I am a wreck today. Most of the past 30 hours have been spent on buses as we worked our way south from Lijiang to the Lao-Chinese border: an overnight to Jinghong, five hours to Mengla, then a quick (only two hours) ride here to Mohan, where we finally dumped our bags and found hot showers.

From the latest frontier, Part Three of my winter wandering. There’s an ocean out there somewhere.

Mohan is an eerie place. The town looks and feels almost abandoned, as if no one actually lives here and the few people on the street are only passing through on their way to or from the border. We had to hunt for a restaurant willing to feed us. Most places were closed before 9 p.m. We settled on chuan’r, where the woman cooking stood fanning the barely-glowing coals while our meat and potatoes slowly roasted.

We’re all wearing t-shirts, by the way. I mention this because less than a week ago we were shivering in a foot of snow in Zhongdian (also known as ShangriLa) on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. In fewer than seven days, we’ve moved from the frigid Himalayas to mild central Yunnan to tropical Xishuanbanna. The jacket, sweater, extra shirt, scarf, gloves and beanie I wore just a few days ago are now stuffed into the top of my backpack, which is filled to capacity now that I’m not wearing most of my clothes most of the time.

While the bus rides have abused and exhausted us–Eric slammed his ribs on a rail when the sleeper from Lijiang jerked sideways, and he now winces every time he coughs–we have seen more of rural China in a week than any of us has in months of living up north. The ride from Jinghong to Mengla followed the Mekong through wide valleys, the bus winding over mountains on a single-lane road lined with palm and banana trees.

Traffic crawled most of the way. A stall, we learned, can stop progress for miles. For all the bumps, some of which tossed me out of my seat and dropped me down hard, we fared well compared to other passengers. As we passed an outdoor market where locals were barbecuing fresh meat, a car-sick woman behind Sam quietly vomited into an orange bag. “Everything smells so good here,” Sam said, looking out the open window. I didn’t tell her to turn around.

The last ride today took us as close to the border as we could get. The dirt roads here are temporary. Construction crews are blasting through the mountains and laying concrete for a new highway that will connect China’s booming economy with ports in Southeast Asia. We crisscrossed several segments of that thoroughfare on the last leg. This trip will be easier next time.

Beyond our planned crossing tomorrow morning is a big unknown. I’m only going to see a sliver of Laos on this trip, probably two days on the Mekong before we head west into Thailand near Chang Mai. Like any place we’ve visited on this trip, I expect Laos could take a month on its own without exhausting my curiosity. Three years ago, I was ready to commit to a half-year in Vientiane for an editing job at the state-run English daily. I’ve been itching to get there since.

Whatever the next few days bring, I’m sure it won’t be the last time I visit this part of the world.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 9:42 am and is filed under roadside blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.