Word: mekong
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...those after something more serene, Banna also has plenty to offer. Few people associate China with lush rain forest, Southeast Asian culture and wild jungle elephants, but Banna is more Mekong Delta than Middle Kingdom and has long been a backpackers' stopover between Laos and the "real" China. Because most of the domestic tourists can't get enough of gambling, sex and weird botany, more discerning visitors can find themselves blissfully alone on the many spectacular jungle treks and wildlife and tribal village trips on offer...
...taxi into Jinghong presents an almost eerie surprise after arriving at the airport with the harried hordes of package tourists: a sleepy, tree-lined city along the lazy Mekong, surrounded by low mountains. The tour groups vanish: variances in Western and Chinese tastes work to segregate the city. Domestic tourists stay across the river in glitzy, Vegas-style hotels offering all-day shows of tribal dancing and wild animal routines that would outrage even the mildest environmentalist. Foreigners mostly stay in the many small hotels and guesthouses in the old town, such as the clean and quiet Banna Guesthouse, where...
...beautiful and interesting excursions, the country outside Jinghong provides endless choices. Walkers can enjoy jungle jaunts along the Mekong and through Dai or Hani villages (see DETOUR). The main draw is the cultural diversity of tribal minorities. Predominantly populated by the Buddhist Dai, Banna is ethnically linked to the hill tribes of Laos, Burma and northern Thailand. Other smaller groups in the area are the Hani and Lahu peoples, mainly of Tibetan stock. Known for their hospitality and resistance to assimilation, the indigenous cultures provide a color and individualism very different from that found in other, more monolithic parts...
...generations before us listened to rock 'n' roll to show that they were better--freer, wilder--than their parents. We listened to our music to show that we were better--worldlier, smarter--than our peers. Sure, the '60s had cult bands like the Velvet Underground, but G.I.s in the Mekong Delta and grad students with deferments all listened to the Doors. When Madison Avenue later tried to reach them, it did so with songs like the Beatles' Revolution that were part of everybody's pop-culture patrimony. Only by the '80s could there be a thing called "college rock": music...
...Heart of Darkness, is about an Army officer, Captain Willard (Sheen), sent to find and "terminate with extreme prejudice" the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has "gone insane" and set himself up in Cambodia as lord of an army of Montagnard headhunters. On his long trek up the Mekong River, Willard learns that in this war, man is ever at risk of becoming the thing he hates, the unknown he fears...