Live Your Best Lives
After a busy year, I took a few days off to relax in the early part of New Year's Day. I want to find a warm place in winter, and I have always been reluctant to give up Yunnan, so I chose Xishuangbanna, which is mainly rest-based, and the itinerary is more relaxed and happy.
Day 1
Arrive at Xishuangbanna Airport in the evening, the pick-up point is in the airport parking lot, and the whole process is self-service pick-up with the mobile APP, which is very convenient. I have to complain about the Chevrolet I rented this time, the car is relatively old, there is no reversing radar, I have encountered such an old car in a car rental company for the first time, bad reviews.
In the evening, I strolled around and ate in the Starlight Night Market. The night market is very lively, the stall owners are wearing Dai national costumes, and the night center is the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is a very distinctive night market.
The side of Starlight Night Market near Jinglan Hotel is relatively clean and is a place where you can take pictures.
Figure 1: Shwedagon Pagoda
Figure 2: Starlight Night Market
Figure 3: A secluded corner of Starlight Night Market
Day 2:
In the morning, visit Manting Park and the General Buddha Temple, which is the former site of the Dai King's Palace, and you can visit the Dai style buildings and gardens. The park also has folk song and dance performances, parrot shows and elephants. The General Buddha Temple is close to Manting Park, and you can walk through the park.
In the afternoon, I went back to the hotel to rest, and in the evening I visited the Mange Tropical Fruit Market, most of the fruits were eaten in Guangdong, and there were also unheard of fruits. You can taste it first and then buy it, and finally buy custard and Thai pineapple, both sweet and delicious.
Figure 4: Manting Park
Figure 5: Manting Park
Figure 6: Manting Park
Figure 7. General Buddhist Temple
Figure 8: General Buddha Temple (I don't know what the Buddhist temple is particular about taking pictures, I didn't take pictures, this is an online picture).
Figure 9: Strange fruit
Day 3
On the third day, I went to Wild Elephant Valley and entered through the south gate. I have to say that the ticket office in Wild Elephant Valley is relatively chaotic, a bit like a small city train station, and several staff members recommend packages. I originally wanted to participate in the rainforest elephant herding, but the staff said that this project was too popular by Internet celebrities, and now there are about 12-15 tourists at a time when there are about 12-15 tourists, we feel that there are too many people, and taking pictures and playing may not be enjoyable, so we chose to visit the wild elephant rescue center, 198/person, including tickets, one-way cable cars, and rescue center visits. In fact, you can buy tickets separately, and the plank road in the scenic area is about 4km round trip, which is not very long, and you can walk. The rescue center is near the north gate, if you want to visit the rescue center, you can actually enter from the north gate, and the parking lot at the north gate is also more spacious.
There are several elephants in the rescue center, and the staff will introduce the origin of these elephants, some are found injured and brought back for rescue, some are baby elephants born in the rescue center, and some have been captured and renovated by destroying the vehicles of surrounding residents for a long time. Finally, you can feed a baby elephant carrots and take pictures. The baby elephant is very well-behaved and will wave his hand with his nose when leaving.
When we entered the door, we asked the staff if we could see wild elephants recently. The staff said that at 4-5 o'clock in the evening these days, there were wild elephants bathing on the observation deck of the second phase of the plank road. So we walked around the park, waited, waited, and walked back and forth on the plank road. When I walked the plank road in the second lap, I found elephant poop on the side of the stream, and found a mud pit left by the elephant rolling by the river! We hurriedly ran to the observation deck, and finally lived up to our expectations, and arrived at the observation deck of the second phase of the plank road at half past four, and saw wild elephants, and 17 came one after another! Among them are the Ranran family, the Daqueer family, and two solitary elephants. The park staff observes the elephants and recognizes the elephant families that they visit frequently. The origin of the name of the Ranran family is because a baby elephant in the family was injured in the foot and was rescued by the rescue center, and people hope that it can return to nature in the future and name it Ranran, and the family it belongs to is called the Ranran family. The female elephant, the leader of the Da Missing Ear Family, scraped off a large piece of her ear when she was traveling through the rainforest, so it was called the Great Missing Ear Family. Elephants are a matrilineal society, with female elephants living with baby elephants and male elephants acting alone. The staff of the two male elephants who visited this time did not know each other.
The baby elephant is very naughty, sometimes lying down in the water, sometimes leaning on the female elephant. Elephants lack minerals in their food, so they eat some dirt. Sometimes the baby elephant does not use its trunk to fish for dirt in the river, but sticks its nose into the mother's mouth to fish for dirt, which is very interesting. Elephants do not have gallbladders, poor digestion, and can only absorb 30% of the food they eat, and excrete all the rest.Baby elephants will eat a little poop from the mother elephant to help build a healthy gut flora. When the elephant herd meets, they will "shake hands" with their noses to show friendship.
We sat on the observation deck for more than half an hour and were reluctant to leave. The staff of the park heard that there were 17 wild elephants here, and they came over one after another to see, and it is said that it is rare to see such a large herd of wild elephants. Generally, wild elephants appear more in Wild Elephant Valley from February to March, but I didn't expect to see such a grand occasion at the end of December this year. Friends who want to see wild elephants must take the plank road in the early morning or at dusk, when there are few tourists, wild elephants will walk near the plank road. Wild Elephant Valley has a WeChat public account with maps and park activity times.
Figure 10: Baby elephant at the rescue center
Figure 11: Wild elephant herd
Figure 12: Gray langur
Figure 13: Map of Wild Elephant Valley (red circle is where wild Asian elephants are observed).
Day 4
On the fourth day, we visited the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Overall, I feel that the West District is a large park specially developed for tourists, with many attractions suitable for taking pictures, and the famous Wang Lian Scenic Area is also in the West District. If you only play the West District, you can walk or take a battery car, and the stops of the battery car are well arranged, making it more relaxed and enjoyable. In fact, only a small part of the East District has been developed, and the larger area that is not open to tourists is a tropical rainforest reserve. The East District has developed tropical rainforest and green stone forest scenic spots, which are very original and very interesting, and you can experience the feeling of shuttling through the tropical rainforest, and see the unique phenomena of the tropical rainforest such as strangulating banyan, tree waterfall, large bangen, and looking at the sky tree. Personally, I highly recommend going around the eastern district. If you play together in the West and East districts, you must take a battery car. Attached is the activity arrangement of the botanical garden, and you can participate in fireflies, king lotus, bird watching and other activities in the suitable season.
Figure 14: Wang Lian (children can sit on Wang Lian in July and August)
Figure 15: Big banyan tree
Figure 16: Tree waterfall
Figure 17: Big tree
Figure 18: Tropical rainforest
Figure 19: Arrangement of activities at the Botanical Garden
Day 5
There was no arrangement before the trip on the fifth day, and the virtuous guide said that he wanted to see the peacocks, so we went to the primeval forest park. This is a rainforest park next to the highway, the scenery of the rainforest is much worse than the Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and I came here mainly for the activity of peacocks to fly. The WeChat public account of the primeval forest park has a release time, which is once an hour. The peacock here flies down from the mountain, flies over a lake, comes to the audience, and then flies back to the foot of the mountain through the lake, and climbs up the mountain on foot. I really doubt what the survival skills of the peacock core are, and whether there are still wild peacocks.
The primeval forest park can be hiked or battery cars, and the park is not big, in addition to peacock flights, there are also folk song and dance performances, monkey mountains, rainforest adventures, etc.
Figure 20: Peacock release
Figure 21: Macaques on Monkey Mountain
About temperature:
The mornings and evenings at the end of December are a little cooler, so you can wear a jacket or a light down jacket. At noon, you can wear a short-sleeved or long-sleeved jacket, and girls can wear a long skirt and a knitted jacket. The good thing about winter is that there are no mosquitoes!
About transportation:
The bottom road in Xishuangbanna is very congested! The traffic light wait time is very long! Basically, a traffic light will be stuck in traffic! Therefore, if you are in a hurry, be sure to leave enough time on the road. We originally planned to drive for half an hour from the primeval forest park to the airport, so don't underestimate the traffic jam in Xishuangbanna! Hotels and B&Bs generally have parking lots, and parking in scenic spots is also free, which is more friendly to self-driving.
About accommodation:
We stayed near the Starlight Night Market for three nights and one night at Anantara next to the Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The advantage of living in Starlight Night Market is that you can go out at any time at night, there are many choices of homestays, and the disadvantage is that it is not very quiet, and it is probably not suitable for those who are very concerned about sound. We booked China-TravelNote on the first night, which was classified as a luxury type on China-TravelNote, and the evaluation was very high, but the result was disappointing, the room and cleanliness were average, and the boss always sold us tickets for the performance. In the next two nights, we looked near the Starlight Night Market, first looked at the house and checked in, stayed in Yunjintai, the room was clean and tidy, the boss was gentle and generous, and the experience was very good. Anantara will not go into detail, resort hotels, suitable for leisurely stroll in the hotel. We found the Wang Lian Hotel in the Botanical Garden, which seems to be not expensive, and it is in a scenic spot, especially if you want to come to the Botanical Garden to see fireflies in summer, you can consider this hotel.
About eating:
I highly recommend the hand pilaf at the Dai Manna Meal Bar at the entrance of Manting Park, which tastes very good. In addition, we found a supermarket near Starlight Night Market, Daxing Mass Sales, which is rich in specialties, fruits, and catering, as well as semi-finished products of freezers, which can be processed in the supermarket. I found passionflower juice and sour horn juice, both of which are unique and delicious. For breakfast, you can eat dried ears or rice noodles near the Starlight Night Market, which are delicious. We also tasted Lao iced coffee, which tasted more like chocolate-flavored milk tea.
Figure 22: Specialty juices
Figure 23: Specialty juices
In general, this trip to Xishuangbanna was relaxed and happy, and the impression of Xishuangbanna was rainforest, The main surprise of the temple and Dai customs comes from the observation of wild Asian elephants.
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