Well we are pretty well settled here in Swest china heading northward. Weve had a splendid trip to date with perfect weather until we got to Dali(central Yunnan). Apparently its been sunny and dry here for past 3months until we showed up in a hurricane wind followed by cold rains and snow on the mountain tops. Dali is at around 6000ft and its blanketed on one side by a massive range of peaks and a lake on the other.
We have camped all the way through until reaching here and the weather as said before spectacular sunnny warming temps throughout the day with cool evenings , perfect riding weather. Yunnan is a very rural area and spectacular. Just about everythign has been grown here and we are never tired of seeing what agricultural product we come upon next. Weve camped neaxt to pristing looking rivers and not so pristine. Plastic is the main culprit and the bags are everywhere! Garbage continues to be an issue wherever we go.
People here have been so friendly and very curious without beign overbearing. We have been the centre of attraction wherever we go as msot tourists are nto travelling as slow as we are and are not stopping at these small places along the way. It is very much like being on candid camera most folks just cant believe their eyes.
Our gear is holding up so so with one broken tent pole which we have fixed with plastic tubing bamboo and electrical tape(the poels never break when you are at home!!) and we cant very well go back to REI and get a new one! The stove plunger which pressurizes the fuel bottle has been fixed?/sealed with the aid of a bicycle patch. Our pocket translator which has been soooooooooo helpful has a mind of its own and sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. The good news is that Stan and i are healthy although he did have what appeared to be a kidney stone attack and fortuantley it was a one time occurence. I did medicate him with all kinds of good drugs (most Over the counter from vietnam) but didnt help much . Oh yea stan informed me that the teeth on my back sprocket of my bike are wearing and dont know why but ...
I guess there are a lot of stories but most have just floated by in endless days of sunshine and riding. Of interest we did get to cycle through the highlands of the tea growing area and that looked like soemthign out of a story book. We ahvent seen antoher tourist/white non-asian person until we got here to Dali and even then very few mostly chinese tourists.
We leave in the am northward and hope the rain will go away wont travel much higher in elevation as it si still a little early in the season .Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I only hope that before we leave I can find an englsh channel on the telly with an english song. The last one I saw was the bodyguard, probably put on as Whitney H had died the day before. I had the song from the bodyguard "I will always love you" going around in my head for 2weeks!!
Sal
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