From Soft Landing to Hard Cot

Arriving just before 7AM at Jinghong (Xishuangbanna) after a night's ride on the sleeper bus, I opted for the one option for accommodation in Lonely Planet that included the dorms option.

I figured this is the time when I should start socializing with other travellers.

At ~7:30, it seemed like I have woken the place's attendant a couple of hours before her time. She was not happy.
Even less happy when I asked about seeing the room ... (and indeed, what is there to see exactly?). She said something that was supposed to explain why I cannot see it right then (couldn't really figure out what exactly that was), so I kept asking her at what time it will be possible. Eventually she shouted at me (in Chinese) "you want to see the room?" ...
"Ahhh ... yes."  She shouted something else, and I followed her the 2 meters to the next door, where the dormitory room is.

I ended up paying her the 15 RMB nightly fee (~2 Euro), and went in.

Guess you get what you pay for. Could have been worse, I guess - it turns out that the shower (minus the shower head) actually has hot water. The shower hose also doubles up as the flush for the crouching-style toilet. And, there was a functioning dim lightbulb in the shower room. The rest of the room, as far as I could tell, had no functioning lighting (I later found out that there are two functioning bulbs in the room, but you have to figure out your way amongst the 10 or so switches).

There is a big set of lockers in the room, which I noticed on my first glance into it, but as I failed to actually ask the lovely lady about it, I found out quickly that thosse have no real function other than some dormitry-style decoration.

The beds are 2-storied cots covered with a plank of thin wood and a thinner "matress" - since it's too hot to be really using a blanket (did I mention no A/C?, guess I thought that's obvious), one can use the provided blanket to double-up the matress for extra comfort (that's right, "the princess and the pea" was probably inspired by a guest-house experience).

Yes yes ... I know what you're thinking, and you're right - I'm getting old.

For all its little misgivings, this guesthouse knows what you really came to Xishuangbanna for, and provides in full - it's the Jungle experience. Without risking a proper jungle-trekking, you can lie in the comfort of your cot, and watch the lizards strolling the walls, or alternatively, you can go for the shower-toilet room, and observe some cool spiderwebs all over the ceiling and corners.

But the reason for choosing the dormitory option was not about the added comfort (and consulting the wrong guide book).
As far as socializing opportunities, the only other person in the 6-bed room ws a zombie that didn't seem like anything could stir alive for the next few hours. Also didn't look like someone I'd be sharing a jungle-trekking with.
I'm sure there are plenty of foreigners around even in this off-season (some were on the bus with me), but they must be reading some more up-to-date guide books ...

I gave it a couple of hours to find out I was not tiered enough to sleep on them cots just yet, took a shower and hit the town.
Not much to see, as expected, but even at 10:30, my shirt got sweat-drenched within 20 mins of walking as slowly as possible, in the shadow.
My morning stroll found me a few "upscale" possibilities for upgrading my accomodation (all on "Manting Lu"). Right in the area that seemed to be the town's center, and all within 5~10 Euro/night, with A/C, descent-looking showers, TV ... one even had a western-style toilet (but when I arrived the next day, they were unfortunately full). I moved to one of those for my next night.

Thank god for the foreigner-oriented cafes here. It's the only place to pass the midday hours here.
On a street corner, mid-town, Banna-Cafe can supply Yunnan or Italian coffee. They make their carrot juice in a blender - no filtering - so it feels a bit like chewing on a carrot, and they have quite a varied food and drink menu that comes with English built-in.
The woman that now operates the place like to practice her bits of English with the customers when the opportunity strikes, and as a foreginer you get to feel welcome - they kept on refilling my water glass for a few hours somehow.

Generally it seems that the foreigner-oriented few places here are giving a good fight for the business, and this works nicely for everyone.

Greg, the owner of Mekong Cafe is a French guy in his 50's. He used to work as a Chef in 5-star hotels around Asia for about 30 years before settling here about 3 years ago with his Chinese wife and son. He offers free advice, help with ticketing, free self-designed city maps, free internet usage, and an extensive western menu (including things like Deer medallions, Lamb stake with Rosmary, ...). A more hidden part of the menu offers some local cuisine as well. The chicken fillets with banana flowers was not bad at all, though it was the first "Chinese" dish I had that seemed to be fried with a lot of butter rather than oil. For sure, it was the first time in a while when I got a chicken dish which was all about the chicken-meat rather than bones and skin.

I later found out that there's a whole nice area, completely over-looked by my guide book - a street running along the bank of the Mekong river, known to some as Bar-street. All the houses in that area have thai-style roofs with yellow lighting, the bars, set one after the other in succession are all very river-bank like, wooden made, nicely styled, all with large wooden balconies in front of the river.

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