Pu'er (普洱) to Jinghong (景洪)

Jin Fei Biao riding after his fall

Fei Biao off to Jinghong

The road out of Pu'er was slick, and unfortunately Jin Fei Biao, Fei Bao's 50 year old brother, fell hard on a descent and seriously injured his shoulder. He continued riding for about 20 kilometers but at lunch we put him on a mini-bus to Jinghong to see the doctor, and by night fall he was on a plane back to Kunming for surgery. We already miss him dearly and hopefully he can rejoin us in a months time once everything is properly healed.

Tea trees line the surrounding hills like seats in an endless colosseum

It took two days from Pu'er to Jinghong, and the night in between we stayed in a lively little town on top of a mountain called Dadugang. The scenery was spectacular, even though it has been continuously foggy and rainy since we left Kunming. Pu'er is famous for its black tea and the mountains surrounding the area are covered with terraced tea trees. Surprisingly, many of the mountainsides were mixed with tea and coffee trees, another specialty of Yunnan, but unfortunately very hard to find a place to drink it here as it is almost all exported.

"Wild Elephant Passage Don't Blow"

Our team cycling over the Mekong (minus our photographer)

Our second day (9th day of cycling over all), we descended from tea country to the tropics of Xishaungbanna. The valleys began to be covered with banana trees, and signs everywhere warned us of wild elephants. The weather changed significantly too, as the clouds lifted (well I guess it was us that descended), the sun came out, and the temperature rose significantly. We arrived in Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna, Wednesday, 10 days after we started, to a mass of photographers and journalists on the bridge over the Mekong River. The next few days we will stay in Jinghong to bask in the nice weather, rest our muscles, but more importantly satisfy the influx of journalist, as well as entertain our main sponsors the Fudian Bank and the Happy Home's Interior Design Company.





Here are a few more good shots from our trip:

Fei Bao, myself, and the Mekong

Chopping up some meat

David and I

A regular Chinese style dinner. Delicious food, lots of wine, and plenty of 'etiquet'

 

Saying "Hallooo"

Shooting an advertisement for the bank.

and a toast to Fei Biao. You'll be missed! (soaking our feet in a hotspring halfway up a mountain)