Around the world in 88 days

Day one – homestay to Lisu village

• Great breakfast then into 'farm trucks' for the ride to the end of the track
• Finally on our way, today is supposed to be the hardest day, with lots of climbing to be done.
• Very good track, initially through mostly cleared farm land, then into jungle, very picturesque
• Many stops along the way, then long break at waterfall for lunch
• Steep climb out from waterfall, then on through mix of jungle and farmed land to village.

Daily stats are hardly impressive (altitudes approx. as haven't calibrated GPS for here);

Moving time: 2:15
Stopped time: 4:01 (yip... we sat round for twice as long as we walked)
Moving average: 3.3 km/h
Overall average: 1.2 km/h
Distance covered: 7.27km
Starting altitude: 606 m
Max. altitude: 1317 m
Final altitude: 1114 m

• Staying in a PDA built building, which is very flash, perched on the hilltop overlooking the village.
• One of our guides took green coffee beans and processed them through to making us a very nice cup of coffee, which was certainly interesting to watch
• Local kids turned up with wares to sell us (of course) so bought a couple of little things to support them
• Wandered a bit of a wander round, and played with a few of the kids for a while before heading back for dinner... very yummy...!!
• Just managed to get dinner finished when tonight's thunderstorm rolled in... spent about 2 hours just watching the lightening moving away, tried taking photos, but just ended up with about 40 black squares :-(
• Played a couple of games of Uno, then off to bed.

Day two – Lisu village to Akha village

• Despite all being awake, a very slow start to the day before wandering round the village some more and finding out more about the local people
• Stopped in at the school (sadly it's summer holidays now) and the daycare centre, where there were still a flock of children who were most entertained by our presence
• Finally on our way around 11 (they seem to have this trek 'upside down' with us looking round the village in the morning, starting late, walking through the heat of the day, then arriving too late in the day to see the village... weird...)
• Not such a steep day today, only gaining another 200 m, through mostly farm land.
  In to the village about 3 pm, which was great... the home that we're staying in is right in the middle of the village, and seems to be a meeting place for local people too, so lots going on.
• Spent most of the afternoon playing with the children that turned up, before being taken on an impromptu tour by one of them, all very entertaining...
• As yesterday people wanted to sell us things, sadly this time lots of people, so with only 8 of us not many of them made an sale... maybe PDA need to do a roster for sellers like they do for porters...
• Another great dinner, followed by 'entertainment' which turned out to be rather much an activity of participation...!

Today's stats are even more unimpressive;

Moving time: 1:46
Stopped time: 1:47 (I guess it's not double this time ;-)
Moving average: 3.4 km/h
Overall average: 1.7 km/h
Distance covered: 6.08km
Final altitude: 1302 m

Day three – Akha village to end

Finally managed to convince 'Eddie', our guide, that we should leave at a reasonable hour, so we were on our way by 8 am, which given how hot and sunny the day got was just as well.
Pretty much all downhill through farm land today.
Stopped at a small village for an early lunch, then on to the road end where the van was waiting.
Stopped at the white temple on the way back into town to collect our clean clothes, drop of our dirty ones and have a shower...

Daily stats make it look a little more like we might have been getting somewhere;

Moving time: 2:37
Stopped time: 1:51 (well at least it's less than our walking time...!)
Moving average: 4.0 km/h (wow, steaming along)
Overall average: 2.3 km/h
Distance covered: 10.5 km
Final altitude: 610 m (back where we started...!!)

Took a wander round the city in the afternoon, then down to the night market for dinner.