China and Hong Kong day 14: from Kunming to Yuanyang.

We wake up around 6 a.m., today we have a hard day until we reach Xinjie, our gateway to explore the rice fields of Yuangyan.

I'm so nervous, we almost didn't make it to the bus. There are two ways to get to Kuming South Bus Station. Either a combination of bus and subway or combination of two buses. We chose the second option since it was this bus that arrived first, a big mistake. We counted the stops following the instructions we were given at the hostel and it seems that our driver skipped one or we didn't count the stop from where we left and it seems that we have to take it into account.

Yuanyang rice terrace

Kunming has almost five million inhabitants and an impossible traffic, so all this together with the fact that we got off at the wrong stop and nobody understood us, meant that it took us about forty five minutes to find the station from where our city bus was leaving, with such bad luck that it was leaving when we arrived and it didn't want to stop. Then, after several taxi drivers refused, I literally jumped in a taxi with a young driver who took pity on us and took us to the South bus station, we arrived in the ninety minute, just in time.

After 7 endless hours of wonderful landscapes we arrived at Xinjie. Not before we were forced to get off by some ambiguous military men who spent a quarter of an hour photographing our passports. The driver of our bus accompanied us and kept an eye on us the whole time.

Laozhai

Once in Xinjie we took a collective taxi to the Pugao Laozhai village, inside the Yuanyang Park, where we wanted to stay. Our taxi driver was too smart, he did not accept that we did not want to take him the next day to visit the viewpoints of the rice fields and forced us to pay the entrance to the Park, taking us to the door of the Quingkou Visitors' Center, making the woman who sold the tickets go out. Obviously we did not meet him the next day and we only paid him what we had agreed as a collective taxi, although when we arrived at the village he gave us another argument because he wanted to charge double as a private taxi.

Hani women

Children hani

We stayed at the Sunny Guest House, which is run by a very nice couple. It has a spectacular view of the rice fields and is quite economical, at least in the low season. There is practically no tourism at this time, but it is worth visiting at any time of the year. In high season all the terraces are full of water and the reflection of the sun on them makes thousands of people come every year.

City bus in Kunming 2¥ per pax
Taxi to South Bus Station 32¥.
Taxi from Xinjie to Pugao Laozhai 45¥.
Accommodation: Sunny Guest House 50 ¥ 2 pax. in shared room 8 pax.(we are alone in the room)
Tickets to see the terraces: 100 ¥ per pax
Bus tickets from Kunming to Yuanyang, 310 yen per person and 30 yen commission.