Rotator Cuff Surgery: D-Day

As I mentioned in the last blog, I went into the surgery in a fasting state (with three prior days of 24h water-only fasting). Felt a little dejavú at the surgery center – last I was here was for my ankle surgery with Dr. Jesse Yurgelon. My wife Kammy was with me as they checked me in, did the prelim checks, confirmations. Resting heart rate of 45 had to be double checked! Told the docs I was an endurance athlete. I opted for the nerve block, which they inject 2cm under the skin with the aid of an ultrasound so nothing gets pinched.

As they rolled me off into the operating room and before the anesthesia kicked in, vaguely remember telling the nurse I’m looking forward to rock climb again. And then the hit – black out. Woke up in the recovery room pretty groggy, and Kammy & my 22yo Navin both came to pick me up. The nurses got me out of there in a hurry. When we spoke to Dr. Harvey Chong the night before, we had so many questions. But the general feedback was, ice, rest in whatever position that’s comfortable, take the anti-inflammatories and have hydrocodone ready if the pain is unbearable. And yeah, make it to the post-op when more will be divulged! Ok then.

Rotator Cuff Surgery – First Few Days

My plan was to continue my 24h fasting for the next few days, to let the body focus on healing. To keep myself distracted and entertained, decided to sketch my progress on Procreate! But basically, ice every hour, Tylenol & Advil every 6 hours (staggered), walk if possible, basic elbow flexion/extension, hydrate and just hang out. I slept pretty decent the first night, with the help of all the meds they pumped into me. Second night, there was discomfort but no stabbing pain. Third and fourth nights were better! Never really needed the hydrocodone as the pain/discomfort was very manageable.

By day 4, I was walking 5+ miles, felt comfortable taking the sling off to let my arm breathe, walk the dog (with leash on right hand) take a careful shower and even do simple house chores. I’m also writing this blog instead of using Apple dictation! Progress!

Rotator Cuff Surgery – Post Op at Day 5

I had my first (of three) post-op appointments today, and Simone & Will helped me remove the dressing, clean the surgical incision area and put new waterproof ones. The shoulder was certainly bruised from the five arthroscopy incisions & the one where they reanchored the bicep tendon, but not inflamed! Will confirmed my suspicion that over 4-6 months the tendons will grow and reattach to the bone! With 4 screws on my shoulder and two on my ankle, I’m like an Arthrex model now! Not that I want to be one.

Overall I’m feeling very optimistic right now. The sutures come off next week and I’ll be able to use a stationary bike. My gut and athletic body awareness tells me I’ll be able to do gentle treadmill runs not soon after. And PT starts in earnest too – and my house, with all the prior running & other injuries over the years, is setup for rehab already!

Threading the needle through mobility, strength, atrophy and healing is a tricky one, but hoping I can pull that off methodically and systematically. Onward and upward. Looking forward to running some hills in the not too far future! Happy trails!

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Getting by with one arm

Here are various things that I’ve been trying with just my right hand. First things first, when I wake up I reach for my glasses . My glasses are frameless and the “temples” are soft and flexible, but boy getting those on to my ears were hard! Who knew!

From there, here are basic things that I’ve been practicing:

• Changing clothes, especially getting a t-shirt over the head and under the left hand with a pretend sling
• Putting toothbrush on the brush
• Toilet paper (yes TMI, I know)
• Washing just the right hand with soap
• Putting on socks & shoes – luckily it’s summer and I can mostly get by with flip flops
• Showering and scrubbing with just the right hand
• Sleeping with my left arm in a pretend sling

Digitally, turning on dictation on the phone is huge. I’ve been trying out Safari’s “Listen to page” to read out websites so I don’t have to scroll with my functioning right hand. Also with the Apple ecosystem, using the keychain (password app) and/or passkeys with face recognition means less typing to access various Internet essentials across all devices.

I have to remind myself that after the nerve blocker wears off, I could use my left hand fingers, just can’t exert or activate my shoulder muscles. Luckily there are a bunch of practical amenities that make some of these easier.

Amenities for using just one arm

We had an old recliner and my son helped me bring it downstairs. I have a rolled up towel for lumbar support and tons of pillows for resting the hand. A travel pillow for the neck helps. Watching a show on the iPad is gonna be like flying business class, only at home! And no seat belts either . From what I’ve read, sleeping on the back is the hardest – especially since the arthroscopic insertion is from the back of my shoulder. My wife recently bought a book stand with a night light that will be really handy on the recliner.

For showering, adding a pump top to the body wash bottle will be helpful. I also found a bendable, silicone brush and scrubber to get to the armpits, back and scalp. Compared to driving an automatic with just the left foot (learned how to do that after my ankle surgery!), driving with just the right hand will be trivial.

Lastly, something unusual. I’ve written about intermittent and extended fasting before and the research that shows that going into a surgery in a fasting state helps with recovery. I’m doing 24h fasting (just breakfast, then water-only) every day leading up to the surgery and the plan is to continue it for a week after. I’ll likely pop Ibuprofen & Tylenol with breakfast since I can’t take them on an empty stomach. However, I’ve bought some Arnica pills to help with inflammation, but also gonna load up on salmon, chard, ginger, pineapple for a wholesome anti-inflammatory breakfast.

Those are some of the prep before surgery. Will have to see how much this helps. More on that when I dictate the next blog with a sling on.

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Until another fall last year, this time running downhill, tripping and unable to brace myself. So now I have a dislocated bicep tendon, a torn supraspinatus tendon and bursitis in the rotator cuff joint. Silver lining? Muscles, bones and overall structural integrity all intact! After meeting with a couple of orthopedic surgeons and getting advice from a few athlete/doctor friends (thanks Jen & John!), I’ve decided to go in and get Humpty Dumpty patched up.

Rotator Cuff Injury: Surgery or Not?

I went through a similar decision making process when I busted by ATF ligament and decided to get the Brostrom Procedure. The bottom line is the tendons are neither gonna go back to the groove nor heal by themselves. If I don’t do anything, I maybe able to “manage” the pain but have to really scale back on an active lifestyle. However, the damage continues eventually leading to arthritis, further tears and a possible full shoulder reconstruction, but when I’m a lot older. So the call was to get this done now, when I’m active, healthy, fit and able to focus on rehab (retired & empty nested helps here!) to hopefully come out stronger. There are three parts to the 2 hour surgery under full anesthesia: the splice, the patch and the drain.

Bicep Tenodesis – The Splice

Funny (not funny) how you learn about anatomy only after when something breaks. Bicep Tenodesis (apparently) involves making an incision (6cm?) in my bicep, cut the tendon that’s flapping around and re-anchor it to the humerus bone. Normally this tendon is attached to the top of the rotator cuff and has to handle a lot of torsion stress, with twists and turns of the shoulder. As my orthopedic surgeon said, biologically and evolutionarily, we don’t really know or understand why the bicep tendon has to be attached all the way to the top of the rotator cuff!

Supraspinatus Tendon Repair – The Patch

This is done arthroscopically through a small hole coming in from the back of the shoulder. But since this tendon is anatomically “behind” the bicep tendon, the MRI doesn’t fully reveal the extent of the tear and the surgeon will only know once they are “in there”. Depending on the what they find, it’s gonna be do nothing, patch in some bovine collagen (which apparently the body will integrate without an immune response as there are no live cells in the patch), or a full Humpty Dumpty repair with screws (anchors), duct tape (brace) and staples (kidding!).

Subacromial Bursitis – The Drain

The MRI showed inflammation and fluid in the subacromial space (under the top of the collar bone). During the arthroscopy, the surgeon is going to drain some of the fluid and check & remove possible born spurs that might cause impingement. Usually you’ll feel this when you lift something overhead or doing lateral lifts. This seems like minor of the three, but hey why not address it since they are looking at that region of the shoulder anyways.

Rehabbing from this surgery

This, for sure, is gonna take longer than my ankle surgery. From my understanding, it’s 4 weeks in a sling, but physical therapy (PT) starts a couple of weeks in. Stationary bike and walking should be ok after a couple of weeks. But post 4 weeks is when PT starts in earnest with possible full range of motion and strength returning 4-6 months later. Leading up to the surgery, I’m actively prehabbing, strengthening everything around the injury, but also prioritizing hobbies (riding my Vulcan 650 in the mountains ) that require two functioning hands! Not to mention, learning and getting accustomed to doing everyday things, pretending my left arm is in a sling.

As I was telling a friend, one ankle and one shoulder surgery is enough for one lifetime! Hopefully no more major injuries from now on out.But have a surgery to get through first.

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Santa Ynez: The San Ysidro Trail

We stayed near the downtown area and I was looking around on the map until I saw the San Ysidro trailhead in Montecito, not too far from us. Mapping out the route, the 4ish mile to the crest (El Camino Cielo) had a 3,200 foot elevation gain, with most of the elevation coming in the last two miles! Navin and two of his friends, Stephen & Amit, joined me on this run/hike.

There was heat danger warnings at the trailhead, which I guess is fair since it gets hot, dry and exposed amidst the chaparral. Geologically, the mountains are sedimentary with shale and sandstone being the prominent rock types. The ruggedness of these mountains reminded me very much of the Pine Ridge Trail in the Ventana Wilderness.

We pulled up to the trailhead around 7:30am and ran up the trail following the San Ysidro creek. We were largely in the morning shade, nice and cool, and were greeted with wildflowers in full April bloom – bush poppies, bluewitch nighshade, prickly phlox, paintbrushes, wood sorrel, meadow lotus! And not a soul on this trail until we got to the top! 

A couple of miles in, we saw a waterfall and the climbing began in earnest from here – just up and up, ticking 1,000ft/mile! The views were gorgeous and we were lucky to have a clear, sunny-but-not-warm day and had fantastic views of the Channel Islands in the distance.

We lingered around at the summit, soaking up the views and decided to descend down on Cold Springs Trail by the graffiti-covered water tower. The Sierra Madre mountain range looked incredible and I’m pretty sure there’s backcountry backpacking – the solitude and the dark sky out there’s gotta be epic!

Took a short detour on the way down to summit the bald Montecito Peak (more 360 views!). The descent was slow at times as the trail was quite rocky and technical. In hindsight, going up this way would’ve been a better choice, since San Ysidro would’ve made for a much better downhill run.

We eventually found the connector trail that took us through a patch of hot springs (sulphur smell and quite crowded!), crossed the San Ysidro creek and made it back to the car. 11 miles, 3,600ft elevation gain, an amazing day in the Santa Ynez mountains! Of course, we drove to the beach after we finished and took a cold plunge in the ocean!

The next couple of days, we hiked with our dog out to Inspiration Point and subsequently I tried to run up to the top of Arlington Peak (on the way to Cathedral Peak & La Cumbre Peak), but only to find that it was a class-2/3 rock scramble through dense manzanita! With no water nor gels and a phone in my hand, decided to abort after getting close to the half way mark. Adding this to the runsploring list during our next visit in June for Navin’s graduation!

As I’m learning now, there are a gazillion trails from Gaviota to Carpintería all of which lead up to El Camino Cielo! Not to mention the rugged backcountry – someday!

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Yakushima – Our Guide Takashi Kadokami

We got connected with Takashi Kadokami through a common friend and he was our tour guide for the day at Yakusugi Land (屋久杉 – Sugi for Japanese Cedar. Those Sugis over 1,000 years old are known as Yakusugi). Takashi had moved to Yakushima with his family a few years ago and reminded us of A-Yun (阿云), another guide friend we met in Yunnan earlier this year, as both are young, outdoor loving, at peace with nature and with a broad world view. Takashi had just started his guide business in Feb and we were thrilled to be his first customers!

Takashi picked us up at our hotel in Miyanoura and we drove about 50 minutes to the trailhead. The mountains, the proximity to the roiling ocean and the lushness & wetness we saw on the drive reminded us of Kauai. While Jomon-sugi (縄文杉), the oldest of the ancient Sugis, is the most visited, we took Takashi’s counsel to take a less trampled, off-the-beaten path, deep into the forest to meet other, equally amazing Sugis – especially Yamato-sugi (大和杉), estimated to be 3000-4000 years young.

Yakushima – Yakusugi Land

As soon as we stepped into the forest, we could feel the serenity & calmness set in instantly. Lush  green everywhere we looked, trails moist, the canopy dense and sound of water echoing off the trees – Japanese Hemlock, Fir, some Cypress, an occasional Akagashi Oak and of course the Sugis.

In the map above, we started at #1 and worked towards #17 via #7, then #11. We crossed the Anbo river on suspension bridges a few times on this stretch and met Sen-nen-sugi (千年杉 – 1,000 years young) along the way.

The going was deliberately unhurried, soaking in the forest, stopping to listen and smell the trees, while Takashi shared some of the history. The locals used to revere the trees as sacred and rarely cut them for lumber. Logging of Yakushima cedars started in the seventeenth century as a way help lift the islanders out of their economic woes and improve their lives. As voices for environmental protection spread, logging gradually stopped after the late Showa period (1960’s), and we are lucky to have what’s left of these magnificent Sugis.

Yakushima – Yamato-sugi

From #17, we were off on faint trails mostly only known to locals or backpackers heading up to the huts deep in the forest. The only trail indicators were little orange ribbons tied to trees (luckily they were quite closely spaced). After about 3.5 hours we got to an old Sugi away from the trail (the “Secret Yakusugi) and broke for lunch – a bento box for each (packed in a bamboo leaf) with fish, piece of yam, tofu, a couple of onigiris and pickled radish. Just perfect for a light, but hearty trail meal.

The next hour was prolly the “hardest”, with steep rocky and rooty trails and occasional drizzle & snow flurries – but the pace was still conversational. After 4.5 hours we finally made it to Yamato-sugi and spent quite some time there in awe – ~3000 to 4000 years young, 34.9m tall with a trunk circumference of 10.2m! Definitely grateful that this Sugi survived the logging. 

Eventually it was time to head back. Worked our way back to #17 and took a short detour to say hello to Mitsune-sugi and Hahako-sugi (Mother & Child Cedar).

Took the return path via #9, then #5, met Buddha-sugi, Futago-sugi and Kuguri-sugi before reaching the parking lot after 8.5 hours and some 2500ft of gain/loss. All that Shinrinyoku puts one’s body and soul in a good place! See our Strava activity below:

Pretty amazing experience visiting these ancient trees and being in the mountains & forest. The next day, we rented a car and circumnavigated the Yakushima island – driving on the other side took some getting used to! On the west side of the island, south of Nagata, we saw Japanese macaque monkeys and sika deer (though not together). We even spotted a mother/baby whale pair from our hotel, spouting with a little breach! Summer on this island has tons of outdoor fun – biking, snorkeling, diving & kayaking, to mention a few. Maybe next time?

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You can read my last post about the pre-race vibes & tips, including our packet pick up experience. Here’s our Strava activity:

Tokyo Marathon – The  L Corral

We moved hotels from Yanaka to Shibaura for the night before & after the marathon, as this had a direct Yamanote line to the start and from the finish. We headed out of the hotel at 7am and got to Shinjuku station by 7:35am.

They had signs everywhere to the assigned entry gate. Niles & I were in different corrals, but since we planned on running together, we were told to get to the L corral. Interestingly not many people knew about this, even on the ground. We navigated our way, managed to communicate with some combination of Apple translate & gestures and got into the L corral by 8:30am. This corral seemed to have mostly local folks.

Tokyo Marathon – The Course

We could hear the gun fire for the start of wheelchair & elite athletes and slowly worked our way to the start line. Compared to the raucousness of Boston or Chicago, the mood was a bit more somber here, just a quiet calm about the whole thing. We opened into a little shuffle and we were on our way!

We headed east for a while, toward the river, jostling amongst other runners and finding our way through them. Even the spectators had a quiet way of cheering everyone. Kammy and Jonah (Niles’ roommate from Chicago) showed up at the 10km turnaround near Ueno!

Up north now, towards Senso-Ji shrine in Asakusa to the 18km turnaround. The temperature was creeping up a little and we were interspersing our running with a little walk here and there. Pocari Sweat electrolyte was pretty good and for both of us, quite GI friendly even in the later part of the run. Kammy and Jonah were here too, but I missed them after stopping for a potty break, followed by a sprint to catch up with Niles.

I was looking forward to the aid station food and it didn’t disappoint! Soon after I popped the first gel, Niles points to an aid station table and I saw custard buns, adzuki bean paste and chocolate! Definitely an eating competition with some running thrown in!

One more out & back to Tomioka, passed Ginza, then Hibiya park for the last turnaround at Shibaura, pretty close to our hotel. We were walking a bit more and I remember a long section (felt like it anyways) with no aid station or water. We were being helped by good samaritans offering coke, water and even a menthol spray of sorts to ease muscle fatigue. Felt warm in the sun and I could tell Niles was starting to dig deep. Run to the 2nd traffic light, walk till that sign, salt pills to prevent cramping, a little water on the buff, one foot in front of the other – the late stage marathon Jedi mind tricks!

One more sighting of Kammy & Jonah at 37km and she got us a bottle of water and brought the Therabody mini! I bet I’m one of the few people in the world to finish a marathon with a massage gun in the running vest! The 5km stretch towards Tokyo central felt long. Many walkers now, cramping up in the warmth and we tried to cheer the others along the way.

One last km and we ran this entire section, crossing the finish line in a little over 5 hours. An amazing experience and incredibly proud of Niles for pulling this off (again). Met up with Kammy and Jonah, rested for a bit and made our way back to the hotel. While I usually don’t do swag (definitely no medals), I had fun sporting the Tokyo Marathon robe which kept me warm in the cooling evening.

An interesting thing we noticed was how little litter there was along the course. The majority of the runners would hold the torn gels and water cups until they’d see a volunteer with a garbage bag on the side lines. Another aspect was there were mobile medics on bikes along the course tending to cramps, GI or other issues.

Now that I think about it, this is my first international marathon and it was definitely a unique experience. Looking forward to Berlin in September to run our 3rd dad/son Abbotts! Wonder what food they’ll have in those aid stations?

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Tokyo Marathon: Pre-Race Vibes

Tokyo Big Sight: Expo and Packet Pickup

The expo is at the convention center at Tokyo Big Sight, quite a bit away from the city center. It took us a good hour+ to get to it from Nippori. Both the passport and the bib confirmation QR code were required to pick up the bib. I am in the D corral, while my son’s in the F corral. As much as the FAQs on the marathon website say that one can’t start from a different corral (disqualification!), turns out we can as long as we line up in corral L, the last one (hence the L?) to march to the start line. We’ll have to see if that’s true on race day!

At the bib pickup we were given a wristband which we’ll have to wear through the marathon day. Kinda annoying since you can’t (by design) remove it until after. We also got a metro pass that we can use for 24h on race day! Very thoughtful.

Also to note is Tokyo is aggressively moving to a sustainable race and amongst other things, there are no safety pins given out by default with the bib. Unfortunately I didn’t learn about this until a week prior to landing here. They did have a small amount of these at the bib check station though.

Tokyo Marathon: Start line at Shinjuku

Niles and I headed to the start line at Shinjuku from the expo to scout out the time it takes to walk to the gates (an hour from our marathon night hotel in Shibaura), reconfirm that we can start together (yes!) from the L corral, as well as understand where the gates were. In case you are reading this blog, exit 3 from the Shinjuku station leads straight into Gate 2 that will lead us to the corrals.

Oh, after an amazing week at Yanaka, we are moving hotels to Shibaura (for the night before and after the marathon), which has direct metros to both the start line to Shinjuku (35 minutes) and from the finish line (20 minutes) at the Imperial Palace. And since neither of us are checking in bags at the start, we both get to walk to the Tokyo station when we finish. All other runners are routed in different ways at the finish based on the last digit of their bibs. It’s a big production with 37,000 runners, so I can see how everything has to be streamlined!

It looks like we are all set? Weather seems to be cooperating and so far everything seem to be in order. Looking forward to a fantastic run on Sunday!

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Shinkansen: Tokyo to Odawara

We were staying at a Ryokan, north of Tokyo at Nippori in an old town called Yanaka, away from the hustle and bustle. We took the local train to Tokyo station, fumbled around the Shinkansen kiosk (the base fare, limited express fare, reserved seats, etc. with multiple physical tickets per-person for entry are not the most intuitive!), got our tickets and onboarded the Tokaido Shinkansen towards Odawara. We made sure we sat on the right side seats to see views of the mountains. Just past Yokohama, Mt. Fuji started showing up in all her glory. It’s just a 30-minute ride, but brought back a lot of memories! I haven’t been on one of these trains for 20+ years! Forgot how speedy these things are.

Hakone Tozan Railway: Odawara to Chokokunomori

We transferred to the Hakone Tozan Railway, a local commuter of sorts, and headed up to Chokokunomuri, one stop shy of the terminus Gora. We wanted to checkout the Open Air Museum there and take the short 15-minute walk to Gora. This train does the initial climb on its way to Gora and has three switchbacks where the train backs into the tracks and reverses direction, as it’s too curvy and steep to make turns. The views of the mountains were amazing as we climbed 1000+ feet from Odawara. We couldn’t have gotten better weather – cloudless blue skies, crisp air and just a little chilly under the sun.

The Open Air Museum at Gora was very impressive! A perfect location overlooking the Sagami Bay, and a very age-inclusive setting, to explore the creative works. Personally, I’ll l take an outdoor museum any day instead of a claustrophobic, fluorescent-lit indoor one! We spent a fair bit of time here, walking around, exploring the Picasso exhibits and enjoying the crisp mountain air. We ended up grabbing lunch at the restaurant here as well and the views were definitely worth as much as the food!

Cablecar: Gora to Sounzan

A 15-minute walk later, we were at Gora and got on the Cablecar. Definitely a steep ride! Up and up we went with a few stops along the way, until we summited Sounzan. While at the museum earlier, we caught puffs of steam coming out of the mountains and a faint smell of Sulphur – all those wonderful hot springs all around us. The smell was stronger now, and by the view point, there was even a “foot bath”!

Ropeway: Sounzan to Togendai

Ok, still more to go before we see the star attraction of the day Mt. Fuji! The Ropeway is a gondola with 360 views heading up to Owakudani (summit), then transferring to another one heading down to Togendai to the shores of Lake Ashinoko. There seemed to be a hotel up at Owakudani and I’d read that one could hike over to Mt. Kami and catch another ropeway down to the lake shore. But for a day trip, adding that hike would’ve made it a very long day. We could see sulphur fumes everywhere now and Mt. Fuji in the distance. I’m glad we went on a Tuesday, the day after the emperor’s birthday. Hardly any crowd to deal with and we had the whole gondola mostly to ourselves.

Finally, Mt. Fuji in the distance, absolutely stunning . Apparently as the local wisdom goes, the best way to enjoy Mt. Fuji is from a distance (ideally with a reflection on a lake with cherry blossoms blooming), not on the mountain itself.

Pirate Ship: Togendai to Moto-Hakone

The wind gusts were quite powerful at the lake shore and we had to add more layers. Queen Ashintoko is a cool triple-masted pirate ship that was zippy on the water! We briefly went up to the deck only to face gale winds. Made our way to Moto-Hakone with spectacular views of Mt. Fuji. We definitely got the lake view of Mt. Fuji with an absolutely stunning blue sky, but no reflection (too windy) and no cherry blossoms (too early in the season).

The original plan was to walk the ancient cedar forest trail from Moto-Hakone to Hakone-machi but we all wanted to stay back, soaking in the view, hoping for the setting sun to cast the golden light on the mountain. We sat around in windy silence, watching the colors of the mountain, the Torii gate and the water change whimsically, as the sun flitted in and out of the clouds. Finally it was time to say goodbye, reluctantly.

Express Bus: Moto-Hakone to Odawara

The express bus was quick and efficient and in 45 minutes we were back in Odawara. Had to work through some fare adjustments with the Shinkansen tickets and headed back to Tokyo, then to Nippori, in time for a casual Seafood Izakaya dinner in one of the hole-in-the-wall places next to the Nippori station. That was quite the amazing day trip and I highly recommend it! One can get the Hakone Free Pass, but IMHO, it’s really only worth it if you are staying around the area for more than a day and getting on/off at various stops.

Tomorrow, we go to the expo to pick up our bibs. The weather is starting to warm up leading up to the race day on Sunday. Maybe even a little too warm?

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Sketch: Concave & Convex

I mostly used the “narinder pen” brush with different sizes and greyscale, with some smudging. After some experimenting, settled on the “spray paint” brush to approximate the texture of the cushion on the outdoor chair. Using a whitish brush color to make the highlights pop out was something I learned from this sketch.

And here’s the 30s time-lapse from Procreate:

This took about 40 minutes (and ~220 strokes) before placing the “seal” as a way of saying I’m done. Definitely one of those formative sketches as I was both learning to sketch as well a getting used to Procreate. The only use of layers on this one is to lay down the background “cushion fabric” and go back to revise it. Still getting used to digital art!

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• Xishuangbanna
• Village of Manwa Laozhai
• Mountains of Manwa Laozhai
• Canyons of Manwa Laozhi
• Ancient tea forests of Jingmai
• The Bulang People

Even though we only spent two nights at the village of Manwa Laozhai (曼佤老寨), we chat with A-Yun (阿云, his moniker meaning cloud) a lot and he’s gracious (along with the hosts and the neighbors) to share a window of their lives with us. These are just some notes and observations that we made while spending time there.

Yunnan: The Bulang People (布朗族)

The Bulang people are one of the 56 ethnic groups in China. Most of the people that we met spoke both Mandarin, and their native language Blang which is only oral – no written script exists but there are some efforts to map the sounds to Thai scripts.

The Manwa Laozhai (曼佤老寨) settlement is in a temperate zone in the mountains close to the Tropic of Cancer.  Even though elevation profiles reach up to 6,000ft there’s no snow here. The mountains also shield them from gnarly storms. Mountain springs are year-round and the forests are lush with vegetables and fruits. The 10-12 settlements of 1,000ish people in the village are all scattered around these water sources. A Shangri-La of sorts.

The Bulang people have this incredible symbiotic relationship with the forest, just like many other native peoples. The forest is not something that one simply takes and takes and takes from. It’s treated with respect – never touch the main trunk, never harvest flowering fruit trees (as it could help the local critters), always leave a little behind so it can regrow, etc. The forest takes care of them and in return they watch over the forest. 

Most people live up to the late 80’s, maybe 90’s here! Watching a 75+ year young woman hauling up a 20% grade mountain to forage for tea leaves and vegetables is humbling and inspiring. The fireside banter is a nightly thing and people welcome anyone and everyone to walk in unannounced and join the fun. If you have to walk a mile up a steep hill every day to forage for medicinal herbs, I wonder if it’s the herbs or just the act of hiking that keeps one young and healthy!

Fireside Chat

The first night we get there, we are welcomed by our neighbors who have a roaring fire going inside their house. Apparently the smoke cures the wood in the ceiling/roofing and prevents insects. They bring out a wok and roast some heirloom soybean seeds, offer us tea and some local fermented corn moonshine (玉米白酒). Other neighbors join us for the chatter and soon there’re stories being shared, gentle banter and laughter, old and the young, all in it for a good time. One of them tells us (in Mandarin) that he can’t fall asleep unless he’s had a chat with friends over a fire! We feel very welcome. We even get sent home with some heirloom soybean seeds and locally grown fruits!

Singing around the fire

The second night, after our 7.5h mountain scramble, the host family and a few other women from the village all show up dressed in their traditional dresses. Around the fire, after roasting heirloom soybeans and drinking corn moonshine (玉米白酒), we are treated to an amazing performance, accompanied by a 4-string “guitar”. They are making a concerted effort to keep their traditions alive.

A-Yun has been rallying the village elder and the others to restore parts of the forests that have either been logged or cultivated. Every family has a tract and they get to decide what they want to plant (or not). They all seem to have surplus and always willing to share. The few cash crops they grow (sugarcane, corn and passion fruits), is plentiful to build a house, help their kids to college or have a wedding celebration – each of which is one year’s harvest. Other than that, it’s mostly subsistence living. Most of them are Buddhists and practice vegetarianism.

I have to admit, a not-so-small part of me wants to get a small shack here somewhere and roam the mountains. Amazing how little we really need to live a happy, healthy, fulfilling life. Often times, I think we over complicate an otherwise simple life – mortgage, rent, property tax, career, health insurance, savings, medicare, investments, medications, possessions, etc.

This is a six part travelogue series exploring a section of Yunnan Province in China, from the autonomous prefecture of Xishuangbanna (西双版纳) to the remote village of Manwa Laozhai (曼佤老寨) and finally to the ancient tea forests of Jingmai (景迈).

• Xishuangbanna
• Village of Manwa Laozhai
• Mountains of Manwa Laozhai
• Canyons of Manwa Laozhi
• Ancient tea forests of Jingmai
• The Bulang People

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