Southern China at the speed of lightening.

Greetings. I was hoping to find an internet place with a fast enough connection to post pictures, but that is proving impoossible. There aren’t many internet places in general in China. In the tourist ghettos there is often a compouter you cn use at the guesthouse or a bar. I tried in Yangshuo and Chengyang, but even uploading one or two pictures took about 15 minutes. Then I’d have to edit them and post them. No good. Maybe when Myung and I get to Kunming in a couple of days it will be possible.
We may be settling into a kind of groove. Making decisions together has necessitated rewiring of our brains a little bit, but the last few days have gone well. We have an agenda of sorts. Right now we are in Hwaihua, Hunan, waiting for a bus to Kaili, Guizou, about 4 hours away. It doesn’t leave for about 1 1/2 hours, so I figured a blog entry without pictures is better than none. We had hoped to take a train to Kunming, Yunnan, today or tomorrow, but there are no tickets. So we’ll bunny hop through Kaili and Guiyang. That’s not optimal, but it’ll be okay.
The reason we’re going to Kunming, so far away, is that I’ve basically agreed to limit our time in China, and Yunnan is supposed to be really nice. Myung was there about 15 years ago. We tentatively agreed to a change of plan. It’s wintery here, though it will be nicer in Yunnan, so we may just take the bus to Myanmar from southwest Yunnan and look around there while the wether is perfect there for travel. Then we may return quickly to China through Thailand and Laos, and resume travelling in China during the nicer months of March and April. Myung is really hot to go to Pakistan and Iran, then on to Turkey. I haven’t committed to that itinerary, but I’m warming up to it. Iran may be a problem because last I looked, they were allowing American tourists if they were on a tour. That sounds expensive and not my style. There is a chance we’ll go through Central Asia, i.e. Khyrgistan, Tajikistan, etc., but Myung thinks that will be boring. We’ll see how this all plays out.
Since I last wrote, we wrapped things up in Shenzhen. There is nothing much there, but it was interesting to see where Myung lived. I saw the condo high rise where she lived and the steel and glass office building where her office was. There are some nice areas, but not much to do. It seems to be all business around there, as it’s a Special Economic Zone right next to Hong Kong. Lots of money, by Chinese standards.
From there we went to the world famous Li and Yulong river valleys in Guangxi, the next province north of there. For sure you’ve seen photos of the dramatic limestone karst scnery. It was as stunning as they seem in pictures. It’s quite a large area, not just around Guillin and Yangshuo. We took some long hikes and a couple of boat rides.
From there we went to Chenyang, which is a picturesque cluster of tribal villages with famous covered bridges. Again, you’ll have to search it for pictures. I took many. Someday maybe I will get to upload them. I must have a couple hundred.
Then we went to Fenghaung, Hunan, a popular old town for Chinese tourists though very few foreigners. Oh, before that we went to Hongjiang which is also picturesque “old China”. these kinds of plces are disappearing. Fenghuang is rapidly becoming almost a theme park. Fortunately, Hongjiang is simply falling apart naturally.
That brings me up to the present. I know this was the quick tour. I have to go.
Be well, all of you.