Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces

 12/13

We arrived early morning to Kunming in the rain (first rain we'd experienced on our entire trip). We went to the hotel we'd be staying at before flying out and dropped off our big luggage and partook in the yummy breakfast buffet. We then walked to the train station to take the high-speed train to Jianshui. On the train, the old man sitting next to us gave us some oranges. At Jianshue, we took a bus to Nansha where we caught a minivan to Xinjie, where we switched to another minivan taking us to Duoyishu. From there we walked about 10 minutes to the village of Pugalao, which has no roads: only stone paths and steps along rushing water. We checked into our guesthouse where we had splurged on a terrace view room as we were here to see the famous Yuanyang Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. The owner Lucian was nice and spoke good English as he had lived in Nepal before. He had a sweet old dog and a young cat who liked to cuddle together. So cute!

Our room had a great view of the terraces out a huge window as well as a nice electric blanket for the chilly nights. It was a bit cloudy and misty, but it was still a really nice view of the terraces at sunset. We hiked back up to Duoyishu for dinner where we met a nice Chinese lady who spoke English and helped us order. We walked back in the rain.

12/14

We woke up and watched the sunrise over the terraces from our BED with tea and had a generally slow morning. We had flower cakes from Lijiang for breakfast. 

We then spent the day walking from village to village and viewpoint to viewpoint. This time of year the terraces are flooded, so they are really beautiful as they reflect the sky or shimmer if the sun is low. The terraces were constructed by the Hani minority group who have distinctive clothing and headwear and live a very traditional life. Most of the villages can only be accessed by foot and are full of chickens and ducks and geese running around the narrow, twisting streets. The Hani also have gentle water buffalo that will be led through the paths out to the terraces. Water runs all around through little aqueducts and channels the Hani have built. Their homes are called mushroom houses because they are a bit in the shape of a mushroom and have thatched roofs. The rice here is pink rice. It was cool both to tour around the villages and to walk amongst the rice terraces and check out the viewpoints.

A very friendly and playful dog (though it didn't know how to be pet) followed us for about 9 miles of our journey and waited for us even when we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and visited villages. It seems like on all of my trips I always have a dog follow me for a long hike at some point. I always name the dog after a local food, so we called this one Bao (after the steamed bao buns), but also Bao ze Dog as a play on Mao Zedong. As we were hiking through one village, a crazy old lady, who was doing something with manure, came after us a bit with manure in her hand like she might throw it, so we had to deploy our umbrellas as protection. We wondered if in her mental state and with her age if she thought we were crazy white spirits.

Before sunset, we caught a minivan to the Bada area where we did some more hiking and then watched the sunset, which was cool reflecting on the water. Then we caught a ride back with 2 friendly women in their private car who spoke a little English. An Italian guy is staying at the guesthouse. He had started in Moscow and done the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He was the first westerner that we had conversed with since Kathmandu!

12/15

We woke up early and climbed up to the main road to watch the sunrise from Duoyishu with the hordes of Chinese tourists (and their drones). But it does afford a really spectacular high up vantage point of the terraces. After this, we walked back to our guesthouse. On our way a friendly seeming dog ran up and nipped at my calf causing a small scratch through my pants. This would eventually set off a very annoying and expensive rabies ordeal (you can read about it in a later blog). Back at the guesthouse, Lucian made us egg and noodle soup, and we sat out on the porch with the cat and dog and gazed at the terraces while we ate. 

After breakfast, we set out once again to hike through the village and terraces including Quanfuzhuang, Qingkau, and Bada villages. Again, it was nice views of the terraces, and we also walked along some more natural areas. We watched the sunset at a different spot and got a ride back with a Chinese couple staying at our guesthouse and had rented a car. Lucian had killed a chicken that morning, and he made us a dinner with chicken and other items and served us wine as well.

12/16

Again watched the sunrise from our room and had noodle soup for breakfast. We then took a minivan to Xinjie where we transferred to another minivan to Jianshui where we toured the twin dragon bridge with its 17 arches. Then hopped on a high-speed train to Kunming and walked to our hotel: Ibis. Very nice and on the 10th floor with nice views of the city. We went out to eat dinner in Kunming. Had some yummy noodles. THen we watched ping pong and short track speed skating on the TV.Yuan