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MURRAY'S DIARY for the complete story.

Yunnan Province; China

Mar
2004-09-14 15:37:29

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where a dentist is a social shop like a butcher, a mini market or a barber. As a Chinese you don't want to miss the screams of your neighbours irritating child or the extracting of the tooth of your mother in law (nothing personal). So we walk into one of these big window shops, where we see a chair that looks like a dentist chair. If it hadn't been for the equipment next to the chair, we could have walked into a barbershop. The lady behind the desk in the backside of the 'shop' is very patient in hearing my story. I draw four teeth on a piece of paper while pointing at mine. That the metal wire is loose is a bit difficult to understand, but after showing it to her it seems that she understands. She directs me to the dentists chair that looks more like a electric chair but then without the leather straps. When I see the huge 220V electric manual switch in front of me on the wall, I do have the feeling it is an electric chair and am afraid that I will touch it with my foot. Raymond is constantly checking if she doesn’t hold the wrong tools in her hand, so that I will walk out of here with one of my teeth missing.

Luckily the first phrase in the Mandarin Phrasebook under “At The Dentist” says 'please don't extract'... just in case. From a drawer she takes out the two component glue and start gluing my metal wire to my front teeth. When she is finished she takes one of her electric

tools to grind of the unnecessary glue so I can close my mouth again. The electric motor is connected to the grinder by three arms and above each arm there is a string to drive the grinder. The machine looks more dangerous than the grinding itself. After half an hour she is finished, and it seems that the wire is fixed, and that for only 140 Yuan ($17,50).

Yunnans entiring nature.

The only advise for cycling through Yunnan should be: take the time. Especially going south from ...