Blog 5 - China 1
12.7.10
8 hrs to depart Laos and enter China! We are issued with new drivers licences, new registration plates, the trucks brakes are tested, and we are on our way, with our new guide/chaperone – Andy. He is a pleasant 28yr old, good English, and we hope will fit in well. Just a hassle finding a spot for him to sit in the trucks, and we have to take him to a guest house each night, as our trucks are all designed for just two! He gets a better trip than we do, and we pay!!
We have entered a 1st world country, immediately upon leaving a 3rd world country and the impact is huge! But not necessarily agreeable. Commercialism is rife, and the senses that have been beautifully lulled by the slow pace of life, are assaulted now. 10 tunnels & amazingly good roads; hillsides covered in rubber trees, and cultivation on every square centimetre, right to the top of the highest mountains! We visit the largest botanical gardens in China, which are lovely (but Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island are much better!)
Well, soon the roads become disastrous, and it takes us 2 days to travel 258 kms.
However, great experience when a hilltribe (Bao) family invites us into their shelter where they crouch around the cookpot on the open fire! Very basic. We share a glass of barley whiskey which they assure us must be offered twice!!
The 2nd day we drive 17 hrs through road works and only make 100kms! At one point they put up a barrier and an excavator had taken away half the road leaving a 3 metre drop – so we took a detour up and over the mountain beside the roadworks.
We couldn’t go this way
This shortcut was kinda scary 
A bit of a drop off the side
Luckily there were safety barriers
The families put up temporary roadside shacks, and live there. Workplace Health & Safety doesn’t get a look in, here!
We are eating only Chinese foods, and enjoy an amazing variety. However, some memorable for being disasters! Hotpot- 2 complete blackskinned chooks (yes, EVERYTHING!) uughh!! The restaurants are very often primitive and dirty, and the toilets are simply awful, but... experience!
DALI
The reaction to our trucks in Dali
Mr Huang 19th Generation Resident
We had a passerby compliment Andy, (our Chinese guide) on his Chinese!!
Had some rainy weather (mostly nights) so affected this just amazing trip.
8 hrs to depart Laos and enter China! We are issued with new drivers licences, new registration plates, the trucks brakes are tested, and we are on our way, with our new guide/chaperone – Andy. He is a pleasant 28yr old, good English, and we hope will fit in well. Just a hassle finding a spot for him to sit in the trucks, and we have to take him to a guest house each night, as our trucks are all designed for just two! He gets a better trip than we do, and we pay!!
We have entered a 1st world country, immediately upon leaving a 3rd world country and the impact is huge! But not necessarily agreeable. Commercialism is rife, and the senses that have been beautifully lulled by the slow pace of life, are assaulted now. 10 tunnels & amazingly good roads; hillsides covered in rubber trees, and cultivation on every square centimetre, right to the top of the highest mountains! We visit the largest botanical gardens in China, which are lovely (but Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island are much better!)
Well, soon the roads become disastrous, and it takes us 2 days to travel 258 kms.
However, great experience when a hilltribe (Bao) family invites us into their shelter where they crouch around the cookpot on the open fire! Very basic. We share a glass of barley whiskey which they assure us must be offered twice!! 
The 2nd day we drive 17 hrs through road works and only make 100kms! At one point they put up a barrier and an excavator had taken away half the road leaving a 3 metre drop – so we took a detour up and over the mountain beside the roadworks.We couldn’t go this way
This shortcut was kinda scary 
A bit of a drop off the side
Luckily there were safety barriersNo chance to stop and rest! Breakdowns, vehicles stuck, delays for blasting, then excavators remake the road so everyone can continue!!! And on, and on... what a night. We eventually arrive at a checkpoint at 1am and these jumped up Chinese guards hassle us tired souls for rego! Licences! Passports! then they inspect each truck – even the toilet! (Darn – shouldn’t have emptied today!!) They allow us to park and at 2am we sleep. These roads are being handmade! So far we have driven over 200km all roadworks – man they move some dirt and rocks – millions of cubic meters using hundreds (if not thousands) of teams, including women, they manually carry rocks, smash them down, chisel them square!
The families put up temporary roadside shacks, and live there. Workplace Health & Safety doesn’t get a look in, here!
We are eating only Chinese foods, and enjoy an amazing variety. However, some memorable for being disasters! Hotpot- 2 complete blackskinned chooks (yes, EVERYTHING!) uughh!! The restaurants are very often primitive and dirty, and the toilets are simply awful, but... experience! 
DALI
Here we view The 3 Pagodas – quite famous. An amazing place of a series of 34 temples rising up the mountainside. We viewed 13. All different.
The reaction to our trucks in DaliNUODENG
An incredible mountain village, Heritage listed, ancient! 1000yrs old, and original! Still occupied, and curator is 19th generation, and he is a grandfather! We cannot comprehend a history beautifully maintained. This town has salt wells, and originally part of the Silk Road. We ate ham, watched it rough sawn off 2yr hanging leg! Ate azaleas & bracken! Not bad!
Mr Huang 19th Generation ResidentWe had a passerby compliment Andy, (our Chinese guide) on his Chinese!!
Had some rainy weather (mostly nights) so affected this just amazing trip.
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