Needless to say that we were a major attraction in old town Dali.


Preparing to leave from Dali old town.



In this picture you can see the side case attached to the top of the top case


We were on the country road, actually not too bad in this area - expressway on the left.


Roadside family life


Still on nice roads


Cobblestone road


The quite o.k. road turned into a cobblestone nightmare with trucks, trucks, trucks, their dust and exhaust.
We were a bit tired of all this and after a while and attempted to enter the expressway.



Refused on the expressway 2 - YOU ARE NOT GOING!


We couldn't enter the expressway here ...


... neither could we there. See that all bolts are missing already!


Finally we found an open spot to enter, wide enough for a truck and on we were.



We made good progress on the expressway - literally no traffic.


Claudio decided to stop - unfortunately ...


... and here they were

What followed was a good while of discussions, phone calls and negotiations. The cops were very friendly and explained that it was really dangerous for bikes to ride on that busy expressway They decided that we had to leave the expressway by turning back to the previous exit, what we refused, of course, since riding down the wrong side of such a busy road was too dangerous, we felt. Another round of phone calls was made. Finally they said we had to follow them to next exit, when one of the cops suggested that this was too far away from the country road and agreed that we will exit on the next but one, over 70kms away



Following the police car at 80 kph


This where we had to leave the expressway.


Cops were talking to the toll gate guys, we were released and wished well - no fine - no toll; Thanks !


We made a brief stop right after the exit, at the Lan Can Jiang - The Mekong.


Mekong 2


Mekong 3

We were on ever present cobblestone again after a few kms, climbing up steadily.


Cobblestone again.

On the descent towards Baoshan, we noticed that the whole area's South slopes are graveyards - tombs wherever you look.


Tombs


We reached the outskirts of Baoshan city in the early afternoon and paid a short visit to my wifes family.


A ride for the local kids

My left handed pannier holder still needed repair, so we went to my wife's cousin, who owns a small motorbike repair shop to fix the support. After 2 hours of cutting, welding, grinding and painting, the pannier sat in it's place again. What a relief. Thank you, Xiao Dong!


Cutting


Final painting


Job done.

We went for a nice Yunnan style dinner and a bunch of cold beers afterwards.

Andy