One can go trekking in the jungle from Luang Namtha, visit 'hill tribes' etc., but I don't go there to see or do anything - it's just a nice laid-back place to be, and the pho in the morning market is good.
Alex, I have had this pulled on me at the West Bus Station, as well as at the train station. I usually don't need a taxi at either place, just take the bus, but occasionally have wanted one and have just tried another cab, possibly after walking a block or so. It worked, total wasted time about 3 minutes.
Note that the next meeting will be at The Park. Everybody welcome who has read the book and/or has a book to propose for the following meeting.
@Tiger: Note that there are no railroads in Laos.
Raina's description is a good one, although I'd rather look out the window of the bus than listen to a book on tape - the countryside is beautiful. I also like some of the Lao music that is blared on the buses, and I suggest that you try to avoid the buses on which the passengers are 90% western foreigners.
What Raina says about not being rushed in Laos is key - I ran into a couple of traveling Americans there once who expected things to happen 'on time', and they were repeatedly getting near-apoplectic when they didn't. Sitting and just watching the rive flow is, for me, a major attraction.
As for airhead post-'traveler'-era backpackers in Laos: yeah, there are a lot of them.
Note that this is the rainy season, and in Laos it is more serious than in Kunming, even as it is in Kunming this particularly wet year. It's just getting cranked up now.
Luang Prabang is a real gem, although it's small and is way overinfested with tourists and commercialized tourism.
Suggest you go by land, it's a good trip, and you don't get bribed for the visa available to most nationalities at the border.
Another thing, really pleasant if you don't fight it: don't expect things to happen on any tight schedule.
Vang Vieng is a waste of time to stay in, full of dopey folks who think they are backpackers sitting around doing drugs & watching old US TV shows - although it's a beautiful area.
I like Luang Namtha, just over the border from China (called Nanta in Chinese - direct buses from Jinghong).
If you get way down south, go to Khone Island & the Falls area on the Mekong just north of the Cambodian border.
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Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
Too bourgeois.
Really good pizza and steaks. The wine machine fuddles me when I'm a bit fuddled, & seems unnecessary. Good folks on both sides of the bar.
Ain't no flies on Salvador's.
China's foreign minister shelves trade concerns, turns to Myanmar's Rohingya crisis
发布者I second cloudtrapezer.
Obituary: Yunnan says goodbye to pioneering musician Ai Yong
发布者Cannot say I knew Ai Yong, although I met him a few times. However, I'm familiar with Shanren, and just last Saturday became aware of Kawa - friend of mine and I, hearing the recording, were trying to figure out just where it was coming from; we asked and were told it was Kawa, and then I got the obvious, excellent Wa influence.
There are beginning to be quite a few good musicians here in Kunming, and they deserve respect. Sorry to hear that Ai Yong will not be among those who will continue to produce and invent the music.
Thank you Kunming! Have a Heart charity event raises 64,000 yuan
发布者Was indeed a worthwhile and fun event.
China's foreign minister shelves trade concerns, turns to Myanmar's Rohingya crisis
发布者@michael: Don't know why you think that's the bet solution for the Rohingya, since it's not the one they want - just who might be legitimately authorized to implement such a policy? Anyway, it would not take care of the problem of the Burmese military.
China's foreign minister shelves trade concerns, turns to Myanmar's Rohingya crisis
发布者So he suggested truce and then figure out what to do next. OK, as far as it goes.
Seems to me the problem is the Myanmar military, who've had over 60 years of experiences of privilege, corruption, uselessness and/or brutality and who have yet to be reduced to the level of ordinary people. Should have had the hell reduced out of them many years ago.