traveling

At about 9 in the morning, I was back on the map:

I had a banana for breakfast, and I had it peeled from the top:

Like a monkey!

There was cotton everywhere:

Then Xiao Huiru 肖慧如 showed up:

She offered me grapes, and while we were talking and walking, I found out that she had been brought up in the realms of the 83th Regiment, and that she was now a university student in the southern city of Nanjing 南京.

She was here helping out with the harvest during the summer, and she had just graduated, economics or something. But all of this didn’t matter much.

Her one love was traveling!

It didn’t seem to matter where she went: she liked to go to a place, spend some time there, get to know the people, maybe go somewhere else later, after a while, never in a hurry. She was a good listener, and she had her own ideas about everything. Seldom have I come across a more international mind.

We walked through some of her home country:

Then we had a melon in the shade of a large bridge:

And then we said good-bye, and I was by myself again.

Only the road was there to keep me company:

I passed tiny settlements:

I had fun taking videos of the Caboose…

…videos from under the Caboose:

…and videos from my own perspective (or rather that of my forehead):

When this got boring, I just walked some more.

One time, a car stopped by and a friendly dude hopped out:

We chatted for a while.

Then I walked.

The sky turned a dark blue:

And the sun played hide and seek with the clouds:

It was already very late when I arrived at the settlement of Wutai:

I parked the Caboose in a hallway:

And I got a room for myself:

Then I went to the only food place that was still open:

They were serving a local specialty called zahuitang 杂烩汤, a sort of stew served often with bread):

The food was good, and when I looked up, I wasn’t the only one at my table any more:

The grandsons of the owner were there.

And they were twins!