Week 12 (West China)

7/9

Rose at 8, after a good sleep. Breakfast and see the old  sandstone city <find out name>. Walked there for an hour with Marianne. Then on the road again, to the next cave-like, underground city. Not for me though. Preferred to use the time to  update my blog. Laterz.

A lake, another sand stone minaret, the grape valley, i all let them pass. Too expensive and not that interesting. Group rumours: find a nice lake/river and relax for 3 days, since we have to pass time here in China, before we know if we can go into Tibet (and so: Nepal, India and Birma) or not. Ok, we'll see how this ends.

Now, did a small shoppping (only needed water) and wait for the rest to come back, so we can find a bush camp place.

Bush camped at a river on sandstone. Quite ok actually. Arrived early (18.00), so we could do everything in daylight, what made it all a lot easier and more pleasant. Slept a long night (9 hours or so).


8/9

Rose at 7.30. Normal morning routine. 9.00 on the road again.

Long day driving again. Still chinese desert. Pausing at petrol stations for pee's and shopping.
Cold night, but slept well. Even saw an episode of Star Trek in my tent before i went to sleep. Anyhow, tonight there is a hotel. Yeee!


9/9

Woke up at 7.40. Breakfast was a huge pile of pancakes (burps; won't have lunch). On the road to Dunhuang, where we'll stay in a hotel.
Arrived in Dunhuang round 13.30. Strolled around town. Nice and cosy place. Did laundry and stuff.
Went for a bite at 7, but.... found my travelmates, drinking heavily. What else could i do than join them. It became very late, even went to the disco. Dennis and I dragged eachother home, but.. good fun it was.


9/10

Woke up at 8 with a huge hangover, which lasted the whole day. Tried to get some extra sleep after breakfast, but couldn't. Then the good news. Permit for Tibet is approved. So, Tibet, Nepal, India and Birma... here we come. Yes!

At noon we left for the caves of Dunhuang. Nice but not spectecular and certainly not worth 220 juan. Very sleepy now. Get myself an extra hour of sleep now i think.

Ate at 20.00h on the central square of the night market.  Nice food, rude service. Saw an episode of star trek in the hotel over a beer with Carlos. Slept well.


9/11

Woke at 7.30, crappy breakfast in the hotel. Chatted with Rosalyn (friend in Manilla). Packed. Now on our way to... Tibet. Itinerary for SE asia and Australia is to be discussed again. We'll see. Don't want to pay an extra 400 pound sterling though.... hmmm...

Long drive on high altitude again (3000-4000m). Lunch stop at petrolstaion, lots of attention for the truck again by some chinese students. Nice people.Had a good chat with two of them. And the road now again.

Drove on through the afternoon, had a cold bush camp at high altitude. Did not sleep very well.


9/12

Woke up at 7. Hardly slept. Moody now. Have to do cookgroup too tomorrow (shopping today). I hate cookgroup. Well, u can tell... I'm not in a good mood. Grrr.

10.45 Did the shopping with Tim. Together with the other cookgroup, who cook tonight. Couldn't find a blanket, nor extra oxygene. Well, we'll see.

Also met the new Tibetian guide. His name is Nam. Nice guy.

15.30. We now have 2 policemen on board and two guides and it snows heavily. Not comfortable at all. And i need to pee. That too.

Then a truckaccident blocked the road...

The way around then was also blocked by a sliding truck...

So delay of more than 3 hours, which made us drive on untill 2.30am. No cookgroups, slept on the truck (lousy as to be expcted, though... got some sleep).
So, we rolled into...


9/13

Breakfast at 8.30. Still cold. Feel ok though. No alcohol is the advice and so, we don't. Altitude was about 4 K, but don't feel too bad (knock on wood). On the road now again. 1 cold bush camp to go and then 3 nights in a 4 star hotel in Lhasa (capital of Tibet). After that ... 3 ice cold bush camps. Finally have to buy a blanket.

14.00 Passing the highest point on the way to Tibet (Tangula pass, about 5 KM from the border).

Icecold, but nice view. Everybody is panting due to the low oxygene concentration in the atmosphere here.

Had lunch at 16.00h and of course the british came back way too late. Consequence: very late diner and so on. Waiting for the next police escorte makes the delay even bigger. Oh, yeah... i bought a huge thick blanket for just 100 juan. No more cold nights for this guy (i hope).

Dinner was nice, despite the rain (had to put up the tarp) and a warm night followed (new thick blanket ... remember).