Rainforest Market on China-Myanmar-Laos Border 🇨🇳🇲🇲🇱🇦

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]Welcome to yunnan Welcome to the mysterious border town Mengla and it's tropical rainforst market hi everyone welcome back right now i am in Mengla a small city next to Laos and also Myanmar right now i'm about 20 kilometers direct distance from Laos and about 40 km distance from Myanmar and in this episode i'm going to explore life in this lovely lovely border town so this morning i got this electric scooter from the hotel it's 50 yuan per day and i'm going to the market it is a small village not far from here. It's called Manlongle and it's the market day today and it has a market in the rainforest and then after that i'm going to ride the scooter to explore the rainforest now it's about 9 am i think the market has slowly started so let's go it's so nice i don't even know where to start it's basically a market in this jungly smoky forest there are so many different stands and everyone is making something different so this granny has a big pot and she is steaming the rice roll you pour some rice milk onto the steamer and put it in a pot some people from the neighboring village got dressed up very nicely and came here for the market day i just saw those ladies and now they have finished shopping and now slowly going back home this lady is slowly grilling that piece of some kind of biscuit over the fire and then it puffs up the market here starts every Saturday around 9 am and ends around 12 pm it's a very local market there are very few tourists here and every villager who has a stand pays about 10 yuan and i just saw the securrity guy walking from one stand to another collecting the fee what are those? Tea Wow, that's tea Those are tea leaves it's the first time that i see tea wrapped this way What kind of flower is that?

[00:04:14]Roselle Roselle Roselle Can I try one?

[00:04:29]Try that yellow one Wow, it's very fragrant It's special Yes, I like it I'll get some I'll get the golden ones.

[00:04:46]5 yuan 5 yuan. Ok How to eat that mango Dip it in salt Oh, I see Dip it tamarind paste Can you eat the roselle directly?

[00:05:01]You can make a lemonade Can I have 2 yuan of it?

[00:05:04]2 yuan Yes, just to try Roselle Yes, Roselle It's fresh Roselle What is that?

[00:05:14]Roselle Can you eat it?

[00:05:18]It's very sour If you eat it It's very sour I see I've made the transfer Thanks Roselle it's a sour flower but she said i can use it to make a drink maybe it's like lemonade this is a very typical yunnan food Dried beef basically it's grilled dried beef you can hear that people are talking in their own language they also dressed up in a way that is very close to the Thai people so they are the Dai people in China Dai people mainly live in southern part of Yunnan province and also the southern part of Guangxi province they share the same root with Thai people so they are like cultural cousins they share lots of cultural similarities together they are all Buddhists they practice rice farming they also celebrate water splashing festival from the origin they all from southern part of Yunnan southern part of guangxi and also northern part of Vietnam slowly those people migrated south to southeast Asia and in Thailand they formed an independent Kingdom whereas the small group in China they also have their own Kingdom and for over hundreds or thousand years they have been developing independently so now you can hear the language is very similar but not exactly the same and i read that people from here if they go to northern Thailand for example in chiangmai they will manage to understand but if they go to Bangkok they won't understand the Thai language that's the moss from the river and they are made into like pieces of paper Did you catch all those frogs from the farm?

[00:07:22]yes apparently people here also eat frog Do you still have grilled frog?

[00:07:32]It's sold out, now only grilled small fish Frog, you're looking for grilled frog?

[00:07:38]Yes, I want to try that It's tasty You can check other stands they grill different kinds of stuff among all that i see small fish i see the bamboo sprouts i also saw the that is liver Small fish, big fish but what i want to try is a grilled frog because because it's so yunnan yunnan cuisine compared with for example Cantonese cuisine or sichuan cuisine, is not so famous internationally but it's my personal favorite because it has a wild rustic taste it's usually spicy sour and they use lots of herbs How much is grilled frog?

[00:08:27]10 yuan I'll get one Ok. Thanks.

[00:08:34]Can I try one piece of this?

[00:08:39]This. Thanks I asked for a piece of moss 啊对对对 有烤青蛙 我终于找到了 i got what i want Grilled frog and also a piece of moss you cannot break it in your mouth it's very interesting the texture is more like cotton but it got the seaweed flavor it's like flavored seaweed flavored cotton welcome to yunnan welcome to the mysterious border town Mengla and it's tropical rainforest market in China we have frog hotpot for example but the frog there is a little bigger it's usually very lean not so fatty. This one is so small honestly there isn't a lot of meat in it there are lots of bones but i think people here just chew and eat the whole thing What is this?

[00:09:51]That is silkworm pupae That's grasshopper Oh, grasshopper and silkworm pupae Haha this uncle just took some and ate them grasshopper and silkworm pupae and in this stand there are different grills fish pork and then you can just buy it and the lady will help to chop it and wrap it in a banana leaf For taking it back home so those are different plums green mango it's Chinese hawthorn it's like mini apple pineapple and the moss and all those fruits they kind of make it into a salad into a spicy sour salty salad What's in that wrap?

[00:10:41]That's moss. I see, moss. For rice 10 yuan 10 yuan. It's hard to get there from that river Our river, it's clean the kind lady told me that wrapped in this banana leaf is actually the moss this granny just got those beautiful colorful rice and wrapped it in a banana leaf thank you Can i have some eggplant?

[00:11:33]Yes but you need to wait a bit the eggplant is not ready how long?

[00:11:41]ok i will wait Eggplant is a very typical local dish it's grilled eggplant that is smoky after grill it until it gets soft he cuts the peel and then smash it in the wooden bowl like that What is inside?

[00:12:10]eggplant and something else?

[00:12:11]Eggplant, and grilled chili And some other spices Those herbs my brunch is ready on my table two dishes, firstly eggplant there is also mints that come with it the rice and also the moss and in different parts of yunnan they do this smashed grilled eggplant slightly different in other parts i saw some people smash it together with grilled tomato to give it more of a taste but this one is apparently without the tomato it's a bit spicy but it's so flavorful there is a hint of the coolness of the mint in it and also this smoky taste from the grill and also this creamy smooshy taste from the eggplant it's a yunnan style baba ganoush i would say and this one is without tomato so it's not so sour but i think it goes very well with the grilled tomato and it's definitely a rice killer according to the lady's instruction you should sprinkle some of the moss onto the rice the dried moss has a grassy seaweed taste very good right next to the marketplace there is a temple and almost in every Dai village there is a temple either at the entrance or in the middle and all the Dai people are Theravada Buddhists and it's a different branch of Buddhism very different from for example the Tibetan Buddhism there are certain rituals that are linked with this Buddhism for example the water splashing festival and i also heard that the young boys Dai people's young boys they often spent some time as monks in a temple for a while the traditional house here are called stilt house it's made of wood and the ground floor is often open like a big living space there are a couple of, you know those stools the kitchen is there and you can just sit here and have dinner with friends and here look there are so many fruit trees this big jackfruit and then here there is a mango they covered it with a bag and here there is something more something that i don't know if you happen to be a plant expert please write in the comment area and tell me what it is the bedrooms are on the second floor it's a post office of the village Village post office so rice box made of Bamboo roots Bamboo teapot Dai fabric Daijin refers to the Dai style hand woven fabric every house is so spacious so big with plenty of flowers and fruit trees in the yard how beautiful is that i like the fact that house here is so airy and so open and i just went through that house because it's connected to a road i can cross the village i feel like the house is so open you know strangers can even walk across your house and it's not really a problem everyone in the market has a bag of this sticky rice cracker in hand so i told myself i have to buy one as well and now it's about 2 pm the market is slowly coming to an end i still have a couple more hours and now i am going to ride the scooter to the rainforest Xishuangbanna has China's only rainforest so i cannot miss that the village here has a very chill vibe and along the road there are a lot of rubber trees maybe i'll stop here and show you very quickly and also a lot of dragon fruit trees so that's a rubber tree they cut part of the tree bark and then the liquid from the tree dripped into this bowl and they collect it here we are we are at the rainforest this is the Dai script looks pretty much like the Thai script but they are different but both scripts come from the same Asian brahmic roots so they look visually very similar it was very hot on the boat but here you can feel the cool breeze of the forest and it has this humid moss like smell wow look this fern is huge oh this is narrow i kind of feel scared and i feel safe at the same time because i know that i'm 60 meters above the ground and this bridge is shaking but meanwhile if i look it from here because of all the net i feel like i'm very well wrapped in this tiny little space the best part of the walk is that you can walk through the canopy and then see all the interesting plants so before there i saw a plant with the fruits that looks like kiwi fruit but it is not kiwi fruit and here you see this now i really wish that i have a friend who knows all the plants and can explain it to me oh my god this is hard so here because of all the nets you don't feel it let me turn my camera there is a the biggest Asian night market Starry night market is in Xishuangbanna but in Mengla there is also a night market I'll stay here Take a seat Just one?

[00:22:35]Yes, just myself Do you want a spicy or not spicy soup What's the most typical If you want frog I'd suggest spicy pot Or We can make it mild spicy Up to you Ok, then the mild spicy pot Ok, thanks.

[00:22:53]59 for the buffet it's really worth the price you can get whatever you want i hope Flo were here the meat starts sizzling i'm going to enjoy my food right now so if you enjoyed today's video please give us a thumbs up and if you're interested in traveling to China or support our work you can check our website and Patreon page thanks for watching and i see you in the next episode byebye