Day 23 - 24th April - Gauling to Jinsha

It was to be a 380K drive from Gaunling to Jinsha via Zhijin caves.

The day dawned grey, cool and drizzling. The signs to ski resorts on our exit from Gaunling gave it some perspective. Although the map does not show their existence, the vast majority of the day was to be on toll roads.

I think I commented yesterday that Guizhou province is poor. This was amplified in our drive during the day. The area is not nearly as intensively cultivated as the previous countryside we had crossed. There were hillsides that looked to contain little more than scrub with a few terraces of crops. Plenty of old and what looked to be abandoned terraces.

It was the first day that we have driven where it rained continuously. Not heavy, but constant drizzle.

When we turned off the tollway to Zhijin, the roads ran out. The last 7k of road was a construction site. Mud and slush, gravel, rocks and potholes.   Our guide told us that she visited the caves last year and that it had taken them 3 times as long to get there as the tollway we had been on was incomplete and that much of the road was like our last 7k.

Zhijin cave is described as the largest in China. After our previous days let down I was a bit concerned about what we were in for. But the place did not disappoint. You walk from the entrance up, down and around for around 6k in huge caverns filled with formations. At the end a bus is waiting to take you back to the entrance. May be because it was Monday, there were few others there. Our guide said that they were mainly from the local area. Because of the inaccessibility, people from further afield in China did not visit, even though the National Parks had rated it AAAAA.

We had lunch in a street side restaurant. It was little more than a stall and clearly by the reaction of the proprietors they had not had many Europeans frequent their establishment previously. Ordering was simple. The Navigator went to the next table and pointed to what they had that we wanted. When the food came, out came the cameras and they started taking photos of us. Not sure whether they had not seen Europeans eat previously (or Europeans for that matter) or they need some new material for their Facebook page.

The line between rural China and industrial China is very slim and this journey is taking us to places well outside the normal tourist areas. Our first exposure to Jinsha our destination for the day, was when Vulcan had to pull over as we entered town, with a flat tyre. I thought the road was covered with oil mixed with all the rain, but soon realised that the road and everything else around was covered in coal dust. The huge power station across the vegetable field should have been a giveaway, but I missed the head frames and conveyors coming out of 2 underground coal mines next to it and the queue of soot covered trucks trundling around town.

Despite the fact that we had travelled past what seemed to be so many abandoned fields, the vegetables and rice paddies abutted the power station and coal mines. And any spare space between was also cultivated.

Luckily our hotel is at the top end of town, about 2k from the power station. There the main road between is lined with prosperous and brightly lit shops, with tower after tower of new apartments behind. There is obviously money in this town along with the pollution.

Dinner was a more intense repeat of lunch. There are no menus in English and unlike much of Asia no picture book menus. And no one we met speaks any English. But with a combination of many attempts with Google Translate, mimes and charades we were served broadly what we expected and enough warm beer to keep us happy. But during the meal we had to entertain all of the staff in the restaurant who all appeared in groups of 2 or 3 with their phones to take photos of themselves with us.

Everywhere we turn, whether driving down the freeway, walking the street, or eating in a restaurant people stop, look and engage as best they can, even if its just to take a photo with us. There is no shyness or reticence, the people we cross are not lacking any self confidence.

When exiting a toll gate on the expressway our cars pull over to one side until all the group are through. Often other cars will pull up and take photos of the group, some times the passengers jump out and walk around (this is all on the edge of the toll plaza). Today a bus stopped and let everyone off to come across and have a look.  

Clearly Jinsha and this region is currently not on the normal tourist itinerary. This is our 6th day in China and we are yet to see another European.

Over the past couple of days the Nurse from Hell forbade me from eating. I am not sure whether the strategy was to starve me or the gastro bug to death. It was a close call, but I think I won. I was allowed to take on limited rations this morning and even consume lunch and dinner (no alcohol) and the bug seems to have realised that it has met its match.

Its funny how the complexion of a town changes after dark. The grey, coal dust covered facades are replaced by a myriad of LED lights. Up and down the main street, around buildings and wrapping the light poles. From the hotel window, it looks like the town is ready to celebrate Christmas. It must be that while the coal mines and power station distribute their pollution over town, they compensate with cheap power.

Tomorrow we are off to Chongqing. A town variously described as having a population of between 11 and 30 million. I am leading for the day and on the map, the freeway system looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

Day 22 - 23rd April - Luoping to Guanling

After a good nights sleep, I was feeling much better until the Navigator switched into the Nurse from Hell mode. The only thing I was allowed to eat for breakfast was toast and orange cordial. And then I got into trouble for putting butter on the toast. Needless to say, despite all the beer every night on the trip, I’ve dropped 2 kg since starting out from Bangkok. You obviously burn up a lot of calories in this driving business.

I keep on coming back to the mountain terrain, its vastness and the engineering of the road system. But it is truly amazing and the morning drive was no exception. The steep sided karst mountains are of every shape and the roads just go through them or between them. I’m not sure what the length of road tunnels are in China, but it must be huge. There were 2 large suspension bridges we crossed during our drive that I am sure would equal the Golden Gate. Long and hundreds of meters above the rivers below. It rivals anything we have driven in Europe, yet these are not noted in any guide,  its just part of the landscape.

One mountain we passed through seemed to have more holes than Swiss Cheese. There were 2 tunnels for the tollway and another couple for the fast train plus a couple of old ones that seemed to be unused.

Many of the hillsides were terraced. The terraces were small, narrow and obviously very old. Plus a large number seemed to be no longer in use. Our guide was unsure why, other than the kids had moved off to the big cities and there was no one left to farm them. This I can understand. Clambering up these mountainsides to eke out a subsistence did not look promising.     

One of the challenges we have had is that our Garmin maps are pretty much useless – although they generally tell us (within a few hundred meters) when we have reached our hotels each evening. Our Guide uses the same Garmin, but has different maps. One’s that seem to be a bit more accurate. Normally, for non military uses the GPS data has a deviation, usually a matter of meters. In China its much more. Mostly the little blue cursor is floating around in grey space well away from the roads. The other challenge is that many of the roads are not in our Garmin Maps, nor on the paper maps we have, such is the rate of new development. Navigating here without a guide would be very difficult.

While on the technology front, we cannot access Facebook, Instagram or Google while in China. They are all blocked. There are local versions to cater for the domestic population, or you can subscribe to a VPN service (which we don’t). So if you don’t see anything posted or us responding, this is the reason, it not because we are ignoring you.

For our morning tea stop we visited the Malinghe Gorge and then on to Huangguoshu Waterfall for lunch. Both were underwhelming although the Waterfall was supposed to be the biggest in China. Maybe, but if that is the case then China does not do waterfalls. They really paled in comparison to the mountain landscape that we had been driving through. Compounding the disappointment is the fees that are charged to enter these places. Malinghe charged RMB40 each (AU$8) to enter (a 50% age discount) plus another RMB40 to catch the elevator back up because we had run out of time and then RMB 5 for parking. Huangguosu charged RMB230 (AU$46) each. And I thought we were paying the same price as the locals, or at least according to the signage. But there were crowds of them.

Shortly after starting out this morning we crossed from Yunnan Province to Guizhou Province. It is noted for its Ethnic Minorities who have a predilection for eating dogs. It’s also one of the poorest.

The restaurants in Guanling all have large pictures in their front windows advertising their speciality. Many had the same large catfish image stuck to the glass, a couple roosters and one had a couple of Alsatian images guarding the front door.   

Tonight, Green is shepherding the group to dinner to make sure that they don’t inadvertently eat fido. Although I am feeling much better, the Nurse from Hell had forbade me from joining in and left behind a couple of dry crackers to gnaw on and a bottle of water to wash them down. I think I’ll turn in early again.

But the car went well again today.

Day 21 - 22nd April - Yuanyang to Luoping

The alarm woke us at 0600 to get up and experience the sunrise over the rice terraces. The alarm was necessary as I had spent most of the night trying to soften up the bed. I think it was a brick platform covered with a mattress protector. I must have succeeded at some stage as the bruising on my hips was already starting to show.

We strode up to the viewing platform in the cool, damp morning darkness. The whole place was socked in with cloud and we weren’t going to see any sunrise. We should have stayed in bed and enjoyed the fruits of our labour from softening the mattress.

After a breakfast of noodles, vegetables and eggs we set off back down the mountain. It was slow because of the fog and that water buffalo and most of the local vehicles don’t display hazard or fog lights. We could hardly see a couple of cars in front.

Yuanyang is at an altitude of around 1850m. The good part about all of this was that for the first time on the journey we were wearing long sleeved tops and long pants. The temp was down to around 10c and the Navigator was searching for the heater controls in the car.

The road to Luoping was dominated by steep, terraced mountains and every available inch (or should I say ‘mu’ as the Chinese do) of ground devoted to cultivating something. There was plenty of rice, but more so vegetables of every description, a variety of fruit including loquat and grapes (for making wine), canola, corn and other grains. These were all being sold along the road side along with smoked rabbits on a stick.

The villages vary from the dishevelled, bombed out look with rutted roads, rubbish (mainly plastic) and shop houses lining the street, to perfectly manicured gardens lining the main roads into other towns. Street sweepers both human and mechanical making sure that the roads were clean and rubbish absent.

With the mountainous territory comes the long steep descents. The trucks use water mist to cool their brakes on these. So to service that need there are water sellers in most of the laybys along the road. By the look of the people operating these services it’s not terribly lucrative. Further, I’m not sure whether they pay for the water they supply or not as their hoses just seem to miraculously appear out of the ground.    

We are starting to get to know these guys as we tend to use their laybys to pull in for morning tea as there are not many other options. No local sporting fields with parking lots and toilets or dedicated picnic areas at all. The expectations of some of the group was that we would buy food for morning tea and lunch in the local super market and stop in a scenic spot along the way and peacefully enjoy our picnic. But this is not the Chinese way and they have not catered for it. Historically the travellers would have stopped at a roadside stall or in a village to get some noodles or rice. More so now they stop at the massive petrol station/service centres which have clean toilets and a fast food outlet (noodles generally). There must be huge numbers stopping at these places all at once. They have a vast open fronted washroom with toilets off to the side. At one I counted 40 individual urinals – I’m not sure what the Ladies looked like but given the turnaround time they must have been equally as impressive. These facilities looked like they were designed to cater for more people than the Sydney Football Stadium at half time.

The areas we are travelling through are the poorer regions of China and that is reflected in the variety of vehicular traffic we are seeing as we approach the smaller towns. Buffalo drawn trailers, pedal/electric 3 wheel bikes with a carriage tray and a variety of motorised contraptions.

Luoping, like a number of towns we have been through, is perplexing. Vast new commercial and residential developments that seem to be empty. I think we were the only guests in the large modern hotel we were staying in.

After a long day’s drive (about 420k), I was knackered and had succumbed to a gastric bug, so had a shower and trundled off to bed while the Navigator headed off to hot pot dinner in a local restaurant ($8 each with beers).  

But the car went well.

Day 20 - Friday 21st April - Pu'er to Yuanyang

The alarm woke me with a startle at 5.15 from a deep sleep. It had been a restless night as I tossed and turned considering the imponderable questions of what would happen if the car still failed to perform.

Our guide, her name is ‘Green’ as she was born on Earth Day came as my passenger and guide, while the 2 mechanics trailed in a second car. Unfortunately for Green, she cannot let us out of her sight – these are the rules in China and what we need to accept for the opportunity of driving around the country. The objective was to get the car hot by working it hard. We did just that.

Green said she enjoyed driving fast when I apologised for what I was putting her through. We got airborne a couple of times, not hard with the way the suspension is set up and the back roads we were using were bumpy, dark and narrow. But her colour gave a different slant on the issue.

Driving in the dark poses challenges. Trying to spot stray dogs and chooks wandering along or sleeping on the road is difficult, but is compounded by the local road users who either don’t have headlights on their motor bikes, tuk tuks and assorted other farm machines pondering along the road or are unwilling to use them because it will flatten the battery.

We arrived back safely to the Navigator who had been waiting anxiously. The car did not falter. However, there were still concerns that we would still have problems with accumulated heat when the car had been run all day. We would only know once we got on the road.

The hotel we were staying in and I assume like many more to follow, does not see Western guests often. It caters for the locals. This was reflected in the breakfast. We are getting used to noodles, chilli or congee. We did not go hungry.

The other thoughtful addition has been the provision of condoms in each bedroom. The Navigator was looking for the soap, kettle and bar fridge. She did not think the condoms were an adequate substitute to the missing items.

Our destination for the day was the Yuanyang Rice terraces – I am sure you have seen the photos of this World Heritage listed sight.

The morning drive was exhilarating. Similar to previous days with steep climbs, descents and lots of curves. Never a straight stretch. All linked together with lots of tunnels and viaducts. Its not cheap on the toll ways. This one cost AUD23 for about 150k. This is all overlayed with spectacular scenery: misty mountains, forests (with elephants the sign said) and every conceivable thing was being grown on any available surface.

The second stretch for the day was 180k along a secondary road that followed the Yuanjiang (Red) River which flows down through Vietnam to the Gulf of Tonking. The river was aptly named as it was the colour of the surrounding hillsides. The whole area is much drier than our previous route.

The area is populated by (in Chinese speak) a number of ethnic minorities. The Hani are the rice farmers at Yuanyang. They are spread across this border area in China, northern Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. But was the Yi people, who we were warned by Green we needed to be wary of as theydrank beer like it was water and then when tired fell asleep on the road. You have got to love the freedom of expression in this country.

The rice terraces are spectacular. They cascade down the steep mountain side, and each day the farmers trudge down and back up with their water buffalo. There does not seem to be any evidence of mechanical assistance.

Many of the women wear traditional dress, especially the old who at around 140cm tall, are often seen walking along the roadside, bent double with heavy loads across their back, held on with a strap across their forehead.

Every time we stop we draw a crowd. People driving past pull over and if they speak English come and talk to us, otherwise they come and stand by the car for selfies or group photos with their friends. What really excites them is to drag us into their group photos with arms embraced. The ver lucky get to sit behind the wheel and take photos. We figured we should be charging for this:

·       1 yuan (about 20 cents) for a photo;

·       5 yuan for a selfie by the car;  and

·       10 yuan for photos in the driver’s seat.

I think we would pay for the trip before we left China.

Dinner at the local restaurant was a hoot. Despite this being a World Heritage area, the villages sort of have the appearance of Bagdad after the bombing. There is piles of rubble everywhere and no building seems complete. The restraint had concrete floors, the beer was served hot as usual, but the local specialties were what was in demand. The big family group next too us was into the home brewed Baijiu. At plus 65% alcohol it tasted and smelt like metho to me. Anyway it was not long before they were singing traditional Chinese folk songs and one of the female members was dancing while we quietly chewed on our stir fried crickets and other local delicacies.

We made a strategic exit before getting too involved in numerous shouts with our new best friends. It was out into the torrential rain satisfied that we had made it and the car had not faltered.

Day 19 - 20th April - Mengle to Pu'er

This was to be a 350k run up the motorway to Pu’er, with a stop at the Botanical Gardens for a couple of hours in the morning – a transport section. Unfortunately it did not end that way.

The Tropical Botanical Gardens are run by the National Academy of Science and cover something like 28 square kilometres. Most to the visitors go to the western section only as it is divided into a number of sections, like: medicinal plants, fig trees, and most spectacularly rain forest flowers – an incredible array of orchids.

After lunch the motorway was fast and flowing. Lots of tunnels, a few straight bits and a multitude of curves and massive viaducts spanning the valleys. A serious bit of roadway, and they are doubling its size by building another along side.

Plus the odd Public Security Checkpoint: read police check. In Laos we had just driven through these and waved. Not quite possible in China. Prepared with our new Chinese drivers licenses and registration papers, plus our Passports, we were ready.

 Everyone was being checked, but for most is was a quick stop and on your way again. We were sent across to a special area for checking. I’m not sure whether none of the roadside police could speak English, but soon a young smiling girl came over and checked our documents. Her English was good and we were soon on our way again.

I am not sure why they have these as they know where we are from all the fixed overhead speed cameras along the way. Unlike Australia, they photograph every vehicle passing through. And to get on to the tollway we had to present our number plate before they gave us a smart card for presentation when we exited.

Along the way they seem to grow every imaginable kind of tropical fruit and vegetable. Bananas predominate, with hectares of them on the valley floors and up the impossibly steep hillsides. The mountain sides have also been planted with so many rubber trees, the ecosystem could be described as mono culture in some areas. As we proceeded north the variety increased. Pu’er is noted for its tea.  Around 3.00pm with 60 k to our destination, the cars motor started to play up. We first lost all power on inclines, but by changing down we could make the crests an accelerate down. We stopped to check what was going on.

The mechanical brains thought it was an electrical issue, so we changed the spark plugs which were black and oily – fuel not combusting properly. Off we set but within a few kilometres they problem had returned. So this time we replaced the coil, but things continued to deteriorate. To the point where we were struggling to make a crest when a long uphill tunnel emerged. There was no where to pull over before the tunnel (the places to safely pull over 8 MGs and work on a car, in any case is pretty limited). I must admit heading into the, pitch black (there is no lighting or ventilation in these) 2 lane tunnel with nowhere to pull over, truck hurtling past and only making progress in 1st gear with the engine intermittently dying was getting a bit concerning (to say the least). We were saved by a downhill section on exit and soon found a layby.

Next step to change the distributor. As previously, all ran smoothly for a few kilometres, before it started to play up again. We swapped drivers. Mike, one of the mechanical brains took over as I was concerned that I was not describing the symptoms properly.

At 28 k to go, the car ceased running all together. We could not start it and the only option was to tow. One underpowered MG towing another along a busy tollway was a challenge, but we made it to the hotel only breaking the tow wire once: in the middle of the main drag of Pu’er, straddled across the 2 lanes. We jammed up all the traffic which was still exceedingly busy at 6.30pm.  

We were running out of things to replace and spare parts at this stage, but decided that the problem was not electrical, but the fuel pump. That done, we at least could hear the pump working once the ignition was turned on. At the hotel it was completely dead, although at previous stops it was still pumping, but I thought the sound was weak (not a noted feature of the Facet solid state pumps most of us are using. They are generally noisy as hell, to the point of distraction). But the engine would still not start. So we pulled out the New / replacement distributor and put back the old. The engine fired first crank.

So here we were, the brand new distributor had failed within 20k, but it was probably not the problem in the first place. It just complicated the issue.

It was 9.30pm. The team had not had dinner, we were all still in our driving cloths, and despite much more milder temperatures in this part of China, we were all still hot and sticky. We were not certain we had fixed the issue, although there was a lot of rationalisation that we had as the fuel pump that we knew was faulty.

It was agreed that we would take a couple of cars out at 5.30 in the morning and test it. One of the challenges we have is that we can’t go anywhere without our guide, so she too was reluctantly conscripted to join the test team.

Everyone went to dinner, but I was knackered and we had pulled the car to pieces replacing all the parts and accessing the storage spots, so I left them and pottered for a while tiding things up and then crashed into bed. With the alarm set for 5.15am I slept fitfully, worrying that we had not fixed the problem and what was the next step?

Day 18 - Wednesday 19th - Luang Namtha (PDR Laos) to Mengle (PR China) - 80k

We have only 80k to travel today, but no idea on how long its going to take us. The 40k to the border will take about an hour and the 40 k after the border will take less. But the crossing – who knows?

The 40k to the border was a jostle with trucks, pot holes, unpaved patches, mud and lots of raw red earth being moved about for some unexplained reason. Before the border we stopped and took out our CB radios and GPS in preparation for the crossing.

Arrived at the Loa departure gate around 0900, after doing what we had done previously, anddrove around the lengthy queue of trucks to the head of the line. Exiting Laos proved fairly uneventful until they asked to see our import documents for the cars, so that they could process an exit. You may recall that when we came in, no one seemed to check anything on the cars and we had no approved paperwork. In the end the problem was very creatively rectified by the Customs Officer putting his chop on the front cover of our Carnet (similar to a passport for a car, but not every country recognises it). A unique solution, but it seemed to help him feel that he had completed his paperwork and allow us to set off the 5k across no mans land to the Chinese border.

The personal immigration process went smoothly with our crisp new visas stuck in our passports. The navigators had to exit one way, while the drivers had to then double back through the entry and pick up the cars and take them around to the customs man to bring them through.

As usual we ignored the lengthy queue of trucks and drove around them. Not sure whether we are below their range of sight or they just can’t work out what we are doing, but they let us barge in without a murmur. We were greeted by the Customs Officers broad smile, a Good afternoon sir and Welcome to China, a wave, found the Navigators standing by the roadside and we were on our way somewhat shocked that it had been so straight forward, or so it seemed. In reality our Chinese agent had been there for 2 days working through the paperwork with the local people. And it worked.

Drove down a tree lined freeway with gardens full of bright bloomed Bougainvillia wondering what planet we had stepped into, and onto our hotel in Mengla.

It was early afternoon and we were off to the Police Station to get our Chinese drivers licenses and then on to the motor registry to get the cars checked and their Chinese registration.

The drivers license thing was humorous more than anything else. We completed the paper work – in Chinese and the first 3 went in for their eye tests. A bit of a challenge as we had no idea what the characters were, and the examiner could not understand a word we said. But given the first 3 got 100% correct, or so we assumed, they abandoned testing the rest of us and processed the paperwork.

Next stop the Motor Registry. We assumed, on the basis of our Police Station experience, that this was a formality as well. They took one look at the cars and told us that we would need to wait 3 days for them to get an expert down from Beijing who knew how to drive old cars. In China, if the vehicle is more than 7 years old it gets scrapped, so a convoy old 50 year old MGs is quite a rare sight.

After much discussion, the local Motor testers felt they were up to the task once we taught them how to drive the cars. Then we were perplexed with their testing. There were 4 rubber pads on the ground and the testers were driving the cars very slowly (3 mph) onto them and firstly slamming on the foot brake and then the hand brake. The second test involved switching on the head lights as this robotically controlled arm hovered around in front while the lights were switched from low to high as the engine was being revved vigorously. We were lost as to what they were doing. Results 4 cars passed and 4 failed because of brake and / or light issues.

What we worked out was that the 4 rubber pads were very sensitive and were actually measuring the braking balance between each of the wheels to check brake effectiveness and  whether there was any skewing. This was a challenge for some of the hand brakes as there is no adjustment and in an MG they never really worked very well in the first place. With the head lights it was a matter of cleaning the lenses, changing globes and in the case of Shiraz removing the wire stone protectors.

4 cars back for retesting. One passed and 3 failed. More adjustment of brakes and head lights. By this stage it was heading towards 6.00pm and the place was deserted, except for us and a couple of the testers. 2 cars passed and one failed on head lights. The recommended solution for Shiraz was that since the head light on the right hand side was good and had passed, if we swapped it over to the left then they could pass the left as well – simple!

Our expectations were somewhat changed after this, from what looked like a basic test to something that was far more sophisticated than the cars could handle. At 6.30 the tests were complete, we received our China number plates along with our drivers licenses which the police had hand delivered to the Motor Registry along with new Chinese names.  Beat that – service with a smile and creativity!

We were ready for beers - even if they were served warm in Chinese style.

It feels as though the journey has just begun.

Day 17 - Tuesday 18th - Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha

Do people learn to smile and wave or does it come from innate natural instinct? Similarly with the word OK, has it transcended all languages or is it just easy for people to remember?

All along the road from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha little kids would run out to the edge of the road, with a broad grin and wave vigorously. The amount of energy expended was inversely proportional to the size of the child.

We started out on the main road heading north and veered left at Oudomxai as the road was the main link to Ha Noi. It seemed that there was never a stretch of road that was straight for more than 100m. Fun driving in an MG and the team took too it when we had a free run. Trucks and busses proved to be challenges to be navigated around, while the Navigator looked for that security of a grab rail that was never installed to stop herself from being tossed about too much.

Google had said that the trip would take us 10 hours and we had assumed that this was because the road was in poor condition. The Chinese had fixed that problem recently. The surface was smooth, with few pot holes and the edges were marked with straight white lines. But little room for both bikes and cars to share the same lane. So it was the combination of never ending curves and climbs with the traffic that slowed us down. 

The country side was very poor. Dotted with small villages and farmers eaking out a living on the precarious hillsides. Slashing and burning evident everywhere to clear ground to plant the next crop of rice or corn. Interspersing these were small stands of teak. It seems as though the locals are being encouraged to start small plantations.

The export of hydro electricity is Laos’ biggest source of foreign revenue. Currently they have around 40 dams in the north of the country and by the early 2020s they will have over 90. China Power seems to be the driving force behind the development and financing of these. We wondered what was going to happen to those small farmers whose land was in the way of the developments we passed on our drive north. I understand the arrangements are not without controversy.

The difference between the villages in the valley floors was in stark contrast with those on the hill tops. The valley dwellings tended to be more substantial and often built of concrete blocks. The hill top villages were walled with bamboo matting and thatched roofs. The people, especially the women dressed traditionally.

On a number of occasions we passed a wizen old man or women bent double under a large and ponderous load. As I noticed each of these I wondered why they were alwaysold and traditionally dressed, but it was because all the younger generation had motor bikes and carried their loads on them.

I had never heard to anyone going to Luang Namtha previously, but apparently in the cooler months, its very popularfor mountain biking, trekking and kayaking in the nearby national park. Will have to come back and explore that option as there are a number of minority groups in the outlying areas that still dress and live in a very traditional way.

But here we are just a stone’s throw from the Chinese border and the dragon to the north is very evident, with all the signage being in Chinese as well as Lao and Chinese cars are numerous. And that is where we head tomorrow. Well prepared for a long and challenging wait negotiating the process of getting our cars across the border. There is also trepidation as we have met numerous people who have marvelled that we are even considering the option as they had explored it and found it too challenging.

Day 16 - Monday 17th - Luang Prabang

Offering alms

We were up before dawn to present alms to the monks in the dawn procession. This is what the town is noted for (and of course its French colonial architecture). We had read this this could be a bit of a zoo, but in reality it was most restrained. You sit on a small stool with a bowl of sticky rice as the monks parade past with their rice bowls. As they are not allowed to hunt or cook, they rely on alms from the devout to feed them, in return you get their blessing.

Gathering alms

Those dealing out the rice are a mixture of locals (mainly older women), pilgrims and tourists/travellers. The procession goes on for about 30 to 40 minutes as the monks walk from their sleeping quarters down the main street to their temple to enjoy breakfast and then start their learning or devotion (depending on their age).

Test driving our new vehicles

Then another epiphany: elephant riding. I am not sure whether this was organised to see if we could find and more or less comfortable way to London than our current chosen alternative. The general consensus was that riding in an MG is more comfortable than riding (bare back) on the neck of an elephant. I know many of you will be surprised, but even the Navigator sided with the majority on this one, and it only took her about 30 minutes to reach this conclusion. Further the smell of the MG, oily and hot as it is, was determined to be far less obnoxious than the smell of the clothes after riding bare back on the elephant.

After a dizzying round of temples, stupas and Buddhas in one of their 36 or 54 poses, plus the odd Royal House and car museum we were pretty much done in. I know you will be surprised that we found that there is a limit to the number of temples, Buddhas and stupas that one can visit in a day, and it was far less than then36 that are left in town. At one stage of the high point of its history, there had been 71 temples.

We often compare one place against another as a point of reference, rather than accepting it for what it is. Without going down that route, Luang Prabang is an exceptional place. The UNESCO conservation order in 1995 has preserved it and means that all future development is managed by the UN (supposedly). I think they must have tipped a lot of money in to manage the initial restoration. Today it must be the dollars that tourism brings that helps in its conservation. Busy, bustling and touristy in many respects, but it has this really calm and restrained aura about it. Many be it is the monks that help with this. The surrounding misty mountains help with the atmosphere and combine with the bars, food and old French architecture.

However, if you think this is a place to be discovered, too late. The tourists throng in from all over Asia and Europe. French accents are prevalent, the Chinese numerous and today we were lining up photo opportunities with a large group of old (north) Vietnamese soldiers covered in gold braid and war decorations.

Keep looking for the next unfound hot spot. This place has been well and truly found – about 20 years ago according to Tony.   

Addendum:

Our shipping agents have posted a video of the vehicle arrival in Bangkok here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Y2sqvsJ0I&feature=em-share_video_user

Day 15 - Sunday 16th - Vientiane to Luang Prabang

The absence of people and generally quiet start to the day lulled us into the misapprehension that by day 4 of the New Year celebrations, the old gods had been ushered out and the new starting to settle into their responsibilities. This lasted until after lunch when the previous days festivities kicked back into full swing. While we were getting quicker at winding up the windows, it helped little. The soft top was never designed to keep a bucket of water coming up the window, through the seal and spraying across the windscreen, occupants and anything else that was in the way, including the GPS.

The young kids with their super soakers looked like they were in training to wield and AK47. May be that is why the Americans were so unsuccessful over here. The kids had been trained from such a young age.

The scenery changed as we headed north and entered the mountains which look similar to those photos you will have seen of China. The villages became noticeably poorer, more and more were wearing traditional dress and the never ending rice paddies morphed into slash and burn up the steep limestone hillsides. The crops changed as well: mandarins, corn and a myriad of vegetables, melons and pumpkin. This was reflected in the stuff for sale in the roadside stalls.

The drive was more challenging than in previous days. The road narrow and very windy through the hills and maybe more cars as a result of people heading home after the holiday weekend. Our speed was generally not more than 50kph. There are also big speed differentials between all the traffic. The motorbikes and trucks slow, and cars and SUVs much faster and always on the lookout for an opportunity to pass, safely or otherwise. We are also becoming concerned with the quality of the driving. Its deteriorating the further we go north and have had our first encounters with Chinese drivers. Early in the day a SUV lost control behind us and took out a motorcycle. The bike was a pretty sad state while the rider seemed to be OK.

Later in the day we had to cross a 2000m mountain pass. The shortcut was not on our maps as it had been completed by the Chinese in recent times. At 12% for over 10 kilometers up and then another 10k down it is the steepest road gradient I have ever experienced. (By comparison the maximum road gradient usually found on a highway is 6% - you may find it steeper in short pitches, but not for this distance). Off we set at a rate of knots and were soon down to 2nd gear (a number of the guys were down to 1st on occasions). About ¾ of the way up, we had to pull over as some of the cars were recording +100c temps on their gauges (the coolant boils at a higher temp than water because of the chemistry and the pressure). Ours got to about 92c. A 30 minute wait and we were ready to set off again, but with the fear of what would happen on the way down. The brakes on 1970 MGBs were never known for their robustness. Although they were a vast improvement on the previous model which only had drum brakes on the front. The strategy was a lot of engine braking – The engine and the gearbox sounded as they were going to haemorrhage at times, but we all made it down safely – more than others. A Prado pulled in to where we were resting on the way up. It was coming down and (1/4 of the way at this stage) and smoke was pouring out of its brakes. We suggested to the driver, not to pour more water on the discs to cool them and to lock the gearbox in low, and use the brakes sparingly. Off he trailed with the brake lights glowing brightly. On our way down, a HiLux lost control just in front of us on a sharp bend and ploughed into the embankment. Better than the opposite as there were no guard rails and a very significant drop.      

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the same fashion as we had the previous few evenings – sopping wet from the water throwing. But stunned at the beauty of the place. Our hotel, surprisingly called the Hill View was on the edge of town and commanded a panoramic view of town and the mountains on every side. Then the usual ritual: swim (when available), team briefing at 1800 and then off to find dinner.

Luang Prabang was throbbing much the same as Vientiane. So much for the 36 temple and sacred sites – at New Year it followed the rest of Laos and partied.

Day 14 - Saturday 15th April - Vientiane

Up at 0530 to work on the car and fix the niggles. Why that time of the morning, I’m not sure other than suggesting that the more mechanically minded are having trouble sleeping. Changed the brake light pressure switch and that problem seemed solved and then shortened and reconfigured the CB aerial lead. We will see tomorrow whether we get better range. That said all of us are using the same CB radios and have supposedly mounted them in a similar fashion, but all are getting different ranges. We may have worked that issue out by the end of the trip.

At 0900 the streets were deserted, the shops closed and piles of rubbish were the only indication of the street parties the night before. We had this sense that it was safe to venture out without getting drenched. Off for an exploratory wander around the city. The guide books don’t mention avenues of beautiful French colonial architecture for good reason. In fact Lonely Planet devotes more to restaurants and cafes than to the sites. Initially I thought that may have been a reflection on their main demographic, but after our morning exploring, I think its because there really is not a lot to see.

The various temples and monasteries are interesting, more so because of all the New Year celebrations rather than any spectacles. The Mekong, mighty river that it is only occupies a fraction of its water course with a dishevelled matt of weeds, bamboo, sand and plastic filling the remainder. There is little in the way of promenade on the river bank. If the absence of French colonial architecture is a disappointment, the French food and wine culture that they left behind makes up to some extent.

The temples must make all their money at this time of year. Everyone makes donations, and some of the more important charge an entry fee. More for foreigners than locals. They are packed with people splashing water and flower mixture over all the Buddhas and seeking a monk’s blessing. The monks, in their saffron robes, sandals and shaved heads look devout and pious until you notice one open up his shoulder bag and pull out a set of ear buds for his iPhone, or take a selfie in front of the MG. The blessings they give are for health and happiness, but prominent on the list is wealth.

The temple grounds are also full of food stalls and in some, trinket stalls. For those that don’t bring their own bucket, water and flowers, they will kindly supply (for a fee). You can also buy a cage of birds (tiny little finches) to set free. The more birds you buy, the bigger the blessing.  

Loris made a donation (they don’t charge) for a blessing, received a wrist string and had a lengthy conversation with the young monk about our travels. His English was perfect. In one of the main temples we visited, which had occupied the site since the 3rd century, we nearly had to swim to get to the see the Buddha, so deep was the water in the temple.

By lunch time the kids were just starting to surface again. I guess it had been a late and alcoholic night for them. By mid afternoon the festivities were back in full swing again. Viewing it from street level was no safer than in the MG. Everyone seemed to feel that we should be drenched and sprinkled with powder so that we were not left out of the celebrations. And to boost the ego a surprising number of girls (and some of their mothers) sidled up, interlinked arms and got their friends to take photos.

While you have to have your knees covered, hats and shoes off to enter most of the temples, by mid afternoon when the water was starting to flow freely in the streets, the monks did not seem to have too much of a problem with the girls in shorts and wet T shirts paying their respects and receiving blessings. And probably to encourage them most of the temples seemed to be competing with the bars in how loud they could play their music. I’m not talking ethereal bird sounds o tinkling bells, I’m sure one had Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker going at it full tilt.

Tonight as I write this, its started to rain. I’m not sure the kids have noticed, as the windows in the hotel room are starting to vibrate in tune with the ‘We will rock you’ blasting out from the bar opposite.

The farmers will be happy, hoping that this will be the start of the wet season and they can plant their rice. And for us, the hotel has found some undercover parking so that I don’t have to bail the car out before we start moving in the morning. Maybe all the monk’s blessings are working.