Rain Forest Finale

Thursday was our last day in Xishuangbanna so Diana and I decided to make yet another foray into the town.  This time we walked thru some different streets and enjoyed seeing some of the local stores……

I loved the design of the pipe here…..

Here is the local home improvement store……

The tank in the center is a Solar Hot Water Heater.   Many of the homes and apartments are outfitted with one of these on the roof.   It is fine as long as it is sunny, but we have heard that on cloudy days you can run out of hot water.   And, since this is the tropics, there are LOTS of rainy days!!!!!

We passed this furniture store……

As you can tell, their furniture is very simple and functional, but we have learned that many of the items are not comfortable!!!

We passed the local scooter dealership with many of the cycles parked out on the sidewalk…….

I loved the shelves of bowls in this store…… 

….and the fact that bowls were used to keep the balls from rolling off of the shelves in this store……..

Then there were the “Sponge Bob” dolls next to the shoelaces and Buddhist stuff!!

This clothing shop had a great selection of styles……. 

But my favorite shop had a cabinet full of trims and stuff……

I spent quite a bit of time here!!!!!

We could easily tell where the school was and that it had just let out……

We walked along beside two young girls and talked to them a bit in broken English.  I asked if I could take their photos and one said not, but this little girl smiled shyly and gave the traditional “V for victory” pose…… 

During the lunch hour, there were lots of groups of men and women playing games and enjoying each other’s company…..  These are two water pipes……originally designed for smoking opium!!   Now they are used for cigarettes which are placed in the side appendage…..  

I call this next photo…..”Restaurant in the Making”.    All they have to do is fire up the grill and set out the table and they are ready to go……

As we left the town, we decided to walk down the river a bit.   The first thing that we encountered was…….

We happily skirted around her and into a commercial area by the river…..

As you can see, it was virtually deserted.   Apparently there used to be tons of small shops and restaurants in this area but they tore them all down and built this new area which is obviously NOT liked!!!   It seems such a waste.

We decided to walk past the town and re-enter the park thru the farthest bridge.  On the way we passed some of the houses of the village…..After about 20 minutes of walking we ended up at the other bridge, which also happened to be the main entrance to the park.   Then came the rub…..they wouldn’t let us back into the park without buying a ticket!!!!!   We tried to explain that we were staying at the hotel and that we had walked from the other bridge.   She said “yes you are staying at the hotel”,   we hopefully answered “yes” and she said “you must buy ticket”!!!!!

OK…..so we retraced our steps and returned to the garden via the footbridge.

While crossing, this fishing raft floated under the bridge……

And….one last photo of a plant in the garden…..here is a wonderful banana tree…..

In the evening we were supposed to go to a Dai village for dinner, but unfortunately the restaurant had flooded the night before.  So, one of the students made a reservation for us at another local eatery.

We walked to our destination….enjoying the dusky scenery…..

Unfortunately, the person leading the party missed a road so we ended up taking a short cut down the slope to the river……..

A short walk past the dump truck……

A quick peak into the kitchen……

…..and enter into the dining room (hut)…….

There were three tables set up for us, each loaded with wonderful food and drink.  We first unwrapped the banana leaves and marveled at the wonderful flavor of the paste inside.  We asked what it was so John asked the cooks for us.   He then turned to us and said “Are you sure that you want to know?”.   NOT a good sign.   We assured him that we did and he answered…..”Pig Brains”!!!!!   Oh well, they were tasty!!!! We were joined at our table by Taylor Lockwood who is a renowned expert and photographer of mushrooms!!!!

A good time was had by all!!!!