Dali to Laos (part 3)

Friday 30th September

We left the bush camp joining the motorway/Main Road almost immediately. The road as yesterday passed through fields of bananas and also went through numerous tunnels. we skirted another major expansion to a city with lots of cranes in the skyline. Just before the border we stopped at a new Petrol Station (with no shop stock for the toilets and filled up with water and diesel.

We arrived at the border (Mo Hai) at about 09:30, changed our Yen (& some US$) for Laos Kip (lots of female money changers) then officially left China. On the Laos side the Visa procedures was pretty chaotic, but we could pay for the Visa in Yen, Kip or US$. The clocks went back 1 hr. so we were now only 6 hrs.' ahead of the UK. Customs control seemed to be none existent, just a passport check and we made our way to our lunch stop at the small town of Luangnam Tha.

The countryside , houses, and people were immediately different – the countryside and villages were much poorer and lots of children were around the wooden houses (many on stilts). We passed an elephant hauling materials on the road and the roads soon deteriorated into windy hilly narrow roads suffering from road repairs and landslips – in places we were driving effectively on mud tracks where the soil had slipped from the banks. In this hilly countryside it was difficult to find a bush camp site, but we eventually found a small layby and pulled off the road puncturing a front tyre as we did so. Dusk was quickly upon as as the tents were erected very close to each other on the bush camp. Toni and I (with Laura) were on cook duty this evening so we opted to sleep on the Truck rather than try to shoehorn 2 more tents on to the confined space.

Dali to Laos (part 2)

Thursday 29th September

We are now properly into Jungle country as we near the Laos border. We left the bush camp at 08:00 and quickly re-joined the motorway. We stopped for lunch at Puer which seems to be growing very quickly judging by the amount of new building going up on the outskirts.

The scenery changed dramatically during the day to tea plantations, rubber estates and steamy jungle. We went through a number of tunnels on our way down to the border, some of them 4 km long. Again we passed through a number of toll gates on the motorway. Bush Camps sites are really very scarce in this part of south east China and we pulled off the road into a small clearing in the jungle at 16:45. During cooking it started to rain heavily and we put up the Truck tarpaulin and of course as soon as it was up the rain stopped. The weather remained very close and we heard thunder in the near distance.

We are hoping to be at the border at 09:00 in the morning.

Dali to Laos (part 1)

Wednesday 28th September

Left Dali at 08:30 for the 3 day drive to the Laos border. We immediately joined a really good Chinese motorway and stayed on motorway all day and therefore made good progress. Toll Booths are at every Chinese Motorway entry and exit and we went on small sections earlier in China.

Stopped briefly at Kunming to buy some snacks. Kunming is a huge city and the motorway are really impressive and just as in the rest of China they are still extending the roads network. An hour later we stopped at Yuxi to shop at one of Wall Mart’s 361 Chinese stores – items for sale included dried ducks and fish. MacDonald's was in the same block as WallMart (as was Dico’s (Chinese MacDonald's which we saw in all the major Chinese cities). We then re-joined the Motorway and saw huge areas of Plastic tunnels alongside the Motorway where agriculture is being intensified.

At about 19:00 we set up a bush camp just off the motorway. The weather has now changed and is warm in the evening and hot in the day – back to tee shirts and shorts, but unfortunately also mosquitoes. The bush camp overlooked a small cemetery, but although we had some noisy neighbours during the night it did not come from the graves!

Lijiang, the Leaping Tiger Gorge and on to Dali (part 3)

Tuesday 27th September

Left Lijiang at 08:45 for Dali. Lots of agriculture on the way (paddy fields etc.) all in small fields and plenty of manual labour.

At the norther outskirts of Dala we stopped at the Chongsheng Temple & Three Pagoda Tourist Centre where 5 of us explored the massive site while the others had a lunch break on the Truck. The site is really large and we could have spent much longer there. The largest Pagoda is 1400 years old and the other 2 are about 1000 yrs old and all 3 survived the devastating earthquake of 80 years ago when most of the building in the areas were destroyed. the templw was damaged, but all the building have now been repaired or rebuilt.

We then made to short journey to the Dali MCA hostel and we will explore Dali this evening before setting out tomorrow for the Laos border.

Lijiang, the Leaping Tiger Gorge and on to Dali (part 2)

Monday 26th September

15 of us left in 2 minibuses after breakfast for the Leaping Tiger Gorge. It took 2 hrs to get there and we visited the Central Section first. It then took another took 2 hrs. to walk/scramble down to and back up from the bottom. Very steep path, windy and steep on a badly defined stone path, however at the bottom was a rickety bridge and some spectacular views. When we got back to the top we had lunch (Beef Noodles this time). The second stop was at the upper valley, but this time it was a much more tourist site with proper steps (560) and crowds, but again really impressive. We had a slight worry on the way back as our driver (2 minibuses went) abandoned us for 20 mins and we didn’t know what was happening. (as he spoke no English and we spoke no Chinese). However he did eventually came back and we arrived back here about 16:25 back at the hostel.

Lijiang, the Leaping Tiger Gorge and on to Dali (part 1)

Sunday 25th September

Spent the morning exploring the old town of Lijiang including a visit to the Post Office to mail back most of my cold gear (+ some purchases I have made along the way) – this should make some space in my big bag and bring it below 20kg. I went to the barbers in the afternoon and had a shave and the result was a new looking me!! (I think it must be 30 years since my chin last saw the light of day). Hope it doesn’t cause me any problems at any borders with my passport photo!

Lijiang Old Town is a protected tourist site, but how much of it is original is difficult to work out. It is a maze of streets and alleys full of tourist shops, hotels, and eating houses. The main square and the major streets are usually teeming with tourists from mid morning to late evening, however you can see glimpses of the real China as away from the main streets of the Old Town there still remains significant residential areas. It is easy to get lost in the Old Town (even with a map) as the area is so tightly packed there is no distant visibility and the Chinese seem to have difficulty in understanding the tourist maps available, but after a couple of false starts the main streets and the 3 rivers (really streams) running through them usually soon become visible.

On to Lijiang (part 5)

Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th September

2 Full drive days before we reached Lijiang late afternoon on the 24th. The Bush Camp on the 22nd was at 4600m, but most of us were now used to the altitude so it did not affect us too much (Peggy & Lyn were still being affected over about 3500m). The problem with the bush camps on both the 22nd and 23rd was actually finding a suitable spot. On the 22nd we climbed to a pass for miles and could not find anywhere where we could pull off the road safely until just after we reached the top. On 23rd we were descending from a pass and there was no suitable spot when we were delayed by a landslide at about 19:30. By the time it had been cleared it was properly dark and the only place we could find was a new section of the road being built (to the side of the existing road)!

The roads again were slow and difficult to negotiate at times as they were rebuilding them at the same time as allowing traffic to pass. In addition they were constantly going up and down mountain passes with numerous switchbacks. At times we were only averaging 17k per hour. However the scenery was again spectacular – the whole journey from Lhasa to Lijiang (approx 600 k) has been full of wonderful scenic views.

On the 23rd we passed out of Tibet and back into China (through 2 barriers in a small town), before that we had to register our presence with the local police. We stopped for a lunch stop on both days although the stop on the 24th was unexpected as we did not anticipate being somewhere to be able to buy lunch and so had bought provisions the day before.

After refuelling a couple of times we arrived in Lijiang at about 17:00 and checked into the MCA hotel which is situated in the Beiminpo district just above the Old Town.

On to Lijiang (part 4)

Thursday 22nd September.

Another long drive day, leaving at 07:30 and not setting up bush camp until it was dark at approx. 20:00. The drive took us again through some spectacular scenery and up several passes with the highest at just over 5000m. In the morning we stopped at Zongang which is a town closed to foreigners (it is thought to be too politically active by Beijing). When we stopped we were escorted to a supermarket (& Post Office) by the police as we were not allowed to go around the town by ourselves. The Truck was also escorted when leaving the town.

The drive did not take us to a town for lunch, but instead we had snacks & sandwiches on the Truck.
In the afternoon we briefly stopped at a small town – it was the most untidy yet.

The road for most of the day was bad – either being rebuilt or repaired as it snaked around the mountains – the views were amazing, but the ride was slow and difficult and we were held up in several places by trafic trying to negotiate the road works.

We were also held up for a little while by a broken down bus before we ascended another pass and eventually found a place to set up the bush camp.

On to Lijiang (part 3)

Wednesday 21st September

It was raining at breakfast and we left at 07:30, so our tents were packed away wet again. The beautiful scenery continued especially wth the start of the autumn colours. We briefly stopped at Buyi to register our passports and leave our Tibetan guide. On the way to lunch in a small lakeside town we saw several groups of pilgrims going towards Lhasa prostrating themselves along the way. After lunch we took about 2 hrs to climb to a pass at 4658m round numerous hairpin bends in dramatic scenery. The clutch overheated, but hopefully it will get the truck to Bangkok where Will plans to replace it.

End of Truck Cludo. An end has been declared as all remaining contestants have worked out the killers and the victims. Keeran was declared the winner with 4 kills.