Update Map
Tibet we won't be coming back!
Thank you Andrew for publishing our last update, we’ve had real problems with the internet since we’ve been in China, so this will be just a quick one. Apologies for those who have emailed or left comments, we will reply when we can.
We are now in Lhasa, Tibet and it is a fascinating and beautiful city. It is the Mecca of Buddhism and it currently being a national holiday it is full of pilgrims, monks and tourists!
However, getting here has been a nightmare, all 3 vehicles have had problems due to the high altitude, freezing weather, bad roads or dirty diesel, causing us to run behind schedule. This has meant staying in some awful ‘guesthouses’, some without heating even though we were at 5000m above sea level. Mario broke a suspension leaf and we had to drive 1000km over the mountains before finally getting him fixed here in Lhasa.
Although we have seen some beautiful mountains and lakes, most of the journey has been depressingly barren through some filthy, dusty towns. There’s a huge police and army presence with numerous checkpoints where you’re given the time in which you must travel to the next. Most of the locals, police and army that we have spoken to have been lovely, but the overall feeling of oppression certainly does not make us want to return, at least not with our own vehicle!
As a group we have decided not to take the 1200km, 4 day detour to Everest Base Camp as we are all completely knackered from driving up to 12 hours a day. We have shuffled our itinerary to use the extra 4 days to do more sightseeing over the next couple of weeks. Many thanks to our guide, Spring, who is constantly having to negotiate with the authorities to agree our ever changing schedule.
We are trying to get around the Chinese restrictions on uploading photos and are working with Andrew in the hope of posting some soon. We hope our next update will be fuller and more entertaining. Apparently the further East we go the less restricted the internet will be.
Finally, you may have heard about the earthquake yesterday in Yunnan Province, to reassure everyone it was 100s of miles away and hasn’t affected us.
TTFN
Pictures near this update:
