Part 7

The last few days have been spent driving. Leaving early, arriving late. I explain.
There are two routes to go to Tibet from Sichuan. The North and the South routes. We were supposed to take the South route. However both had been severely damaged during the 2008 earthquake. The were to be reopen at the time of our journey; the were not. We had to go through Yunnan, meaning going South then back North along the Burmese border. This is a much longer route, but our timing is still the same which explain why we are driving a lot. The highways are very good, sometimes. Sometimes they are full of pot holes, or rather large steps and sometimes there is only one lane for both directions trafic. That creates huge jams that can iddle the cars for hours. Our 2CH are pretty good for navigating between the trucks and we arrive at the hotel around 10. 30 pm however the larger support vans get stuck and they arrived yesterday at 5.30 am for a departure at 7.30. Hard life. However the roads are spectacular, green valley covered by paddy rice or maize being cultivated in terraces. Small villages with white houses and black roofs, buffalos, goats and mules, that we may meet on the road too.
The logging cannot be better, either international standard, while their name may be misleading, the last one was called “Rong Impression Hotel”, or old Chinese mansions that would make Holywood jealous. It is not easy to use internet because we arrive too late or we are very tired or both. I still cannot connect to the blog and I cannot upload, someday I will and I will update all the blogs with pictures, I took hundreds already and we are not yet in the Himalaya.