day 197: 永登 (yongdeng) - 武胜驿 (wushengyi) = 22,5km

Ever since 兰州 (Lanzhou), the road has constantly risen up to pretty high altitudes. Now I’m at 2200m above sea level again (the last time was around April 10th 2008).

Well, the air is fresh and the sky is very clear up here:

Potatoes were for lunch, and then I drank tea and had a very enjoyable discussion with a 李先生 (Mister Li) who was in the cement business. We talked about this and that and a lot of other things, and I really enjoyed how the conversation seemed to flow from one subject to another while staying interesting and polite all the time. La classe.

李先生 had a friend:

I was so overwhelmed by this little one’s charms, I even forgot to ask his name.

…

Another thing - you know I usually don’t like wearing sunglasses, but now I had this dope-ass master plan.

Little did I know I would fail so miserably, but that’s another story…

Anyways here’s me walking through a small village market, looking for a cheap pair of shades:

That’s where I met 李爷爷 (Grandpa Li):

He asked me what I was doing, then he decided to give me company for a little while.

When we finally parted ways on the hot concrete under the white clouds, 李爷爷 wouldn’t let me go unless I accepted his own shades as a gift:

Once again, I felt so humbled by the kindness and hospitality of a good man.

Looking back now, I think maybe I should have been more persistent not to accept that gift. But then it was only a pair of plastic sunglasses, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings either, so I agreed and decided to send him a picture of us both once I got to the next city, as a souvenir and as a token of my gratitude.

…

The rest of the way was just like a breeze:

Once I got to 武胜驿 (wushengyi), it felt like the mountains had moved closer to the road, trying to lock everything up in their massive embrace:

The population of this place consists mainly of 回族 (the Muslim Hui-minority - March 2nd 2008, March 30th 2008, April 8th 2008):

Tomorrow is probably going to be totally different: I’ll be in the 天祝藏族自治县 (Tibetan self-governed township of Tianzhu) by then, and I’m already excited.

Maybe I’ll even get to see a yak or two?

Soundtrack: Karel Gott - “Babicka”

—total: 2437,6km