Back to Kunming

We got up really early in the morning. I woke up Matthew and Jinpeng as they weren't up, while I had been gotten up quite some time before. There was a really pretty sliver of the moon above the mountains before the sun came up. Everyone was trying to get on the 7:30 buses to Dali, was in a big hurry to get packed up and to the river in time. Matthew and I got all packed and across the river to the bus. At the buses men were handing out cigarettes as gifts. This is another male dominated tradition and so Matthew received a gift. For the entire bus ride on the mountains, where he felt like we were going to fall over the edge, he fidgeted with the cigarette.

Going back I sat on the same side of the bus as on the way in so that I could see the views and take some pictures. Our battery was almost dead so I didn't take as many pictures as I took on the way to the village. It was nice for me, though, to see that there were about 5 inches between the bus tire and the edge of the road and down into the valley. For whatever reason it made me feel a lot better. I didn't think I was going to fall of the edge and down into nowhere. It was a long ride back and we didn't have any breakfast in the village. I was glad Matthew and I had granola bars we could eat.

What we didn't know was that this particular Saturday was market day and that going out would take a long time. We got to a small town and what was normally a two lane road was turned into a very small road by people setting up for market. We got stuck as no one wanted to let anyone else go by first. We saw pigs being carved up and lots of veggies set up by the side of the road. I think it took us about an hour to get through the village. It was pretty unpleasant at times with all the diesel fumes. That, and people smoking on the bus. This bus didn't have anything which said no smoking so it wasn't like they were breaking the rules.

They motors on the big trucks out here are not covered. And you can watch them running. I think maybe they leave them open so they can get to them to work on quickly if they need to.

We had amazing views on the bus trip and it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to Dali from the village. Our driver wasn't very nice and the roads were very curvy. Luckily neither Matthew or I got sick. When we got to Dali I was more than ready to get off the bus, though. Everyone from the village met in Dali and we went to lunch. We had a good lunch. For me it was probably the best food in a while. There were veggies, which I always appreciate. I'm not as big of a meat eater as the Chinese are.

After lunch we hired a bus back to Kunming. We had some trouble trying to get all of the sleeping bags and pads loaded into the bus. We had to put many of them behind the seats and under the seats of the bus. It was quite a project getting them all loaded onto the bus. Matthew and I had been thinking about staying in Dali for a day but the prospect was daunting and we were really tired. We finally started going and the bus was playing Chinese movies. "Legendary Assassin" played first and it was interesting mostly because I couldn't understand what was being said. Then they played a Jacky Chan movie where he steals a baby. It was also in Chinese and we couldn't understand it. Again this made it more intriguing. I think I would have been able to block it out much more easily if I had been able to understand what was going on.

I tried to take a nap but the bus was really hot and I was starting to get a headache. By the time we got back to Kunming my head was pounding and I had already taken pain killer. I also had to wait on the bus for them to unload all of the bags. I was not very happy when we got off of the bus. Alyssa got a cab and we rode with her to a bus stop that we knew had a 52 bus, and we got on and went back to the apartment. I got a shower and it felt really good. All of the dust had gotten under my skin so I brought it back with me.

I also have something like 50-60 flea bites now. They are driving me crazy. We didn't take our bags into the room in case any of the fleas came back with us. Tomorrow Matthew and I are going to take it easy and plan our trips to the Western Mountain, Dounan Flower Market, and the Stone Forest. We are hoping for nice weather this week so we can have good views.