Puer to Jinghong

Day 61 Wednesday 30th September 154 km (18837 km total)

 

Rex, rifles & rain

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The hotel we stayed in in Puer had animatronic dinosaur's outside - never did find out exactly why, but it would appear they were building some sort of themed area.

So with a muted roar from Rex & a growl from the tiger, its off into the chinese part of the golden triangle.

 

 

Pleasant country roads, good in the most part, just a few bits where you had to watch out,

 

The area was very lush & green and the roads tended to have a slight red dust/mud coating - all testement to the frequent rainfall. I could see clouds building up behind us.

Perfectly good local road, with a expressway along side, plunging arrogantly theough the jungle.

 

Mostly it was out of sight, so you could just ride & enjoy the relative isolation.

 

 

But then we hit a checkpoint, armed police at this one. I was in front and so was first in line for passport inspection and questions about where we were going, from, why, when etc

 

The chap with the gun seemed ok and was just about to let us go when his boss turned up and stopped us again. Same round of questions from him, but he couldnt decide & so got on the phone to his boss. This is how it goes in China!

We settled down for a long wait.

"What me taking photos? No sir, i left my helmet camera on the bike.... Oh, is that a remote control in my pocket?"

 

Then it started to rain heavily, & we sheltered in their tent waiting for the big boss & interpreter to arrive. - We finally got away after almost 2 hours & continued the ride to Jinghong in the rain.