I arrived in Jinghong on an overnight bus around 5:30am and walked into town, looking for somewhere to stay. I found a place called "Dai's Village", which I decide to stay at as I thought it might have been run by a Welshman ;) But it wasn't, it was run by a Dai family, and was a garden with some bamboo houses surrounded by banana trees. Dai are the predominant ethnic group in this city. I also met Buyang, Bai and Akhe people here and there were probably some more as I didn't ask everyone what ethnic group they were from. These were just a couple of those I spoke with, but clearly there is a wide range of people here and can be seen by the different faces, skin colour, even shape and clothing styles.
Left: Dai's Garden Building guesthouse in Jinghong is not run by a Welshman.
Centre: My bamboo hut and banana tree at night time.
Right: Coconut palms line the streets of Jinghong.
It's a small city, slow pace of life, lively night barbeque packed with young locals eating and drinking beer, some nice parks, markets, streets lined with mango and coconut palm trees and I liked it, despite the rain and thunder every day. Hired a bicycle and cycled along the Mekong and around fields out of town to small villages next to Jinghong and sat in a lot of cafes avoiding the rain.
Today at 4:55pm, I experienced my first ever earthquake tremor, not sure where from, but something I wanted to experience sometime and glad I did and that it was not too serious. I was in an internet cafe, the table was shaking but I thought it was someone opposite me getting excited about some game, but then i realised it was not just the table, my chair was shaking, I looked up and the pictures on the wall were shaking, people got up and ran outside to take a look, I'm not sure at what... Strange feeling, it really felt like the world below me was shaking, which I suppose it was...
Update: Turns out the epicentre of the quake was in Northern Laos, near Luang Prabang. Less than 200km away .
Left: Crop fields along thedge of the Mekong river near Jinghong.
Right: Taditional Dai wooden house in the fields.
Anyway, just a quick update, am leaving China tomorrow morning and taking a boat down the Mekong river to Thailand, so next update will be from somewhere in Thailand.
2 comments:
Hello! Well the earthquake was in Laos (6.2) so I hope your river to Thailand diverts! Take care, Rachel x
Sawatdee Kaa Roland!
Hope you are safe and well.
Looking forward to hearing about your time in Thailand, being one of the few places on your epic voyage that I have actually been to.
Love reading your blog, certainly passes the rare few moments of boredom in my job.
Take care and good luck
Soph
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