Picture Post 3: My Yunnan Exploration Project-- Xishuangbanna

The third entry in my exhibition of pictures from this semester. I've decided I'm going to keep posting only picture posts until I catch up to Liuku, where I haven't written yet. Then I'll be able to write doing both. After, once I get to Nujiang again, well, we'll see from there. But meanwhile, I present to you my trip to Xishuangbanna on the Laos/Myanmar border during our Yunnan Exploration Project. You'd think a person couldn't take a lot of pictures in six days, but you'd be wrong.

Front porch of the Dai-style bungalow I stayed in in Jinghong, framed by banana leaves


Misty countryside outside Jinghong


Monk robes drying at a lamasery in Jinghong


Temples in a park in Jinghong


The countryside Buddhist temple we ran across on Diana's and my bike ride near Ganlanba


Images of the Xishuangbanna countryside, featuring lots of greenery, flowers, and traditional Dai-style houses






Images from the Menghun market






Diana in front of the enormous, beautifully wrought Burmese Pagoda we hiked up a mountain to find


At the Dai wedding to which Lee, Diana, and I were invited


The famous Jingzhen octagonal pagoda, the end of Diana's and my wild good chase through the Banna countryside


The treehouse where I spent my night at Banna Wild Elephant Valley


Sunrise in the Xishuangbanna Jungle






The big tree swings that go out over jungle streams. So much fun to ride!


I didnt' see any wild elephants, but I did see... elephants kneeling!


A wild monkey hanging out, so to speak


One of the Valley's tame monkeys and a baby bear! Snuggling! So cute!


The baby monkey that stole my glasses

Picture Post 2: Settling In

I've recieved some good feedback about my last post, so I'm going to try this again. I'm feeling some pressure because once I leave Kunming there probably won't be anywhere else with wireless in which to use my computer, so picture uploading will be mostly out of the question. So: the Settling In period in Kunming, pre-Yunnan Exploration Project. I took a lot of pictures during this time, so this collection is very much abridged.

An unfortunate but neccessary picture of me being lifted up by an elephant's trunk at the Minzu Cun ("Minority Village") during our Drop Off exercise


Me and Monty with new Hani friends at the Minzu Cun


Our new Wa friends at the Minzu Cun performing a traditional Wa dance


...and just sitting around talking with us and being gorgeous


Ashley with her Tibetan nainai (grandma) at a big Tibetan dinner/dance we went to


A visit to the city gardens






View out over Kunming from the top of Xishan ("Western Hills)





A bilingual poster at Kunming's largest mosque



Monty talking to some nuns at said mosque



An actress getting made up for a Beijing Opera performance we swaw


One of three places that calls itself the Bird and Flower Market


Balls of furry adorableness at Bird and Flower Market #2


Diana and I went with John to get his bad back treated with acupuncture. Here he's having herbs burned over the acupuncture needles.


The market in Lunan, where we went on our early morning adventure pre-Stone Forest


John eating a chicken foot (and, yes, wearing a Viagra baseball cap, don't ask)



Pictures of the Stone Forest







Kunming at night

Picture Post 1: Back to the beginning

So, I'm going to try this, but I don't know how it will work. Blogger is very difficult about picture posting in my opinion, and I actually can't see the outcome because while writing in one's blog is not blocked, seeing Blogger blogs is blocked (try saying that three times fast) by those that control Chinese internet. If you have any feedback about whether to continue this attempt at picture posting while I can't see how it comes out with labels and all, drop me an e-mail or leave me a comment postcard with the little button below. So, without further ado: Tonghai, 400 km south of Kunming, where we had our Orientation.

A performance by some of the last bound feet women alive



The bound feet women dancing. You can see here how out of proportion and misshapen their feet are


Adorable Chinese children, picture one of many, outside Tonghai


A very enthusiastic (and drunk) Tonghai official greeting Lu Laoshi


Altogether too many empty bottles of bai jiu for one night


Temple gardens in Xiushan park


The old man teaching me er hu


An altar on Xiushan


Some of the temples


Looking out over Tonghai from the top of Xiushan


The guys of our program, in various states of sobriety, after another disastrous night having alcohol merrily forced on us by Tonghai officials. From left: Mike, Monty, Chris, Jonathan, Lee, Justin, and on the ground, John.



Women in traditional Mongolian dress watch the festivities at the Mongolian village outside of Tonghai

Coming soon to a travelblog near you...

I'm back in Kunming now, which feels very strange because no one I know is here. I'm living in the same dorm we lived in during paper writing time, actually only in the room next to where I lived, the same suite. But there are no SIT students living upstairs, no Diana across the way, no Thai girls to run into. The international students building is oddly empty, I'm currently the only person in the computer lab. It's possible that John will show up with his girlfriend in a few days, which would be nice, and I made a new friend last night in the area we call Wai Guo Lu ("Foreigner's Street.") But for now, I'm on my own. It feels very strange.

But: it means that I'll have plentiful time to catch up on blogging and, if I can get my computer to connect to blogger (which hasn't been happening up until now, I'm in an internet cafe now) even some pictures! Hallelujah!

So, (for real this time), expect the following soon:

+Liuku
-My Pumi friend/translator/adhesive strip
-Being a celebrity simply because of my skin
-My forays into the Lisu countryside
-Going drinking with soldiers
-Bathing in insects. Ew.

+Kunming
-My one and only night clubbing
-Presentations and writing my 36 page paper

+Xi'an
-Terracotta Soldiers redux
-The very best spoken English I've ever heard here
-Sophie becomes a jiaozi ("dumpling") and other hijinks

+Beijing
-Great Wall redux
-John, my parents, and the start of a lovely (and slightly disturbing) friendship
-Our failed Mulan drinking game
-Panjiayuan, the antique market

+Xinjiang
-Kashgar: Everything. Oh, man. But seriously: the animal market, the Bazaar, the mosque, the tombs, the Central Asianness of everything.
-Urumqi: Russia Lite, Tianchi Lake and all of its stunningness, our Mongolian guide
-Turpan: A real live oasis, a 2000 year old irrigation system, a 2500 year old ancient city, riding camels in the Gobi Desert
-Dunhuang: Our amazing bad luck, our amazing good luck, climbing a huge sand dune, sliding down said sand dune on a wooden crate-type-thing

The New Land

"Xinjiang" translates from Mandarin to mean "new land," and boy is it new. We've spent the last two days in Kashgar, 400 km from the Pakistani border, and Toto we are NOT in China anymore. It is amazing and crazy and mind blowing, the sort of place we've never been before, the world of Islam writ in Chinese characters. Also, the sun comes up at 8:30 AM and sets at 11 PM, due to Chinese country unity which means the whole nation is on one time. My parents and I are having a blast.
Tomorrow we go to Urumqi, the capital. Maybe there will be more time to write then, but otherwise when I get back to Kunming there will be massive updates.

The Northeast

Sorry I've been so bad at updating lately. A Liuku rundown will come soon, I promise, but in truth I don't know exactly when because we are going to be scooting around Beijing for the next 4 days (we arrived there from Xi'an of the Terracotta Warriors this morning) and then I go off with my parents for a week of exploring the Silk Road (such adventures! So excited!) This trip to Northeast China has been fantastic in terms of dissolving all of my stress, although it was hard to say goodbye to the Kunming I know, featuring all SIT people, people from the Duke program (Diana, especially), and lots of other students who are leaving before I come back (my Scottish suitemate, the Thai friends I made who choras "Niii haoooo" whenever I see them.) Of course the city will be there when I come back on June 16, but it won't be quite the same.

Xi'an was great, not nearly as hot as I expected. We spent our day there in the Muslim corner. Today is free to see modern Beijing (at a chic bar with internet now); tomorrow is the Great Wall and the Summer Palace; next day is the Forbidden City and hopefully making a side trip to Panjiayuan, a fantastic antique market I went to the first time I came here. The semester is almost over, but for me summer is just beginning.

Real update coming soon.

Wan le!（Finished!)

Ms. Alissa, currently of Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China is proud to announce that, after an almost week-long labor, she gave birth to a 36-page, healthy baby at approximately 10:15 AM on May 30. The baby, whose gender is undisclosed at this time, has been christened "'Once Upon a Time' In the Valley: Storytelling in Nujiang Prefecture.'" Alissa is resting comfortably, having turned her baby in for inspection to the proper authorities.


(And tomorrow she's going to Xi'an and Beijing with her program-mates to see historical sites and PAR-TAY before a week-long trip with her parents and a return to Yunnan for 5.5 further weeks of research. And maybe a trip to actual Tibet, or somewhere interesting in any case.)