Wedged between the Myanmar boarder and the watchful eyes of China’s Red Guard is a little piece of paradise where palm trees grown naturally and living a laid-back lifestyle is an understatement. Ruili is famous for being the gateway for Heroin, shipped directly to the Hong Kong businessmen needing a chill pill from the intense island life. Myanmar’s cultural influence abounds the clean quiet streets and men in traditional sarongs. Of coarse the Myanmar and Minority Chinese people have been pushed to the outskirts of town, where life is more interesting, food is less identifiable and sugar cane vendors lines the street.
My trip to Ruili and Dali was full of doing nothing. Taking after the locals, we (Bryan, Danny and Helen) kept our schedules free and our bellies full. We went out for a bike ride for 4 hours seeking outer villages where Chinese is foreign but found ourselves tired and lost. My rickety old Chinese, one-gear bike climbed the small hills lining the road with great difficulty. I had hoped to find tucked away villages, accessible only by foot, but instead found vast farm fields of dead plants. Through a few missed turns and a setting sun, we decided to hitch hike back to the major junction on a dump truck. That brought us to the nearest big village and from there we took a good look around and bussed back to Ruili.
The next day we took a taxi to the boarder, hoping to walk across the minimally guarded crossing, to claim we had stepped foot into Myanmar, but no such luck. On the other side was a yellow/gold tiered palace, similar to the Thai designed rooftops, welcoming boarder crossers. At the gate, there was only a faded sign depicting the beauty of Myanmar and welcoming visitors to the ‘Golden Land of a Thousand years.’ Not as eventful as I had hoped. So we walked through the rows and rows of second hand electronics merchants ready to sell you that last minute DVD player or radio, before getting to grandmother’s house. Everyone needs a new pair of binoculars and plastic banjo before entering Myanmar. If that doesn’t suffice, than you can always buy a kilo of rump roast and a bag of peanuts for the road trip.
Heading back into town, we went looking for Myanmar food but were sadly disappointed to find there isn’t much too choose. We had a few Burmese sweets and Samosas at a local tea shop but everyone eats Chinese food. But it is worth mentioning the cases of Myanmar and Thai rum, indicating Myanmar people have priorities. Disappointing. My new philosophy on traveling is, I probably won’t return to a country if the food isn’t spectacular. Seeing as I didn’t enter Myanmar, I will hold out passing judgment until I eat a proper meal.
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