i did end up going to the ethnic market place in shaping, but it felt a little weird taking photos of the old ladies dressed in their native bai minority garb. that wasn't as sad as the ducks in a bag though. i'm pretty sure they're not being bought as pets.

i got a ride back to town (at the extortion fee of RMB$80, but i didn't want to wait for a bus) where i grabbed my bag (in storage at the guesthouse) and took the bus into xiaguan. as i suspected, i couldn't buy a ticket to lancang, but i could get a ticket for lincang (not as far, but along the way). the only problem was i was there at 2:30pm and the bus didn't leave until 7pm. so i sat in the waiting area for over 4 hours, watching the chinese litter and spit and god knows what else on the floor.

the bus to lincang was a sleeper bus: three rows of bunk beds lined up down the length of the bus. next to me in the center bunk was apparently a soldier, and in the two bunks above us were two hot chicks (i don't know why i have to point that out, but i do). i had a window seat and it was actually pretty comfy. before i knew it i was asleep. a chinese-dubbed copy of lethal weapon was playing softy on the television casting a shimmering glow on the faces of sleeping passengers. the bus stopped occasionally to let people go to the bathroom (i purposely didn't drink much so i didn't have to go). there were two drivers: one to take over when the other one got too tired. the entire trip was 10 hours long and we were only saw two traffic accidents (a car crash, and a truck had gone into a ditch). i only got off the bus at 3am to go to the bathroom by the side of the road. it'd been raining and even though i couldn't see anything, the suffocating humidity alerted me to the fact that i was in the jungle somewhere.

shiao long bao breakfast

it's still morning here but this will probably be my last post for a few days. i'm starting the xishuangbanna portion of my trip, into the tropical jungles of southwestern china. at this point i'm still not sure how to get there: i don't have my bus ticket yet, i'll have to head back into xiaguan later this afternoon and buy it. whatever the case, the 7:30pm night bus looks to be a sleeper, which instead of seats, there are bunk beds. can't wait to make new friends, just like going to camp, except it's a bunch of smelly snoring spitting smoking chinese men instead of prepube american kids.

i'm about to head into the shaping monday market. not quite sure how to get there either (notice a pattern? way disorganized!) (about 30km due north of here), but i'll figure something out. looks to be a long 24-48 hours. if you hear from me again, it'll either be from somewhere in xishuangbanna or i didn't get my bus ticket and i'm back in dali again.

old fashion dali trashcan