#1 Nowhere in China have I ever seen a begger play some sort of flute through his nose. No joke. Yesterday before Chris and I left kunming for xishuangbanna we saw this dude crutching his way along a busy market street with a little girl if front of him dressed in some traditional minority clothing. Every now and again he would stop, shove a flute lookin thing really hard up his right nostril causing his face to scrunch up like a drunkin wrinkle dog and just giv'r on that puppy! He was awesome, playing some really nice sounding tunes and blowing his heart out on that thing. The little girl in the trad. clothing was holding a bucket for small change which Chris and I both felt happy to give a little. He offered for us to try playing the flute but uhh... we respectfully declined due to.. way to many bougars.
#2 Nowhere in China have I seen a place where someone could so easily hippy out! Man oh man, Chris and I went to a bar two nights ago in Kunming and as we entered a familiar smell rushed across our sences. Yep It's exactly what you might have guessed. Not only the smell shocked us but the sight. This bar was completely full of whacked out foriegn hippys. I've never seen more dreadlocks in one place, oh.. and the music groovin stoner music only someone who's trashed could enjoy. Cool place.
We did notice a trend among these people though. "Sadness". I met this one dude from alaska who'd been bumming for quite a while in kunming it seemed, not working not really doing anything but smoking and drinking for the last couple months and you know I just couldn't talk with him. It was only complaints I heard coming from him so we left that one behind. We did meet some dudes from england that we could really relate with and we had a great time with them. They were travelling from europe to aussieville without taking a plane. That's cool.
3# Well kept temples. The cultural revolution destroyed a lot of the history and the temples in China but the ones in Yunnan province seemed to escape much of the damage. Really nice to see active temples.
#4 Laidbackedness. Is that even a word This morning we arrived in Jinghong. The capital of Xishuangbanna and as we walked around looking for a place to crash we noticed a sence of ease among the people here. nomally when we check in to our hotels we are bombarded with questions and we must immedietly show our passports or we don't get a room. Well not this place. We asked the girl how much for a room she told us and gave us the key. That was it. We even asked her if she wanted to see our passports and she just sort of grunted and shrugged her shoulders.
I'm sitting here in this internet bar and as I type this message three young boys with bald heads walk in. The boys are wearing nothing but some slippers and soft orange robes. Cool I thought Monks in training. They have a different language that they speak, I wish I could understand then I'd be able to ask them some questions. Ah well I'm sure I'll run across some who do speak manderine. The boys are up for playing street fighter on one of the computers. maybe I'll join them.
Oh yeah I guess I should say a little about the Sleeper bus. We ordered the sleeper bus because the ride was so long. Have I told you anything about chinese busses yet. I'm not sure. But anyways we got a little sleep but for the most part the road was so freakin windy and the bus driver was driving so fast you'd go from almost falling off one side of the tiny bed to almost falling off the other side in a heart beat. It was FAAAANNNNTASTIC! and I meen that with no sarcasm whatsoever. We did meet some nice people on the bus and had some nice conversations though.
Nice talking to you and I hope to hear from you guys soon.
Peace&Love
Patrick
