Extremes meet in long drive from Bangkok to Tibet
Liz Price
The Brunei Times
Sunday, January 13, 2008
IT WAS the longest drive of my life. Almost 6000km in 10 days, through three countries, and from sea level to 3500m, and from 34 C to -6 C. I was on a 4WD adventure expedition, from Bangkok, through Myanmar and into China's Yunnan province and up to Shangri La, close to the Tibet border. Many of my friends thought I was mad to go on such a trip. But I loved every minute. Time flew, even though we were on the road for more than 12 hours most days. There was always something different to see, a whole variety of every changing scenery, different style architecture, varying costumes and faces of the local people.
Having lived in the Tropics for so long, I don't have any winter clothing. It was only a few days before departure that I realised that the temperatures would be around freezing up in the Himalayas, which came as rather a shock. Luckily I managed to borrow some warm clothes from a friend. It felt strange going to KL airport laden with jumpers and jackets, sun screen and scarf. The only items I lacked were gloves and a hat.
Bangkok was the starting point. The group assembled with people arriving various days before the official start. On Day One my wake up call was at 4.50am. This came as quite a shock as I hadn't been expecting such an early awakening. But it was to be the norm for the next 10 days, wake up calls always before 5am with the exception of one day when we had a lie in until 6am. We all assembled outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok for the official start. There were 15 4WD vehicles, all from Thailand except for two from Malaysia, one from Singapore and one from Taiwan.
After a photo session we began the drive to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. We mostly drove as a convoy, and apart from a lunch break we had occasional toilet and petrol stops. It took 10 hours to reach Chiang Rai, where we checked in to our hotel.
Next morning we left at 7am and there was thick fog all the way to the border town of Mae Sai. One car had already dropped out due to mechanical problems. We cleared Thai immigration then crossed to no man's land and waited on the bridge over the Sai River which separates Thailand from Myanmar. Our cameras were clicking the whole time as we snapped the locals walking across the borders. Once we had clearance, we set off through the town of Tachilek. We drove as a convoy the whole way, which made it easier for the SE Asian drivers to remember to now drive on the right side of the road.
There is now a new sealed highway all the way to the Chinese border, built by a Chinese company. We had an official escort, and fortunately our group was exempt from paying the tolls. It was a very scenic road, initially following a river, then going up and over some small mountains.
We stopped for lunch at Kengtung, which is the sleepy but historical capital of the Shan State's Khun culture. The town is built around a small lake and has crumbling British colonial architecture and aging Buddhist temples. It is probably the most interesting town in Myanmar's entire Shan State, and in fact was the only town we went through. Later that afternoon we reached the border town of Mongla and soon crossed through into China. Phew! Three countries in one day.
Normally right hand drive vehicles are not allowed in China but we had special permission. We had to have our vehicles inspected and have temporary Chinese number plates affixed. Throughout our entire trip in China we had a police escort leading the way. This was actually a great help as we were able to cross red lights in the towns, and on the narrow mountain roads the police would stop oncoming vehicles, thereby enabling our convoy to keep together.
The other big advantage of having a police escort is we were able to beat the queues for fuel. Diesel is scarce in Yunnan province, and is only sold from 9am to 5pm. Consequently trucks would start queuing in the evening, resulting in huge lines. The truck drivers were probably not happy when our police escort would allow us to jump the queues. Fuel is expensive, a litre of petrol being more than RM2 ($0.90).
At the Chinese border, 10 expedition cars forming the team from China met us. Leaving Jinghong behind, we drove through the mountainous Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which is tropical rainforest, and then went past the famous tea plantations of Pu'er. A new highway is being built and it was amazing to see the construction of the new road through valleys and along the mountainsides, over huge bridges and through numerous tunnels. We stopped for a late lunch in Simao, then went on to Kunming. This stretch of highway was already completed and was a superb road with great views. Again we were exempt from paying tolls. We had a photo stop at the highest bridge in the world, 169m; a few months later a bridge in France took over this record.
We reached Kunming at night and it was a major to shock to feel the seven degrees Celsius temperature. At lunchtime it had been 27 C. We got to the hotel at midnight, and our wake up call was 4.15am. I wondered if instead of a holiday I had come on some form of endurance test! It was time to get out the cold weather clothes. Many of the Thai drivers had never used their car heaters before and later that day we stopped to put antifreeze in the radiators. We stopped at Dali for lunch, and that night stayed at Lijiang. I enjoyed warming my hands by the coal fire. Already, I was noticing the effects of the higher altitude.
From Lijiang it was a beautiful drive and we saw our first snow-capped mountains of the trip. We climbed up into the mountains, and followed the mighty Yangxi River for a while. Throughout the entire 10 days we had less than half a dozen stops for photos, but this was one of them, a stunning scene of mountains and river, snow and blue sky. This is the place where you can enter the famous Tiger Leaping Gorge. The highest mountain here is Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, an impressive 5500m.
The road went up and up onto the plateau of Shangri La. We stopped at a pagoda and had a welcoming ceremony by singers and dancers in Tibetan dress. We had made it to Shangri La.
The town is actually named Zhongdian. It is the last major stop in Yunnan before Tibet. It lies at an altitude of 3500m, which was a problem for many of us, as we suffered from altitude sickness. As we drove through the streets there was fresh snow on the pavements. The temperate was -6 C when we got up the next morning, so I don't know what it went down to during the night. Quite a contrast to the tropical climes of KL and Bangkok!
Despite the temperatures and altitude, we were elated to reach our destination of Shangri La, high in the Himalayas. We had got there in four days, a distance of some 2560 km. We wondered if this was a world record. As far as we know this is the first "Asia international touring event" to cover such a route. All that remained was the long drive back to Chiang Rai.
The Brunei Times
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