This trip hadn\u2019t been easy. Officials were drunk and annoying. \nAccommodation was poor \u2013 a mediocre guesthouse, a school, a dormitory \nfor government workers. Bus drivers left me by the road side \u2013 \u2018Full\u2019! \nAnd there really wasn\u2019t much there, in those remotest corners of \nJinping, itself a remote county in Yunnan province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Towards the end I got to Wuyaping. I arrived after dark. The head of \nthe village offered me cold leftovers \u2013 dog meat, some green leaves, \nrice. He made me sleep in his office. He lectured this was a special \nplace to visit, emphasized the proximity of the Vietnamese border. He \nwas drunk, annoying and rapacious. He suggested I buy him a computer. I \npaid four times the normal price for a meal and a place to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next morning I looked around. And there wasn\u2019t much there. Soon I\n wanted to get out. There was no bus. At long last I got a ride. It \nlasted twenty minutes. Then the road was blocked by a crane, hoisting \nremains of a truck from the ravine. It was going to be there all day. \nAnd tomorrow. Nobody got past. Nothing to do but turn back to Wuyaping, \nsaid my driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In travel we are always rewarded for our frustations, discomfort and \nbad luck. Some people there were discussing a possible detour. My escape\n was great, on the back of a truck lying in soft bundles of clothes, \namong the Hmong traders whose merchandise this was, along a mountainous \ndirt road, remote and beautiful and with wide views. At dusk when it got\n cold they pulled out blankets that kept us warm. I shared one with the \nold lady next to me who kept laughing about it. I watched the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Late that evening I reached Mengla that I know well and where I like to stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This trip hadn\u2019t been easy. Officials were drunk and annoying. Accommodation was poor \u2013 a mediocre guesthouse, a school, a dormitory for government workers. Bus drivers left me by the road side \u2013 \u2018Full\u2019! And there really wasn\u2019t much there, in those remotest corners of Jinping, itself a remote county in Yunnan province. Towards the … Continue reading “Great Escape”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chin-eng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}