Hi There, I'll be travelling to Xishuangbanna next week. We only will have 7 full days there and we want to do some trekking, preferably multi day trekking staying in villages overnight.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has been trekking in this area particularly along the Burma / Laos border. I want to get well off the beaten track. My instinct is that I do not want to hire a guide and just try to get by using local knowledge. I know this will be difficult but I'm an adventurous type. Do you think this is sensible? Can anyone recommend any routes that might take 4 days or 5. We have a tent that we were going to bring along in case we couldn't stay in villages is this reccomended?

We will arrive in Jinghong and probably take a bus to one of the main surrounding villages then start trekking from there. The question is where to go.

I've heard that the trekking around Menglian North West of Jinghong is good does anyone have any experience of this area? or South of Jinghong around damenglong, mengun and xiding?

Any advice greatly appreciated

James