4 Days Kunming to Wenshan Self-driving to Visit Puzhehei, Bamei and Babao

I drove to wenshan state this  May Day holiday , I found the traffic here is different from the travel guides I checked before ,so here I  have some travel guides for  your reference.
4.29 Kunming—puzhehei (5 hours-drive, the highway from Qiubei to puzhehei  is being repaired , need to cross the dirt road and drive through the villages.
4.30 puzhehei—Bamei (4 hours-drive,there’s no traffic,but the road it’s a rough country road all the way through.)
5.1 Bamei—Babao(Sanna waterfull) —-Wenshan (It’s highway all the way in the first 3 hours. It’s hard to drive from Babao to Sanna  waterfull because it’s dirt road all the way.It’s highway all the way in the last 4 hours)

5.2 Wenshan—Yiliang—Kunming(5 hours-drive,it’s highway all the way)

At this time ,I rented a car,a Toyota Camery, and I used my phone’s mobile navigation  app. The car was good except of those rough  dirt road, However ,I think it’s better if it was SUV. The mobile navigation works very well ,even when you are in  the countryside. There are not too many cars in Wenshan, because it is  not a popular spot, and its not the best season to visit now, so I didn’t met any traffic  jam during the round-trip .

Puzhehei

The village which is famous for the hit TV show “Daddy,where are we going?”, no further explanation required .You can find all the details you will need about this place in other travel guides, so here I just want to provide you with some advice:
About clothes:
The weather is pretty hot during May Day Holiday in Wenshan, you’d better have T-shirts and sun-proof clothing.
About traffic:
The road from the highway(Tanfang Exit)to Puzhehei was provincial highway207 before ,but a part of it is being repaired now, so you need to take other country road instead, but the traffic is not so good because there are many big trucks that use this route as well .You’ll have to pay attention to the road signs because after some time driving down this country road there will be a crossroad with a sign that will say “turn left to the Puzhehei”,and this road will lead you back to the provincial highway207.Keep driving on the provincial highway, turn left at a crossroad when you see the sign there. The express way is still being repaired so the rest of the drive will be a bit difficult, but if you keep an eye on the signs the way will be pretty clear.
At this scenic spot you may choose one of two routes, the first one is aquatic route in which you may take a boat through the karst caves; The second is land route, in which you may drive or take a carriage .You can buy a boat ticket at the entrance for 195 RMB per person ,but the boatmen are off at 5:00pm,so if you want to boat you’d better try to be there a little earlier.

As for the carriage , it’s 20RMB from Immortal Cave village（仙人洞村） to Mount Qinglong（青龙山） for there and back, basically it’s 10RMB each way.It was almost 4:00pm when I arrived, so I chose the carriage to get Mount Qinglong,overlook the wonderful scenery.   However , I could have definitely drove and gone anywhere I wanted, there is a carpark at the foot of Mount Qinglong, just to make sure about the map. The carriage can be a kind of good experience ,it goes quite slow and it’s extremely bumpy~

The first two pictures above were taken at Mount Qinglong, It is an really excellent place for photography. I took this photo of setting sun when I was on the way to Immortal Cave village ,It’s so beautiful there.
Accommadation
Don’t need any ticket in Puzhehei scenic spot, both the Puzhehei village and the Immortal Cave village  can offer accommodations for tourists. We lived at the Bengu Hotel (贲谷宾馆)where is the most famous hotel of the Immortal Cave village ,its very distinctive and the infrastructures of  it are all good ,and also it has carpark here. Although there are many other hotels,you’d better book Bengu Hotel as fast as you can ,because this hotel is so popular that every one wants to live there. Various agritainment is under construction everywhere of the Immortal Cave village, so don’t worry about you can live nowhere ,you can surly find a residence.
Food

When driving on the way to PUzhehei ,you can stop to have a lunch in Mile（弥勒）, where has so many restaurants  at city town.

We had dinner at Bengu Hotel(贲谷宾馆) .Those food are local specialty ,yummy~~

Bamei

I had a feeling of this road that I was in a land of idyllic beauty(世外桃源) ,it’s a road toward Bamei.But gradually it was influenced by the outside ,there are a multitude of agritainment have emerged at this village. As far as I’m concerned, the ecology environment and folk custom of this village will be gone with the time pass. When I was stalking at the village, I met a little boy, he’s going to up to the hill for some peaches, we followed him all the way.While I felt sad by watching him, eating that unripe peach with his bare foot . I have no idea about if those children like him will look forward to the world outside ,and how they feel as soon as they meet those tourists who are from other places.   

Transportation
Two choices for the way from Puzhehei to Bamei:the first one is retrace to the highway toward Guangnan direction,just like the way I came ; the second is Qiuguang country road. The highway is 70 km away from the country road, anyway, I drove to the country road because I don’t like going back and forth. The traffic was clear with only a few cars and the scenery was beautiful too, which were all  unexpected .

Along that pathway from immortal cave village to the Immortal Cave ,you can get to the provincial road ,turn left to the country road at a crossing,you’ll see a sign says that “Guangnan direction”, keep driving  to Guangnan along this road.When you arrived at Guangnan you’ll see a sign says that “Bamei direction” . Following the signs,it’s about 1 hour-drive to Bamei .
The carpark at the gateway of Bamei charges 20RMB ,  there are a crowd of  toll collectors crazy about asking people to pay carpark fee once you pass from there) 

The admission fee is 100RMB.The transport fee includes: [carriage +waterway ] for enterinto the village ,[waterway +carriage+waterway] for leaving from the village ,here have 5 part of  journey in total .The entrance and the exit of this village are not at the same place,the distance between them is about 9 km. After aquatic route were finished ,go to take a car at the gateway to carpark of the scenic spot, which is 10RMB per person.
Accommadation
This village has many place to live ,so it’s ok if you didn’t book a hotel ahead of time. Infrastructures here are all the same. At this time, I booked Fuliang    agritainment,Tell:13769618361. Here has air-conditioner ,WiFi and hot water, It’s very convenient to take shower but they don’t offer any towel or other toiletries ,so you have to prepare them yourself. The air-conditioner is very noisy, and same with the cow at the backyard, it kept lowing all the time. It’s nothing special of the Lancao Hall （兰草堂）,not as good as the comments on websites ,because it just looks like other agritainment there.

Transports are all aquatic route and carriage ,you’d better not bring too many luggage because its hard to carry on.

Bamei is actually a small village inside, along the pathway at field ,it’s about 2hours to walk over this whole village, you can leave for Guangnan  if you don’t want to live at here.

Food 

I arrived in Guangnan(广南) in the afternoon .For lunch ,I had some Rice Noodles, Chinese sauerkraut Rice at a noodle restaurant. As for the name ,it seems like Lin-Ji Restaurant..  I just couldn’t exactly remembered because I met it only by accident. There’s very crowded because the restaurant is very popular .Accordingly, I strived for ordering meals at there .

I had dinner at Fuliang agritainment. They served with a chicken ,Fried bamboo shoots,and some fresh vegetables, about 150RMB .It is very hard to transport these things into the village, so the price is kinda expensive.

Babao

Sanla Waterfall in Babao
Babao is just a small county, but it was refered in many travel guides, so I wanted to have a look. Just as many people say, it’s hard to drive on  rough road, very hard, extremely hard.. especially for small cars with low road clearance.

It’s dry season of Sanna waterfall on May, people usually could have an access to it without a ticket .But in order to earn more money ,the reservoir has aimed the water down. So now the ticket is 20RMB per person.    

There are three part of the waterfall. Take the entrance from the top part of the waterfall, go long this mountain to another one which at the opposite of the waterfall , so you can see the full view of  the waterfall. After you finished, go back to the mountain of waterfall, at last ,take the exit from the second part of it  .You have to walk to carpark yourself.

Transportation and Road Condition
From Bamei to Babao,you need to drive cross the Provincial road ,it’s mountain road, from Guangnan, then back to highway to BaBao, there’s beautiful scenery through the provincial road all the way.There has a viewing deck, you can stop to photography .

From the Babao county to Sanna waterfull, you’ll see specific signs on the way, It’s dirt road all the way through and many holes on the road .Many trucks will pass that road as well, so you need to be more careful when you are driving pass from them.

It’s highway from Babao to Wenshan. So many curves and tunnels there, but everything will be fine if you don’t drive too fast.

Food 

Had Lunch at Babao county, I didn’t notice the name of that restaurant, but it is a restaurant where leads the way into county, with many blooming bougainvillea. Fish in Sour Soup and preserved ham are very delicious ~

Had dinner in Wenshan, I walked around many times but I didn’t find any specialty restaurant ,so I just ordered Sanqi boilers chickens and some fried rice at downstairs of the hotel. Wenshan could be the hardest place to have some  delicious food.

Accommadation
I lived at Yuejun Hotel in Wenshan, you can search it on ctrip.com ,the environment there is good, but it’s hard to find its location.

Yiliang
I was actually for the Roast duck to go Yiliang. On the highway of back trip, I came to Yiliang, Xuecheng restaurant (the most famous place of roast duck) .There were many people at the restaurant ,the waiter said they don’t have too much customers usually ,but a lot during May Day holiday. It’s tasty but too oily ,can’t eat too much.

In fact, It’s rustic scenery through this journey all the way, so it couldn’t be the same comfy as the vacation tour. However, you can get to know another kind of local conditions and customs from this trip .Across the mountains,  I’ve seen many villages. The terrain there is mountainous but plain, so  most  of  the  mountain   area   has   been developed as croplands. Women stay home for farming ,even the 80years old elder ,still farming in the farmland. Men are out for work ,not coming back in serval years, that’s the truest appearance of  the countryside currently. 

Villages like Puzhehei、Bamei are lucky. With the growing of the tourism, so the local economy gets a lot of promotions . Many migrants go back to their village ,and make a living by the way of agritainment,carriage,and boat.

At the same time we are seeking for some pure land, while we are breaking the peace of here, so please come with an heart of virtue .
Chinese Version: http://www.mafengwo.cn/i/3350730.html