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Published: October 12th 2008
The most beautiful tea drying scenery!
Menglou got to be the most beautiful traditional village we got to see along the way...wish we had more time...
After nearly got our backpack leaving without us, getting lost in the jungle, meeting our new traveling companion (Yako the dog) and spending the night at Ms Shu house, we were ready for more adventures! A few tips about traveling in remote area of China ...
Trip duration Whichever the number of times, you would ask how long it would take from point A to B, you would actually never get the same answer...
The "walk" from Yako to Bulangshan was a prime example! We were told 5 hours by Ms Shu when Orchid from Mei Mei cafe was saying 7 to 8 hours and an other local at Yako told the only other tourist we saw during this part of the trip..."nah....no more than 3 hours..."
Trip planning (which basically comes down to how much water you are gonna carry...)
So, from a trip ranging from 3 to 8 hours, how do you pack? ...mmmm....
As a side note, we were told at Mei
Burma..next door
as you reach the "Da Lu" big path, going up hill, the burmese border is well ...just on the other side! Mei that ones could find a lot of tiny villages along the way where drinks & food could be purchased...
Orientation "After the paddy field turn right, then up hill, at the 41st bamboo take a left, don’t miss the tiny path on your right and then keep going until you reach the 5th tea crop where you would need to turn again. Be CAREFUL if you miss this turn, you will end up walking a few hours and end up where you initially started..." Clear, no?! ...
So, fully confident, after two bowl of spicy rice noodles soup, we headed to Bulangshan...2 bottles of water each, a crystal clear indication of the way we were supposed to head to (basically, Ms Shu pointed out a few trees at 10+ km away on top of a hill, and told us that's where the "Da Lu" (big road) to Bulangshan would be...) and expecting anything between 3 and 8 hours, we were truly looking forward to this journey!
Yako - Menglou: a long walk!
And on the road we went... Following a tiny muddy path, walking by more tea & paddy fields, up and
No...this is not a NB ad!
(altough it could have been!)
By then we were so thirsty!! truly a challenge for the mind and the body! down hill, we were discovering at each step a bit more of the amazing Xishuangbanna sceneries.
As far as orientation is concerned, well...Trying our best to head toward the few trees Ms Shu had pointed out earlier in the morning, and checking with local farmers (when we got to see some...didn’t happen very often) whether we were still on the right direction, we indeed managed to remain on the right path...Again, no signage and lots of time we would have to "pick a way"....
About three hours later, we indeed reached the "Da Lu" (big road) which is a slightly wider version of the "Xiao Lu" and up hills we went...
As we kept ascending, the path went from muddy with the occasional tiny river/ water fall to bright red, hard and dry with holes so big that clearly no cars or truck could be using this road...
And indeed, for the next 4 hours we saw absolutely no one....
So, back to the initial travel tips...
Trip planning: still wondering where were supposed to be the tiny shops along the way!! As we kept ascending, getting thirstier and thirstier, and starting to get sunburned, we
Non identified snake
Judging by the color...mmm..would not want to accidentally walk on it! ran out of water...
Guess that's when we started to eat some of the candies we had initially brought for the kids (had plenty of them...so still managed to have plenty when we indeed arrived at the next village) and hoping at every turn to discover a small store...didn’t happen...
The closer we actually got from a man-made construction, was something that looks like a border control tower...and indeed, the Burma, also called Myanmar was on the other side of the hill...mmm...
Yako was not doing too good either...and Cedric at some stage ended up carrying him...hahaha :-) Still laughing when I think about it!
Lucky enough, a few minutes later we spotted a tiny puddle...Yako managed to drink, us to fill our empty bottle with a bit of water (for the dog...) and indeed, got lucky as it was the only one we saw the whole time we were up there!
Common sense would say that once you went up for a few hours, you would most likely go down at some stage...and indeed, half way we then started to walk down and that's when we realized that it is actually much easier/ less wearing to
Yako, with his very own bottle of water!
Cedric did end up carrying him at some stage as we had no more water and no sight of waterfall anywhere near by! since...we have learned! at the first fall, empty bottles were filled in! climb up!
My right ankle and knee were starting to hurt badly and we were both truly thirsty!
And finally...the sight of a village!! Went from truly exhausted to animated as a kid! As we walked into what remains
the most beautiful tiny minority village we got to see, we couldn’t help but enjoy every second of it! Here, a Buddhist temple with bright orange robes hanging outside, there tea drying up on mats, looking closer old people chilling out looking at us curiously,
and finally...a grocery store! Quite a few kids were seated there with their mother, and a few laughs and pictures later, some grown up kids from the village offered to take us to Bulangshan (an additional hour and half walk...) on their trail motorbike! Sounds good!
Menglou - Bulangshan: and on the back of motorbikes we went!
The tiny path was as bumpy and rutted as before and the sight of Cedric holding the back of the motorbike with one hand and Yako with the other one was truly hilarious!
Ahahaha...
after trekking around Xishuangbanna, Yako the dog was riding his first motorbike! Full speed, jumping here and there and
Bulangshan as we enter...
Sun coming down...7 hours and half trek, short stop in Menglou, 20mn motorbike ride, "border" crossing and the final 20 mn walk toward the "city" center taking tight turns by deep ravines, the 20mn ride was really fun! And in the middle of nowhere,
that's when we had to stop at something that look like a border control.... First question first...from what we could recall, didn’t feel like we had crossed any border (although we did get really close from the Myanmar one...)...
Most importantly, how were we going to go through that one without Cedric carrying his passport...?
The other way being a 7hours+ walk back to Yako...
That's when we bumped into the same foreign guy with his Chinese girlfriend we had previously met at our first stop...they had to walk down their motorbike too and were arguing with the border control agent...
Although his Chinese girlfriend was carrying all her paperwork with her, they didn’t want to let her through...the explanation that they gave then was something about the fact that indeed it was China on both side (not sure of the interest of a border control then...), somehow she couldn’t travel freely due to the special status of the Xishuangbanna....
Funny enough, they didn’t make much problem to Cedric who didn’t have his passport but started to argue that Yako, A well deserved rest!
7 hours trekking at that stage..about to reach the first village! our dog, couldn't cross as he didn’t have his paperwork with him!!
Perfectly make sense...
Anyway...what's the point of a border control with China on both sides to start with!!
ok...got the reply when I came back to Shanghai....along the whole Lao/ Myanmar/ China borders, check points going as far as 100 km in-land are spread around...historically, this was to control any movement of troops and prevent invasion...today, well....looks like those agents were really bored as they kept arguing back and forth...
At the end, they did accept to let us go through...on foot! Although the local kids go every day to Bulangshan without being stopped by the guards, they clearly seemed annoyed that those kids were making money...
Painfully walked the last 15mn before finally reaching a local tiny hotel... and heading for some spicy rice noodle soups and veggies!
That was a long day... and by 9PM we were both fully asleep, looking forward to the next part of the trip!
Next: From "Apple pie with ice cream" to "out in the wild type of experience"...Mandian Rain Forest, Xishuangbanna trekking adventure
Trip around Xishuangbanna, Yunnan - part 1: Xishuangbanna, Yunnan...Trekking adventure through chinese minorities' villages
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david
non-member comment
pas mal
Salut Laetitia, je suis ton treck depuis qq semaines, je te passe le bonjour, Ca a l'air bien sympa le Yunnan. Il faudra que tu me racontes les details (surtout l'accessibilite) la prochaine fois qu'on se voit, ca me dit bien. Have fun! David