TREKKING with a child on my shoulders in some remote mountain was a possibility that I knew would become real when I married Lik, an avid backpacker.

Parenthood is already a big challenge in the comforts of home, so roughing it out with two energetic kids in the wild in a different climate and environment sounds even more forbidding.

But I had several years to get prepared mentally. My husband has friends who think nothing of hitting the holiday trail in Third World countries with kid in tow.

GIVING A HAND: Qian-Ya and Yong-Cheng getting involved in the community project in a mountain village in Yunnan.

I took the hint when he told me that his friend had backpacked with his two-year-old in Yunnan. We had two short, soft-adventure trips to Bintan and Cambodia before we signed up with our two kids, aged two and four, for a 12-day trip to Yunnan.

Our original plan was to join a community effort to build a school in a Tibetan village 3,260m above sea level before we set off on a camping trek to higher altitudes.

For the first five days, we stayed at this idyllic Napa Village, a 45-minute drive from the town of Zhongdian, which is an hour-plus flight from Kunming. We had flown from Singapore to Kunming.

The Tibetan village is hidden in a valley next to the Napa Lake and has probably fewer than 100 residents. Houses are of traditional Tibetan style with lots of wood and carvings.

Grassland for cows and pigs to graze on and vegetable farms stretch before the houses. Closer to the lake, you find goats and sheep.

The children adapted very well to the conditions, apart from two constant streams of mucus running down their noses and flushed cheeks from the cold, dry wind and intense sunlight.

We had the delightful companionship of three dedicated teachers and an ex-stewardess who was also our adventure trip leader. We met six other Singaporeans who had arrived a few days before us.

All turned out to be very tolerant of our kids and our inability to contribute equally to the chores at the school or in the kitchen. They even helped to babysit. We were fortunate to have two excellent cooks among our party too.

The advantage of this Travel & Service programme was that you got to interact with your fellow travellers instead of being confined to the seats in a tour bus.

We also shared notes with two couples from Holland and Beijing who did a day trip to the village.

I was surprised that the owner of the house had installed a solar-powered shower and a modern squat toilet. While we had to share the facilities, they were a luxury in this remote village.

My daughter Qian-Ya, two, and son Yong-Cheng, four, loved the place and doing simple things like exploring the fields and watching the animals. My secret fears of them being attacked and mauled by the infamously ferocious Tibetan dogs (they were chained) or kidnapped by some Chinese syndicate faded quickly.

The friendly local folks were busy with their chores in the daytime but, at night, they would gather and dance.

In other towns I visited later, I noted that music was played at a common square every night. Within an hour, the whole square would be crowded and even the sales staff inside the surrounding shops would be swaying to the music.

The teachers in our group had planned lessons with the 23 children at the village school, giving us a chance to interact with them and gain an insight into their world. Their teacher, a volunteer from Shanghai, was equally excited to host us.

Traditionally, the children helped out with the chores at home and on the farm. To date, the village has yet to produce a pupil studying beyond Primary 4.

But with the introduction of ecotourism and homestays, the villagers are starting to benefit from progress and learning that it pays to be literate.

Our meals were Chinese fare with staples like porridge, buns and rice. We had expected vegetables and yak meat, but our tour operator made sure that we had pork or chicken as well as fruit. Drinks included Chinese tea and yak butter tea.

We separated from the group who went trekking and camping in the mountains over the next three days because I had not acclimatised to the high altitude even after five days.

RUSTIC LIVING: The writer with her son Yong-Cheng and daughter Qian-Ya at the Tibetan Napa Village.

I was disappointed as I had taken only about one day to acclimatise on a previous trip to Zhongdian seven years ago.
We settled for a four-wheel drive with a trip back to Zhongdian. The weather turned rainy and we had to alter our routes to avoid roads choked off by landslides.

This resulted in six to eight hours spent on the road each day. While our kids enjoyed the scenic view of the mountain ranges and meandering rivers, they also became restless and suffered from motion sickness.

There were distractions of course, in the form of seeing wheat and corn at different stages of growth as we passed through different villages from high to low altitude.

They were also full of questions when they saw a mudslide blocking our way. The next day, we were stuck in another jam caused by the efforts of a crane to pull up a truck that had careened down a slope.

Which was why I spent a lot of time reading in bed on the afternoon we finally reached the town. Our kids were made of hardier stuff - they played and plucked dandelions in the yard outside the room.

I was glad. Sure, we never got to trek up the mountain but our kids did get to see a bigger world and, more importantly, learnt to be on their own and appreciate the simpler things in life.

The writer is married to the owner of an adventure tour company.

Photos: Adventure@X-Trekkers