Today we ventured to the heart of Yunnan, and spent the day accumulating mileage on both highways (高数公路) and country roads, riding from 9AM to ~6PM with a few breaks for fuel and lunch.

Today’s route in blue

Meeting at 9AM at the bikes, we decided to get breakfast at Pu’er, and then decide on the rest of the riding day from there. Our original plan had us stopping in an earlier town (Mengla) and then travelling to Pu’er today, but as we had pushed on yesterday, we wanted to stay ahead of the schedule to give us more time later on.

Setting off in the morning

As we rode north, it was interesting to see the landscape shift. From dense forests with wild elephants roaming underneath, to dense jungle with strange and twisting undergrowth, to wide plains, transformed for agriculture with the odd hill capped with solar panels. This stretch, we rode along the highway, which in itself is amazing. Its construction is almost exclusively in the air, held up with tall concrete beams, and occasionally tunnelling through mountains. This, combined with following the speed limits (i.e. riding with cruise control on) was a very different flow state to what I was used to in Thailand.

It is interesting that each country that I visit, has a slightly different “riding mode” for me, that I need to get used to at first, and then learn to enjoy.

• In Malaysia, this was weaving between cars, and going at high speeds and longer distances, on relatively good road surface
• In Thailand (more down south) it was dodging local villagers and their whimsical driving style.
• In Thailand (up north/near Myanmar border) it was mastering the curves and hairpins, with focus exclusively on cornering well.
• In Laos it was trying to not destroy the bike’s suspension and fall in bad road conditions. And now in China, it is a sort of zen where I am riding at the speed limit(ish), and spend my time taking in my surroundings, and letting thoughts come and go while riding. Such thoughts were as trivial as “I wonder what the ratio of (1) the number of tunnels I’ve passed through in China in the last 2 days, to (2) The number of tunnels I had passed through ever in my life” [I think excluding metros (and only counting road tunnels), that ratio is bigger than 1:10 (i.e. in the last 2 days I think I have gone through >10% the total number of road tunnels I have ever gone through in my life).], or “I wonder how solar installations here have affected electricity prices in rural areas”. [I didn’t dwell on this one for too long]. With the road more or less floating in the air, rather than following the contours of the land, it is a completely different feeling. There is a strange sense of distance between the road and the surrounding environment - as though it is a movie or screen saver going by. Small rural villages on mountaintops are tens of metres away, but feel a world apart from the perfectly paved bitumen roads, and well manicured hedges at the centre and edges of the road.

Today, traffic stops were friendly, and police asked where we were going, tried to sneakily take photos to show their friends, and were generally nice. Toll gates were also rather pleasant - with each person telling us to “please be careful when riding on the road”. Something is a bit strange here with the toll situation in Yunnan. Officially, I hear that motorcycles are not allowed on these major highways, but the rule of practice seems to be:

• You go to the manual toll booth
• The toll operator asks where you are going
• Usually they are satisfied, and they let you pass..BUT they ask you to squeeze past the boom gate without them lifting it
• An alarm goes off when you go past the boom gate, but it is okay… Later on, the toll operator told me that “they were responsible for our safety”, so they wanted to check the bike/get some details before letting us pass. And at a different toll booth they refused to let us on altogether “this upcoming section is dangerous for motorcycles, with lots of tunnels”. I get the feeling that there is some selective enforcement of the rules that goes on, out of practicality.

We reached Pu’er at 11:30AM, and it was much smaller than I had envisaged. It counts as a tier 4/5 city (smaller than Xi Shuang Ban Na I think), and we enjoyed some traditional Yunnan food; vegetable tofu soup, stir fry pork, and some bamboo shoots.

Lunch in Pu’er

We also planned the rest of the days ride; we would head to Jing Dong (京东）, an intermediary stop before Dali. I took the chance to pick up a brick(?) of Pu’er tea before we set off.

A chart on which poisonous mushrooms to avoid in Yunnan

This subsequent section was a bit of a slog; I was in a bit of a food coma and feeling quite sluggish…so after an hour we pulled over for some fuel, and rest, and red bull.

After the rest stop, the route took us to the country roads, and wow was this much more fun. It was like riding in Thailand again, passing through village after village, and following the contours of the mountains. Interestingly, at one point, the road was shut and we (and other road traffic) were directed to take a narrow single lane concrete road which went up into the hilltops, curving around individual plots of land. Quite an adventure!

Rest stop on the way to Jingdong

The remaining journey to Jingdong was on these minor country roads, as we were denied access to the highways.

Countryside just outside Jingdong

These varied in quality, with some stretches almost Laotian in quality, and other stretches of perfect bitumen, splitting rice paddies and pastoral land.

Arriving in Jingdong

When we reached the hotel, the post-ride routine started.

1. Check in
2. Enter room, remove all items from pockets, hang airbag vest, riding gear to airdry
3. Turn on aircon, plug in electronics to charge
4. Shower
5. Dinner/laundry/etc etc
6. Write this blog This time, dinner was local Jingdong cuisine, at a restaurant recommended by the front desk; braised fungus, and a sour soup with aged pork cuts.

The most interesting part of the day was actually after dinner, where I went to “泡脚“ （have a foot bath). This was partly to recover from the days riding, but also to give me a chance to sit down and write this journal. But instead, I had quite an interesting conversation with the therapist. She was about 40 years old, and a local to the area, with a son (15) and daughter (18). She knew I was not from the area, as she saw me on my bike and heard my accent, and was filled with curiosity. We talked for the entire time, and asked each other questions. Her: (after realising that I’m from Australia)

• How much are people paid in Australia
• Do they eat rice, or do they eat mantou
• Do they use RMB? Or do they have a different currency
• Do they use WeChat to pay for things?
• Do they have rice paddies there?
• How much are foot baths in Australia Me:
• How has life changed in the last 10-20 years?
• When was the highway built?
• What was the change in life like from 2020->2025, vs from 2015->2020?
• How has the price of electricity changed since a long time ago? I don’t think either of us got exactly the answers we were expecting or completely understood what the other was saying, but I was captivated by the gulf in our life experiences. You probably have a reasonably good understanding of my life experience, so to share some of hers:
• Grew up in the rural area in the mountains, about 10-12km of unpaved dirt roads from the nearest small town
• Each day they would walk down and up these roads to sell produce at the village
• Food was hard to come by as a child, with meat being a once-per-year occasion
• Dropped out of school in 3rd grade; not super literate
• The place she was most curious to travel to in China was Kunming (which is only 4.5 hours away by car and the nearest major city) I found that she had a very practical understanding to things in life; she could tell the quality of pork has improved recently due to the type of feed (wheat), had a good understanding of agriculture, and things relating to the land (where to find mushrooms, how to prepare, etc), and generally seemed to find fulfilment when in nature and tending to the land.

The night market in Jingdong…not as busy as I was expecting

In the end, little writing was done, and a good conversation was had. She suggested that I go visit the night market, which was the main thing to do, so I ended the day with a 5 minute wander around the market before retuning to the hotel (at this point it was already approaching midnight).

Tomorrow; Dali!

Some stats:

• 25g coffee consumed
• 414 KMs travelled
• 12.7L fuel added
• 3 unique interactions