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.

Lijiang Old Town

This is Lijiang, the much talked about city in an incredible part of North Yunnan.
It truly is beautiful, with the Naxi minority people, colorful dress, and high mountains. It is also incredibly touristy.
I personally am not a fan of the tourist spots, but this old town was very cool.
But a maze! and hardly any English to help the foreigner.
But its still worth a visit, and the surrounding area's are really the icing on the cake. But too cold for me...I didnt stay long. My main goal was to get out of the cold, which is what i have been subject to for the last two months in Ya'an. No sun, no blue sky, and no fun!
The day I left, the sun came out! just my luck.

The old town is really cool to meander around in, just buy everything outside the city walls...which is what i do. Tightwad goldclub member.
I will bore u with lots of unimpressive pics. I walked around real quick in the morning and took a bunch of shots. No editing software on the road here makes for lackluster pics, but better than nothing.

Riding in the Clouds

This day I left my truck stop motel and stopped for breakfast at the market.The market is a great place to find all kinds of goodies for the day's trip, and also some breakfast like egg with noodle or just noodles, or sometimes a sort of stuffed dumpling. This day also turned out to be a great ride. About 40 km downhill, my longest yet. It was truly awesome, and the pics below show some of the scenery, from the noodle shop in the market where i ate to the small mountain villages to the breathtaking hills swallowed up by the clouds. I honestly have to say that this was one of the most incredible sights I have seen. It reminded me of some great pictures I have seen in the past. I wish my pics could express how incredible this sight was which lasted at least a third of the way down. Truly made me appreciate traveling the slow way (by bike), and Nature's artist.

The mainstay here, and in China.

Typical looking house in the mountain village.

Hitting the Pipe early in the morning. It is interesting to me that sometimes people are surprised to see me...and sometimes they dont care i'm there. It has been an experience traveling from Sichuan Province down to Sichuan, and from the big city to the small villages.

These houses were way up high in the mountains, and you could hear the running river down below. As i rode through here I felt like i was riding through the Sierra's. It was incredible.

The cloud enveloped the hills and part of the mountain and provided and incredible sight as I traveled down the path.

Dog meat aint so bad.

This was another interesting day of riding. Great views and a big climb.
At the top of the lcimb, with about 5 kms left to my target town, I had been climbing through pine forests and dense brush when this little house at the pass had a group of men eating and they called me over. I went over and accepted the offer for food. They had been having a good time, as i could smell the alcohol in the gallon jug (homemade?), which i declined but ate some of their food. I am always a bit sketchy of eating in surroundings that may not appear too clean (especially due to my africa experience), but I ate anyway. AND...I had knowingly had my first taste of DOG. And u know what...it was GOOD. These men were lumberjacks, as I had been encountering quite a few of these guys, and the villages up in these hills and mountains seem to be geared just for that enterprise. Booze and dogmeat. Cant beat it.

My dog eating pipe smoking moonshine drinking lumberjack buddies.

Me getting treated to a nice meal.

There it is in the middle. hmmmm.