Here Be Elephants

After the excitement of the previous day we planned on an easier ride for the next leg.  We hopped back onto the same road (which we’ve learned is the S102 and are optimistic about) and it led us without fail to the next destination city, Yuxi.

The scenery was much more interesting today – though it would still be a stretch to call it attractive. Both sides of the road bounded by intensively worked fields – often completely covered with poly tunnels. Factories on the near horizon belched out clouds of smoke and steam, making the possibly pretty mountains on either side mostly invisible. But, the further away we get from Kunming the nicer it gets – poly tunnels and factories giving way to attractive terraced hillsides growing corn, chilies and rice. Many of the farmhouses had hundreds of corn cobs hanging to dry from their walls and roofs, presumably to be made into cornmeal/flour/starch/etc.  Interesting, one small village we cycled through seemed to have a large muslim population – all the restaurants were halal, and some signs were written in both arabic and chinese.

The ride itself was also pleasant.  We had a little uphill in the beginning, peaking out at 6331 feet above sea level but from then on it was a downhill plumet for 15 miles and at least a 1000 foot elevation loss. Hopefully we won’t have to gain that again tomorrow.

Yuxi seems like a fairly uninteresting place…cookie cutter small provincial chinese town. We wandered the streets of its old town, and saw what appears to be its only claim to fame – The Hong Ta (red pagoda). Then we tried to get online to update the blog.  This turned out to be more difficult than necessary (as most things tend to be in China).  Internet cafes require a Chinese Identity Card, which we obviously lack.  This failed to be obvious to anyone else, since they kept asking for ours. Foreign passports and a smile not accepted anywhere.  After trying a few different places, and flagging down the town’s only foreigner,  we discovered free wireless in Dico’s, a Chinese equivalent to KFC.

Thank you Dico’s for the wireless.