Resaved yesterday's entry, which had quit half-way through.
The Plains of Jars were amazing. The guide/archaeologist at the hotel was saying that they believed the Jar People used water buffalo to move the jars from the quarries. The jars were carved from large boulders and then transported to the sites, probably on logs, dragged by the buffalo. It's great to have an archaeologist around when visiting sites. Regular tours, while interesting, don't really address the questions I have.
Hello, all. Writing from Plain of Jars land. Fabulous place. There are currently about 30 known plains, comprising hundreds of jars. We were able to visit the three that have been cleared of UXOs and are opened to the public. I was talking to a Laotian fellow at the hotel who also studies archaeology an he said that there are several sites with jars that are still sealed. The jars at the sites we were able to visit have some tops nearby, but all were emptied. The theory is that they were used for primary burials and secondary burials were made under/around the jars. The jars which are still sealed would possibly contain primary burials. They don't know exactly when the jars were made, nor by whom. They speculate that the people who made the jars are the ones who continue to live in the region. At the first plain, there are also four burial mounds that supposedly contain the remains of rulers from those periods, though I don't believe they have been dug, since if they had there would presumably be enough organic material to date things and supposedly there isn't.
We saw a live UXO on our walk. No fence, marker, nothing. The guide pointed it out and we stood not two feet away. We also visited a village where they make spoons from aluminium scrap from downed American planes, so I picked up a few. Thought it would give new meaning to the "Here comes the airplane!" thing you do with two-year-olds. Last we stopped at a Russian tank. Graham says hi.
In Laos. I met a guy at my guest house in Jinghon who was heading south, so we are traveling together. We went to Mengla yesterday and this morning crossed over. Then we took an open truck to LNT. I imagine hijinks have ensued, but I don't really remember. We encountered a happy border guard, but he wasn't the one who helped us. Things are expensive here and the keyboard and connection are bad. I should be in Luang Prabang in a few days.
Since arriving in Laos, people have been smiling and waving. Driving through the country is nice and the architecture is charming.
Got into Jinghong mid-day. I could have stayed longer in Kunming, but it was either get the rush visa and leave or wait until Monday for the slow one. I didn't feel like waiting and I'm very happy I didn't take the bus. The weather here is lovely, maybe upper 60s. Kunming was pretty chilly, though certainly better than Guizhou. I stayed at the Camellia Hotel, which is very popular with backpackers. I met lots of people there and we all went to a New Year's eve party last night. The hotel had a big fireworks display and then we lit some small ones. Good times.
Off to find out about laundry. I should be heading to Laos in a day or two. Then I'll just bum around in the north until the 29th or so, when I'm meeting Graham in Luang Prabang.
Anyway, this keyboard is annoying, so I'm going to go.
Arrived in Kunming at 7:30 this morning. The train ride was uneventful, though I kept waking up to look at my watch to see what time it was. It was pitch black and my watch doesn't glow in the dark or anything, but I kept thinking it said "7:30" and I needed to get ready to go.
When I got to Kunming, I got in "line" for a taxi, but then the line moved to the other side of the street and it seemed like everyone else was part of this secret club that knew the special signal, while I just stood there in pain, hoping my clavicles wouldn't break. Eventually, I got a cab who would take me where I wanted to go -- for Y20. By that point I didn't care that he was totally ripping my off, so I agreed, but then at the hotel, he gave me back 90 on a 100 bill. I think he just made a mistake, but that's okay.
Yesterday, Julian and I tried to watch LOTR, but it wouldn't play on his computer and the DVD player at school was broken, so we settled for South Park. We got lunch at Shakey's, as usual, then went to the school to pick up my package and some official paper for him. Mom ingeniously wrapped my "medicinal heroin" in a cut-out cookbook. Unfortunately, she cut out the cookies pages. Then we went to the historic tea house over the river for the afternoon, jacked two heaters since we were the only ones there, and went to a Chinese place for dinner. It was pretty good.
The night before we left, HQ took Julian, Angel, Mingli, Liqian, Nancy, and Christy (the 5 former and present office helpers). Many of the restaurants in town were closed because of Spring Festival, so we ended up at a low-key place that does food and dumplings. I wish I always had people with me who could read Chinese menus, b/c the food that HQ chose was great. Julian can read Chinese, but when the name is something like, "Two Kingdoms Happy Family", it can be difficult. Has anyone seen the "Cow Days" episode of South Park? In it, Cartman ... something happens and he loses his memory or something and he thinks he's a Vietnamese prostitute named Mingli!
I'm staying at the Camellia Hotel, which also houses the Lao and Myanmar Consulates. I got in this morning and was assigned a dorm room and the porter carried my bag up (which was nice, since picking it up is a challenge). I quietly put my stuff on my bed and started looking through my things for my toiletries bag. Then a suspiciously male figure got down from one of the bunk beds. Me: "Ummm, is this a boys' room or girls' room?" Turns out they're mixed, which would be great, but Cute French Guy and Cute-Rugged Australian Guy are both leaving this evening. Two American sisters arrived, and there's another American couple and they all seem nice.
The day before the day before I left, Julian and I had dinner at Liqian's house. They served dumplings, which some people think are special here. I like them, but I don't see what's so special. She said it was something from northern China. The next day, I had lunch with Adam and his family (Dad, mom Lucy, cousin Jane, and other random cousin who doesn't really speak English). Even though his dad doesn't speak English, he brings a good vibe. Lucy gave me a scarf, the dad gave me tea, and Adam gave me a stuffed animal which he thought was "lovely".
I walked by a bar near the hotel and their drink specials outside included sangria, whisky something, something else, and something else, all of which looked good. Not that I'm a total alcoholic or anything, it's just that you can't find the stuff in Zunyi. They have Watson's drugstores here and in it I found *women's* razors, a mini-eyelash curler (I've never seen them before), and something else -- I don't remember what. They also had Lindt chocolate and Ritz crackers.
Just took a gander at this week's Onion horoscope and it said for Leo: "Getting there is said to be half the fun, but those people aren't going where you're going." I'm choosing to interpret that as saying that I'm going to have an extra-wonderful time in Laos and Cambodia.
Julian and I have left. I slept in until 1/2 hour before the train left, so my apt is in ruins. I made the train though. We just found South Park and LOTR-3 dvds, so we're going to pass the afternoon that way.
Tonight I go to Kunming.
Only one more day to teach. This morning, I tried to get the kids to talk, but failed. We were discussing problems with the environment. It was just word association and I asked them to say positive and negative things. [pause] me: "Cars? Are cars bad for the environment?" Them: "Oh. Yeah!" I explained what the phrase "getting you to talk 'is like pulling teeth,'" means.
In the afternoon, we switched to astronomy, since one girl is interested in it. It ended up working really well. I even remembered how black holes are formed. They already knew some stuff and I explained the rest... white dwarf stars, supernovae ("Emphasis on the word 'Super'."), the speed of light, nuclear fusion, and event horizons. They didn't quite buy my explanation of nuclear fusion (which was in all fairness not given with much confidence and was a bit vague), so we looked things up online. That filled in the holes and confirmed what I had taught them. I wouldn't lie to the kids if I were wrong, but it's nice not to have been teaching them incorrect things.
I should rewrite all that, but I'm going to go home instead. Why don't you take a few minutes and mentally rework it in a Wodehouse-ian style, what?