from getting a beer. I asked him, "Do you want me to switch places with you?" Before he could answer this dickhead from the other side of the table said, "You move. He's playing. You are not." So I left that bar and continued down the thin strip of places beside the canal and met up with these awesome Israeli guys that I met a week previous at the Hump. These guys were majorly into hallucinogens - and from what I've taken from the Israeli travellers I've met, Israel is a happening place for nightlife. I know that I'll have to go there at some point because of the amount of it's raddness. So we're talking about politics a bit and the war in Iraq and Bush and all that stuff; I took some pictures, and then we went for kababs. The kabab stands here are off the chain. Most of them are operated by Muslims for some reason. At this point I had already drank too much beer...and of course, the spice calls for more beer and beer calls for more kababs. It's a great cycle. One cool thing came out the experience - Rob and I now have direction. The Israeli guys handed me a flyer and told us it would be off the chain. We're going to the border of Burma for Spring festival. It's gonna be sweet. I went home after kababs and today I, as I type this, have a vicious hangover.
This map is the Yunnan Province. I flew into Kunming, then to Dali, now in LiJiang. Tommorow we will go past Luxi to the Burma (Myanmar) border.