485 km (jinghong). and lots of photos!

surprise! things didn't go according to plan.

i ended up spending 5 days in yuanyang, and didn't really bike much between yuanyang and jinghong. i knew the road would be bad, but i didn't expect it to be that bad. big hills, frequent landslides, and a few points where river and 'road' became one meant i wasn't able/didn't want to be on a bike. i ended up hitching a bit, and taking a few buses, making my way to jinghong over two days.

i arrived in jinghong yesterday, and will be leaving to head south toward laos early tomorrow morning. jinghong is a really interesting city in that it feels so generically se asian. the autonomous region of xishuangbana (jinghong is the capital) is heavily influenced by laos, thai and burmese culture, although the chinese government only officially recognizes the dai influence (an ethnic group originally from thailand although now dispersed throughout laos, burma and china). the thick humidity of xishuangbana has been a huge change from the cool mists of yuanyang. i got up early this morning and explored the city and countryside on bike, and am now hiding this afternoon from the heat.

i ended up getting a bit stuck in yuanyang, when i stopped in the beautiful village of duoyishu as i was leaving yuanyang (or so i thought). there was a small guesthouse in the village run by a couple from guangdong, and i ended up staying with them for three nights, which included celebrating the mid-autumn/harvest festival on the 14th. staying in the village was wonderful, and i especially enjoyed an epic 8 hour hike through the rice terraces with the other guest, a chinese man named stephen (who actually lived in the us for 11 years).

here are a bunch of photos from the last month, going backwards in time. click on any of them for much larger versions!

duoyishu is in the right of this photo.

on the road between yuanyang and duoyishu.

talking to kyle in the middle of nowhere (during our hike).

making dumplings for the mid-autumn festival.

approaching tonghai, a city between kunming and yuanyang.
signs like this make me very happy.

(notice the characteristic factories/pollution)

clifford and i, dressed to impress, just before setting off from kunming.

with some friends i met during a quick weekend trip to dali (four hours nw of kunming).

sunset over kunming from my apartment.

below are a few photos from yangshuo, my first stop after entering china over a month ago. the last photo is identical to the one that appears on the back of the 20 yuan note.

well, that's it for now. i'm hoping to cross the laos border saturday and then make my way sw over four or five days to the laos/thailand border. from there i'll hop on a boat and head east-ish down the mekong over two days to the city of luang prabang. hopefully more from there!