如果你位于西双版纳区的行政中心景洪，那么你就有很多机会去附近的各民族聚居区游览。但我还是选择了傣族村作为我的第一个旅行地。傣族是该地区人口偏多的大族，有2000多年的历史，信仰南传上座部佛教即小乘佛教，而他们的体貌(与汉族相比)有明显差别，一眼就能分辨出来：个头稍矮、黄褐色皮肤，以及与泰国人而非中国人相近的脸庞。傣族居住在以木柱为梁、茅草树叶为顶的双层竹楼里，他们华丽的民族服装在持续的阳光下发出绚丽的色彩，尤其是在泼水仪式上——不仅是娱乐的好方式，更能够赶走热带烈日的酷暑。

    The next morning I took a trip to a street market in Menghai, 50 km from Jinghong. Here I discovered that my hard-earned language skills were quite useless when dealing with the people that come down from the mountains every Sunday to sell their beautiful ethnic craftwork and self grown food products – they all spoke their tribal language, making my putonghua redundant.

    第二天早上 ......