Day 16: Lhassa - Shigatse (Xigatse)

I made a mistake on the blog yesterday, the three passes are scheduke for tomorrow.

Today was an eventless drive to Shigatse, the second Tibetan city and the home of the Panchen Lama. As usual we stopped along the road to take picture and to enjoy the scenery

Women beating wheat

We arrived early and had enough time to visit the Tashilumpo, large monastery still very active

The Tashilumpo monastery

It is a city in a city and we spent plenty of time admiring the humongus bronze statue of Boudha and observing the busy schedule of the monks. There are a lot of Chinese tourists and the place is pretty crowded, mix of business and religion, but we were given our silk white scarf with some blessings. We spent some times browsing the Tibetan streets and shops, ther are still some, in spite of the massive Chinese modern city development, and it was a fun evening.

Day 15: Lhassa

Today, no driving, only taxis at $1 the course. Morning, Thibetan market and the holiest temple for the Bhudist. It is where the pilgrims end their walking journey that may take up to two years.

Large prayer mill

The market, otherwise the old city, is constently patrolled by the army, there are snippers on roofs, it is an eerie atmosphere of a peace time country while controlled by its own occupation army. It is strickly forbidden to take a picture of army personal, the trouble, they are everywhere, so we have to be very prudent.
Small prayer mill
Afternoon visit of the Potala (one of the "World Heritage" site), and home of the exiled Dalai Lama. I thought the palace was empty. Not so, it is one of the most beautiful place I have ever visited. The richess are stunning, gold Budha's, precious stones, paintings etc.. etc.. Visit authorisations are sparsely given and it may not exceed an hour. No picture allowed, so I am not sure of the foccusing quality of the hundred I took from the hip.

The Potala
At night we went back to the Potala to see it lighted. It was magic again, only that sight was worth the trip. From now on everything is bonus.
The Potala at night

Meanwhile our car was getting a face lift. Its frame had been twisted and need to be straighten up and reinforced . The brakes needed a major rework together with other minor repairs. By noon it was done and ready for tomorrow, one of the hardest day in the Himalaya chain with 3 high altitude passes.

Part 10

Day 14: Bayizhen – Lhassa

This is the last day before reaching Lhassa one of the highlight of our trip and my personal objective.
Everyone is in good health and has a high spirit. The cars are no so fresh, they have several ailments quickly cured with a hammer and duck tape.
One of the trailers has lost a wheel and its axle. It has 3 left, that will do.

The highest pass
Today was mostly a big climb, but what a climb, to 5,018 m. We reached it to be welcomes by the usual multitude of prayer-flags. Time to take few more pictures and we plunged down to the valley, the last one before Lhassa. At first there was some tents of nomadic tribes and their yaks, then slowly it started to be covered by golden wheat

A typical Tibetan farm
Suddenly the Potala appeared gleaming in the sun, our goal had been reached.
Tommorow is driving day off. We will visit the city while the mexhanics will try to fix the cars, our has lost most of its brakes, its acceleration and its lights, however we managed to recovered the hood that flew in the windshield after a deep hole encounter and fixed it ourself with our suitcases straps.


Day 13 Baxoi – Bayizhen

Usual wake up at 7 am, departure around 9 am after breakfast and minor (sometimes major) car repairs. They take a heavy toll of the holes and on the stones, which sometimes are the only choices short of hitting a truch or goind down in the river.
Along the road we started seeing a lot of pilgrims going to Lhassa on feet. They walk 4 steps, they raise their hands and they lay down on their face arms streched in front of them.. All of that, of course, on the road.

Pilgrims going to Lhassa, only 800 km left to go

So on top of trying to avoid the stones, the holes, the pigs, the cows, the donkeys, the dogs, the kids, now we have to watch for pilgrims.

Getting yaks to better pastures
The road was however much better today, except for a one lane bridge to be crossed one car at a time under the scrutiny of the Army, even the climb was seamless. The passes are always stunning, with thousands of multicolor prayer-flags floating in the wind.

Reaching a pass, prayer-flags

In fact these praying-flags may be found on any landmarks such as bridges, mounts, passes, steep turns and they always grace an already spectacular scenery.
While we are being controled relatively often by the police (or the Army, it is not clear), we are let go very quickly because there is no means of communication and they do not know how to handle us with our French car license plates.


Day 12 : Markan – Baxoi

In spite of sleeping at an altitude of 3,600 m everyone seems to have had a good night. The road to Baxoi were hard on people and on cars, it seems that all China is being built up or being repared. In Tibet, the Army is building the roads, everywhere at the same time. So some sections are pretty much completed and some other are hardly starting.

Jacques checking the car in the morning in front of the hotel
To reach the pass we had to go through pastures because the official road was blocked by trucks. Several times, I had to exit the 2CV to lighten it and to push it, that was the necessary edge to keep us moving. Obviously pushing a car at an altitude over 4,000m is a serious exercise. Nevertheless we reached the pass at 5,008 m. Very few roads in the world stand at that altitude, one in Chile and some in the Himalaya. Few cars and even fewer 2CV have ever been able to do it.
The way down was simple, you just let go in the hope you brakes are not completely gone. The scenery is breathtaking with deep ravines and torrents at the bottom, the feeling is a mixture of pure admiration and sheer terror. One more pass at only 4,644m and we were in Baxoi in a rather spartan accomodation but happy to find a bed.

Part 9

Day 11 Feileisi – Markan

We started the day with a photo op organized by Phoenix TV that are still trailing, or preceeding, us. There are still 5 miss in the competition, from the 10 that started in Beijing, and they appear every night on TV, and us too I assume. Then we were told we had to visit a Tibetain school (we are still in Yunan), which was a condition to have the right to cross that town. We drove 20km in the mountain but the last leg was too steep to climb for reaching the school, so we did few pictures with some Tibetain scholboys in full colorful native costume and we took the road again.
One of the driver got mountain sick and had to go, he may rejoin us in Katmandou. His wife not driving, his 2CV was put on the second and last trailer. (The first one being occupied by a 2CV which frame broke beyond repair in Siberia on it way to Beijing from Paris).
The road this time was better than expected, it had been recently repaired.
We entered Tibet.

We enter Tibet
The police check was quick, they only compared our French plate licenses to the list they had already received, it took few seconds and we were officialy in Tibet. (I have to note that at all the police stop we encountered, the Chinese officers were extremely polite and expeditiv.
The road was again spectacular. Green valleys encased in high mountains sparkled with Tibetain farms consisting in one storey for people and cattle and another one to dry the hay.. The houses are white with all the wooden frames painted in vivid colors. They are all based on the same design.
We went over a 4,324 meter pass, for practice, and reached Markan at 6.30pm, the first time we reached our hotel by day time. So we could see the town consisting in one main street and few alleys, very frontier like.
Very nice diner at a local restaurant (we had only nice diner since our arrival, but very few lunches, not enough time). On our search for an internet place we went through the market where they were slicing up a bull. We found the place and I could eventualy send some pictures to Laureline for uploading the blog

Philippe's China Pictures So Far...

(Tien Tsin) "Accepting the car at Tien Tsin customs" (Pingyao) "Leaving Pingyao,with regrets" 0640 (Pingyao) "Our two cars in front of Pingyao walls"

(day 4) "Our car always attracts interest during traffic jams" (beijing) "Serenading in the park in Beijing" 0812 (Xian) "Specialty of raviolis,one better than the others"

(day 2) "Our Acadiane in highway jams"

(day for Xian) "The DrumTower in downtown Xian"

Part 8

Day 10: Lijiang

This morning, we have been able to visit the old city of Lijiang, where we spent the night. It is inscribed on the World Heritage list and it deserves it. The flip side, many tourists, all Chinese, we are still to see our first caucasian, not that we are realy interested. I do not describe the city too long on a damged keyboard set for Chinese typing. We hit the road for Shangrila, Dege etc.. with our first sampling of real mountain.

In Yunan, along the road to Tibet

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.