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Published: October 4th 2008
Pick a place ... since my last trip in Guizhou China, completely last minute and unplanned I had only one thing in mind: do it again!
China national holidays gave the perfect excuse and three days prior we indeed picked a place: Xishuangbanna here we come!
An exotic name for a destination described as "A tropical and minority area, far away from the rest of China". Guess the word "tropical" and "far away" convinced Cedric and I to give it a try! Day 1: Arrival in Jinhong Early morning wake up, flight to Kunming from Shanghai followed by a 45 mn flight to reach Jinhong the capital of Xishuangbanna. Just perfect to catch up some sleep after a very short night on Friday!
Jinhong is a medium size laid back city, highly influenced by the nearby Lao and Thailand with colorful buildings and palm trees lining up along the streets.
We headed straight to
Mei Mei cafe on a look out for Orchid the owner of the place...this was about how much research I had done prior to the trip! a blog from a fellow traveler who visited her cafe four years ago and mentioned how helpful
Sugar can stand at Damenlong market
shortly before our bus left...without us!she had been by helping them to map out their trek was to be our starting point.
Surprisingly enough, looks like every single cab driver know Mei Mei cafe! and as we walk in, we were indeed welcomed by Orchid! Four years later, still there and ready to help out!
No guide, nor pre-arranged accommodation for this trip, 30 mn later, a very rough itinerary was drafted as we look at the local map in Chinese together with Orchid.
This amazing trip was to take us from Damenlong to Bulangshan before heading to the north part of Xishuangbanna to experience the tropical rain forest and waterfalls of Mandian. Day 2: and on the road we went! ... Jinhong-Damenlong-Mengshuo-Guangming-Yako Early morning wake up (again...as usual...), bus station 2 and first bus to Damenlong, a small village located one hour and half from Jinhong and the starting point of our trip.
What used to take up to four hours before, was now a "fast paced" trip on a proper road (doesn’t happen often out there) through rice and banana fields, passing by tiny villages and truly starting to give us a small taste of what was
ahead of us,
As we enter Damenlong through the main dust road (not knowing that is was Damenlong...), our bus got completely stuck in traffic...well, "traffic" might not be the most appropriate word, let's just say that the Sunday market had taken over the road and trucks/ cars/ bus/ motorbikes/ tractors were unsuccessfully trying to get through...5 mn later, not having moved at all, our driver decided to get out for a chat/ smoke, letting us inside the bus...
Won’t have mind to get a closer look too, so through the driver door we exited from the bus and started to walk around by the main dust road, keeping an eye on the red bus where we still had our bags...
First contact with the local minorities , women wearing the traditional Dai outfit made of colorful sarong & local street delicacies everywhere you look (in between the sugar can, vegetable and fruit stands) and we were both completely absorbed by everything taking place in front of us, when Cedric shouted
" Run! The bus just left!!" Somehow, the road had cleared without us noticing and well the bus had left, with our bags, and without noticing that
Cedric crossing the paddy field...
On the way to Guangming from Mengshuo...as green as it gets! the two laowai (foreigners) were not in the bus anymore!!
So we raced.... and at the corner managed to spot our red bus parked down the road by the bus station....guess that's when we realized that this was Damenlong and that we had reached our first stop...lucky lucky...can’t really imagine doing this trip without our small bag pack!
The driver had closed the doors and left to chat with his friends, our bags still inside (ouf...) and within few minutes we had recovered everything and had our first really good laugh!
9AM and the next bus (and the only one of the day...) was leaving at noon... Cedric took over and found us a driver that was ready to take us to Mengshuo as soon as Cedric was done with his first rice noodle soup! Life is good!
Driver did mention that the road condition was really bad...and shortly after leaving Damenlong we indeed started to understand the extent of the words "really bad". The dust flat road had been replaced by a up and down hills slippery mountain road, covered with clay mud, with holes and rocks and within minutes, we realized that the hour and half ahead
Yako, our trekking buddy!
Met along the way, he followed us the entire trip...on foot, by car/bus/moto, he made this trip unforgotable! was going to be well...bumpy & sliding...
with our life in the hands of our driver! Our driver, who normally works in the rubber trees plantation turned out to be exceptional! and the view, simply breath taking!
The only road connecting Damenlong to Mengshuo actually ends there so on foot we were from that moment on and for the next two days!
As we walk through the village and loaded our bags with drinks, kids enjoying their week off holidays were looking at us, some smiling and saying hello some more shy taking refuge behind their mother.
Locals indicated us the direction of
Guangming, a tiny village located 30 mn away where the actual trail through the jungle is supposed to start...well. at least that is what we were told at Mei Mei cafe...
Guangming is a lovely tiny minority village and this was our first "paddy field" crossing... shortly after reaching the village, locals pointed out the way to the trail (up hills obviously...) and the direction of Yako village, our next destination.
No signage there but only a vague indication of the way we were supposed to head toward...easy...well...not really!!
The Xiao Lu (small path) hadn't been used for ages and we were soon to walk in the jungle on a casi non existant path where every 10-15 mn you could go left or right ...after the "pick a way" game, we realised that the three hours trek would most likely hand up being a outdoor camping night lost in the jungle so we decided to go back the way we came in...
Obviously, this is when the locals said that indeed, the odds that we would have made it to Yako were well very limited!! and the best way is to go through the "Da Lu" (main road)...really wish they had shared this breaking news with us earlier but well, that is part of the fun!
While heading back to Mengshuo where the main road starts, local kids walked by along us together with a
tiny white dog ...who just happened to be there...
Kids crossed by the rice field and the dog well started to follow us...
As we managed to locate the "Da Lu" (a clay mud path up and down the mountain), the dog kept following us, obviously ready for a walk!
Shortly after starting this 3 hours
walk,
we renamed to dog Yako, which was the name of the village we were heading to , and indeed, it truly looks like he knew the way!
Leading most of the time, as we finally reached the end of the road overlooking TWO villages and had to pick a way (obviously no signage...), he turned left while we decided to go right...15mn downhill, and Yako coming back to us running after obviously giving up on showing us the way! as we asked our way around we were told that Yako (the village) was the other one!! Looks like the dog indeed knew his way around!
30 mn later, using shortcuts between the two villages, we finally reached the first village where we would spend the night,
Yako is a tiny wooden village where the
Akka minority grows tea & rice, raise pigs and chickens and maintain strong traditions. As we walk through the village, trying very hard to find a local family ready to host us for the night (found out after that only 4 to 5 families host foreigners in the village...), Yako decided to catch a tiny chicken right in front of Cedric and
Ms Shu's father
Yako village - house where we spent the night the local farmer!! Not exactly the best way to establish the contact with locals!!
Yelling and lamenting herself on the dead chicken, the "grandma" was soon leaving (ouf...) after a small compensation and Cedric had even managed to found us the perfect home for the night! We were welcomed by Ms Shu, a mother leaving with her parents while her four grown up kids were living in Jinhong,
Her house like all the other houses in the village was raised on stilts, with the livestock kept underneath. A nice tiny terrace on which the tea freshly picked by Ms Shu was drying up, was to be our first well deserved rest area,
As the sun was going down over the valley, we enjoyed some local tea while chatting with Ms Shu, sharing cigarettes with her father, and having good laughs about Yako, the dog who had followed us since Guangming. As Ms Shu prepared the dinner, we went for a short walk around the village, enjoying the sundowner and the open shoes!! Yako obviously still following us, we were hard not to be noticed!
Dinner was entirely made of local products: rice noodle soup (love those
one...) spicy as it should, greens, baby onions, stirred fried pork and local rice! Together with a fresh glass of local LanCang (mekong) beer :-) Yami !
Seated on tiny stools, by the wooden fire on which our meal had been cooked, corns drying up above our head, this simple moment was unique. Chatting and laughing with Ms Shu, learning a bit more about life in a traditional Akka village, how the "boss" would come to collect the tea four times a year, her kids in the "big" city who would be back the next day to celebrate October 1st with their mother, and
all those little things that make the whole moment unforgettable. Outside, pitch dark night, and as we walked to the tiny terrace for a after dinner drink, we suddenly looked up, and WAOUH !!! Just couldn’t believe the number of stars that were in the sky that night!
Cannot actually recall to have seen so many stars in my life before! Simply incredible, and we were soon laying down looking at the sky and counting the number of falling stars in this star-studded night...
The next day was going to be challenging...8 hours plus
trek through dense sub-tropical forest & up and down the mountains...
Sweet dreams...
And a special thanks to Cedric for making this trip possible...merci !!!!!! our adventure doesn't stop here... :-)
part 2:
Xishuangbanna, Yunnan...Trekking adventure part 2: the one from Yako to Bulangshan, pick a way! part 3:
From "Apple pie with ice cream" to "out in the wild type of experience"...Mandian Rain Forest, Xishuangbanna trekking adventure
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Bobby Rica
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Your A Very Proud Traveller! Great!
hi i found your blog very fascinating. Traveling makes us learn a lot of things. Things that we can share to everyone. By traveling we relieved our stress from the things that we do everyday. Through traveling we met a lot of people, be friends with them and learn from them their culture and just anything we can learn from them that we can use from our everyday life later on. I do have my own blog that actually tackles things about Costa Rica. Check it out at Bobby Rica