Raining that is. It rained the whole night and although when I got up and started packing it was only a light drizzle as soon as I left it started to rain fully again. I was in for another wet one. It was raining on and off the whole day so it was quite a cold one – the coldest day on this trip so far. (The other two were both recent and also in the mountains.)

The police stopped me twice today. I think that it was both times thanks to my headlight being on, however the first time they had to have realized that the bike had no switch immediately after I turned the ignition key off. They only checked my passport and let me go with my big load.

I was hoping to reach Kunming today and getting lost doesn’t help much. I took a wrong road and although I realized that much sooner I’d continued riding since almost all the roads that I was on since crossing the border were not following any of the roads that my GPS was showing me. And all the roads that had no turns on them anyway always lead me to where I needed to go and in most cases actually more directly. This road was not the case however. After winding my way up to over 2000 meters above sea level (from 1500 m when it started) and 16 kilometers further it simply ended into a narrow dirt footpath cut into a very steep hill. So this time I had to backtrack.

To both my delight and temporary upset I found out that just a couple of kilometers from where I made the wrong turn there was a beginning of a very good tolled road. The toll was only 2 (and in second case 1 Yuan), which I happily paid for quick and easy, but still very enjoyable ride. The road was still winding along the hills but with curves of bigger diameter so I could take them in much faster speed.

About 90 kilometers further an expressway was starting. There was a slight problem with the fact that motorbikes are apparently not allowed on this road, but after talking to the people at the toll gates trying to explain to them that my engine was big and I could in fact go faster than most of the cars on the highway they let me through. They even let me through without taking any toll. “Great!” I thought. I only received a plastic card which I was hoping would be valid for all highways in the country. My mistake was to be realized soon, after riding just a little over 100km. There was another tollgate as the highway was ending (kind of, since it was continuing with only a different name) and there I had to present the card. After a scan the computer coughed out a number… 65 Yuan!! Wow, this was expensive I thought.

Normally I would give up riding such expensive roads in favor of the original local ones, but I really wanted to reach Kunming today and the highway was the only way to make it as I was still almost 200 km from it. So I paid twice again: 45 Yuan and 15 Yuan, as I got out of the highway to ride around the big lake before Kunming along its west bank.

I can’t remember if I have ever seen such a nice highway. It is wide, smooth, well marked and they have very nicely arranged flowers and little trees growing on the top of the concrete divider section. I saw workers taking care of the flowers. I think that these people have sure jobs for the rest of their lives considering the length of the expressway. I have still managed to find three flaws with the highway. Firstly, they seem to have no drain system implemented on the highway. I found out about this quite drastically when I ran into a 30 cm deep pool of water in high speed. This pool was spreading across all 3 lanes of the highway in the lowest point on the section I was riding. Fortunately the bike managed without any problems. However, my legs and feet were soaked – something the frequent showers on my way still didn’t quite manage to do today. Now I had it in one hit. No more dry and warm feet today... :(

Second flaw of the highway is the fact that for some reason the road is not a black top inside the numerous tunnels but it is very smooth concrete with grooves from one side to the other. This thing is VERY slippery and I wouldn’t like to have to brake even just a little bit quickly in any of the tunnels.

The last flaw is that I actually did have to pay the toll at the end, which is quite expensive. On the other hand they deserve every cent of the price seeing how much planning, work and money it has to take to build such highways.

I arrived to Kunming at dusk again and before I even managed to get reasonably close to the center (Kunming is a big city that is home to the same amount of people as Czech capital – Prague – 1.7 million, one of the major differences being that its elevation is somewhat higher – mere 1890 meters above sea… :) ) it was completely dark. First person I “asked” (gesturing is the way here more than asking as virtually nobody speaks English) was a motorbike taxi driver (I assume). He first took me to a hotel with cheapest rooms for 80 Yuan and no place for my bike anyway. The second place was better pricewise (30 Yuan), but although offered, my bike would not fit into their hallway. After that things were starting to feel more and more suspicious as they brought a tall (and surprisingly quite pretty [surprisingly because Chinese girls somehow don’t do it for me]) girl that I could apparently take into my room (that I still didn’t have), so I thanked the guy and quickly shot off, checking if I was not being followed. All was OK.

Next hotel I found was for 35 Yuan, which sounded much better, but after the experience from the motel today, I still decided to have some more look around since I knew there must have still been something cheaper around. A young couple brought me later to a hotel for 25 Yuan and a backyard for the bike. That was fine with me, although I think that there are not many people who would stay in this “hotel”. Why? Mainly because there was no bathroom (I mean there was a dirty toilet which seems to be a standard in cheap Chinese hotels, but no shower). All there was to use for washing oneself was a washbasin in the hallway with everybody on the floor to watch if they peeked out of their rooms.

I wonder where does some of the information in Lonely Planet come from. They tell you there that the cheapest accommodation in China is 5 to 10 US dollars a night. I have so far stayed in only two hotels but USD 1.20 and even today USD 3 in the big city is far from USD 5 to 10.

(534 km)