The Songstone

Yi people, fire festival, Dali. In immemorial time, the hero Atilaba drove a plague of locusts from the land. Remember him: a greater deed than all the business done.  

Dinner of bacon, local red and bamboo worm. Morning another train to Dali; carriage three between eleven, twelve: 云南 . The city fades; the hills advance in echelons. The weather turns: the clouds cling to the peaks like sodden s heets . We're climbing high.  

My journey to the Himalayan hills starts with a twenty-eight hour train from Guangzhou. Dozing and fruit, rattling along the slow. The humid Pearl behind and into clear. A day's recuperation: Kunming – Green Lake oasis of tranquility.