The rest of the stay in Kathmandu was a good break from travelling with all the Western stuff (food, shops, other travellers, internet etc). But because it was such a tourist city begging, touting etc was rife. Whenever you went out you were just seen as a dollar sign which became quite grating by the end of the stay. Strange meeting everyone from the truck again - really great to see (most of) them again. Was apprehensive about truck days again but that was put off for an extra day as 8 of us escaped to the hills to go bungee!
The 'Last Resort' bungee was the highest in the world (162m) because at the time the Cape Town one was closed for some reason - detached retina perhaps?? There was a bungee and then a 'swing'. The bungee was wicked (freefall 3 seconds) but the swing was absolutely petrifying (8 secs) and therefore ace. As you fall your ok for the first 3 secs or so but after that you cant help but think 'why haven't I stopped falling yet??' and I just screamed my lungs out. Once it pulled tight I uncontrollably laughed for 10 mins, immense. Nothing beats the feeling. Well nearly nothing. Highly recommended!!
Arriving into 'China' (Tibet) we had to wait until midnight to continue as they were dynamiting the road ahead. So in the pitch black and lashing rain we made our way along the most precarious road of the trip; through substantial waterfalls, clattering into and knocking down scaffolding, driving over/into boulders and so damaging the truck and coming ridiculously close to cliff edges. I thought it was dead exciting but others were shitting themselves.
We stayed 3 nights on the Tibetan plateau outside a place called Tingri organising and going to the Tibetan Everest base camp (Chinese bureaucracy is awful). During the three nights here local Tibetans and nomads would come and watch us. They would ask to take anything material - blank CDs (which they obviosuly would never use in the conventional sense), empty plastic bottles, pens, paper...anything. It was a beautiful place to stay, empty and barren desert plateau. Tibet is the highest mountain plateau in the world and various people got sick on the truck, none serious though.
After a stay in Shigatse, a town with a large Tibetan monastry, brothels and countless Chinese shops along wide and empty boulevards, we got to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Lhasa had a new town (Chinese) and an old town (Tibetan) with Potala Palace separating the two. Potala Palace is quite a sight as it is HUGE and one of the architectural wonders of the world apparently. I went to a food market in the new town selling water snakes, toads, ducks, terrapins...all live of course. As I passed a chicken stall a woman happened to be looking at me as she bent the neck of a chicken back, blood dripping around her feet. Nice. We found a nightclub and Stu managed to get on the decks (hes a DJ back home). Although nobody spoke English we still had a good night with the Chinese folk.
5 solid days driving were ahead (China is HUGE) as you can see on my wee map but although this sounds bad it wasn't - China is the most stunning country we have driven through. After clearing the plateau huge valleys, red rock gorges, snowy peaks and endless amounts of rivers kept us company. The Chinese are great at building roads, so many of them in impossible places along near verticle hillsides. On two occasions when me and Grant hung out the window, 'road' (they were mainly dirt tracks) fell away beneath the back wheels and a rock the size of a football could be seen tumbling down towards the river below. Shuddering stuff but rationalising it (one wheel of 16 was off the road) calmed us down. We came across countless rock slides. One stopped us in our tracks. As some of us watched for rock movement above the rest spent two hours widening the road and breaking a boulder the size of a small car into more manageable bits and pushing them off the edge (with the help of other truckers, police and locals). Nobody other than Steve was in the truck when it squeezed through. Nobody wanted to just incase it did topple down the cliff and into the river below.
Half of us trekked Tiger Leaping Gorge for two days as the others relaxed at the bottom. Being (arguably) the deepest gorge on Earth I guess I expected it to be a bit more amazing. Perhaps you needed to be at the top to appreciate the scale more (we were on the trail half way up). Still damn good though, dont get me wrong.
Then we came to Lijiang. Being a heavily capitalist run country I suppose I shouldn't have been so surprised how the government has made tourism into such a money maker. You have to pay 5 pounds to get into the town itself and 'the old town' (regurgitated old style architecture) is just shops with walking tours getting in your way constantly. It is a gorgeous place though, with small canals, weeping willows and red Chinese lanterns throughout.
Dali (where we are now) is in much the same vein. Theres even a street called 'Foreigners Street'. Oh dear.
China has been...interesting. The cities have been disappointing as tourist destinations but the countryside easily made up for that. Steve really should be thanked for this as some roads Kirsty (driver no.2) admitted to not being confident enough to drive. Its a shame so little Chinese speak English (theres no real need for them to) because I wasn't able to really speak to any. They are the most smiley people I've ever seen, this being because their etiquette is to never let someone lose face (which confused me when I was speaking to a girl back at the border because she laughed at everything I said). Also they are all obsessed with television - every shop has one which the shop keeper is glued to. The Chinese food is nothing like back home, the flavours very different, the food itself more obscure (eg duck feet but sadly no dog. Will have to wait until Vietnam!) and more fun to eat (chopsticks!). Now like spicy foods.
Part way through I felt a little travel overkill (eg travelling through amazing countryside knowing its amazing but just not feeling it) but thanks to the tourist towns of Lijiang and Dali am rejuvinated now. Within the next two days we hit Laos. After 11 days in Laos we are left to our own devices in Vietnam for 12 days (the truck isn't allowed in). I can't wait to go off on my own!
AUGUST:
2nd - 12th August: Laos
12th - 24th Aug: Vietnam
24th - 30th Aug: Cambodia
PS more photos will be added soon
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