Week 13: Xishuangbanna

Ever since our week-long excursion “way back when” I had been wanting to go to Xishuangbanna. I didn’t have a particularly compelling reason why, other than I love pineapple rice and wanted to see the elephants. However, instead of going to Xishuangbanna, I went to Yuanyang and Bamei. No regrets about that, but I still wanted to go see this more “South-east Asian” and tropical area of Yunnan. The poor other SIT-ers that had to listen to me go on about this, but finally, “push-came-to shove” and I decided last Thursday that I was going to leave for Jinghong (the capital of Xishuangbanna the next day.
I had many reasons for justifying this trip to myself (I’ve been wanting to go; birthday present to myself, an exercise in self-reliance, etc.). And ultimately, I’m SO glad I went. It ended up being not exactly what I expected-but what I needed and better because it ended up being a really good chance for me to practice Chinese.

The hostel from the entrance; the "jungle oasis" in the middle of the city

I arrived in Jinghong Saturday morning after boarding a 10 PM bus from Kunming. We got in JUST before 7 and I ended up making friends with the three other foreigners that had been on my bus (all French) as we set off, copies of Lonely Planet in hand, to find a trekking place and/or a hostel. The thing about Lonely Planet is that its great in helping you find cool places, but once you get there- its not so helpful. We spent a good part of the morning wandering around, but fortunately we found Banna café, a place that had been recommended to the French as having really good treks.

Dai Village as seen on the bike ride

Initially, I almost got talked into do this awesome-sounding trek that included seeing lots of jungle, spending one night in a Hanyi minority village and another night in a Dai village on the way to essentially the border China/Myanmar, but I really had it in my mind that I wanted to go for a bike ride Saturday afternoon, trek Sunday and come back Monday in time to get a sleeper bus back to Kunming, to be back in time for my birthday. I ended up being able to get a guide all to myself for my “two-day, one-night” trek, and even though she could speak a little English, we spoke only Chinese. (Not that we spoke that much; we were limited to my Chinese vocabulary). The first part of the trek was pretty easy, just walking along roads through a Dai couple villages and the ‘Banna countryside. We made it to “THE lake” (I have the name of the lake in characters, but I forget the exact meaning) in time for a late lunch. Then, apparently, the real trek started.

THE Lake and me on the touristy side of the lake

Our goal was a Bulong village some distance past the other side of the lake, so we trekked through the trees along the bank of the lake, then through some rice fields, then through some sugar can fields, more rice fields, then finally made it to a road. We walked along the road for another hour, and then, tired, sweaty, dusty, and covered in spider webs (I kept walking into them when I wasn’t physically capable of watching my step AND looking slightly above eye-level at all the spider webs) arrived at the Bulong village. I also somehow managed to collect a ridiculous amount of burrs at the hem of my pants and on my shoelaces.

My second favorite picture from Yunnan

My guide, Xiao Yu, was also “Bulongzhuren,” knew our host family and could speak our host family dialect. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason this was the second day electricity had been out in this village. It was an interesting picture, because although they couldn’t use the electric rice cooker, they still cooked everything in a fire pit in the kitchen, and throughout dinner-prep and dinner I saw numerous cell phones in the hands of all the people going and coming. I don’t know if this was a normal thing or a result of the electricity, but 11 (!) of us ate together by candlelight.
Though they did (usually) have electricity, apparently, they didn’t have toilets. Not even the squat kind. That’s always awkward and you ask for the bathroom, are told where to go, and then look around stupidly before realizing . . . OH. . . OHHHHHHH, yes, umm, okay.
The next morning we hired a motorcycle to take us back to the main town. The view going along the road of THE lake as the mist was rising, with palm trees, rice field, pu’er tea plants and mountains in the background was BEAUTIFUL. From the main town we caught a ride back to Jinghong in time for lunch.

Xiao Yu and I at 'Banna cafe

My “plan” ended up working out really well (if I do say so myself), and I made it back to Kunming early morning on my 21st birthday. I had another mini-adventure finding the correct city bus back to Min Da, but still managed to make it back to my dorm by 8:15.

Artwork, cheese, crackers, and chocolate compliments of Kara

Thanks to many, many people (special “shout-outs” go to James and Kara) I had a GREAT 21st birthday. It was DEFINITELY memorable (or well, at least most of it. . .)