If you stay in Mengla overnight you may be surprised of the abundance of love 'shops' in the main street. It feels like being in the red light district, every that kind of place is by the main road, next to hotels, one next to another. Girls are sitting on the sofa waiting for cosumers to get inside while some other girls stand on the street in sexy outfit. If you decide to take their service use condom. They look very young, perhaps many of them are teens lured into sex market and HIV is on rise in the region. It's kinda wierd to see prostitution that opnely on the streets in China but it is becomming more obvious that frontier areas are black hole for sex tourism, child prostitution, drugs and weapon business for the local and regional elites. One can only wonder where is the limit.
Written Aug 6, 2008
There are no ATMs in Mengla which accept foreign cards and if you arrive there on weekends (i.e. from Laos) when banks are closed you'll have to change money on the black market. Usually there is one guy waiting for new costumers right at the regional bus station in the center and he may approach you for his exchange 'service'. Be updated for recent rates if you don't want to be cheated too much (or buy some yuan already in Laos - it's easily obtained regularly through banks or black markets in Oudomxay or LNT).
Written Jul 23, 2008
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There are no ATMs in Mengla which accept foreign cards and if you arrive there on weekends (i.e. from Laos) when banks are closed you'll have to change money on...
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It's city in transition - nowsadays typical Chinese trade city with traces of Dai and Burmese atmosphere. Not much of their architecture have been left here, though. And has infamous rate of illegal...
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