I’ve been a vegetarian for 27 years now. I gave up meat for health reasons, not for ethical reasons. I don’t judge people who eat meat, I don’t try to convert people to a meat free diet, I have cooked meat for my dinner guests. However, since becoming a vegetarian I have grown CONSIDERABLY more sympathetic towards animals. I don’t like to go fishing, even catch and release because I can’t stand the idea of hurting a fish. The other day, I squished some sort of caterpillar/worm insect and I felt really bad about it. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to do it.
I also studied anthropology and learned to respect and appreciate the diversity of different cultures.
That being said, it was really hard for me to let go of my cultural and personal beliefs today when I passed out front a restaurant that was butchering dogs.
Three had been dispatched already. Doug saw a fourth, still alive and in a cage. I had averted my gaze and did not notice the fourth dog.
Doug and I talked about what we should do if we encounter a similar situation. Should we offer to buy the still living dog next time? What do we do with the dog? Release it? Make it walk the ladt 550-600 miles with us and try to bring it home?

A while ago, Doug and I made a decision. We would give out postcards freely to people we met on the street but when we were in restaurants, we would not hand out postcards until after we had paid the bill. We were getting quite a few meals for free and herein lies our problem. We felt guilty about it and what we have noticed here is that the people who probably have the least, give the most. It’s not as though they are going broke feeding us or we are taking food out of the mouths of their children. It’s just that…. we feel… guilty?
This is what else we have noticed. When we show some people the postcard, they get really excited about what we are doing. We get huge smiles, nods of approval and thumbs up. If it makes them happy to buy us lunch and become part of our story, should we let them? When we are in a restaurant and people approach us and initiate conversation, should we give them a card before we have paid our bill? What do you think? Please leave us a comment.
Today’s lunch came courtesy of these fine men and women.

We had to run some errands this morning. We picked up a box of supplies (more postcards and other items) that we had mailed to ourselves. Thanks Luxi! Next we had to find an ATM that was dispensing cash (4 different places before we finally got lucky).
We didn’t start walking until noon. It was mostly uphill and through a beautiful deep gorge with beautiful waterfalls. We walked for 3 1/2 hours and stopped for a little lunch. The moment we had paid and stepped outside, it started to rain big, fat drops and within seconds it was pouring. We stepped under the eaves of a business and knew we were in for an epic rainstorm when kids started tossing folded paper boats onto the sidewalks.
We checked into the first hotel we found.
Our room has a distinct Art Deco feel, a king sized bed and it’s own little Mahjong parlor all for $8. PLUS- it has a friendly momma kitty and a litter of kittens.

We put in our 18 miles, walked into a town and before we could even ask, a woman met us on the street and invited us into her hotel. That was #1.
#2- There is no cold water at this hotel. Only water that is so scalding hot that you could cook Ramen noodles in 2 minutes.
We had a nice day. We stopped at a gas station for snacks and water and met a group of young folk. We gave them some cards and one of them told us “Awesome!”
The cards are kind of a hit or miss thing. Our walk really resonates with some people and other people just seem to shrug it off. They tried to give us about 6 liters of water but we couldn’t imagine carrying all of that so we each accepted one bottle, took some photos and were on our way.
We stopped for lunch at around mile 10. I was exhausted. Doug left ordering lunch up to me (I’m sure it’s the last time he does this). I was so out of it that I walked up to their refrigerator and pointed to 2 different things displayed inside and told the waitress “with rice please”. Fifteen minutes later our lunch was served. One plate of grilled green chili peppers and one plate of fried peanuts. It was actually pretty good and the peppers weren’t too hot. We paid our bill, handed out some cards and the owner caught us as we were headed out the door and gave us 2 bottles of water for the road.
A few miles later we met another bicyclist who was headed to Dali. We took some selfies and he and Doug exchanged phone numbers although I’m not sure what they’ll talk about since he didn’t speak a lick of English and our Mandarin is rudimentary.
Doug got to pick our dinner tonight. He was led behind the hotel to a vegetable garden and he got to pick out what we were going to have for dinner. We had squash and green beans and…wait for it…. fried peanuts!

Doug and I were a little miffed that our hotel room cost 60 Kuai ($9.50). We’ve had much nicer and cleaner for 30 kuai. This room had 2 cigarette butts in the bathroom and a peach pit in the hallway. But you know what? It all works out because we just had a really nice street side dinner for 15 kuai which works out to roughly $2.41. For both of us and we were stuffed! PLUS, we have fresh Hello Kitty sheets on our beds. AND,to top it all off, Doug went out to buy us bottled water and snacks for tomorrow and came back with all of this loot- 2 bottles of water, 4 snack cakes, dried, salted peas and a bunch of fire crackers all for 6 kuai/ 95 cents.

We were enjoying some really delicious roadside fried potatoes when four or five cops told us to follow them. Now we are at the police station waiting for them to register our presence in the town of Danfeng. Of course this means we have to wait for the cop who knows a few words of English to come in on her day off and assist.It all ended well and we were only held up for about an hour and a half.

Today, as I was walking up a particularly long and steep road, an elderly woman in an ethnic head scarf stopped me.  “Canadian?”, she asked me in accented but understandable English, smiling broadly. “Mei guo ren” (American) I answered. “Oh” she said,  her face falling Iike a souffle.

We walked 22 1/2 miles today and had beautiful cool weather for all of it. It never got above 64 degrees and while it was predicted that there was going to be rain we didn’t get more than a sprinkle for just a few minutes. We left our hotel at 7:00 am and thought we’d find a place for breakfast but we were in the middle of nowhere! We finally found a “restaurant” at around 1:30 and by that time we had walked 14 miles.
We walked through another toll lane today. I think this is our third. Since we always walk against traffic we go through backwards and just give the guys in their toll booth boxes a wave.
After we passed to toll way hung a right yo bypass a portion of the 324 that was a little too busy for our taste. We walked up a huge hill which really took it out of us at the end of the day but the views were beautiful and well worth it. Tomorrow we will reconnect with the 324 again when it turns back into a quiet 2 land road. For now we are enjoying a night in Xionbi Town. When we first got here it seemed like such a quiet and quaint little town but the further we walked into it the crazier and louder it got. The Chinese love their horns and you can’t count to 10 without hearing someone honking.
Fairly frequently we have a hard time checking into a hotel. This afternoon we were so close, we had the key in our hand when the owner walked in and gave us the boot. We walked another block and around the corner and found a real nice place and checked in without any problem. It’s so noisy and active here. It’s hard to believe that these photos were taken a mere 3 miles away.