High Points: Zipping through the China and Laos borders in no time at all and the road of many children to Luang Prabang.
Low Points: Goodbyes.
Author’s comments: Today was border day, and through past experiences these need to be had early. With this in mind we departed our hotel in the pitch black at 6.45am, and drove the short distance to the China – Laos border. After watching the impressive flag raising ceremony from the Chinese side we elbowed our way through the melee and Paul and I were out of China within twenty minutes. Steve had the task of bringing Martha out and amazingly thanks to the mountains of paperwork Navo and Sun Ji had prepared they followed shortly behind. The entry into Laos couldn’t have been more comical; it was like stepping into the nursery rhyme Old McDonald had a farm. After a bit of chat and some strange looks, we located the passport stamping zone. Next was the insurance documents for Martha, $10 and a big smile seemed to do the trick, so much so we were awarded with three cans of larger, our first test?
Low Point: Starring death in the face isn’t a great feeling.
Setting the scene: After a bit of a torrid time navigating out of the hotel car park in Kunming, four very excited lads were looking forward to heading to one of China’s major lakes for some swimming, boating and any other water based sports we could find. Unfortunately our desire to see water came a bit prematurely as the heavens opened a down pour of what could only be described as torrential rain followed. Driving Martha in good conditions is an absolute pleasure, driving her on smashed up roads in Russia is scary, driving her in any form of bad weather is dicey to say the least. Martha does not drive like my fiat punto, with Martha weighing in at just under 7.5 tonnes she has a tendency to get a bit excited on the descents, the trick to managing this has been through a mixture of engine and foot braking.
High Point: After doing a monster day in the truck today driving over 450km we decided to splash out and book ourselves a nice hotel. Sorry stage 1 & 2, China is a cheap place and one has to take advantage of the finer things that life sometimes offers you.
Low Point: Sitting in a traffic jam for two and a half hours stuck behind hundreds of trucks in 35 degrees heat is misery at the best of times, throw in a couple swarms of bees and it compounds the agony ten fold. Seeing lorries carrying beehives is a first for me, getting stuck behind one for over an hour is not much fun. Windows were closed, the sweating began and then I decided to turn on the fan. This only ended in disaster when half dead angry bees started to come out of the vents. Only in China and only on FTFE!
High point: Playing the inaugural FTFE Mongolian Golf Open. Now who would have thought it, that in the middle of nowhere in a stunning national park, that resembled the Rockies more than Mongolia, we would stumble across the one and only golf country club in this country. Not planned according to James our route planner and pro golfer! Hmmm.
Low Point: James forgetting to buy tees and only realising when Steve was standing on the tee with the crowds awaiting in anticipation of the opening shot. Don’t forget this was Mongolia’s first FTFE open! Read more →
High Point: There is certainly a couple here; the monastery at Amarbayasgalant Khiid (pictures attached) finally reaching Tarmac roads (and then realising they were still wet and Martha was doing a great job of churning them up) and a splendid game of night cricket outside our gir. I think the score is now 3 – 1 to me on the stage 2 cricket fest.
The feeling in the cab was one of excitement, and banter was most definitely plentiful. To finally have UB in our sights was a great feeling, and although not technically the end of stage 2, with both Ben and Dave leaving us there, there was a feeling of accomplishment and achievement. Read more →
High Point: After going off the so called main track on Tuesday night, waking up this morning literally in the middle of no where, surrounded by mountains on all four sides was a special treat for all of us. The rest of the crew were a little concerned we were lost. However I had every confidence I had done a wonderful job of navigation the day before (if I do say so myself) and we were just round the corner from civilisation! Thankfully lady luck was on my side and we very quickly stumbled across the village I had been looking for at 9pm last night. I knew those cub scout compass lessons would come in handy one day, thanks mum and dad. Read more →
High Point: Quite literally the summit of Tsambagarav at 4208m. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it all the way to the top as after the glacier at roughly 4000m it became a technical climb, however the trek to the glacier certainly blew the cobwebs away.
Low Point: Saying goodbye to Agii and realising we were on our own, and navigation would have to be be done by compass now! Read more →
High point: Run club. Finally, finally we managed to fit some proper exercise in and we all attempted to go running today.I think attempted is probably the right word as the air pollution in Gorno-Altaisk is pretty high (even the Lonely Planet which is normally so complementary about everything calls this place ‘a concrete scare on the landscape’), it affected our breathing, so what was discussed as a good quick 10km run turned into more of a shorter plod. Oh well at least we gave it a go!
