on the bumpity bump road

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We woke up from a good night's rest and boarded our last bus to Mong Song. Not just yet. We got on, then were asked to get off again. Maybe because there were no seats for us and it wouldn't be safe to stand for the next few hours on the same bumpy road? No, not in China. We were walked down the street by a retired Damenglong teacher who explained that we needed to go past the police station before getting on the bus because they were not allowed to have so many people at once.

Not on the map, it took us a few hours in the overstuffed minvan bus to get there. We watched rice paddies and small villages go by, and chatted with the teacher sitting in between the driver and passenger seat, facing the rest of the passengers. We decided this must be the cowboy seat, where the person with the personality to take the lead, help people on and off the bus, and even talk to the foreigners sat. He pointed out the lychee, tea, and banana trees, and explained that he used to have to walk 3 days to get from Damenglong to Jinhong, but with the new road, it was much more convenient.

We got off at Mong Song - middle of nowhere and more remote than Damneglong - and set off on a 10km trek to Ya Kou, where we planned to sleep that night. We were directed by local townspeople which dusty dirt path to take, and soon found ourselves walking through a beautiful bamboo filled green jungle. We saw a pair of local men walk off the path with a rifle. Later heard two loud gunshots. must've been dinner. An hour of walking later we found oursleves climbing up a steep steep dirt hill and decided we were not on the right path. Back in Mong Song we were pointed in the right direction.

A few hours later we arrived in Ya Kou. The tiniest village yet. No bathroom even, just walk down the path and go where you see a bunch of toilet paper littering the ground. We found a family to stay with and sat in their thatched roof house over the pigs and chickens while dinner was made. Three hour laters we looked just like the family dog, staring at every move the wife made as she prepared dinner. we were famished. It was difficult to communicate with them because they were a local minority people with their own language, so most of our dinner was silent with a few questions about where we were from, etc. We ate fast and fell asleep even faster.

Woke up to the LOUDEST PIG squeels and rooster crows I have ever heard. All of the town's animals were up at dawn, and the ones living right below us made it loud and clear it was time for breakfast.

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