Well we are ready to roll and hopefully not wobble, with one cracked rear rim, one welded rear rack and no police chasing us! Outside the landscape is pretty stark. Something like the area of Big Bend near Hell Paso(El Paso, TX) but redder and bigger. We have no idea what the road will be like but im sure if there is a construction site out there we will find it.
Pleasant memories of the folks we hae met along the way. Always curious and forever helpful. Sometimes to helpful as we have found here in Ganzu province. We make a sincere effort to camp away from towns and villages because we will be overwhelmed with visitors and thermos's!! One place we camped up above the village thought we would have a peacful evening. Well once we were spotted they came to visit bringing us gifts, kinda like the 3 wise men. A thermos of lukewarm water which we gratefully drank then some "greens" then more greens and onions for our meal, and even after we had eaten another lady brought us a bag of cooked greens, some weird looking noodle(looked like an unravelled onion ring) . We would thank them profusedly and hope they would go away, which eventually they did(when it was getting dark). One older lady I took her dry worn hands and massaged them with hand lotion, which she loved. So of course a few more ladies showed up wanted their hands massaged!. I actually enjoyed that part. Just as we were about to turn in Stan (my wise husband) decides to set off his firecrackers that he forgot to light on his birthday. Guess what? More visitors...
Next am we were awoken by the shaking of the tent fly. I peeked out, it was 6:30am an one of evening visitors had brought us 2 thermo's of hot water and her grandson motioned for us to wash! Wash! heck that's not on our agenda at 6:30am. I had them take one thermos back and shooed them away. As we were paking up yet another lady showed up with a thermos. Even though the water in our bottles would be cold once out of the thermos she insisted we used thermos water. Wow what can you say about the hospitality. I doubt if Marco Polo had it this good..dont think they had thermos's then!
Dont talk to me about construction. Somehow I end up having a potty-mouth on a continual basis with every bump we hit. The annoying factor here in China is when doing road construction they don't leave any real rideable or even driveable terrain, also they appear to do the whole 150km or so at one time rather in increments..highly annoying and once again part of asian mentality I don't understand. They continue to be building massive freeways everywhere (or eveywhere we have been) and meanwhile their secondary roads which the majority of the population use are falling apart. Most people here don't own a car so I'm not sure why they eed so many more freways. I guess it looks good?
Unfortunately, we have missed the Tibetan/Buddhist areas of China mostly due to our prior diversion. We would have liked to have seen more and perhaps up ahead we still may. This area has been predominatly Muslim and their mosques we have seen have been quite impressive. The people have been so warm and kind which makes up for some of their shortcomings, ie: garbage is not garbage in their eyes I guess. The garbage factor had increased and it is sad to see the river banks streaming in plastic and trash.
So take the good with the bad. The worst experience so far has been the special task force showing up on your doorstep escorting you away. As in the police just following their rules from their government or whoever decides the rules. The reason it is so upsetting, despite the obvious, is that I wonder if that is how it is here for some unfortunate souls. "They" show up at your doorstep and "You" dissapear!. I have a feeling that is how it is.
Keep us in your happy thoughts and we will stay postive, it is time to depart here and to eventually depart China while the memories are good.
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