We waited for an hour for the bus, which never came - we were unsure which direction we were to be heading, but by chance a lone Israeli cycled past and informed us that Yanyuan (our first destination) was 'that way' down the road we were on. We have found talking to the sprinkling of tourists we come across whenever we can cital for successful adlibing travels. Eventually we accepted an offer in a minibus to a nearby town, where (so the driver told us) we could catch a bus to Yanyuan. We followed the lake-side road, passing through small villages that were remarkably different than the Mosuo villages we had seen on the Yunnan side of the lake. Our venturing off the beaten track, along the road that doesn't exist on the map, rewarded us with sights we might have otherwised missed.True to his word, the driver dropped us right off in front of the bus we needed to catch, leaving as half an hour to wander the streets of who knows where - a village full of contrasts: on one side was a mud road with farm houses and the other a cobbled-street lined with modern shops and dairy-sized supermarkets.
On the bus, we continued our trip into the semi-unknown, arriving in Yanyuan, with only a few "slight" delays. One of the more comical delays we have come across so far, occured about 5 minutes into the trip: after a shout from a passenger the bus came to a standstill and a phonecall made - it wasn't until a motorbike came racing up to the bus a few minutes later with the passenger's cell phone and charger that we understood the delay. Everyone has cell phones here, no matter how remote we are, there are always people on their phones!The next delay occurred when we came across a crash, which everyone in the bus decided to personally investigate - luckily no one was injured and after 10 minutes we were on our way.
The final delay was a much longer one! We we forced to stop and join the growing line of traffic as the road ahead was built before our eyes. Workers do it the hard way here, carrying baskets full of pebbles they hand-spread along the road, tar is poured and a roller rolls over - but in China the millions of hands available to work makes this techinque a viable one. From our stop, we could see the quarry where the rocks that are stripped from the mountain and made into tar - the rocks themselves sent by flying fox type contraptions over one of the many rivers we were following.
We made it to Yanyuan with no time to spare, and after a short tuk-tuk ride to the bus station we were on our next bus to Xichang, without a chance to rest or eat! On this bus ride we passed through more of the stunning scenery that often reminds us of home, up and down and zig-zagging around mountains and through valleys. We had a brief stop where Adam managed to get a small bag full of fried potatoes and chilli (depite being thoroughly ignored by everyone he spoke to) filling a small part of the huge gap in our stomachs! The highlight of the Yanyuan-Xichang journey was coming around a mountain-top bend and looking down to the wide plain below, on the opposite side of the valley two descending ridgelines met, at their base a gap provided views of a lake which was nestled in the in the middle of the jaggered mountains that surrounded it. Had the bus not been bumping and winding its way around we would have tried to capture the beauty in a photo.Once in Xichang, as soon as we disembarked we hopped on a public bus that took us straight to the train station. After a stressful wait in the ticket line where people were being yelled at and sent away by the impatient ticket-officers, Liv prepared herself for the next purchase - an overnight train to Chengdu (which would hopefully complete the marathon travelling day / night). We ended up with almost exactly what we wanted: two hard-sleeper tickets to Chengdu. The catch was making it to the train, which was leaving in less then five minutes - there truly is no rest (or food) for the wicked! In this situation, our earlier train experience proved helpful as we could read our tickets and managed to get on the right carriage on the right train!
Liv's bed was in the same berth as a Chinese family (mother and two daughters in their 20s) from Lugu Hu (where we had left from earlier this morning). The family assisted us with negotiating a ticket swap so Adam could join us, and we spent the next few hours awkwardly communicating, chatting about our respective families and lives. We were constantly offered food from their never-ending supply - having to politely decline some chicken-feet (a local favourite snack), but gratefully accepting fruit and sunflower seeds. We once again were blown away by the generosity, and felt terrible not being able to offer anything in return (we will try and be more prepared for our next train trip).
In complete contrast to our last train trip, the lights went out at 10.30pm and we stretched out on our beds and attempted to sleep.
Adlibing travels endurance-style.
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