Burma Road Revisited

I’m back in Kunming now, having braved the travails of the Old Burma Road. Much of the route is still in use as the New Burma Road, but there are a few patches of cobblestone road left as byways. We always knew we were on the right track, though, because of the old eucalyptus trees lining the road most of the way. It really looked quite elegant at times. My client took hundreds of pictures of road construction, tools, old cars and trucks...strange things. He had a book written by a Chinese road engineer (translated) that was his bible, he read and reread the whole thing every day, picking out landmarks along the way. He finally parted with the book when a CCTV crew caught up with us at a Songshan (refer to your WWII history books for the battle there) memorial. They interviewed us, and tried to photograph every page of that book before we finally (and reluctantly) offered it to them. With the 60th anniversary of the end of the anitfacism era coming up, there is a lot of interest in China about the Burma Road, which had been downplayed before as the Kuomintang rather than the communists were involved there. Anyway, the Chinese had a great time laughing at the weiguoren, but in an inobvious way. They’ve seen plenty of eccentrics, but this guy is a bit over the top. Being a physician, he found the food a bit alarming, I think. He avoided meat, existing mainly on rice and a few vegetables. I finally broke down and gave him my emergency ration of Starkist Lunch to Go tuna and crackers. We took him to a grocery store, but all he wanted was a box of Oreo cookies. The last night in Ruili (on the Burma border) the local agent took us to a “local flavor” restaurant which served up giant African-sized coconut grubs (deep fried) and drunken shrimp, which in China are served raw, albeit drunk. I tried the grubs (tasty if you can get past the grubbiness of it) and passed on the raw shrimp. That turned out to be a good thing, I think, because I got very airsick flying out of Mangshi on return to Kunming: never been airsick before. Yuck! I wouldn’t have wanted to see those shrimp again, nor the grubs
Sadly, work and classes will interfere with travel plans in the near future! (I got a job offer from SDSU over the phone in the San Francisco airport as my plane was boarding. Very wierd to be discussing benefits and salaries while my mind was across the Pacific Ocean)
The last part of the Road was the best, a large avenue with Dai girls in sarong skirts, Burmese men in sarong skirts, water buffalo marketrs, bikes, mopeds, tractor vehicles loaded for market...didn’t seem like a highway but rather an exotic country fair. David and I are continuing on to Hangzhou, Suzhou and Putuoshan mountain before I return home. Tonight we’ll have a farewell dinner at Mamafu’s restaurant, known for fresh breads and apple pie, as well as other western food. We have enjoyed some wonderful weather, seen giant rhododendron trees in full bloom, willows, azaleas, bougainvillea...Yunnan is a very colorful province, and early spring is probably the best time to be here. May you all have that pleasure yourselves