Blogs from Jinghong, Yunnan, China, Asia

We are back in Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna prefecture, the three-county region at the very southern tip of Yunnan province that we have been exploring for the past week. While we are enjoying the ambiance of this small tropical city, we are also using it as a base for further excursions to the countryside: a pretty great bike ride along the river yesterday and an incredible visit to the Yiwu tea mountain today. Yesterday morning Kathy, Karen, Jim, and I rented bikes in town and followed the city bike paths and dodged traffic until we got to the outskirts on the east side of the Lancang (a.k.a. Mekong) River. There we found the river road, which, contrary to the report in Lonely Planet, is not built up and touristy. Heading south towards Menghan the road ... read more

Yes I am leaving China, it has been fun, but it has been enough as well and I am looking forward to something new. And yes this blog will be about my last week in this country, with a few thoughts about it, and my trip and time here, and a few thoughts totally disconnected from China and my leaving it. As such it might seem a bit incoherent but, ah well, at least it is a tad different. Coherency is over-rated anyway! Lets start with my feelings on leaving China. To be honest I am happy to be leaving. I like China, don't get me wrong, but I have been coming back to this country three times in the last year and a half and I have been roaming it for a total of seven ... read more

Day 11 This is our last night in Xi Shuang Ban Na, tomorrow we are flying to Kun Ming until friday, then it's back to Beijing on Friday and head home on Sat. Today was pretty cool...first stop was a JiNuoShan Village. This village was a way better than the other villages we went to yesterday. The JiNuoShan were found in 1979 so they have had much more time to develop themselves and seem to be doing very well. They make their money solely on tourism. They have opened up their village to the public to see their way of life. One of the interesting things that I have learned is unlike the rest of China, girls are very important and the boys are less significant. There is no limit on how many children they can ... read more

Aixiang, a man with a broad smile and a three pack a day habit, has spent all of his fifty years living next to the Mekong. He knows the 20 mile stretch between Ganlanba and Jinghong like the back of his hand, but of the other 2,800 miles he hasn't much idea. He constantly referred to the 'old days' - meaning the 70's, when he was a teenager and during the course of the day he spent with us he told us how 'his' river had changed. When Aixiang was a lad, the river offered it's bounty up to surrounding villagers. They fished, they collected river moss, and they panned for gold. We came across ladies fashioning the moss into paper-thin pancakes - green lace tracery spread onto circular orange boards - before being slipped off ... read more

Visit www.greatrideforward.com to follow the trip. More pics, stories, and moto. ------------- Before our trip started, one of the major conundrums I was mulling over was exactly how to write about motorcycling. Sure, the adventures of our non-riding days would surely make for great stories, but how exactly do you write about 500km of highways? It’s easy enough to write about problems on the road, but what about when the path is smooth? When Point A and Point B meet with ease? I know now that retelling the ride isn’t the problem. The problem is actually getting off the bike and taking time to write. Our first days of adventure and misadventure deserve a lengthy rehashing, but for now a quick recap of the major highlights, more a teaser for the stories to come: Day 1 ... read more

I bought a bus ticket from Jinghong to Louang Namtha in Laos from the Mekong Cafe in Jinghong. At least they got the departure date right. The bus left at 6.40am. I misjudged my time and ended up being the last passenger to board. I was the only foreignor on the bus. I had the worst seat in the bus - the back row side, so 2nd seat of 5 in a row. The back of the seat does not recline and in this case the window seat passenger was travelling with a long narrow box that he stored at his feet, streching into my foot area. I travelled the whole ride of more than 8 hours with one foot higher than the other, putting pressure on my butt and back muscles. So we departed the ... read more

I arrived in Jinghong at 8 am on Nov 28. Two Israelis has been on the sleeper bus with me so I joined them for the cab ride to the first hostel listed in the China lonelyplanet. We arrived to find that although the signs remained for the hostel, the hostel no longer operated as one. It was now a dormitory for a local college. We grabbed a second cab and headed for the next listed hostel. Turns out it no longer existed - the street it was on dwindled to a narrow alley without us locating the street address. I finally asked the cabbie to bring us to one of the cafes/travel services listed in the lonelyplanet. The cafe staff was able to arrange for accomodation - I spent 70 RMB per night at a ... read more