Angels At My Table 2

Fuxian Lake

I could have stayed longer, but reluctantly left Na Hin and his crew as I have a few time limits, due to the crazily huge size of this country, and the relatively short length of my visa period.

And I have somewhere to be.

The top end of Quilu Lake.

I climbed a lot, as usual, and passed by Xingyun Lake.

Eventually I hit the western shores of the beautiful Fuxian Lake, an area well set up for tourists, although pretty quiet at this time of year.

The deserted back road hugged the lake for many miles, it really was a delicious ride.

As the earth spun to cut out the sun, I decided to stop at Luchong, a small settlement which looks as though it's pretty much been set up exclusively for visitors.

My destination

And my first stop, even before I had a chance to unload my bike?

My guest house owner led me to the friendly cop shop.

As her and I were walking there, she asked me something in Chinese, and it translated as ...

She'd actually asked me if I wanted her to come with me to show me places to eat.

Ok then. No sweets tonight. Normal night.

Not that I'm complaining.

And actually by the time I finally showered and went out everything was closed.

This was the best I could rustle up.

My guest house bathroom.

To The City

As I left my little guest house in the morning, the woman who manages the place gave me a massive bag of blueberries, and some super huge apples. My Confucius, the generosity is constant and unfathomable.

Not many left. There were millions, and I gutsed them all up, every single last scrumptious one.

The ride to Kunming was remarkably quiet, and not at all what I'd expected, given the size of the city. Those expressways really work a treat for us cyclists.

The last thirty or forty clicks into the city consisted of dedicated cycleways, a great treat. But unfortunately not all of them were that smooth.

I took a detour into the eucalyptus forest, but I got lost, and eventually had to make my way back to the paved cycleway, defeated gumnuts tucked up between my legs.

I did pass through a ghost village though, that was pretty cool.

Kunming outskirts theme park.

Looking at the world along rose coloured grasses

As I eventually hit the city I realised rather quickly that I'd better keep my wits about me in those cycle lanes. People whip by fast and close, and if I made one inadvertent swerve I'd quickly be noodle soup (as opposed to toast).

I managed to negotiate my way through the peak hour traffic and made it to my little room, a shoebox in an apartment in a very typical new-ish Chinese high rise apartment block.

My host was Zhou, and her two young daughters. Zhou's engineer husband is away in Colombia, building a metro in Bogotá, of all things. We chatted online. Zhou was really sweet, but was quite fearful, and I didn't really understand why until later.

An ad in the lift, for new high-tech sun-protection clothing.

The view of Zhou's apartment complex from my sardine can.

The hood

My fried noodles spot, cooked by this lovely woman from Henan province. I sat on a low plastic chair at a low and rickety plastic table. Tall chairs aren't a thing here.

Neither are long legs.

City sunset, as I went strolling to who-knows-where.

Checkin out the riff raff

I had some bready snacks.

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Go to Part 3