Lhasa to Lijiang Overland

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Tibetan Homestead Crossing one mountain pass too many proved too much for our vehicle which was showing clear signs that it wasn't going to make the distance. We limped into one town to assess our options. We had to register with the local P.S.B. as none of the hotels would accept us without authorisation from the police. This was potentially a big problem as we didn't have the required permits to be travelling in that part of Tibet.

As luck would have it there seemed to be a big match on the telly and the local cops weren't too interested in us. They may have asked us to come back in the morning and we may have forgotten to do so.....

We did have to decide what to do about continuing our journey into China. The vehicle obviously wasn't going to make it and the driver set of for Chamdo for repairs. Some of us had deadlines and so we resolved to continue forth using whatever means were available. Sherrap asked around town and managed to get us a ride into Markham the next day.

Left: Sherrap, Happy Tour Guide On the way into Markham we passed the mighty Mekong River, still impressive even this far North. Implore as we might our driver refused to stop and let us get our photographs, preferring to pull in at a noodle shop at the foot of the hill. Oh Well, principle river of the world to us, just some bloody river to him!

Rolling into Markham we did actually get busted. We didn't get fined as clearly we were on our way out of Tibet but the cop somewhat perfunctorally hindered us as much as he could. At one point he showed me some photographs of some dead bodies at the bottom of a cliff. "Don't you know these roads are dangerous?" "Er yeah, ...can we have our passports back please?" and on we went. In hindsight we were a bit lucky that we didn't get fined, perhaps my being able to speak Chinese worked in our favour to some degree.

Sherrap during all of this was just out of view, clearly it would have done no good for him to get tangled up with the authorities in Markham. What he did do was find track down a ride for the trip into China.

The cop had warned us that the road into Yunnan was out and we would be better off heading into Sichuan through Batan. This wasn't an option for various reasons, so sure enough we came to a blocked part of the road. A pile of rocks had come down and demolished a truck, the remains of which was still clingling to the cliff. Nothing was being done as they had to wait for insurance representatives to fly into Chamdo and drive down several hundred kms from there. The only recourse was to traverse the landslide which was fairly nerveracking. Below the rubble was a sheer drop. I skipped across as lightly as I could and landed on the other side, my muscles taught from adrenalin.

Right: The road that was... On the other side we got on a bus which was crammed full of people and one large pig.When the driver executed a three point turn up on the narrow road I let out an involuntary "no way!" as I looked back to see my three companions on the back seat let out a highly audible "Whoah!". It seems they were looking directly over the side of the cliff. The driver meanwhile, noncholantly swung the steering wheel in the right direction and off we went.

The rest of the trip into Decin passed without incident. While much of it was at night we were blessed by a full moon which highlighted the mountains and a glacier on the other side of the Mekong. It was snowing as we arrived and we spent the night before taking a bus to Zhongdian where we parted company with Sherrap and carried on to Lijiang. On this particular leg of the trip, one of the rear window sections actually fell out of the bus giving one of my sleeping companions (the Israeli) a bit of a rude awakening.

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