Menglun Off The Beaten Path

The 60km drive from Galanba on the Mekong River passes through an ordinary, but stunningly beautiful pastoral landscape. The Galanba plain, which is very fertile, is my original childhod vision of Asia: bright green fields, groves of plam trees, farmers bent double tending to their rice crop, monks in saffron robes striding along lanes, mischievous children squawking at the roadside, old men smoking pipes under the shade of a jackfruit tree, and water buffalo straining at the rope.
The plain is quickly crossed and the road climbs steply up to the ridges above Menglun and the valley of the Luosuo river. To the south, the grey hazy outline of the mountains of Myanmar can be seen. Hilltop villages cling to the very top of the ridges and small terraces float down the side of the hill, and then the road descends as quickly to the town of Menglun and its famous tropical botanical gardens.
This was a wonderful one hour ride in a public minibus.