The last of China.

Much of our long drives days this time involved a lot of driving around narrow mountain clinging roads hanging over raging rivers. The scenery was beautiful and stunning but hard going at about a maximum possible speed of 15km per hour due to the steep roads which were almost just dirt.    

One of the roads had 72 switchbacks taking us up to an altitude of 4618m.

 

 

 

We arrived in Lijaing on Sunday the 25th of September. We stayed in a nice hotel for three nights. It was nice to stay in the one spot for a few days. The Old town of Lijiang is cool with lots of very narrow little roads and alleys with clean streams running through the town. It is quite touristy but it has a nice feel about it and the traditional architecture is what makes it.

We were able to take our time in Lijiang and just catch up on stuff like the internet (China does not allow access to Facebook or our blog site), enjoy some nice local food, we also sent some parcels home of souvenirs and winter clothes that we would no longer need along the way, which was handy. Also got to make phone calls to the bank and home.

                                                                                                           

 

                                                                                 

On Tuesday the 27th of September we left Lijiang and drove to Dali. On the way we stopped at the Chongshen temple and three pagodas. Glen wasn't too interested so I went in with a few others from the group. It was interesting big place. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

 

 

We then went on to the town of Dali where we stayed the night. We had a large lunch/dinner with our driver Will at one of the local restaurants and then wandered around the old town. It would have been nice to spend another day here but unfortunately the Chinese government had other plans.

Our last two days in China were drive days. One night we ended up camping in a grave yard. We also had our first tent blow out when part of our roof pole snapped but luckily some people in the group had some spare bits and pieces so that we could repair it.

We left China on the 30th of September 2011 and crossed over to Laos.

Tibet the land of the prayer flag.

So we left Kashgar on the 8th of September and drove for 12hours.

The 9th of September we drove for 14hours we got a flat tyre.  

10th of September drove 12 hours.

11th September 12hours drive day. Got stuck in a traffic jam due to a break down for about 1 hour.

12th September, YAY we got to do some sight seeing. We went to the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuong. These are caves that have been painted and decorated with statues by monks. The worlds third largest Buddha was here-32m. It was a pretty cool place but we were not allowed to take photos in the caves….booooo

Yay finally we arrive in Tibet and we saw some prayer flags!!!!! On the 13th of September we started to climb in altitude in our driving and at our first high pass point we saw prayer flags and snow. It was 4767m above sea level and we were all short of breath! That night we bush camped at an altitude of 4500m and it was freezing. It even sleeted on our tent during the night and in the morning I had my torch on in the tent and it was all sparkly on the inside due to the frost and ice crystals on the inside…..pretty but bloody COLD.

Wednesday the 14th of September was a killer. A lot of people felt really crap due to the altitude. I think Glen and I were pretty lucky with just the breathlessness and an occasional dull headache. Some people were finding it difficult to even walk around and do normal stuff.

Thursday the 15th of September we finally made it to LHASA!!! This is where we were able to have a shower as it had been 6 days since our  last ahhhhh it was so good.

That night we went out for Norman’s birthday to dinner. Here he is in the Birthday outfit.

16th of September. 17 of us decided to make the extra trip to see Mount  Everest and visit Everest base camp. We were in a 19 seated van thing with a driver and a Tibetan guide. We drove to Shigatse where we had our lunch stop. We also had a bit of extra time to wander when our guide was organising permits. Here there is a large monastery and so we watched the monks walk buy as well as people praying and holding the prayer wheels and prayer beads as they walked past.

We then drove on to New Tingiri and stayed in a hotel the night. There were no showers and the toilets were communal which consisted literally of a room which had a concrete floor and a hole in the floor to go to the toilet in.

17th of September. One long long day. We started our next leg at 6am. We drove up the epic dirt road 102klm of winding mountain road towards Everest base camp at a speedy rate of about 15km/hour. We stopped at 9am in a small town for Himalayan pancakes which are pancakes with an egg cooked into them. They were very nice. We stopped a few times on the road to take photos of the Epic mountain but we did not arrive at Everest base camp till 2pm. The Mountain itself is incredible and well worth seeing for your own eyes. I thought the base camp was a bit of a let down. Glen said he thought it was cool. I guess I just expected a little bit more….I don't know. I actually had to clarify with the guide that this was the actual base camp and not just another photo stop point haha. Anyway we were there for about 1`hour taking photos etc and I bought some prayer flags and hung them up there so that was cool.

We sent our postcards from the highest post box in the world and then left Everest at 4pm for our long drive back to Shigatse. We arrived at our hotel in Shigatse at 1:30am. EPIC. I actually thought I was going to loose my mind in the last hour or so before arriving we were all just totally exhausted and strung out.

18th of September. Glen and I dragged our sorry selves up at 7:30am to go and visit the Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse. We are very very glad we did because it was very cool. We visited the chapels which had pilgrims visiting, praying, giving their offerings and chanting. The monks were in each chapel looking after everything. One of the chapels had the worlds largest gilded Buddha statue inside which was awesome and there were yak butter candles lit up.

                                               

 

We then drove back to Lhasa and arrived around 5pm in the evening. Glen and I went and walked around the Jokhang in the Barkhor area of Lhasa. Here people do a pilgrimage clockwise around the Jokhang temple. People with prayers wheels, prayer beads, prostrating monks and people amongst tourists and markets stalls selling anything from prayer flags to t-shirts. Its a very busy area and lots to see and take in.

We had dinner in a restaurant which had a few monks dinning in it…so it must be good. We had a dish of BBQ’d yak meat which was tasty.

On the 19th of September we visited Potala Palace, where the Dalai Lama resided until he was driven out and over to the safety of India. It was a cool place but again unfortunately no photos were allowed inside. We saw his throne, mediatation room, meeting room etc. The rest of the day was filled with souvenir shopping until we had to leave at midday with the truck.

Another long stint of drive days were to follow to get to our next stop Lijiang.

Kieran

Kyrgyzstan the final stan.

We arrived  in Kyrgyzstan on the  27th of August and left to cross into China on the 6th of September.

Our first stop was in the capital Bishkek where we stayed in a dorm in a home stay.  We paid a visit to the local pubs and a restaurant dedicated to U.S President Obama! It  was then on to the more picturesque areas of the country. 

Our next stop was a bush camp near lake Issyk - Kol. This lake is 170km long and 70km wide. Its so deep it never freezes and is the 2nd biggest alpine lake in the world. It is also said to have a Loch Ness type monster in it! Snow capped mountains surround the lake.

The next place we visited was called Kora Kol where I had to purchase some more walking shoes as I  left mine at the home stay in Bishkek. This was a very small town but had a busy market hiding behind the quiet main streets.

Our next bush camp was at 7 Bulls Gorge (Jeli- Oguz). We spent two nights here camped next to a stream. We went for a 6 hour walk on the second day though the gorge over the rushing rivers, and up into the pine forest. There were people who lived in yurts here and many horses wandering about. We visited a waterfall and enjoyed the stunning views of the gorge.

  We then made our way to Lake Song-Kol, we had a night bush camping on the way where some locals took photos of us as well as blatantly stared and watched us eat our dinner. This is still very weird but we are getting used to it as it seems to be a common occurrence, I guess these tiny towns and rural places don't get many tourists especially ones in a huge orange truck!

 

 

 

 

Lake Song – Kol was beautiful. Here we stayed in Yurts, which was really cool. When we arrived at the yurts the men were skinning and gutting a goat which was cool. As soon as the sun went down it was freezing cold and we were at approx 3000m above sea level. There were 5 to 6 people in a yurt and we slept on mats like mattresses on the floor. It was warm and cosy.

    

We had our lunch made by the owners of the Yurts whilst here for the two days and was able to try horse milk which was a very odd  taste. Very Smokey and sort of sour. Nothing like cows milk. We all sampled it but could only manage a small sip each.

 

 

 

Around the yurts it was so pretty and it was nice to be able to relax and just enjoy the surroundings. There were horses, goats, sheep, and cows around the place, as well as some cute children. Many a photo was taken here.

We spent another 2 nights bush camping in Kyrgyzstan. Every bush camp we have had here has been in amongst stunning scenery either snow capped mountains, lakes and/or fast flowing streams.

 

Kieran

btw this was meant to be posted before China.

China the first stop.

Tuesday the 6th of September we were there for two nights.

So as I think I may have mentioned  previously the Chinese government prevented us from entering China for 5 days and also made us enter from a different border crossing which really was annoying to say the least, as not only was our time cut shorter but we now would not be going through the area of Everest base camp and our whole route was messed up.

Our Chinese border crossing went pretty smoothly according to our guide Lu, who has previously experienced some epic Chinese border crossings before. They can be very strict and search bags for Tibet related material etc.

Our first stop in China was Kashgar. We stayed in a hotel here for two nights and had our first experience of real Chinese food. SUPER SPICY!!!! We stopped in this little place off the street and pointed at some pictures of noodle dishes on the wall and tried it out. Glen’s was hot mine was mega hot but it was still very yummy and it really was very expensive at £1.80 for the two meals. NOT.

We explored Kashgar and its grand bizarre and old town before making our epic stint of 7 days of driving and bush camping headed for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.   Kieran

 

 

 

Kazakhstan …….. I like it!

So we were meant to have Kazakhstan as a transit county into Kyrgystan and be there one or two nights, but the Chinese  have stuffed us around and wont let us enter until 5 days after the original entry date of our visas and also have closed the border we wanted to enter. So we have to go through another border which means we may not be able to get to Everest base camp but we are hoping we can sort something out and still get to go.

Anyway our Kazakhstan stay was increased to 6 days. Its is a much more modern country than expected. Good roads which equals a less bumpy truck ride, nice cafes and restaurants and people are friendly. We have bush camped in some very picturesque settings here. Fields of rolling hills with an occasional sheep herder, Arid landscapes with horses wandering nearby and mountainous terrain in the National parks.

We visited Turkstan, Shimkent, Aksu Zhubagly Nature Reserve and Almaty.

We went for a hike in the Nature reserve and I had a 1 litre water bottle in a bag over my shoulder and when we stopped for lunch I went to take it off. The top of the bottle smacked me in the face right under my left eye. I now have a black eye! In Almaty we were in a shopping centre so my sunglasses were off and people would look at me and my eye and then straight to Glen where  he would get a very obvious filthy look. I have to try and cover it up with make up  if we go out now so Glen doesn't look bad haha

Unfortunately we have not seen any mankinis while being here…….very disappointing.

 

                                                                                   

Uzbekistan….Uber pretty, but Uber hot.

Uzbekistan was a beautiful country and we had a break from camping here, staying in hotels.

We first visited the town of Khiva which was very cool and authentic in terms of the old town being surrounded by the protective walls. Old mosques, minarets and madras's.

 

 

 

 

The money here though is ridiculous. We exchanged 50 US Dollars and literally got a wad of cash back. One night a group of us had dinner together and it came to 200 000 Uzbek sum. The table was covered in piles of money. Ridiculous! Pictures below = Terry with his wad on his head and the bill being worked out.

We then visited the town of Bukhara a small town it was nice but so so so hot that it was difficult to be motivated to explore. It somewhere in the 40’s and the heat was so draining.

We then visited Samarkand which has many highly decorated mosques, madras’ and minarets.The pictures really give you a better idea of what I mean. Glen was not well here so spent the first day here sleeping in our air conditioned hotel room. The hotel also had a pool which we were all very pleased about. 

 

 

 

                                                                                      

We also visited the capital Tashkent, but is mainly a business city and not a whole lot of touristy things to do. We were only here for one night and we went for a nice steak dinner here before making our way to Kazakhstan.

 

 

Kieran

The weirdest place we have ever been.

Seeing we had been delayed by so much we drove straight from the port to the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat. This was a 12hour drive through the arid countryside passing the occasional small town, made up of simple homes no bigger than what we would have as a garage in Australia. We arrived in the capital city at about 9:30pm and we were astonished at what we saw. Great huge white buildings dripping with gold and surrounded by fountains, all lit up like Las Vegas. It was insane.   

We stayed in a hotel here and the next day (again very very hot being somewhere in the 40’s) we went exploring. What we found was something like I can only compare to a film set or maybe like the movie the Truman show, where every thing is made out to be real but its all a facade. The streets had no people. There was no small mini markets or corner stores. There were no service stations or just normal stuff. Guards protected the large marble white monstrosities and we were not allowed to photograph any of them. We went to the largest shopping mall where we had lunch, used the internet and had a game of 10 pin bowling. We spent most of the day here because this soulless city had nothing else to do. The amusement park which uprooted 100’s of families to be built is rarely open. Some of the group tried to get in to a small museum and was asked to leave for no apparent reason, it is very strange.

Turkmenistan is said to be the worlds 2nd most secretive country after North Korea. The lonely planet warned of hotel rooms and public places being bugged.Internet access is few and far between and is said to be monitored by the government. None of the hotels had internet and when we used it at the shopping centre they took ID from us. Face book and news websites were blocked. None of us had mobile phone reception either.

There are only 660 000 people that live in this city, a city that is constantly building huge hotels yet their seems to be no people staying in them. There are pictures of the president everywhere and apparently they keep pulling down monuments and buildings so often that the lonely planet which was a 2010 edition warned people that maps and information in their book could be completely irrelevant and a lot of it was. Even when we found a bazaar with people selling fruit and food we were told not to take photos by the locals and store owners.

Ashgabat is weird!

We then travelled into the dessert where we camped one night and the next day on our way to the border saw some ruins of a town that Genghis Khan had destroyed once upon a time. The best thing about this is that we stopped in a small town not far from the border where we had lunch. This town was wonderful, we went to the local bazaar and we were obviously a novelty to them all. We ate the best food and had great service in a simple cafe. The local store owners smiled and waved at us. I had store owners running after me to ask to have there photo taken. When I showed them the digital image on the camera screen it was such a novelty to them. It was such a great experience and we all found that we had found the real Turkmenistan, with real people and real friendliness. 

I can safely say that I will never ever go back to Turkmenistan in my life, but I am very glad I have been there. One of those places that makes you appreciate your home country.

 

The Eurovision winners are Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan the first of our central Asia countries. Our first stop was a bush camp where unfortunately we found ourselves in a weird predicament. We set up our tents. Had dinner then some locals pulled up in a car and pulled out a generator, keyboard and speakers from the boot. Of course we were like what the hell……! They then set up their stuff and proceeded to blare out dance music from their equipment. We didn't want to be rude and a few people got up and sort of danced around with them. After the second song we asked them to turn it off so we could go to sleep. Long story short- the next two hours we were pestered by the 4 of them coming up to our tents and harassing us all for money. It actually got a bit scary at one point but they eventually left. Not a great start.

Next stop was Sheki. An old little town on the ancient Silk Route.  Here we stayed in a wonderful old caravanserai. We visited Khan Palace which was beautifully decorated with stained glass windows and hand painted decorations. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside. It was again very hot and so any air conditioned area was a sanctuary, which brought us to the local cinema. I asked the guy if there were any English speaking movies being played. He said there was not but if there were many people he could put one on. So we had  our own private screening of Million dollar baby, popcorn and juice in hand. There was about 14 of us and it ended up costing each of us about £2.00 a definite bargain!

I celebrated my 29th birthday in Azerbaijan. It began with a midnight rendition from some of the group of Happy birthday. We didn’t have to leave the next day till Midday so a sleep in and a shower was a great start to the day. We drove on then from Sheki to the mud volcanoes where one of them kindly splattered my back with sprayed mud. I had to adorn the birthday attire that evening. A birthday ritual has started in the group where we buy the birthday person a piece of clothing and they wear it on the night of their birthday. The next birthday comes along and that person wears their own piece as well as the pieces from previous birthdays. So I wore a pink belly dancing skirt from Istanbul, Evil eye bangles from Cappadocia (Turkey) and my addition of a yellow Arabian style hat.

We then moved on to Baku the capital of the country. Surrounded by oil fields the city reminded me somewhat of Dubai (even though I am yet to visit there). Sky scraping glass buildings, designer stores on every corner. Mixed in with ancient watch towers and mosques. A lot of building is going on and I imagine a lot is due to the fact that they will be hosting next years Eurovision song contest.

We stayed in a nice hotel here as they don't seem to have grasped the concept of hostels yet. Baku is also quite expensive in accommodation as well as food. In Baku it was our mission (or more so Lou our leader) to find out about the elusive details regarding the ferry from  Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan, over the Caspian Sea. It is an unscheduled ferry, that comes when it comes and it leaves when its full. Whether it takes 1 day to fill the boat or 3 days time can only tell. So we were meant to leave on the Sunday and was told due to weather conditions it would not come till Monday. So this gave us another night in our hotel rooms.

At 11am Monday morning we got a urgent text message from Lou telling us all to get down to our beloved truck at the port in Baku as the Boat was going soon. Our mad rush took place and we got to the truck for the overnight ferry journey. We waited for about 2hours, then passport control took over 1.5hours to stamp us all out of the country then it was all aboard the Hell ship.

Its difficult to put in to words the condition of this ship. We had cabins of four people. We were with the Lovely Irish couple, Laura and Martin. The cabin beds had mattresses which were covered with a cover that had physical dirt all over it. Glens mattress didn't even have a cover so you could see the lovely stains and hole in it. The fixtures were all broken or ripped off the wall. We were informed by the angry lady we named ‘big ma ma’ that if we accumulated any rubbish to just throw it out the cabin porthole into the sea!

We were also sharing our experience with many Americans and English people doing the UK to Mongolia road rally. So there was about 50 passengers  on the boat. It was one toilet for the boys and one toilet for the girls. These toilets did not flush, they didn't even have a chain or button. The boat set of finally at 7:30pm (8.5hrs after Lou’s text message) once the train carriages had been loaded on and all cars and truck and been well wedged in. The toilet about 2 hours in to the journey became indescribably disgusting. The contents of each sat there lapping at the rim. Despite our efforts to explain to the crew (big mama and son) that disaster was lingering and that an alternative toilet was needed. The reply we got was to just pee over the side of the ship. That is okay if you are a boy. Sleep soon allowed us all to escape to some degree from our conditions.

At 11am we docked and we were yelled at by big mama and son to evacuate our rooms. We did so and then waited till 2:30pm to be allowed off the Hell ship.

Next step was to get through the next passport control and into Turkmenistan. Easier said then done. Once off the boat we stood in the sun for about 1.5hours. We finally had passports stamped and approval to enter the country by 4pm. But we needed our truck! We sat in the lounge or rather a big tiled room with a few steel chairs whilst waiting for the train carriages to be unloaded from Hell ship so that our tuck could go free. We waited and waited and waited. By 11pm we surrounded to the fact that us and the rally drivers would be staying the night where we sat. Apparently it was found that the train carriages contained cigarettes which were illegal to come into Turkmenistan and they didn't want to unload them.

The tiles became our beds and we tried to sleep as best as possible in this situation. The next morning was bordering on breaking point for most. Especially when the border control military officers locked the toilets. People were tired, frustrated and were sick of being treated like crap. finally at 11am someone woke up to themselves and the train was unloaded allowing our truck to be free. 11:30am 48hours after getting the call to get on the ship, we were able to drive into Turkmenistan……would it be worth it?

Georgia – Part 2

  30 July – 3 August

 

Having crossed back into Georgia we were now heading for the capital of Tbilisi. On our return to Georgia we didn’t do a whole lot of tourist things in the capital. Being amazing at how good we found Yerevan we were not sure if Tbilisi would be the same. It was still pretty good I thought. our main reason for not doing much was due to the heat. Every day it was around 40 degrees and you can’t do much in that heat. We had a little bit of a walk around and saw the sights. I even went on a walking tour one day nice and early and got the history of some of the sights and what certain buildings were.  The girls went out on a girls night out while the boys just went to a rugby bar and had a quiet one.

We spent most of our time in Tbilisi in bars or pubs or generally just sitting around.

 

Our hostel was brand new and still had some teething problems.  Our newest member of our team who we met in Tbilisi had his camera stolen, a group of other guests had a punch up and one rooms air-conditioner broke down. There were a few blackouts so I ate one night in the hostel by candle light, it was a very romantic pot noodle dinner for 1. Kieran was at the pub.

Next stop Azerbaijan.