Chi-na-na (China)

I made it through Laos and I'm in south central China. I'm in Jinhong right now, we crossed by land, from Muang Sing (Laos) to Mengla (China) and then took a bus for a few hours north to Jinhong. Laos was absolutely beautiful though, and I had a great time there!

I stayed in Luang Namtha (Northern Laos) for a while. Besides the three friends I'm travelling with, I met a few more cool people there. We decided to take a bus (without a guide or tour company) and stay with some Hill tribe people.

We bought all the supplies needed to be self sufficient in case of the worst cast scenario. When we got out of our chartered mini bus the whole village ran up to us and brought us to a long house. They rolled out sleeping mats for everyone and we agreed on the price (to sleep there), 10,000 Kip each, just under a dollar!

To make a long story lot so long, we were all set up and even swam in their river, when the Tourist police showed up. They said we couldn't be there with out a guide and escorted us back to their office where they questioned us all separately(like we were drug smugglers), and finally fined us 15,000 kip each!

They were so rude and intimidating that they had two girls in tears! They pissed us all off enough that I ended up throwing an extra 5,000 kip at them and told them to have a nice day, with a perfect smile!

Anyway, I saw a basketball court down the road, so I'll have to show them (there are no tourists here) what's up. I really love China so far (more than expected) and the south is totally different than Bejing, like another country.

Oh yeah, I forgot to write about the wedding we were all invited to in Laos! We were all just walking along, minding our own business when a pickup truck full of locals dressed up asked us if we wanted to go to a wedding! We all looked at each other and said why not. So, we all jumped in the back and enjoyed the ten minute ride through a killer little village till we were dumped in someone's back yard!

The minute all the whitey's showed up the locals scrambled to give us all the Lao-Lao (rice whiskey) we could handle, and then some, and then some more. I've never drank so much so fast, and there was nothing we could do to stop them!

Of course we all had a great time though, even the two girls (that came with me) that blew chunks after their 8th shot! They treated us very well too. They gave us all the food we could eat, they kept on bring more and more along with the Lao-Lao! What a great night, I think. I'm glad I have pictures because I don't remember much!

Just a couple of days ago here in Jinghong (China), we were all invited to an Akha (a minority hill tribe) village and had a feast! We had about 20 dishes of food on a circular table that you can spin like a giant record. Then the Akha girls came to sing traditional songs for the whitey's!

They would sing a song standing in front of you and at the end you hug around the neck and then do the shot (also rice whiskey) while embracing. They ganged up on me because I was kidding around with them (maybe flirting a bit), then they said through an interpreter (a friend we met in town that invited us there) that I had to sing a song or do 3 shots. I was already buzzed from all the girls doing shots with me, they just did one shot with all my friends (big mouth), so I couldn't think of anything to say except "line'em up!"

That was a really cool experience, and I've been hanging with that Akha guy - Shou San - at his store every day since then. He's teaching me to make Akha jewelry and I showed him how to make native American jewelry. We all sit on the floor of his store (a tiny street side store) and eat fruit and watch the town go bye. It's great! He doesn't want me to leave, he offered to let me live with him and his family. I'll have to come back here, and I just might stay a long time!

I'm going to take a 30-36 hour bus ride tomorrow, so I'll rest me bum now...