Dragon Tales 4

Bada

The next day I just cruised around the area on my happily unloaded bike.

Looking back at my village, Pugaolao. Sorta reminded me of some Spanish or French village somewhere (minus the church towers and tiled roofing).

Eventually I reached the Bada rice cultivation area, which is an absolutely amazing sight to see.

I definitely continued love in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Better than no afterglow at all I guess.

At the beginning there was a little path to some lookouts.

This place absolutely blew my mind. It's incredible to imagine that the ancestors of the locals here first began terracing and farming these steep slopes way back in the 700s. And their descendants have carried on doing the very same thing.

And besides all that, the place is just so amazingly beautiful.

I left the Chinese tourists and went strolling down the hill, eventually ending up in Bada village.

There were incredible views all over the shop.

The afterglow lasted awhile, I can tell ya.

Rolling Back

Eventually it was time to cruise back down the hill. As I was packing I met this super friendly guy, who was travelling with two of his mates around China, on huge motorbikes. One of them was travelling with a kitten.

Yep it's true. They're from Henan province, and are having a wow of a time. They couldn't believe what I was doing, and invited me to breakfast. Amazing guys!

Bewdy's got a thing for younger men, especially ones who obviously spend a lot of time in the gym.

I stopped at a little stall on the way down and had a snack. The woman served me wild rice topped with sugar, it was delicious.

The views were beautiful on the way down, of course. It was far less foggy than during my ascent a couple of days ago.

Tourist restaurant enclave. They're all seriously overpriced (relatively).

Xinjie from the other side. I stayed there on the way up.

Sometimes it was snowing these fluffy white seeds.

It didn't take long to get back to Yuanyang. Long downhills are like that, if the road's ok. I got to town, had a big lunch, got chatting to some locals, and they paid for my meal and drinks didn't they!

Unbelievable! The people here are just so outstandingly hospitable and generous! It's really amazing, and so heartwarming.

I'm just so gobsmacked I keep dribbling like a buffalo calf.

I crashed again in the arvo, then went to the night markets to grab some food. Of course I met loads of people to chat with, they're all so keen to talk with me.

Water sprinklers were set up everywhere. Keeping everyone cool on this balmy night.

Massive feast for 15CNY (about $3 Oz).

These were like some sort of wild raspberry, but with a seed in the middle. Tasty, a little hard, and not too sweet.

Tobacco pipes for sale.

And local baccy. Don't ask me about the cabbage leaves, maybe they keep it from drying out too much?

Water Splashing Festival

And of course I timed my return to Yuanyang perfectly, as it's the first night of the Water Splashing Festival, a springtime festival celebrated by many ethnic minorities in China, but particularly by the Dai people in Yunnan province.

It has the same roots as the Songkran festival in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, and is based on the traditional story of some princesses who had to splash water all over the land, as a demon's decapitated and burning head was spreading fires all over the bloody place, the nasty bugger.

The princesses saved the day, and these days people still traditionally splash water over the land, but they splash water over each other way more.

Last year I was in Thailand at the time, it was hot, and I got totally drenched, as did everyone. It was great fun.

For the first night of the festival here there was a big cultural concert in the main square, with dancers and musicians from many ethnic groups performing. The quality was amazing, and the costumes just scrumptious.

Sorry the pics aren't great, it was pretty crowded, and I got there after it'd started.

Some of the people in the audience were just as interesting as the performers.

The writing on the screen says things like, "Long live the People's Republic of China," "Long live the great unity of the people of the world," and "Your faith fuels courage." This particular performance was celebrating China, and Han culture.

It was quite beautiful to see the huge diversity of ethnic groups celebrated during the performance. At the end they all went on stage together for a dance and a song. It felt like a beautiful appreciation of the richness of Yunnanese culture.

And I've just scratched the surface.

Big Big Climbs

So tomorrow I'm gonna head north, and will attempt one of the biggest one day climbs I've done on the whole trip, a whopping 1900m straight up, over about 45km, and then another 35km more gently down, over the other side.

I mean, I'm sure if I really wanted to I could probably just camp up there somewhere around halfway for the night and carry on the next day. But part of me wants to see if I'm actually able to handle a climb like that all in one go, I wanna know what my body can do, as it'll help me plan for Central Asia.

My destination is Jianshui, an ancient town, famous for its incredible architectural heritage and culture.

This leg of my journey through Yunnan will eventually take me to Kunming, the capital, which I guess I'll maybe reach in around a week or so. Guanyin willing.

Back to the city! Kunming has a population of nearly 7 million, and will be my first Chinese city on this trip. I'm excited.

But I've gotta get up that bloody hill first.

And all the others❤️

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