hello again, i'm now right in the south of yunnan on my way to laos and it really feels like i've already left china. this place is boiling hot, which makes a change from the constant rain in kunming, the roads are lined with palm trees and, i know it sounds funny but, i can smell south east asia! it's not a bad smell, well not always, i think it just all this heat and humidity. i haven't really done much in jinghong just walked around the city for a while and visited the botanical gardens, most of the time it's just so hot you don't want to a thing so i spent a bit of time chilling out reading books and watching films, mostly doing this to stay clear of the freaky welsh guy who is sharing the room with me. this guy is mad! we went out for a drink the first night i was there and got chatting to this canadian guy. everything seemed fine for a while and then the welsh guy sort of lost it a little and started to argue with the canadian guy about some rubbish and he started looking really weird, well weirder than he did normally, and it's just come to me, he looked like the zombie from 'tales from the crypt'. needless to say i didn't wake him when i got up in the morning and was glad to find that he had left for kunming by the time i had got back to the room. well as i said i'm heading into laos now so there is one more stop off, i hope, in mengla and then across the northern boarder of laos. i have no idea about laos yet because i haven't even looked at the guide book atall, but i haven't heard a bad word about it yet so i'm really looking forward to it. cheers all. christopher