Saturday, April 30, 2011

Day in Xining

Well it's April 30 and we've had a rest day. We went to Toyota to get the battery tray secured, but the dealership could not or would not do the job. We found a street mechanic who did a great job in about half an hour.
Then Stephan wanted to find a model airplane shop! No luck but when we get back to Shanghai he and I plan to go shopping. Stephan flew out today to catch a flight to Paris for his nephew's christening. Tomorrow Bheto, another friend of Paddy's joins us as we head off for Urumqi. This is a trip of about 2600km or so. We will probably take about 6 or 7 days to do the journey.
Xining is not that big a city, 2.3m according to Wikipedia. The distribution storm has departed today but it's still a dry dusty sort of place.
The traffic and pedestrian interaction in China is something to see to be believed. No one seems to take any notice of traffic lights or pedestrian crossings.
So we get a good bed, fine food and a shower again tonight before heading off into the wilds.

Xining streetside workshop building a tray to secure our second battery after the Toyota dealership refused to install one. This, despite the fact that the vehicle has a space for a second battery. Ah well this is China!

Transport in China is always varied

View the other way from 15th floor of hotel on Xining

View from hotel in Xining

Friday, April 29, 2011

Qinghai Huitong Hotel

Have arrived in Xining staying at above hotel. Now watching the royal
wedding the request of my mother in law! Gins and tonic being served
as we speak.

Today we drove about 450km across the Tibetan plateau, dropping of the
edge about 3pm from an elevation of about 4500m to our current 2500m.

The last 100km very windy and dusty. The city is in the middle of a
dust storm. First appearances are of a very industrial and polluted
city.

We stay here 2 nights to catch up on washing and rest, having covered
4000km in the past week, with 2600 to go to Urumqi over the next 9
days.

Car cleaning outside - last city before Xining

After 4000km we've built up some grime on the car. Have stopped at a
windy and dusty spot to clean the vehicle before we get to Xining. The
last 100 or so km have been through very dry, dusty landscape.

John in Tsogyenrawa about to have breakfast on Friday 29 April

On top of 4500m pass enroute to Xining - 6 degrees with a 40 knot wind - very cold but beautiful day

Frozen lake edges in the distance

More highland country enroute to Xining on the 214 highway

Typical country across the Tibetan plateau between Yushu and Xining

Bowls of pigs feet and some animal heads on the ground outside our breakfast restaurant!

Paddy outside the Mato Hotel ((not Batu as on the last blog)

This town is about half way between Yushu and Xining on the 214
highway for those following us on a map.

Another snow covered summit of around 4700m enroute from Garze to Yushu

John on one of the many passes between Garze an Yushu

John on summit - the highest we cross at 4870 m

This was taken at 9.00 pm, temperature minus 3 cesius, light snow and very windy. The trip yesterday was supposed to take us from Garze to Yushu.
However Stephan is flying out from Xining on Saturday morning and he asked if we could turn off the 217 highway onto the 214 and stay at the nearest town, which geographer John said was Chindu.
So right we turned at about 5 pm for a half our drive......except that the geographer had them heading to a town 15 mm off the highway! Paddy couldn't be bothered driving on the gravel so we headed on. Neither of the next two towns had anywhere to stay so we ended up in the dark crossing this nearly 5000 m pass enroute to Batu (sp?) arriving at 11 pm.
Now writing from some some little rat hole hotel with shared toilet and hand basin for about 40 Tibetan truck drivers, no shower facilities.
This is the 3rd day in "hotels" with either no shower or ones that look like they came from a designer bathroom magazine, but which of course don't work.
Yesterdays journey,  for all it's tribulations, was through marvelous country. Think the McKenzie country for 700km and you get the idea.
While we started off with trees we eventually climbed above the treeline spending, most of the day driving at about 4300m.
The locals collect Yak dung and dry it outside their houses as fuel for winter. The housing is lot poorer.
What has been surprising is that despite the altitude and appalling roads there are little villages every few kilometers.
Many of the lakes and hydro dams we passed still have ice on them. We see hordes of school children heading home at 5.00pm. We were stopped at 3 Police checkpoints, once because we had a roof rack, and on one occasion because they said to carry gear on the back seat was illegal!
And this on a region where the smallest van carries 8 adults and all drive at 100km an hour plus.
I think we crossed 5 passes over 4500m yesterday, all a bit like Porters Pass in the South Island of NZ. Lots of the villages have coloured prayer flags on the hill sides, some covering up to several acres.
Next report from Xining.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Paddy and Stephan at border at Serxu

Thursday 28 April

Lots of villages along the way. This is our first email communications all day. Very like the
McKenzie country just twice as big. Now at Serxu. Heading on a rough
sealed road to Yushu for the night with about 168 km to go.

I cooked bacon eggs and French toast for lunch. Stephan had a beer for
lunch and now has a bad headache.  Elevation 4200m.

Cooking bacon, eggs and French toast for lunch on the road to Usuhu

Summit between Garze an Yushu 4671m

On the 4571m summit between Garze and Yushu

Our hotel in Garza for the 27th.

John in Tibetan restaurant - Garze

Paddy in Tibetan restaurant across road from hotel in Garze

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

John on summit of first big pass - 4296m

Local Rounding up his Foal

Stephan in Tibetan House

Inside a Tibetan House

We were invited onto a locals house across the road from our hotel, in
Xinqiao. A nice 2 star local hotel.

Top of first big pass - 4298m

Having had 34 degrees this morning it was sleet and a windy 5 degrees
at the summit.

Town centre Kangding

At 2500m above sea level. Warm day at this elevation at about 25 degrees.

Lunch outside Luqiao

Stephan tucking on to an excellent lunch of ginger, lentils and pigs
trotters. It's 3.00pm and 33 degrees outside.

Village being demolished to make way for new hydro lake

Fording river at dam construction site

Just crossed several kilometers of bone jarring road and dam construction site.

Entrance to Luqaio

John at entrance to tunnel near Kangding

Odd Public Art

First sight of the big mountains

Enroute to Kangding

Trucks at Toll Booth

Typical Roadsigns

These are a very popular type of roadsign.

Common Road Scene

This is the standard of highway fro Shanghai to Ya'an. 4 lanes, 2 each way.

Street Scene in Chengdu

John and Paddy

Brothers about to depart all loaded up. Destination Kangding.

Stephan and Patrick

Fellow travelers Stephan Mangaud and Patrick Pfahlert at breakfast in
Chengdu the morning of departure.

Chengdu

It's 6.00am on Tuesday 26 April and we are about to go down for a
hearty breakfast before departing for the big hills.

Yesterday was spent buying oxygen bottles and going to the hospital to
get them filled. Then it was on to Carrafour to do some shopping for
things like wash basins, plates, knives and forks etc.

The other members of the team seem less focused on practical matters
like having something to clean dishes in than yours truly. Nothing
like a good list prepared well in advance! Must have learnt that from
my father on our Okarito expeditions.

The customers of Paddys have been great help driving us around the
city in the new V12 Merc to get all the gear, and let night took us
out to a top restaurant for dinner - generosity beyond the call of
duty in my opinion, but all his Chinese colleagues are the same.

So I am hoping that it will be cooler in the mountains, since we
weren't expecting 30 degrees here.

If you find that occasionally things are repeated it's because I can't
read the blog myself - it is a site blocked from Internet access here
unless you have a virtual private network.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Chengdu

Dined tonight at a fiery Sichuan restaurant as the guest of one of
brother Paddy's customers. Great food but my Mandarin is a bit rusty
so conversation somewhat difficult.

Tomorrow we have to get the oxygen bottles and
water for the trip. The planned route is roughly north east from
Chengdu as follows: Ya'an, Kanding, (also known as Lucheng), Luhud
(Xindu), Manigange, to Yushu, this is all mainly on the 317 national
highway.

From Yushu the route is north west to Xining on the main 214 national
highway. Main towns on the way along that road are Madoi and Gonghe.

Not leaving town till Tuesday morning so if this description is
inadequate please let me know and I'll provide more detail.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Daying - Sichuan Province

Well we are sitting in a small pagoda beside a little river in the
town of Daying while waiting for a customer of Paddys to join us for
lunch.

The lady in the tea shop has just served green tea while we wait.
Another really warm day at about 29 degrees. The sky is as blue as can
be expected given the population.

This morning we have been driving through lovely country with lots of
short steep hills and trees. Everywhere you look is evidence of
habitation and the towns are quite rusticated. Usually dirt streets,
lots of people living, eating and working on the foot paths. In the
villages everyone seems to ride a bike or scooter so there is the
usual traffic mayhem.

This town is well known for it's hot pools, but Paddy and I are not
keen on the standard of expected sanitation.

Having said we are waiting for a friend of Paddys the plan has now
changed - I'm learning to be flexible- and we are meeting him in
Chengdu tonight. So we are now on the final 140km into Chengdu.

Lichuan

Stayed the night in the above town after a 14 hour day on the road.
After we left Yichang we got into really beautiful country with really
steep mountains and the most awesome highway engineering.

Dozens of tunnels up to 9 km long. Again all double tunnels with 2
lanes each way - think the Terrace tunnel going all the way to Lower
Hutt and another along side it.

The trouble with the GPS in the car is that it doesn't show the main
road only the G318 highway which it's diverted us onto on a couple of
occasions.

We intended to stay in Enshi but all the hotels were full. We got lost
trying to get out of the city and then spent two hours literally
driving in circles. The city has a small Eifel Tower and a line of
very nice window shop brothels on the main street - you get the idea!

So we went on to Lichuan and have a very tidy hotel.

One of the diversions onto the 318 took us through some very Romanian
style villages, very agrarian. Then via a construction site where
people and cars just walked and drove between all the trucks and
excavators doing the road.

There is a new railway being built from
Wuhan to Chengdu and we have been following that a good part of the way.
It must be costing billions.

Lichuan is 1053 meters above sea level. Breakfast at the Lichuan
International Hotel consisted of dumplings, eggs, a firey hot bean
salad and other hot dishes I couldn't identify. Very nice though.

So it's now 8.10am and we are back on the road heading for Wanzhou,
Nanchong and then Chengdu. We have 460km to go and have done 1552km to
date.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Wuhan Heading West

We got on the road early from Wuhu this morning, by-passing Wuhan
about 1.00pm. As of 2.00pm we'd travelled about 500km. We plan to try
and cover about the same again today since the road is divided 4 lane
motorway with little traffic.

I spotted several peasants plowing their rice fields with water
buffalo, and a small furry yellow chicken crossing the motorway in the
middle of nowhere!

We've crossed the Yangtse several times on huge new bridges.
Everywhere you look there are major construction projects underway;
bridges, railway lines and new roads- all on a grand scale.

The countryside is of course highly developed but there are also
plenty of trees in the landscape.

I drove for 2 hours this morning. The trucks are highly unpredictable
since their loads are always wider than their mirrors, they can't see
vehicles behind them. No one follows any sort of what might be
considered predictable behavior on the road - so defensive driving is
the order of the day. We cruise at 120kph, which is the speed limit -
using about 16 litres per hundred kilometers. The 4.7l v8 ticks over
at 2000 rpm at that speed.

Today has turned out to be surprisingly hot at 30 degrees. We had both
thought that the temperature might have been about half that.

It's now nearly 4.00pm and we are nearly atYichang.

Wuhu, Easter Saturday

Spent the night slumming it at the Crown Plaza. Paddy wasn't happy
with the first 5 star hotel we were booked into so we changed. Wuhu is
about 350km from Shanghai. We arrived about 9.30pm and after a nice
hotel dinner of Nasi Goring got to bed about 10.30.

It's now about 6.15am Saturday and we plan to depart for Wuhan at
7.00am, a distance of about 600km.

Wuhu is a city of about 2.5m. It's been occupied since about 700bce,
and has been an important city on the Yangtse for several hundred
years.

The Catholics have left their mark too since I spotted an impressive
cathedral on the way in last evening.

The car is running well despite all the gear on the roof. We have a
battery powered fridge/freezer full of steak and French cheese for
eating when we get to the camping part of the trip.

Sent from my iPhone

Friday, April 22, 2011

On the Road

Just a brief update. Have left Shanghai at 4.30pm Good Friday heading
to Wuhan, staying at Wuhu tonight. Great 3 lane autobahn with few cars
on it. Finally on the way!

Sent from my iPhone

Update from Shanghai

Well it's now Friday and we are just about ready to leave. Not everyone as ready as self with checklists. The last 3 days have been spent getting the vehicle ready, putting in a spare battery, wiring spotlights etc.
Today we are packing up food, getting all the camping gear sorted and deciding where it will all go in the Toyota 4wd.
Brother Patrick has been introducing me to friends at the local expats bar, Oscars. We visited there last time Liz and I were in China. Strange barman who wouldn't open brandy to serve unless you bought the
whole bottle.......so a beer it was!
A customer of Paddy's also took us out to dinner last night where we dined on champagne and lobster, and sharks fin soup.
Paddy has a great apartment in the central city, 3 bedrooms at about 140 square meters.
The weather is ok, cool and overcast. I'll fill in some more details later
Sent from my iPhone
John

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Shanghai 20th April

Well I've arrived to beautiful spring weather with daytime temperatures of around 20 degrees. The sky is of course a little blurry from the haze, but that's Shanghai for you.

The authorities have decided we can't visit Tibet. It's the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Tibet by the Chinese, and the locals aren't feeling that liberated. So, no foreigners allowed in till later in the year.

The trip is now planned to be via Chengdu and north west over the Tibetian plateau toward Golmud, then on to Urumqi.
The team here is in the last stage of readying the 4wd. In some cases in the first stages of getting ready. I had prepared an equipment list which no one seems to have looked at.
I met Stephan Mangaud yesterday, the young Frenchman who is coming with us. We zoomed around town on his scooter without helmets doing various chores. Quite different from the helmeted and organized regime back home.

Brother Paddy has a lovely apartment in central Shanghai. 3 double bedrooms with 2 bathrooms and ensuite. Large balcony with great views over the local area, no highrises around him. The apartment comes furnished, and being Patrick he has a live in maid. Paddy had the new spotlights and bull bars attached to the Toyota yesterday and is having the off road tyres fitted today. There is still a bit of cooking gear to get, and some food, but we are planning a Friday departure for Chengdu.
David Pay and Stephan will fly up and join us in Chengdu. I don't think Stephan is coming the whole way, as he has to be back here 5 May and Paddy wants to be back on the 11th.

So, not sure what I'll do from the 11th to 21st, I may drive the vehicle back myself with a translator friend! Time will tell- and it is supposed to be an adventure anyway.

John

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fwd: Ready to go

All packed and ready to go. One more sleep and a day at work. Hope
to be able to send emails along the way. See you late May.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Expedition in China 2011

Well the planning is finally over and I depart Tuesday 19 April for 4
weeks in China. My brother Patrick and I are going on a 4wd trip out via
Chengdu, Golmud to Urumqi.
There are 4 of us going, with a mix of camping and cheap hotels.
Next report from Shanghai.