welcome to Jinghong in Xishuangbanna

From the coldest point in Yunnan I flew after a one day break in Kunming to Jinghong. For the first time with an Airbus 319 from Szichuan Air. In Jinghong heat with high humidity waited for me. At the Airport a hostess from the hotel Dai Garden Hotel lined up with many others to wait for me. There was just one problem, all the names of the guests expected were written in Chinese characters. I said my name to the most beautiful girl but she did not speak English and did not understand my pronounciation of my Chinese name. So I called Süli to talk to her. Yes I was right. The driver of the hotel together with this beautiful hostess drove me in a well air conditioned car to the hotel.
I did not find anybody who spoke English including my guide Lian, Süli organized for me. So whenever we had serious problems in understanding we just called Süli and he translated and talked to both of us. This way worked out fine, China Mobile sure likes us as clients.
Today we visited the Botanical garden. This garden with all the tropical plants is worth will visiting. Of course I could have chosen a tropical plant for the picture, but I have never seen such a fancy Bougainvillea before, which is my favorite flower. There was little warm rain in between, no problem. When a tropical rain started we luckily found shelter. There we waited for almost an hour. The way back with taxi I ordered to stop at Wei Wei Coffee. In my guide for China this coffee is recommended as expert for organizing tours from Jinghong. I had a hard time to communicate. So I decided to hire a taxi to bring us to the Sachale rainforest with the wild elefant valley. Süli did most of the work in coordination with Lian. It worked out fine. By the way, Lian has long hair down till her legs. They start black and turn to dark brown, she knows their hair is pretty.
We had dinner in a Thai restaurant. My fish was outstanding and the fresh mango juice was delicious. With 2 more dishes I just had to pay 45 Yuan, about 5 Euro.
The way back to the hotel I stopped downtown. The evening was just like a warm summer night in the Mediterranean. Everybody was on the street, the shops were open and there were several events going on. How will it be tomorrow, when the festival will start in the evening and last for 3 days with dragon boat race on the Mekong River, big fair and water spilling. The more wet you get the more lucy you will have.