Further South beyond the Clouds in Yunnan, China
Episode 2 — The serpentine wanderlust bus trip to Jinghong in Xishuangbanna continues — Pussycat Tale
A Pussy Cat Tale
Lady Donga Diaries
Words & Pictures — Lady Donga
Meow 206
In the first episode (Meow 203) my wandering human Seaspray D boarded a bus in Kunming for a three-day journey to Jinghong.
After a very long windy trip, the bus pulled into a courtyard for the night where the driver (let’s call him Busmanwong) and his assistant (Busmanwing) had polished off a bottle of Kahlua kindly gifted to them by my human.
Seaspray D will continue the narration as follows: MeooooooooooW!
The crowing rooster woke everyone at the hotel complex — and if that didn’t wake you, the beat of sizzling wok drums from the kitchen heard via the dining hall down below — would — wake the dead.
After a quick shower, I joined the other diners downstairs who still seemed mesmerized by my foreign devilish appearance: long blond hair, hairy arms that they liked to touch — and an unusual nose they had never seen the likes of before.
“Ni hao ma — (hello) “I surprised them all in flawless Mandarin!
Everyone there seemed shocked that this foreign devil had some command of their language.
Some with mouths so wide open in shock that flies flew in and out of their gaping holes with complete safety.
Breakfast looked great — some kind of noodle — with some kind of meat floating in it — with plenty of vegetables.
Yum.
This was washed down with tsunami amounts of tea.
Lo and behold…. the bus drivers Busmanwong and Busmanwing turned up at my table looking a bit worse for wear.
The after effects of drinking foreign devil Kahlua beverage — the very last drop from the bottle.
Busmanwing pulled a bamboo pipe out of his shoulder bag and proceeded to pack some greenish looking tobacco into it before lighting the cone and drawing the smoke deep into his lungs.
In fact, I think the pipe was a bong — and with a name like that, the name bong possibly originated from these oriental parts.
Busmanwong performed the same ritual.
And soon enough, it seemed the hangover effects had departed their minds.
Thereafter, everyone one piled onto to the bus — as the smiling, happy, and gay bus-men welcomed them on board.
The bus jumped around a bit and the road became quite rough as the journey continued.
And this was only the second day of a three-day journey — it was mostly uneventful — and a repeat of our first day.
Repeat — as we would again pull into a court yard after a full day driving — grab a room — then feast like panthers for dinner and breakfast — before moving on.
The further south we drove — the more tropical the scenery — banana plantations and tribal huts lined the ridges with bamboo dwellings reminiscent of Northern Thailand — with many of the same tribes-people: Tai lu, Akha, Lisu, Hmong, Lahu, Pa-o, Yao, Shan and more.
In fact the majority tribe of the area known as Dai — speak a dialect very similar to Thai — well Northern Thai at least — and that was handy — as I could too.
The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups recognized by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Dai people also live in Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand where they are also known as Tai Yai, Tai Lu, Shan, and Tai Dam.
Indeed, as our bus crawled closer to the Jinghong — one could see that the locals here looked different to their Han Chinese overlords — further north.
Soon, our bus pulled into the Jinghong, Xishuangbanna Bus station — where cleaners immediately hopped on board to scoop up the rubbish from our three-day journey.
The rubbish previously floating just below our kneecaps was carted off before we were allowed to disembark the bus.
Busmanwong and Busmanwing stood proudly at the exit, smiling at each of us as we collected our luggage from underneath.
After this long journey we had been through together, there was a kind of comraderie among us — the bus-men, the passengers — and even foreign devil me — as everyone bowed to each other with great respect.
This farewell ceremony was accompanied by gurgling bong noises as Busmanwing and Busmanwong smoked their pipe of peace — smiling the afternoon away like the Cheshire cat and her friend the hookah smoking Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland.
And Jinghong, Xishuangbanna is a wonderland dear readers — a new place is always a new wanderlust adventure — a spirit of renewal — that will continue in the next episode — sometime soon!
MeoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooW for now
Until next time
With Love — Lady Donga Diaries — © Meow 206–2023
