Mangshi: A Few More Pictures from Ruili

Picture A) Crossing the Shweli River on the way to Ruili

 

Picture B) Night Market - I had two juices, some Burmese fried noodles and some Burmese pickled vegetables. Unfortunately my stomach wasn't feeling well enough to try the Myanmar beer.

 

Picture C) Park near the Market

 

Picture D) Wide palm-lined avenue

 

Picture E) Women dancing in the mall plaza

Mangshi: Posh Hotel

I am staying at a fancy hotel tonight. Leo, who is from Mangshi, recommended to me, and told me I could get a room for 80 RMB, which is about 12 US dollars - a splurge, considering I haven't paid this much for a room since I left Guangzhou.

 

But this room is worth it - niceness-wise, it's about equal to a nice Marriot hotel, except it has a huge bathroom (the bathroom itself is bigger than the entire room I had in Hong Kong) and a very nice sitting area. It's set back from the street, so it's quiet, and my room smells fresh and not smoky. I have my own water cooler (hot and cold), TV, DVD player, soft towels, good mattress, etc.

 

So hopefully I will sleep well tonight before my flight back to Kunming tomorrow!

 

 

Mangshi: Buying a Card Reader

I came into this internet cafe about 1 hour ago, and once I got settled on my computer, I asked if they had card readers to load pictures. Sometimes places do (like in Tengchong), but here they didn't. I really wanted to upload pictures, so I decided to just go buy one, so I have one to use for the rest of my trip (and afterwards too).

 

I went outside the internet cafe and found a nearby department store. Using sign language and pointing to my camera, I quickly found the camera section of the store, and identified the cheap card reader I wanted. There were two girls working at the desk, and I asked them how much it cost. They took the card reader, typed the number on the barcode into the computer, but nothing came up. Eventually, one girl said in English, "I don't know, sorry" and then they both just kind of sat there.

 

This was a big department store (multiple levels, kind of like a K-Mart) and I had a hard time believing that no one could tell me the price of the item I wanted. So I suggested (with sign language and noises) that they scan it using a scanner....or really anything, since I wanted to buy it!

 

They brought the card reader over to another woman, who also didn't know what to do, so then they called someone on the phone, who eventually told them a price of 25 RMB. I bought it, since that's only about 4 dollars and will be useful for the rest of my trip.

 

So the whole process in the store took almost 15 minutes. But now I have a card reader.

Mangshi: Burmese Ruili Part III

After breakfast, I continued my wandering through Ruili and made my way to the jade market. Ruili is very famous for its jade market, and a lot of the jade comes from Burma. There seemed to be at least 300 shops selling jade, rubies, gold, silver and wood carvings - most too expensive for me to be at all interested.

 

It certain parts of the market, everyone was Burmese. There were Burmese food carts, where I spotted someone else eating mohinga. There were also stalls where Burmese men were preparing betel nuts - I took a picture of a man folding up the betel nuts in the leaves. Inside the jade market, I was summoned over my a Burmese man who spoke some English. He invited me into his back room to chat - I told him that I definitely wasn't going to buy anything, and he said okay. We were joined by several other younger Burmese men, so we all sat there chatting. Like I experienced in India, they all wanted to know why I wasn't married, and they asked me questions about what I do. I told them I study food and was very happy to have tea leaf salad and mohinga.

 

The men I spoke to were all Muslim, and they said that in Ruili about half of the Burmese people are Muslim, while in Burma it's a smaller percentage. One man asked if I had been to Burma, and I said no. He said that the government of Burma was bad, and that things were better in China.

 

During our conversation, we were interrupted because a man from Guangdong who was shopping for jade came into the shop. He came into the back room and was seated next to me, so I got to watch as the man who invited me in tried to negotiate a sale. He was able to speak some Cantonese to the shopper, but after inspecting various pieces of jade, he decided not to buy anything and left. I stayed around chatting some more, then I left when a second customer came.

 

I went to a stall outside the market and tried some savory sticky rice topped with shredded coconut. It was very good so I decided to try more - a small bowl of beef curry (realllllly good), paratha, potato and chickpea curry and some pickled vegetables. Tea was provided in thermoses on every table.

Mangshi: Burmese Ruili Part II

Ruili was an interesting place to visit. Parts felt much like other Chinese cities I've visited (though with more palm trees), while other parts felt really Burmese, and quite different than anywhere I've ever been. The Burmese culture that I observed (mainly food, dress and appearance) reminded me more of places like Chennai and Madurai in India than anywhere in China.

 

My hotel last night cost only 50 RMB and was very comfortable - I slept well, and this morning my stomach felt a bit better. The shower, I should add, was one of the best I've had in China! I took another one this morning since it was so nice.

 

After a successful search for tea leaf salad last night, I set out this morning to find mohinga for breakfast - a catfish noodle soup which is a very common Burmese dish. It was even mentioned in the small Burmese food glossary of my China guidebook, so I knew that I had a good chance of finding it in Ruili.

 

The search didn't take very long. I found an alley with Burmese writing on some of the restaurants, and lots of Burmese people (easy to tell because the men wear longyi and the women wear colorful skirts or sarongs). I asked at one place if they had mohinga, and although I couldn't tell for sure, I realized that they didn't, since I could look into all the pots they had cooking. So I continued down the alley and into a big market.

 

As I was browsing in the market, a Burmese man and his 2 year old son walked up to me and said "Mohinga" while signaling an eating motion. Apparently news had spread that the white dude was looking for mohinga, and he led me back into the same alley to a different cart run by a woman who was making mohinga. Score!

 

I got to choose which kind of noodle I wanted - I chose egg noodles - then the woman put the noodles in the bowl, added lime and cilantro, some crunchy fritter pieces, a bit of dried chili flakes, and the catfish soup broth. It was delicious, and while the broth was thinner than versions I've had in San Francisco, the taste was quite similar! My small bowl cost 3 RMB, or about 40 US cents.

 

I sat at the table in the picture, while the woman's mother (also in the picture in the background) poured me tea.

 

I got to practice my Burmese today too. Jayzu tinbade = Thank You

Mangshi: Burmese Ruili Part I

I spent the morning in Ruili, then came to Mangshi this afternoon. I'll be here tonight, then back to Kunming tomorrow on a plane.

 

Here are some pictures I took of the restaurant where I had tea leaf salad. Later, at the night market, I saw that other Burmese places also had these same packets of tea leaves and crispy garlic, so it's a food available in many places in Ruili.