Another day of traveling

A couple days of riding through the hills and mountains of Yunnan, and a couple days on the bus has brought me to the town of Mengla, near the Laotian border. The nice thing about winging it is I can change travel plans on a whim. With the injury of a rider that was going to meet me in Yunnan, I decided to go back to something of my original plan and hope to go south to Laos, and cross over to Thailand to Chiang Mai. I hear great things about it and the ride should be pleasant. I dont have much of a map or info or an international credit card, so this should be fun. Hopefully I dont run out of money and get stuck somewhere in s.e. asia. Wish me luck.

Sometimes, and only sometimes, high up the mountain there is an fruit oasis that one can buy something to eat, to sustain oneself during the climbs up the mountains.

Dont let them fool you, they begged me to take their picture.

Rice paddy terraces go up the whole mountain. Unfortunately i blew it and didnt take any pics of it. Weather was bad in some areas. But it was an incredible sight. Never seen anything like it before. Nothing like this cheesy pic. Hopefully I will get some better ones.

So traveling on the bus can be an experience. We ran into some road construction, and the whole road is worked on at once, so nobody passes. Yep, no one gets by, unless ur with the govt. This stop was only about an hour or so.
So what does one do when ur cold and stuck up on the mountain? U build a fire.

If u look closely, you will see my bike way on top. I thought this old bus would never make it. There were holes in the floor, the door that we enter/exit through had to be manually opened and closed, and steam from the engine poured through a hole by the driver, which filled the bus on occasion. Oh yeah, and my window continually slid opened, and all morning it had been quite cold. Fun ride. But we made it in one piece. Just another day traveling off the beaten path.
OH, and there was a second delay! haaa haaa.....this was about another hour. talk about a long day....and no lunch yet.