Jinghong, Mohan and Luang Namtha - Day 42-44

While Hanna and I were sleeping in our room in Lijiang, Ruut glanced at the map and decided we'd head towards Jinghong (a city pretty near the border to Laos). So we got ourselves tickets (hrm, well actually Mama got the tickets for us...) and, as earlier said, weren't too excited about the 15h bustrip ahead of us.
When we were seated in the bus (only more horizontal), and had been on the road for about half an hour, Ruut decided it was time to share the fact that the bus ride would probably take more like 19h. Apparently the 15h estimated time did not include traffic... Ruut thought that four hours here or there, what's the difference?

For some time we thought we'd missed our stop, and had already started planning what to do when we arrived wherever we were going when we spotted a sign that read 'Jinghong 30km'. And some time later we  arrived in Jinghong as intended. The next hour we spent finding our way to a hotel (no hostels in Jinghong). One night cost us 100yuan (about 10e), for all of us. That's a pretty good deal.

Then Ruut and I went searching for a cheap place to wash our clothes while Hanna took a much needed power nap (she didn't get as much sleep on the bus as me and Ruut). Imagine our surprise when the laundry lady strew all of Ruut's dirty clothes on the foor and started counting them. Apparantly you pay per item, 4 yuan for a shirt or a pair of pants and 1 yuan for underwear. But 50 yuan for only Ruut's clothes was too much and while the curious crowd grew larger and the lady started to individually tag Ruut's underwear we tried to scoop up her clothes as fast as possible and politely but firmly decline their service. Somehow we made it out of there with most of our clothes, the lady came running after us with the rest of them. Instead for the overpriced laundry service we bought a bag of washing powder for 3 yuan and washed our clothes ourselves! To give Ruut some credit, she actually washed all of them, while Hanna and I were out buying bus tickets to Mohan and exchanging money. (We were told that you have to pay for your Laos visa in USD but it's actually possible to pay in yuan as well.)

Our last meal in China we ate at a small restaurant in Mohan, a 4h busride from Jinghong and pretty much on the border to Laos. The sun was shining and we were suffering in the blistering heat of 30 degrees. How we'll ever survive going south from here is beyond me. We'll have to take it slow and let our bodies get accoustomed to the heat.

The border process was as following: First we had to depart from China then apply for a Laos visa and finally enter Laos. The whole ordeal took us about 30min (not 90min as the LP suggests). We paid 111 USD (3*300 yuan) for our visas and entered Laos without problems.

The minibus dropped us off in Luang Namtha, a very touristy Lao town about an hour from the border. Because of all the tourists the prices are high, Hanna and Ruut just spent 24 000 kip (about 24 yuan) on two bags of chips and a box of Oreos. And I paid three times as much for a steamed sweet potato as in China. For a double room, where the three of us will sleep, we paid 40 000 kip each. Goodbye cheap...everything!

//S+R

Oh, and by the way, since we're out of China there's no more Internet restrictions. Which means hello to  Blogger (we haven't beem able to see our blog until now) and Facebook!
So now we've finally been able to read your blog Ica! It's great to read about what you're up to and see some pictures from Finland!