To Zhenyuan: back in the tropics

March 12, 2007

The karaoke starts just as we get ready to go to sleep....and it rages on until deep into the night...

Rachel falls asleep with ear plugs; Patrick is too mad to fall asleep for a long time. Gives him time to reflect on the next part of our trip. He's leaning more to not try to extend our visas but instead using the 3 months to get to Nepal, then another 2 months for Nepal and India, then leave Asia after about 11 months.

First business in the morning is making sure our fellow karaoke hotel guests are not worrying about us being quiet... We pack up, eat breakfast, carry our stuff downstairs. Off we go to the end of the pretty valley, a climb to a nice viewpoint, a downhill into another valley another short climb with more beautiful views over terrace fields.

No land is wasted here, some of it irrigated for rice, other parts planted with grain and vegetables, yet other very dry looking land waiting to be planted in the rainy season. Patrick takes lots of landscape pictures, but his attempts to photograph people are mostly met with a "no" sign, or quick turning of the back. Most of his "nee how's" only get blank stares in return. This is not Laos!

We ride 44km to Yuxi and decide to continue on for another 39km to the next big town. The road has descended to a major river valley, and we'll follow it Northwards for the next couple of days. We are below 1000meters again and it gets hot. We estimate we must have crossed the Tropic of Cancer by now but do not see a marker. Even though we are following a river there are always some more climbs...

We're hot and out of water when we reach Zhenyuan at the apparent center of town we find one of their former "grand hotels" with faded charm and cheap rooms. For 40 yuan ($5USD) we have a queen bed, TV, hot water and a clean room. Staff are friendly and let us carry our bikes up to our third floor room...no elevators here. We clean up, rest and later in the evening take a stroll around town to find take-out food at some food stalls near a school.

Patrick has made sure there is no karaoke bar downstairs, tomorrow is a rest day.