After Tiger Leaping Gorge we headed south to Xishuangbanna, just miles from Myanmar and Laos, and not far from Thailand.

 

A friend we met along the way relaxes in front of our bamboo hut. Evening temperatures in the sixties proved we were a long way from Northern China.

 

A bamboo bridge.

 

And Lacey crossing it.

 

Sun breaks the clouds outside Jinhong.

 

Late afternoon at the gorgeous Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

Traditional houses in Xishuangbanna are built on stilts, with this unusual shape up top.

 

Gardens outside a traditional Xishuangbanna town.

 

Some of our explorations required ferry crossings.

 

We took another two-day trek before heading north again. After a bumpy 5-hour ride, the trek began in this remote village and would take us right to the border with Myanmar.

 

 

 

 

 

This camera-shy little boy and his family fed us and put us up. The next day, he hiked and rode back to Jinhong with us, his first time ever visiting the city!

 

On the way toward the Myanmar border, we hiked through some gorgeous rain forest . . .

 

. . . and some tragic deforestation.

 

But this is the kind of scene we’ll remember best!