May 16. Oh those rice terraces...

Windows of Yuanyang is a community shop selling handicraft run by the large Christian NGO World Vision. They cannot accept donations of any kind, because of the system the big host ngo imposes on them. I perfectly understand the need to eredicate corruption, but I simply can't deny that I feel the unnecessary burden of bureauracy resting upon my shoulders. Here we are, a small informal ngo, just willing to support one poor family with a scholarship or a means of income generation, and we are being denied. There are not even forms to fill out, no way to cooperate, even though the women at the handicraft shop are very helpful and friendly. The are just not allowed their independence, because World Vision deems it more transparent and effective when all vital decisions are made from behind a desk.
We walk around the pretty town of Yuanyang and have breakfast amidst a group of age Frenchmen. I walk off to the market and take some photos of merchants and children - this place is teeming with life. Since we can't really support the organization actively, we end up buying some of their handicrafts (I try to insist on paying more, but they have to give back the exact change). We bridge a few lazy hours in the small coffee room above the handicraft shop. I have already bought us onward bus tickets.

Then we continue to Lushun. It will take us a few more hours and from the window of our bus we get a glance of the brilliant rice terraces. I understand why people travel here "just" to take photos. We shoot a few, not entirely satisfactory, but hey, we also bought a pack of postcards with really pretty views of that rice paddies.

The guesthouse in Lushun gives us a nice treatment. Very good value you get in southern China. Living like a god in China, it could become a proverb some day.

May 15. Oversleepernight bus.

We still try to do something here in Kunming, but things don't get easier overnight. Sadly, the experience of organizations hanging up the phone, or offices hidden in some impossible to find backstreet remains associated to China non-governmental organizations. But of course! The government is doing everything here. We've learned that in Chengdu and wonder what we are doing here.
We have a last straw: the "windows on Yuanyang", a beautiful destination for travellers and photographers in a quest to capture one of the most stunning agricultural sights: the ricefields around the hill village of Yuan yang. Now this is supposed to be a small organization that helps needy families and enables their children proper education to get out of the circle of poverty.

We check out and drag our backpacks through the heat. A last minute arrangement blesses us with the company of another CS member who joins us for lunch and tells us about his volunteering experience. It's a nice exchange and the highlight of the day; we have to take an urban bus, wait at a pole for another one to get to the south bus station.

The bus station is huge, and a friendly English speaking woman helps us to locate our sleeper bus to Yuanyang. This is the first time for me to be in a bus with berths rather than seats. There is not much space to get cosy, but the road is fine and we arrive without bruises.