4th April, first few days of china!

Laos-China border!

Had a really close shave at the china broder... for some reason, the border guards decided that i was suspicious and asked me alot of questions about my bags and what they contained inside. they randomly picked a bag to check and it happened to be the bag that contained my Tibet guidebook! shit... if they see it, they might confiscate it or mayb even ask me alot of questions about what i am doing in china.

anyways, i played it really cool and showed them my clothes inside, my toiletries bag, my dried rations inside etc. every time i took out an item to show them, i stuffed it back inside the bag and strategically placed it to cover the guidebook until eventually it was at the bottom and i think the guard was sick of seeing me pull out dirty clothes one by one and he said "ok, you can go now!" phews... close shave... now i still have my tibet guidebook so i can slowly read thru it and plan my route inside! =D

sleeping under the Mengla bridge. damn smelly at night because i think the sewage flows jus beside...

one of the few camping spots up in the tea plantation hills...

the beautiful tea plantations!

While cycling thru a place called 整董镇，i decided to stop and have lunch at a roadside stall/eatery for lunch since it was alr getting pretty late, like 2+ alr? there werent anybody there and i was the only customer there then because it was alr past lunch time! anyways, started to chat with the ppl at the shop and got along pretty well with them and they invited me to stay with them in their house to experience the local culture! he (张靖南）said he would bring me to harvest watermelons, go pick tea leaves, go farming etc haha. kinda like a village homestay except that this is a true homestay and not the commercial, touristy homestay where you pay SGD100 to have hot water, nice 7 course meals, beautiful toilets, and zero interaction with any locals at all...

hmmm... didnt really want to stay because i had planned my route and had to reach somewhere else by a certain time. but he kept asking me repeatedly every few mins when i was eating and eventually i decided to stay with them for a night!

helping to chop firewood for cooking haha... not as easy as it looks loh...

went to pick watermelons with them in their watermelon field

had dinner with them at night and got to meet the father and brother (they were out farming in the day!) dad was from sichuan and a really nice and happy guy, always smiling haha.