Blown Away - Literally
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2007
1
9
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Dali,
Yunnan,
China
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Unsure of which route to take, I meandered off through some meadows of vegetables, flowers and other green planty things that I didn't recognise. I was enthralled by the way the plants all rippled with each huge gust of wind and gazed Bambiesque (ie, sweet and innocent with big dewy fawn eyes) at little birds and the shadows of clouds which were zipping across the mountains and fields. My behaviour was probably quite nauseating for the farmers working nearby.
I had just started taking photos of the sky (this sounds a bit nutty, but anyone who has lived in Wuhan this winter will back me up here... a great big azure sky is a magnificent thing and definitely worth some space on a memory card)... so where was I? Oh yes, there I was, mid-frolic, in a moment worthy of Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, minus the singing, when a humungous wind swept me right off my feet onto my rear end. I rubbed my butt and looked about just in time to open my mouth and utter a horrified "Wa-kao!" as a huge cloud of dust (think wall of sand a la The Mummy movie) whopped me straight in the face and force-fed me a mouthful of dirt (that will teach me not to swear I guess). I hurriedly squatted under my coat, eyes shut, nose blocked, spluttering and giggling hysterically, trying not to get blown away. It was a near thing. On the bright side, the place where I fell on my butt was only 60cm or so from a pile of cow shit, so it could have been a lot worse (and a lot funnier for you guys). As it was, the whole incident left me feeling exhilerated.
I had to hide under my coat again several times as I traversed the meadow. By the time I finally staggered up to the lake, my hair was sticking up on end and my face was poo brown, covered by a layer of dirt. It took a lot of scrubbing to clean up for the journey home. This time I stuck to the road, figuring there would be less manure. In one spot four big trees had been knocked down by the wind. When I saw that, I made a mental note to check if my insurance policy says anything about death by dust storm, or severe injury sustained from flying trees, hospitalization due to dirt inhalation...etc.
I spent the rest of the day lurking in cafe's drinking beer and pretending to study as planned, with a new found respect for Dali's wind and extremely thankful I'd gone off to frolic in the fields instead of heading up the mountain, which would have been more in line with my tastes but a lot less amusing.
