As Good as it Gets

Not quite a full two weeks after returning to Shanghai from my trip to Memphis we were leaving our apartment again with backpacks loaded for a three week trip through SE Asia. Even on the day of our flight out we weren't quite sure how or where we would spend all of that time. The only thing we knew for certain was that we couldn't meet up with Cliff, Craig and Ashley in Vietnam because they had chosen to vacation on the only country we were considering visiting that no longer issues land visas (meaning, we would have to trade the $12 bus tickets for $300 flights. one way. each. plus the visas). So we shook our fists at Vietnam and made plans to exit Laos to the west instead of the east.

If you've read this far you deserve a pretty picture. 

Our first stop was in Kuming, China. The plan was to fly there, then take a series of buses until we ended up in Laos several days later. Kuming was nothing more than a dot on a map to us when we were making our plans, but during our 24 hours there we really enjoyed ourselves. Reason number one: we were celebrities.

This picture was taken at lunch. We'd been wandering around for hours trying to find a place to eat and stumbled on this place. They had the best fried rice I've ever had- it wasn't actually fried, so maybe that's what was so great about it. Just big steaming bowls full of rice with vegetables stirred in. Also- my state of near starvation was probably a factor in the high marks. Anyway, after we sat down at our table, a parade of people came up to approach us. They looked very sheepish and just stood there for a long time before saying, "May we chat with you?" Soon they were all pulling up chairs around us and trying their best to use every ounce of English they'd learned (which wasn't much- and two of the three were getting college degrees in English. Couldn't string together a sentence to save your life) but we had a great visit. We talked as slowly as we could. They giggled their way through every attempt at a sentence. People kept coming up to get their pictures taken. They really wanted to be our friends- they tried to teach us as much Chinese as they could in the twenty minutes they were at our table. I have a notebook full of random vocabulary words that consisted of any object that could be seen from our room. Chop sticks. Framed picture of vegetables. Desk. They were very sad when we announced we had to go. They wanted to show us around Kuming. It was very sweet. People never take a bit of interest in us in Shanghai. Well, except kids....

I have a mystical dominion over all the children of Shanghai. It's true. Just a few weeks ago when I was running errands for this trip I heard a little boy screaming and crying with all his might a few aisles over in Carrefour. I peeked my head around the corner at him and smiled and sure enough, he stopped crying. Not only that, but he wrestled himself free of his parents and came running at me as fast as he could, arms outstretched the entire time as he waddled his way over awkwardly encumbered by the marshmellow layers of clothes they strap around children here in the winter. And when he finally made it he just stared up at me with teary brown eyes arms as far above his head as would reach pleading in universal child language "Hold me! Hold me!" His parents were as dumbstruck as I was. I don't know what the rules are about picking up someone else's child here so I just smiled at him while his parents scurried over to retrieve him saying, "Ohhhhh he liiiikes yuuuh!" A child would never do that to me in the states, but here. It happens all the time. Maybe I should adopt one.

So about Kuming. We made our way over to a park we heard would be a nice place to sit and people watch and boy were we surprised by the sights.  I'm not sure what we were expecting but it wasn't a huge lake full of white birds that swirled above your heads in perfect synchronized dances and thousands of people all clustering about to learn dances together or perform their latest lipsynch routine or dress up in whatever traditional garb they had in their house and make up a dance to show off in the park. There was ice cream, and people were making cotton candy on the backs of their bikes (which of course I had to try- who doesn't love cotton candy!) It was crazy! And ever so much fun.

We finally had to pack up and head to the bus station where we boarded our first overnight bus in China. There were three narrow rows of little beds that you lay down in to sleep until you arrived. Man of man was that ever an experience.

I think the road from Kuming to Jinghong must be the curviest most death defying drive on the face of the planet. I couldn't sleep from being tossed from one side of the bus to the other. But we made it! From Jinghong we took a few more buses into Luang Namtha, Laos, which is where I will pick up next time. Thanks for stopping by!