Laos

And so we finally leave China and enter Laos. The border crassing is relatively simple, and immiediately upon entering Laos there is a dramatic change in culture. Everything seems much more relaxed and simple. Indeed, I had to hunt around for the customs office to get my Carnet stamped, and even when I found it they had no idea what I was showing them and just ripped it in half! How things change....

Chengdu to Lijiang

It took us 5 straight days of solid driving to get from Chengdu to Lijiang. Thats one of the major differences we found about driving in China; the distances between places is vast! It was a pretty tough five days as well, for starters the roads didn't get much better than pictured above. On top of this, we were bush camping all the way. Bush camps proved pretty tough to find, although we did manages some pretty good ones like the one pictured. Mostly though, it was a mixture of car parks and dissused petrol stations.....

From Xian to Chengdu.

The worst traffic jam in the world, and no, I'm not talking about the Matford Roundabout at 5.15 on a Thursday. This one was horrendous, we were pretty much stuck in a solid line of trucks for 36 hours, moving a few hundred meters every couple of hours or so. There was no way to pull off the road and we literally spent the night in the truck, which may have been tough for most people but for me it was hell. Every time I nodded off I was awoken by someone banging on the door telling me I could move another 50 feet. At least we didn't go hungry, enterprising locals were selling pot noodles and sausages of the back of bicycles. Why don't they do that at the M5/M6 junction?

Beijing

Yes, here we all are in Beijing. Beijing is as Beijing does; its a big city in China. There's not much really I can add having been there that I, and doubtless you the reader, didn't allready know. Although, you perhaps didn't know that there are some cracking nightclubs there? No, there's not a picture of the great wall of China, I didn't go. Instead we have Sam, Lucinda, John and myself wearing hilarious "I love BJ" t-shirts (although this is mostly out of respect for our favourite passenger Barbara Johns), me at the Olympic Stadium, and Tianamen Square. Great, can we go somewhere else now?

Train to Beijing

It was too much of a chore driving all the way to Beijing, particularly in all the snow, so instead we took the overnight train. That would have been fine, if I'd had sleeper accomodation. I didn't, and neither did a few of us. The most hellish train journey I've ever undertaken by a long way; and that's nothing to be smug about Mr Branson.

Kevin

Let me introduce you to Kevin, pictured here doing a much better monkey impression than me. Chinese law requires us to have an appointed guide travel with us at all times to make sure we don't do anything naughty like say something nasty about Mr Mao. He's also a bloody useful person to have around, as English isn't really spoken much in China and I can't even read the road signs without his help! Kevin is a top bloke, and he really was a great help. And he does and excellent monkey impression as well.

To Xian - mobile disco

And so we head east, in search of warmer weather - well, warmer in the sense that it might reach above freezing at some point. We were planning to camp en-route, but a mojor traffic jam which saw us stationary for 3 hours and crawling for a further 5, meant that this wasn't going to be easy. Instead, I decided just to get my foot down and cover some miles, whilst everyone on the back threw a party! I wasn't too sad to be in the cab missing out all the fun, I had my iPod after all.....

We arrived in Xian by 6.30 the following day. I had been at the wheel for around 20 hours and I had a very sore bum. Fortunately though, there was a McDonalds, and it was open!!!

Thanks for the photo Lu!

Lanzou

Nothing remarkable about this place other than that it is here we can abondon plans to drive further north to Beijing and instead head East to Xian, which is what we do. A 12 hour drive gets us here, and we planned to leave at 9.00 the following days. Unfortunately however, the one eyed bin lorry driver who smashed my mirror off put stop to that and we were stuck for an hour while I bodged a repair. Chinese driving is crap at best, and while they may not see any need for decent mirrors, I sure do! Especially with the smog as seen in this picture taken from my hotel room, Chinas is really as bad as the Guardian says that it is.

Its getting cold up here

And so we leave Lhasa heading North along the Friendship Highway to Beijing. Only there is a slight snag..... Its bloody cold! After a bush camp in the desert where temperatures plummeted to -26, we realize this isn't going to work. At these temperatures I need to leave the engine idling all night, and even then I find that my diesel and airlines have frozen solid in the morning. With temperatures reaching -17 TIT (Temperature in Truck), frostbitten fingers and some seriously cold passengers, a contingency plan is needed as soon as we reach Lanzou.

Lhasa

Spiritual home to the Dali Lama and location of the Potala Palace, Lhasa really brings home the fact that you're in China now, and Tibet doesn't exist. The palace aside, most of Lhasa resembles a busy, metropolitan modern city. Which isn't all bad, some of us found a great nightclub and had one of the best nights out of the entire trip so far!

Shigaze

Shigaze, the first big town we encounter after 5 nights on the road, and the first chance for a shower! However, it's not all fun for me though because Shigaze is where I have to take my Chinese driving test in order to be allowed to drive any further. I passed (of course!) but only just. I completely failed the written element, what with not being able so read, speak or write in Chinese, but fortunately they took this into account and allowed our Tibetan guide, Dawa, to translate for me. They asked him a question, he translated, I told him in English the wrong answer and he replied to the examiners in Chinese with the correct answer. Then the practical element, during which I drove around the block, with passengers aboard, and a very fat police officer sat next to me. His only criticism? That I don't use the horn enough....

Thanks to Joost for the picture

Everest Base Camp

Here I am, truck in the foreground and Mt Everst in the background! Its about 100km along a very bumpy dirt track to Everst BC, but worth it. Vehicles are prohibited from driving further then Rhombuk Monastary, but for some reason nobody stopped us. Am I the first person ever to drive from London to EBC?

....breakdown

Our first significan one as well. Driving out of Tingri I stop to check our location at a junction only to discover a complete lack of drive when I try to pull away. No gear works, and a check of the differential, propshaft and clutch confirms my worst fear..... gearbox failure!!!!

As it was late afternoon and very, very cold, we decided to push the truck to safety (yes, you can push a 20 tonne lorry!) and camp for the night, during which it was -20 celcius. So, in the morning not only could I not move but I couldn't start my engine either as all our diesel had frozen. After a few hours and some nifty work with the gas cookers she fired up and I flagged down a passing truck and got towed into town. Fortunately, after much head scratching and prodding I located the mischeivious part causing all the fuss and we were on our way again.

Tibet!

Firstly, apologies for the huge delay in posting these updates. China has banned blogspot.com, along with a whole host of other sites using what is popularly known as the great firewall of China.

Anyhow, here we all are in Tibet, having driven out of Kathmandu through a mass slow moving trucks and over the Friendship bridge linking China and Nepal. Hear we are at 5000m, the highest paved road in the world! Its very cold and those mountains in the background are over 7000 meters high! At this altitude the air is thin and altitude sickness is a real worry. And the truck needs to breath as well, I started to notice a significant power loss and thick smokey exhaust fumes as the engine struggles to burn the diesel. Fortunately Scania make good trucks, and we push on towards New Tingri until....

Road to China...

....is a long a winding one, with many trucks parked in ridiculous places and many "off-road" encounters. Fortunately, we were able to spend two nights at Borderlands, a campsite 15km away from the actual border. This was a brilliant place to park up for a rest and a beer. Due to our strict entry requirements, which meant we could only cross the border on a certain day, we had 24 hours to kill here. Just up the road was the Last Resort, a lodgings specializing in extreme sports. I and a few passengers decided to do a bungy jump here, one of the worlds highest at 170m! Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely not!

Kathmandu!!!

Finally we're here! I've had a long held ambtition to drive a bus to Kathmandu and here I am! Hectic, bustling Kathmandu is typically a typically Asian city to drive around, but it's the first place I've had to include elephants onto the list of "things to not crash into". We're here for a whole two weeks, giving the passengers time to go off and have a break from travelling. It also gives Lucinda time to sort out all the paperwork needed to get into China; and myself time to prepare the truck for the extremes of altitude, temperature and terrain in Tibet, because even though we've come a long way so far, we're still only half way to Singapore!!! The truck is in a "workshop" (gravel parking area with a few grease monkeys hanging around) on the outskirts of time. There's on old Dragoman truck parked up there, under which Lucinda was delighted to find a litter of puppies. Here she is pictured with "Frank".

Pokhara

Second biggest town in Nepal, and a popular gateway for trekkers. Pokhara is a hive of activity this time, and a fantastic range of adventure activities, conbined with a thriving nightlife, made ot one of my favourite stopoffs on the route so far. On top of that, the early morning sun gave fantastic views on the Annapurna mountain range, with peaks getting close to 8000 meters. Thanks again to Dan for the picture.

Nepal: Royal Chitwan National Park

A large national park in the southern lowlands of Nepal, Chitwan was a great place to chill out for a couple of days after the madness of india. Most of the group went on an elephant-back safari to check out the wildlife; some even lent a helping hand washing the elephants afterwards! Judging by the photo enjoyed his elephant ride so much, he went to sleep. Thanks Marting and Lu for the shots.

Off to the Nepalese border

Our time in India is at an end, but the 11 hour drive of less than 300km served as a reminder why it had been so much hard work in the first place. Horribly potholed roads littered with all kinds of hazards (including camels!), low branches everywhere and confusing signs. Eurgh. Even the short sections of dual carriageway require a high state of alert because the Indians seem to use them as two parallel roads! You hardly dare use the fast lane in case theres a lorry coming your way! Unsurprisingly, accidents such as the one pictured are a common sight. The border town of Sonali was in full party mode when we arrived as it was Divali, the Hindu festival of light. In the confusion we skipped across the border with no fuss whatsover; the man in the customs booth practically made me fill in my own Carnet form! Thanks to Dan for the picture.

The Road to Varanasi...

...was a long one and we had to stop for the night along the way. Unlike any of the countries we have been to so far, India does not lend itself to good quality bush camping. The whole country is so populated that its almost impossible to find spot that hasn't been built or farmed on. On top of this, as the first picture shows, we tend to draw a bit of a crowd wherever we park up. However, we were lucky enough to find a petrol station along a quiet strectch of road whos owner, amzingly, let us camp on the grassy area behind the forecourt! One of the best campsites we've found so far, they didn't even object to our gas cookers being used only meters away from the pumps! Thanks to Garth for the photos

Agra: Taj Mahal and....

And here it is, the Taj in all its majestic glory. What the brochures fail to mention though is that the rest of Agra, its hometown, is a total hole. There's nothing else to speak of and you don't want to go out on streets because of all the shit everywhere; cow, dog and most unpleasant of all, human. The sensible amongst us decided the best thing to do would be to get the Taj out of the way, have an afternoon kip and head off to sample the nightlife. Only problem was there isn't any of that either. We did eventually find a bar open beyond 10pm but we strongly suspect it was a "men only" club. Here's Dan with me at the Taj, then with Sam and some strangers at the "bar", then asleep in the parcel shelf of a rikshaw. Good times! Thanks Dan and Martin for the pictures.

Delhi

Not the most pleasant city in the world, especially if you're trying to manouver an 18 ton truck around in the unbelievably chaotic traffic. People constantly crash into each other and carry on as if nothing had happened. For Lu and I there was a lot of work to be done in Delhi so no touristy photos of temples I'm afraid. My gearbox deveoped a fault on the way from Daramsala, and there was plenty of other maintanence work to do after the punishing time the truck had had in Pakistan. No European trucks in India at all so for spare parts, you need to be resourceful!