Off to Menglun and the well known tropical rainforest center for research and education.  Quite nice actually that the busses run so well here in Xishuang Banna.  The bus for Mengla (the last town in China before the boarder with Laos) is the one to take to Menglun.  A two hour juant that runs along the Mekong river until Menghan (45 minutes) and then across the fertile valley (relatively for Yunnan).  The cost?  14 yuan (less than $2).

Along the way we would see the Mekong river (which looks like it is 15 feet below high level), banana orchards, rubber orchards and huge watermelon patches (along with other assorted vegies here and there).

The Botanical Center was quite awesome and I was relatively easily able to keep away from the megaphones (the Chinese tourist guides).

No commentary here, just four pictures:









And then from the Botanical Center in I took the bus back to Ganlanba.  The Dai water splashing really didn't interest me as much as the market - two pictures, a very, very small but interesting part of the market and then up the street - the bike shop!





Middle of totally nowhere, China ... just north of Laos and east of Burma!!  Very interesting!