The rice terraces of Yuanyang lie about 100 miles from the China - Laos border and cover a vast area of (we discovered) fairly inaccessible mountains. The Dai villages each have their own hillside, maintained over hundreds of years to provide a seemingly endless supply of everyones favourite curry supplement.

The mornings are pointless for sightseeing, mist flows up the valleys to obscure everything from view, and then you begin to see glittering streams of water until the whole picture unfolds. Dotted with little white stone buildings the views were incredible, the local people colourful and friendly (especcially the drunk who became our guide) and the trip worth the 10 hour bus ride.

We hadn't bargained on a 14 hr drive to our next destination though - Jinghong. From here we get the boat to Thailand but this place might as well be SE Asia. The landscape is tea and bannanas, the weather tropical. We have a balcony and it actually feels like we're on a holiday!