The curios incident of the big toe in the night-time!

I was really excited about Jinghong after lots of positive reports from Helen and the LP. However i wasn't as taken by the place as i had expected. The town was nice enough with palm tree lined streets and friendly inhabitants but there wasn't a massive amount to do within the city and i was struggling with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes. In comparison with SE asia it probably chilly but i was being properly northern and sweating a lot!!!

Jinghong though isn't praised for its town its there on the traveller itinerary for its surrounding jungle with lots of trekking and cycling possibilities and i had intended to do so.

Jungle is massive!

After my first day in JH recuperating from my first (and unfortunately not last, the only way back out was another bus) of chinese night buses. I went to check out the few tourist attractions the town itself had to offer, mostly parks and gardens.

water lilly

the botanical garden was really nice with all sorts of cool things you never see outside of the tropics. The whole place was like the little hot house at the botanics in Sheffield only there was three acres of it.

Botanics gardens - odd architecture

Met an Australian chap in there whom i had chatted to previously at the hostel in Kunming. We both expressed the desire to trek and both reported back the same problem of most of the treks only being available to groups of 2 or more. So we agreed to check out the options in the cafes later that evening. First though i was planning on checking out the much recommended blind massage school. So I searched it out with Chris and we signed up for a full collaterals massage! whatever that was. Turned out to be pretty good if a little brutal, mostly working on your spine there was a lot of pressure and use of the elbow. Was good though especially the head massage at the end.
We then strolled down to the cafe to check out the treks and bumped into some more folk form Kunming 2 Aussies and an Australian. Chris and I booked ourselves onto a 3 day trek and all 5 of us went to check out the local Dai barbecue scene. The scene was distinctly quiet a whole sort of market area by the mekong was set aside but there we few people there. We stuck in all the same and had such delicacies as bbq snails (removed from shells) which were good and slightly mouldy tofu (the equivalent to blue cheese) bad!
It was getting late but the day wasn't over yet, next a trip to the 24 hour sulphurous springs was in order to help digest our dinner? The springs were in the nearby village of Gasa so we piled in a cab and got there at about 10.30pm. Warm sulphurous swimming pool steaming in front of us we dived in got the gentle taste of eggy sandwiches in our mouths whilst floating around the pool. Now of course it is time for the curious incident which was to shape my travels for the next few weeks. Whilst extricating (a dainty procedure) myself from the pool i slid my right foot against the wall of the pool to aid my exit from the sulphurous waters and caught my big toe on a broken tile which painlessly sliced an cm square off the bottom of my toe. I felt something but not until i was wrapped in my towel did i notice the large amount of blood relieving itself from my foot. 30 minutes 2 tiny plasters a bunch of tissue paper and much debating with the proprietors as to whether they'd ring us a cab later i was sitting in said taxi pissed off and thinking i'd need a tetanus jab.
So no trekking then and after I dressed my foot properly, raiding the incredible array of medical equipment sent with me. I was left to contemplate what to do next.
Bikes i discovered was a good option as no pressure was placed on my toe.

rubber tree including rubber

The other Aussies and Swede were hanging around too so i wound up cycling through rubber plantations with them and playing roadside pool in the suburbs of JH.

roadside pool

A couple of days later i could walk fairly well too and now deciding i'd hang around with the Aus Swede contingent as they had a similar itinerary to mine (an option they agreed too) We booked ourselves on a mini Jungle trek to a local waterfall before catching a bus to northern Yunnan.

looking grumpy for some unknown reason

The trek was really nice, amazing sounds of the jungle and incredible high canopy, but after 4 hours in the jungle i was wet through so who knows what would have happened had i been out there for 3 days?!

the sun came out whilst we were in the clearing

The curios incident of the big toe in the night-time!

Jinghong, China