small city off of kunming at the china-myanmar border built upon the gem-trade, to which HOM persuades me to go back in august:
- there is a bewildering selection of cuisines, none of which is my tried-and-tested beloved cantonese. picky eater that i am, this will be weight-reducing if i have a prolonged stay
- the loos work! and they are clean! in fact, they rival the best functional loos in other parts of asia. (you can imagine loos have been a reason i have long resisted a visit to china)
- we are amazed by the sheer hospitality of the people we meet. that is to say, i am amazed and humbled. HOM says he has always known this and that i need to jettison my pre-conceived ideas and prejudices. (you can imagine people have been another reason i have resisted a visit to china)
- the night markets are rip-roaring deafening fun. especially the ones from which the live-broadcasters ply their ware
- it is fascinating to see the jade roughs up close and personal at the rough markets, where people walk around with powerful handheld LED torches and comment on random pieces of rock. despite the close contact i remain ignorant and illiterate
- and anyway plebeian me is most excited over the completed jade pieces at the prettier stores at the peripheries of the action
- here they don't appear to have any traffic rules whatsoever particularly if you are a scooter, in which case you may share road and pavement with car and pedestrian, only at their respective speeds. which, surprisingly enough, works
- the corollary is that crossing the road as a pedestrian becomes an act of steel-hearted faith even when the light is in your favor, but hey, we survived!
- and the seat belts in their cars appear to be optionally functional
- they have traffic cameras everywhere. that is to say, all along the roads. so that you can pretty much get tracked relentlessly. uncle Sam has nuthin' on this
- they even have a camera at the hotel check-in! i find this unnerving and an assault upon my (un)developed sense of privacy, coming as i do from the premier nanny state in south-east asia
- what i say is, you can't beat chinese airlines for efficiency. they board you on the dot take off on the dot and tend to arrive ahead of time. a girl's gotta love this
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