North to Deqin

I'm in Kunming, headed into Yunnan's Tibetan hinterlands on the night bus tonight. 

I could've cried at immigration: the extremely nice customs guy flipped through my passport and decided it was perfectly fine for me to enter China on my work visa. "But I'm not working anymore!" He said it was fine, that way I could save my tourist visa for next time, which is all fine and well except it expires July 26. Curses! $160 and one passport page down the drain...

On a related note: Chinese customs officials are doing something right. They are so much faster and friendlier than what I'm used to returning to the US. 

In the 24 hours I've been in China, my mood has oscillated between poles, one being "aw, this is nice, just like I remember, I could live here again." The other: "THIS IS AWFUL!" The latter I usually succumb to seated in front of a computer, unable to open almost anything remotely interesting - Facebook, myriad blogs, Twitter, the New York Times app on my iPod, Gchat... 

Guess I'll just have to look at scenery or something.