Sipsong Panna (southern China)

[chiangmaibruce]

I was talking to a well-travelled Thai guy the other night and he spoke about Sipsong Panna. His words were along the lines of "if you would like to see how Chiang Mai was a long time ago then you should go there". I have done a Thaivisa search on this name and couldn't find anything. Subsequently found a bit on google. I understand that Bangkok Airways flies there (or close by anyway)

Has anyone been there? What was it like? Any earlier Thaivisa threads on this topic?

Cheers

[oevna]

I was talking to a well-travelled Thai guy the other night and he spoke about Sipsong Panna. His words were along the lines of "if you would like to see how Chiang Mai was a long time ago then you should go there". I have done a Thaivisa search on this name and couldn't find anything. Subsequently found a bit on google. I understand that Bangkok Airways flies there (or close by anyway)

Has anyone been there? What was it like? Any earlier Thaivisa threads on this topic?

Cheers

I have never heard of a place with that name, but sipsong panna (Thai: สิบสองปันนา) is the name of a type of palm tree.

Searching for that name in Thai brought up some links about a place in China. This is probably what you are looking for:

• Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
  

The Thai name for this place is สิบสองพันนา Sip Song Pan Na.

EDIT -- I just noticed the slight difference in the Thai spelling of the type of palm tree, vs. the name of this place (which looks like a colloquial way of saying 12,000 fields).

Edited March 30, 2009 by oevna

[harrry]

Can't even hide from the drownings there.

Water-splashing Festival is the New Year for Dai minority and one of the most important festivals in Xishuangbanna. It usually lasts at least three days from 13th to 15th, April (It is the sixth month in Dai calendar).

Edited March 30, 2009 by harrry

[Sadako_Sasaki]

I was talking to a craftsman from Lampang a couple of weeks ago, and he said something similar about Sipsongpanna/Xishuangpanna, saying he was going to visit again soon. He highly recommended going there.

Actually we did go there about three years ago as part of a holiday in Yunnan, N. Laos and N. Thailand, having read about the area on Manager Online. We enjoyed Jinghong, which was basically a quiet, provincial town, but felt like the whole area is somewhere you really need to take your time to visit properly, and maybe get outside the towns. Also not speaking Mandarin made life quite difficult in terms of getting around, despite our best efforts! Speaking Thai was pretty much no help, although I've heard the Dai language does have similarities (maybe more with Northern Thai?).

The night market in Jinghong was fun, and really friendly, with some interesting spicy noodle dishes, and there were some sights to visit, including botanical gardens (where a karaoke video was being filmed with women in traditional costume!). We then travelled down to the China-Laos border, stopping in Menghan (Ganlanba) and Mengla. The former was basically a small village, where it was impossible to communicate or even find anywhere to stay. We only had a few vague and outdated recommendations it's true, but when we tried them out we just got an abrupt "No" in Mandarin. There was a "local ethnicities" park, which we didn't visit, in fact after a couple of hours looking for a room, we gave up and moved on. I have to admit we were expecting a slightly friendlier experience, more like Laos or the Thai countryside, but probably gave up far too quickly, too... Mengla was your classic border town, with a few persistent touts, plenty of karaoke bars, barber shops and discos. We met some particularly unfriendly and surly people (not that we could understand them!), which made it even nicer when we met a charming family in a noodle shop. And a very sweet khao laam street vendor.

Recently I stumbled upon some promotional videos by Bangkok Airways about Jinghong, which you can find on YouTube. The Thai presenter had a much more "Thai" experience, with a Thai-speaking guide who was able to highlight the "best of". She takes him to Thai Lu markets, restaurants, and explains all the dishes; he learns traditional dancing and visits some very Thai-looking pagodas. I think there is another "Dai village" just outside Jinghong... a sort of ethnic minority amusement park

Overall, I would go back, and particularly during the New Year, but I wouldn't say either that it's the most memorable place I've travelled to. It was definitely fun (the total incomprehension on both sides was comical more than frustrating), and very beautiful at times, but I think everything I had read and heard about it beforehand led me to believe it would be "just like N. Thailand". I guess I romanticised it a bit too much! In reality, it was interesting, and had its highs and lows, but we were too short on time and just scratched the surface and probably missed the best bits. And there was a slight feeling of artificiality about many of the tourist attractions...

[oevna]

Thanks Sadako_Sasaki, that is an interesting report on your visit and puts it in good perspective in the context of ThaiVisa members who are familiar with travel in Thailand.

It's probably "just like Northern Thailand 30 years ago" for people who can not speak Thai. Statements like that in guide books usually don't assume proficiency in the local language. In other words, you can speak Thai, and can get around Northern Thailand between that and the English language ability of many of the Thais there. But for someone who visited Thailand 30 years ago and can not speak Thai, the mutual incomprehension that they would have experienced in Thailand then would probably be similar to your experience in Sipsongpanna now.

[Roota]

It's probably "just like Northern Thailand 30 years ago" for people who can not speak Thai.

Last year I spent a week in and around Jinghong, and while it was interesting enough, it wasn't especially reminiscent of the old Lanna (where I in fact lived pretty near 30 years ago). If you speak Northern Thai you can communicate a bit with the local Dai people, but that was about it.

[ai kwaan]

I've been hearing this place Sipsongpanna in some travel shows on tv, looks like a very interesting place to visit.

[chaoyang]

It's probably "just like Northern Thailand 30 years ago" for people who can not speak Thai.

Last year I spent a week in and around Jinghong, and while it was interesting enough, it wasn't especially reminiscent of the old Lanna (where I in fact lived pretty near 30 years ago). If you speak Northern Thai you can communicate a bit with the local Dai people, but that was about it.

Sipsong pan na = Land of 12,000 rice fields

Ancestral home of Thai people

Southern Yunnan

From what I've heard it's an over-touristed dog-and-pony show (or in this case elephants and dancing girls) to attract mainland Chinese. The real thing does exist in remote parts of Northern Thailand, and I'm sure Yunnan, but not at the developed park in China.

[sabaijai]

I was talking to a well-travelled Thai guy the other night and he spoke about Sipsong Panna. His words were along the lines of "if you would like to see how Chiang Mai was a long time ago then you should go there". I have done a Thaivisa search on this name and couldn't find anything. Subsequently found a bit on google. I understand that Bangkok Airways flies there (or close by anyway)

Has anyone been there? What was it like? Any earlier Thaivisa threads on this topic?

Cheers

I have never heard of a place with that name, but sipsong panna (Thai: สิบสองปันนา) is the name of a type of palm tree.

Searching for that name in Thai brought up some links about a place in China. This is probably what you are looking for:

• Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture
  

The Thai name for this place is สิบสองพันนา Sip Song Pan Na.

EDIT -- I just noticed the slight difference in the Thai spelling of the type of palm tree, vs. the name of this place (which looks like a colloquial way of saying 12,000 fields).

In Northern Thai dialect สิบสองพันนา becomes สิบสองปันนา, ie the aspiration on the /p/ is lost. So they're the same thing, and the palm species is a homonym.

Rural parts of southern Yunnan are more like Thailand 50 years ago, in terms of overall development. Well worth a visit.

[chuang]

If I am not mistaken there is a flight from Chaingmai to Jinghong....