If you looked at the weather map of China in late January 2008, you would been faced with the dark blue chill of a country going through its worst winter for 150 years. Look carefully though and you can see a small patch of orangey-red in the far far south west. That's where Jinghong is. It's a tropical town and quite unlike the rest of China.  

 

It was so good to just wander around the streets in shorts and tshirt. We ate thai food and pineapples on sticks, marvelled at butterflies, noticed the Burmese people everywhere, cycled through forest to the banks of the Mekong River and got sunburnt. Nice.

 

The only sad thing was that we didn't have enough time to do one of the many treks or river trips that the cafe's there organised. We had to jump on the next overnight bus back to Kunming to pick up our passports and visa extensions.

 

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