salmon2jalan

2011-12-24T20:25:00.000+08:00

Walk in Ankor Wat....came down with tummy cramps...so Ann had to return to the hotel in a Tuk Tuk. John continued.
Trying to up load photos and we are struggling with it again.

Angkor

2011-12-24T19:55:00.000+08:00

Phnom Penh

2011-12-24T19:54:00.001+08:00

Saigon night and Cambodia

2011-12-24T19:54:00.000+08:00

Ho Chi Minh

2011-12-24T19:53:00.000+08:00

Dalat to Ho Chi minh

2011-12-24T19:50:00.000+08:00

Dalat : December 13th

2011-12-14T09:35:00.001+08:00

Can Tho - Dalat : December 13, 2011

2011-12-14T09:35:00.000+08:00

Can Tho December 9, 2011

2011-12-12T10:20:00.000+08:00

December 8, 2011. Kep Cambodia-CanTho Vietnam

2011-12-12T10:19:00.001+08:00

Chanthaburi to Kep

2011-12-12T10:19:00.000+08:00

Cha'Am to Chanthaburi

2011-12-12T10:18:00.000+08:00

Mekong Adventure

2011-12-12T10:05:00.001+08:00

The Start! > Alor Star.Jerai. Surat Thani

(Please click on photo to see my albums in Picasa!, Ive written some discriptions there and will fill in the blog when I'm home)

Route - (Malaysia-Thailand-Cambodia-Vietnam)

2011-12-02T22:15:00.000+08:00

In Singapore... with my very clever niece Mas.

2011-08-17T22:59:00.000+08:00

preparing Data ...getting ready for that trip to Vietnam. Been 5 long years since we drove to the very North of China and then back to Malaysia.

Very excited about this new trip. Some familiar old friends too are joining us on this trip.

Car to be serviced. Yup it will be our same old faithful...Nissan X'Trail.

Salmons are getting all excited..look out for our posts.

Guiyang

2006-10-31T22:57:00.000+08:00

Hello from china- towards Guiyang.
We had a late start 10.30 instead of 7.30, for 5 hours of driving close to 550km.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang went to the workshop. we headed off. Car 10 and one policeman stayed behind with her.
Well what was supposed to have been a smooth dual expressway turned out to be a nightmare!
Road improvements meant diversion without any notice or warning signs or lights! this is so common in china. Wait for the photos and you will see what we went through.
So it took us 8 hours! We received news that CCBB and Car 10 left Chongqing at 6 pm! Well we are praying that they will arrive safe. They do not have the police escort car with them, justone of the police man.
As we were driving through the city towards our hotel, a man runs across to get to the other side, two cars infront and get hit by a taxi overtaking us from the right. They are left hand drive over here. This means that overtaking must be on the left side. We saw him hit and went flying over the bonnet to the windscreen of the taxi, but again we have to just keep going. Just horrible. Sweeper behind us said that he saw the man get up!
Thank God for this nice hotel and good strong shower with very hot water.

Hello from China-30th Oct.'06

2006-10-30T22:16:00.000+08:00

Well here we are almost at the tail end of our drive through China.
We are in Chongqing now. We have had some wonderful trips in small boats through the Gorges.
Saw the villages that are going under. The waters are filling fast in the Gorge. One small Gorge we went through, we were supposed to get off our boat and trek to a village for a home cooked lunch. We had to abandon as the water had gone up too high for us to trek!
I have a better understanding now of how much this Dam means to the people in China. There has been so much criticism on the building of this Dam, but one has to underestand the history of China and the force of powerful Yangtze and her destruction on her people. She is "Our Mother River" is what we have heard over and over again by the people.
We have visited the "relocation new towns" and have seen the people living and enjoying their modern amenites. The young people especially, protray hope and optimism for their future. We have stayed in three of these new towns. even had my hair cut and styled in one of the beauty shops. It was a joy to try to interact with them.

Everywhere we went people had smiles and were eager to find out where we were from. John being the only caucasian was in great demand for photo taking with them. In a few years time I suppose one may chance to see a framed photo proudly hanging on their walls. Certainly our group of Malaysian Chinese seem to think so.

Unpleasant incidence, were twice, when we were held to ransom for supposedly running over their dog or hitting their cart. Payment was always the forgiving factor.

Convoy- well Ninja convoy Master's car a Honda CRV went down with two pistons blown. New car only done 50000km. That had to be left behind for repairs.
Today Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is down. She had been doing so well but the terrible pot holes and sudden off road has taken it's toll on her. We have to wait and see if she can go on tomorrow.
The roads around the Gorge is really bad. there is much repairs going on but it is still so very bad.
As of today we have covered approx.10,000km. We are still all good friends!
Tomorrow we head towards Kumming. Hopefully we will have free internet in the hotel.

Our group

2006-10-30T22:13:00.000+08:00

We just love our group photo taking.

China-Cuisine3

2006-10-30T22:08:00.000+08:00

A must, Hot water for the tea.
Most times they serve every dish on this trolly.
fish(fresh water) and bean curd
mussels and?

China-Cuisine

2006-10-30T22:02:00.000+08:00

I really do not know.
passed
nor this one
make your own pancake filling, good.
Harvest dish. everything was thrown into this one.

China- Cuisine

2006-10-30T21:59:00.000+08:00

Healthy veg.
pig's liver
pig's head
pig's blood

The Three Gorges Wu Gorge

2006-10-30T20:18:00.000+08:00

Nice bridge
Up a smaller gorge which did not exist 5 years ago
The current end. We were supposed get off and walk to a local village but the watr level had risen too much so no lunch!
Quite narrow

The Three Gorges Wushan

2006-10-30T20:12:00.000+08:00

Wushan is 90% new town with resettled people from the flooded villages and towns in the area and on Friday night lots come to the town square and have a dance. We gave a short demo!
A view of the new town. Its misty early morning and a lousy photo
They have not finished the new landings for boats and since the water level keeps rising until 2008, getting on and off the boat can be fun

The Three Gorges- Xiling to Wushan

2006-10-30T20:05:00.000+08:00

Travelling by road you have to go up and down the subsidiary gorges thru some great scenery
A short stop for fruits, gingko nuts and others I have forgotton the names of....
Now which one is which?
Sometimes the roads had not been upgraded

The Three Gorges- The Dam

2006-10-30T19:57:00.000+08:00

The locks which transport the barges past the Dam up 70 metres. This ones was full of coal barges going downstream
pretty hazy evening so not much impression from this photo. Its not the highest by a long way but its length is impressive. No statistics or propaganda on this blog
These are the guys that built it

ZHANGJIAJIE- recovery

2006-10-30T19:48:00.000+08:00

We were treated to a medical talk on the medicinal plants collected from the reserve. Also from the bears(bile). Then we were treated to free foot massage using the herbs. While they caught us with our socks off, they tried to sell us the medicine. This is a government owned setup., to help the locals?

ZHANGJIAJIE- more

2006-10-30T19:40:00.000+08:00

The history.
Chinese believe that it is Good Luck to hang locks and keys on Mountains trails.
The sedan chair ride on these stairs.
John could only see this man and his herb barsket out of the formations. The local guides could see many more figures!

ZHANGJIAJIE- cont.

2006-10-30T19:29:00.000+08:00

some idea of the formations
Most chinese ghost movies have these stairs in them.
We abseiled down one of them pinacles?? Found my school mate of age 7-8 years after travelling for 18 days!
No Money No Face Lah!

ZHANGJIAJIE-National Reserve

2006-10-30T19:18:00.000+08:00

This is so spectacular! Fragmented lime stone towers and sand stone shelves. 60% of the reserve is untouched and there are 550 tree species which is twice as much as Europe's total.
It is 350 square kilometers! John was the only Caucasian among hundreds of local tourists. A difficult place to get to, so not on the usual tourist route. Yup, I had to get in on one of these. There were hundreds of steps! Cost 20 S$!

The tallest rock facing lift in the world.

Fenghuang

2006-10-30T19:13:00.000+08:00

I have just hundreds of photos of this beautiful place

Artists and poets and muscians have for hundreds of years penned and sung to her beauty.

Fenghuang Beauty

2006-10-30T19:08:00.000+08:00

She sings to you as you row past.
the swans
This place dates back 1000 years. However current buildings are less then 200 years old.

Beautiful Fenghuang

2006-10-30T19:01:00.000+08:00

They have right of way.
Fenghuang a successful Miao town.Flower sellers. The river for washing clothes food and to chat.
We took the boat cruise very early in the morning.

Route to Fenghuang

2006-10-30T18:57:00.000+08:00

water everywhere.
mountain drop
tunnels
I just love this.

China Contrast

2006-10-30T18:52:00.000+08:00

The beauty
corn drying
the beast.
fog and no barriers! steep drop on the right. Pot holes and fallen rocks and also haystacks too!
The beauty again.

Foggy Fatal Night.

2006-10-30T18:43:00.000+08:00

Could not see more then 10-20 meters.

when we left this place..... a little car overtook four of our cars at the head of convoy and crashed into a lorry . There was a road diversion and with no warning signs at all! I was taking photos of the fog when the crash happened. This is the result of my photo. There were three what looked liked dead bodies and one girl kneeling and bleeding and we could not stop to help! Our Convoy Master a local chinese just wanted us all out of the place fast. this was on the orders of our police car. We were foreign cars and could not help. I was shaken for a few days after that.

Guiyang- just delightful.

2006-10-30T18:35:00.000+08:00

washing our rice for lunch. the lake with fish farming.

Ninja 7.
the steps and the lane just rows and rows of craft and food shops.

Guiyang

2006-10-30T18:31:00.000+08:00

Notice the Swallow Tail roof.
Mute basket weaver
The earlier photo of the water fall leads to this lake.
something different.

Guiyang to Fenghuang

2006-10-30T18:26:00.000+08:00

Just beautiful driving through here.
came to a town that had "Swallow Tail roofs".

rice wine in bamboo

Military diversion

2006-10-30T18:19:00.000+08:00

A good diversion ordered by the Military, who said that our convoy was not allowed to go along the expressway. They were conducting secret manouvers! So we had to go 200kms extra. However the farmers were delighted as we drove over their stalks and twigs for their organic farming. Saved them beating it.

Sanmenxia to Wudang Shan

2006-10-30T18:13:00.000+08:00

Foggy start At one of the comfort stops. Time to exercise.

A tuk-tuk
All the ex-Miss China?

Back Lane Market

2006-10-30T18:03:00.000+08:00

Biscuit shop. Good too.
He just loved haveing his photo taken.
the only muslim butcher, we have come upon, in all of our journey.
No I am not for eating.

Hello from China- evening stroll

2006-10-30T17:59:00.000+08:00

Where are all the drivers?
Here they are. Gambling.
Did I make a winning or loss?
We are muslims, western China.

A stroll in the evening

2006-10-30T17:55:00.000+08:00

Pop corn seller
street food
good friends
proud mom

Down in the town again

2006-10-30T17:46:00.000+08:00

Time for a fill up at the petrol station.
13 cars to fill up, I had to take these shots of others too.
"Convoy Close Up, Close Up!" Don't let them through! calls the Convoy Master through the walkie talkie.
This usually means that if we let them through, then we have a broken convoy and then there is chaos.There were times when we were on the pedestrian crossing.
Best mode of transport.

Hello from China- Still on Heng Shan! the Bandit!

2006-10-30T17:36:00.000+08:00

We walked through beautiful spruce.
To have this view.
Some were caught by the mountaqin bandit!
the cable ride down was breathtaking!

Hello from China-

2006-10-30T17:26:00.000+08:00

we just love a Group photo!
Oh! Give me a mountain to climb and an X'Trail to get here!
This time a Monastry on the side of the montain! " the Heng Shan Scenic Area, Monastry"
The Long and winding road up the Heng Shan. It is a huge mountain.

2006-10-30T17:21:00.000+08:00

John at the Dam by the suspended temple.
How we just loved this name! Me with the owner.
Convoy ON-ON!

HengShan Suspended Temple

2006-10-30T17:09:00.000+08:00

We drove through beautiful Heng Shan(Mountains). It was very exciting.
This Temple built on the side of the mountain , holds three religions. Budhism. Tao and Confucious
It survived the recent quake and it was built approx.400 years ago!
Climbing into this Temple really freaked me out. I had to have help to come down.

Some road scenes

2006-10-30T16:56:00.000+08:00

Are these homes in the hills like the Hobbit?
Part of the Great Wall.
This is not often seen by the tourists. We happen to be on the way.
Oops! They do fall down! More Chinese Hobbit cousins.

Small town lunch break

2006-10-30T16:50:00.000+08:00

The chef busy.
What's cooking?
water for washing food prepration
Real stuff to wash down the food.

Datong- coal mining capital of Mongolia

2006-10-30T16:45:00.000+08:00

coal trucks for 150km.
we nearly crashed into one ourselves.
They are long and fast.
coal for the power stations
and for individual water systems.

The Kanzhuan Resort

2006-10-30T16:34:00.000+08:00

The service staff.
Kitchen spotless.
fruit vendor outside the resort.
German micro brewery.

Hello from China-Taiyuan

2006-10-30T16:19:00.000+08:00

On the way to Taiyun. The Kanzhuan Resort.
A lovely hotel and beautiful setting. They claim to serve organic food.

Mongolian Wedding Performance

2006-10-22T21:42:00.000+08:00

Hello from China
Again a bit touristy but a fantastic production of music, dancing and singing with spectacular costumes.
The guy is the matchmaker from the boy's side who enjoys his tipple a bit too much

The girl is the matchmaker from the girls side rejecting the paltry dowry that he is offering
These girls crept into the performance in the most unlikely of Mongolian costumes. We concluded that this was to keep the Chinese males interested in culture!
Real tear jerking stuff as the matchmaker takes the girl away from her mother presumably to ride off across the grasslands with her beloved.

Not a bad interpretation, since the whole performance was in Mongolian with a high pitched translation into Mandarin to help.

A bit of the Gobi Desert

2006-10-22T21:23:00.000+08:00

Hello from China
The sand dunes are very impressive but it really is commercialised and its difficult to hear the sands singing or even any silence with number of tour guides with loud hailers and vehicles to drive you into the desrt to get away from it all!
The quietest trip was apparently on camels but those who went said that they had the same propensity to break wind with every step as the ones we spent three days on in the Thar desert in India
These ones looked much better, even pretty
The only wildlife that was not there for the tourists was this guy who walked up the dune I was standing on, over my foot and down the other side

2006-10-14T22:35:00.000+08:00

This is our hotel in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, which used the following to advertise.
"Cold in October, but deep feeling with excellent reward in Bin Yue Hotel"

If that did not temp you, try this. "In this period if cosuming more than 300 RMB per person at the Xian Quan Japanese style restaurant,ccosumers could do exercise for an hour in the Westin International Club, meanwhile those who has diner at Xiao Quan could drink pure mellow wine for free"

The hotel was actually very good.

Mongolian Aspects

2006-10-14T22:28:00.000+08:00

All the toll gates give the name of the town: this one in the two languages
Its -3C the first really cold day
and a great oportunity to spread goodwill...hope they can read English

Mongolian aspects

2006-10-14T22:13:00.000+08:00

Everything is in the Mongolian and Chinese languages: not that I can read either!
This is the name of our first Mongolian restaurant
Mongolian beer and how to open a bottle with chopsticks
A selection of the food that we had for lunch which was very good
As we were leaving the local school was breaking up and some of the Mongolian children wear their national costume to school. They spoke English and this was a pretty small town

Mongolian Grasslands

2006-10-14T21:52:00.000+08:00

These stretch for hundreds of kilometers and you see very few people
One wonders why the roads are so good since there almost no one on them: not even one of Genghis Khans descendents riding across the plain; in fact the shepherds use motorbikes!
Occasional villages
and lots of animals, mostly sheep and goats but saw one heard of camels (cannot spell the one with two humps)

New Roads

2006-10-14T21:14:00.000+08:00

The roads generally are first class and there is a huge investment in new roads and improvements
However when they decide to upgrade there are limited alternatives provided
so its offroad we go
all breathe in

Tonglia transport

2006-10-14T21:05:00.000+08:00

Ducks and Chickens don't enjoy much space
The donkey is the preferred means of transport in the countyside and they all look pretty healthy
Not everyone likes their picture being taken
In the towns a whole variety of three wheelers provide the fastest and most convenient system

Hoh Hot- morning

2006-10-14T09:56:00.000+08:00

Hello from China,
Well it is a late start this morning for BAOTOU so taking advantage of this free internet service from the hotel.
the rest of the members had a good day sightseeing temples and shopping. apparently here is the place to buy Cashmere sweaters and scarfs. Well I went to a special Branded Cashmere shop but "May YO"! which means "no have", for big busted people. John sighed a relief.!
We went into the "INNER MONGOLIA NORMAL UNIVERSITY" instead. Strolled through. Very big and spread out. Could not find the "ABNORMAL UNIVERSITY though"!

Hoh Hot is a large city and it seems to us more University and Students. Walked into the Agriculture University this morning to find a Post Office but it was closed. May Yo again! Out of electricity!

We are delayed now again, this time Chief Ninja's car is leaking oil!
We checked ours two days ago to see it the filter needed changing. Everyone was changing after the 5000kms. so we thought OK we too lah! Well John found oil in the filter so he changed to a new one. Thank God! then I nagged him to call Singapore Nissan to find out why. Our Service Manager there said it was supposed to have oil to keep the dust off. New type for us lah! So Salmon goes into the dustbin to find it but it is 'all lady' gone! Nothing gets wasted here. Everything is useable that is why the villages look like a dump.

Salmon has gone to the Bank to change or get some money. This is not so easy here. Credit cards are at most times "May Yo" you can see I am begining to be familiar with this word. Well hope he succeeds.

There has been an activity of busyness even though the late start. This is where much housekeeping and cleaning gets done with the cars. John thinks it is an absolute waste of time. Rather go walk-about.hence I sent him to find the Bank etc. Now he will delay the rest.
Off to Baotou to see Ghengis Khan. We are heading downstream from now on after Hei He.

2006-10-14T00:20:00.000+08:00

An interesting resturant in Changchun with all sorts of boiling pots
and cartoons on the wall commentating on contemporary life
rather like Lat of Malaysia
Plus some posters from the "bad old days"

PuYi and Manchukuo

2006-10-13T22:54:00.000+08:00

Puyi's 4th wife who eventually left him after a loveless marriage and worked in the library, remarried and had children: uncanny resemblance to Ann's sister
Puyi's personal barbers chair where he had hormone injections: not that it did him any good.
Anybody recognise this? Its the hall where they have the ball in the Last Emperor ala Bertolucci in which they toasted the "Emperor for 10,000 years": it was a bit shorter than that.
The buildings that the Japanese built to run ManchuKuo, all replicas of the ones in Tokyo. Interstingly there is a statue of a Canadian Doctor who spent most of his life helping the poor in China

Daqing

2006-10-13T10:21:00.000+08:00

The word "miraculous" is a bit of an exaggeration but whose to argue !
Inside the museum dedicated to the history of the oilfield there is no doubt that the cultural revolution was a "bad thing"
Famous people signing the visitors book at the "Iron Man" museum. A local hero who was responsible for opening up the oilfield in the the late 50s amid conditions which were incredibly harsh as the temperature falls to -30C in winter

Distingusished visitors signing the book: we were the first foreign group to visit the museum since opened on 26th September, an auspicious day, my birthday!

Daqing

2006-10-13T10:10:00.000+08:00

Arriving at Daqing at Sunset
President of the Daqing Petroleum Company (and local communist party secretary) welcoming the expedition with Douglas Cheong, our leader, and Dr.K K Lim thanking him for their hospitality
The banner outside the hotel. They regared us as special as we were the first foreign overland expedition to visit Daqing
These oil wells are dotted all around the city as it has grown up and expaned around the oil fields

CHANGCHUN- JILIN

2006-10-13T07:21:00.000+08:00

Hello from China!
We had to come back to Jilin Province for the Capital Changchun. This is where the puppet Emperor Puyi spent his last years. Have you seen the movie the Last Emperor?
The Palace is really worth the visit. More like a Georgian period Manor. Us ladies and the men too I must say were very interested in the Emperor's private life. His wives, their life etc.etc.
Then on to the couch again for a drive and photo taking in the street where all the old buildings are now being used for Govt.office and a hospital.
Chungchun has spring weather through the year. Our local guide was persuading us to buy a property here for our holiday or retirement! Wonder if she is a part time housing agent?

Lunch was at a superb inn type restaurant. the walls were walled-papered with absolutely wonderful cartoons. Cartoons of county peasants and the army and of diners .Look out for the photos when uploaded.

Daqing- VIP welcome

2006-10-12T17:33:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Daqing at sunset. Our guide Charlie said that The Daqing Petroleum Co. of China were welcoming us to Daqing ,and had us upgraded to their very own 5 star hotel and were hosting a Banquet for us!

Daqing Petroleum is the first oil field found in China. It is 50 years old.
As we are the very first Self-Drive 4x4 to come to Daqing and also to drive N to S of China, they wanted us to be honoured! As we also come from the country of the famous Petronas! None of us are Petronas personel! However we too were proud that they regarded our Petronas highly.

So we rushed out from our cars soon after arrival for the Official welcome from no other then the President of the oil co. who happens to also be the Vice President of the CPR. of Daqing. Then all the other rank and their interperters etc.etc.
Exchange of very nice momento a Clock and us to them a plaque of our map of the journey. Flowers from them for our Leader Douglas, from the Royal Perak Motor Club.
I tell you there were banners welcoming us (see photo) and the TV and the Press.

Good Banquet, only for us so there was much relaxation.
Next day were were taken to their newly opened and I must say very good Museum. Then to the newly opened Museum of their "Iron Man" Xian..." He was instrumental in opening so many wells. Motivated the people through very very harsh conditions to get the oil out of the ground and thus saved China during the revolution. This museum was opened on the 26th Sept! John's b'day. A very nice present momento indeed!

Hei He

2006-10-10T01:04:00.000+08:00

Well what a place to park one's car!
more mode of transport, this time the dogs are pulling!
Oh oh! Chitty chitty Bang Bang has a flat!
Ninja 7 pumping Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tyres.

Heihe

2006-10-10T01:01:00.000+08:00

The border town of Hei He to
Russia. the beer costs only 1 ringgit and the shashlick excellent.

Here the customers are harrasing the vendor! Nuts and seeds for the long drive to keep one awake.

curious.
the Russian meal of caviar etc. I think the fake caviar meself?

Heihe

2006-10-10T00:57:00.000+08:00

A villiage. looks messy but when one needs eveything and there is no space....well this is how one has to live I guess.
Travelling haystakes again and many more.. even at the Toll!

Heihe

2006-10-10T00:53:00.000+08:00

These haystacks, some are as high as two storys! making it very difficult to overtake.
The Toll gates are quite pretty. see what I mean?

white long cabbages for pickle. drying in the sun.

Qiqihar

2006-10-10T00:44:00.000+08:00

Harbin

2006-10-10T00:36:00.000+08:00

First traffic jam, caused by a very nasty accident. So glad that we have the police in our convoy.

listening to BBC while waiting. The culprit
Chihuahua even smaller then the one we have at home.

JingPo

2006-10-10T00:29:00.000+08:00

Yanji

2006-10-10T00:22:00.000+08:00

Daqing

2006-10-09T07:29:00.000+08:00

Hello from China. We are into the winter clothes section of our journey.At last we could wear them in Heihe. 780kms across the river into Russia! We had our Russian lunch fare, with the Caviar. Shashlick was excellent and the beer only costs 1 ringgit a large bottle!

Hei He is full of Russians who come over on a one day visa to just shop. This border town is right now a cowboy town but full contruction is going on like the rest of the journey we have been on.
Took the river trip and experienced the bitter cold. Very nearly fell off the stairs too!

Wudalinchi to Hei Hei is called the Geological tourist area, volcanoes and lakes and wet lands.

Qiqiha- the Red Head Cranes. Just beautiful.

Convoy- Chitty chitty bang bang had two punctures. her driver is down with the flu and the "Trots"

We have the super 4x4 machos whom I shall name Ninjas. Ninja helped pump her tires till we got to a garage.
Ninja 7 coulod not start the snext morning as her electronics could not work. so we left her as we went to climb the volcones of Wudulanchi and see her five volcanic lakes.
electronics sorted and Ninja 7 is also back with us.

Ninja 8's wife is down with such a bad cough and is thinking of going home!
Thant's all for now, till the next stop. Hopefully.

Chang Bai Shan

2006-10-02T21:53:00.000+08:00

Us at the top of the mountain 2700 metres. The lake is half in North Korea and half in China: I asked the guide whether many North Koreans tried to row across the lake but either my english was not so good or there was no official answer. Still active so, as usual you can, boil eggs in the hot spring and even have a corn cooked in sulphuric water...I passed. The lady who managed to climb to the top in these shoes was the first to help Ann when she fell head first down the mountain : fortunately nothing broken. It was pretty crowded as it was the first day day of an official weeks holiday which coincides with the Mid Autumn Festival which seems to be bigger than the New Year,maybe because its up to -38C in winter around here!

2006-10-01T06:14:00.000+08:00

Hello from china-Jilin,
Up early - no problem. Had a good night. Beds in China are hard, just how we like it.
so now we are off to Changbaishan, to the mountains and the volcano crater.
We have now gone through Beijing, Dalian,Shenyuan and now in Jilin.
In Shenyuan a city of 7 million, there is hugh railway station. I mention this because our window opened out to a view of the main station and I have never seen so many tracks in one place!
John and I like traveling on railways and I tell you it was quite a big disscusion about us traveling on the china railways. As a result I missed out on my nightcap as we had to get up early for the next day?
Last night we strolled along the Songhua. Beautiful music fountain, lights. People everywhere enjoying their National Day. We are told it is a quite like Shanghai along the Bund.
Did I mention the weather? Just beautiful.

Members of our group 33 in all, are all very experienced in driving Adventure style all over the Asia region.

Willian and Helen did the KL to London last year in their
Discovery covering Central Asia in detail. they drive her again.I was really excited listening to their stories.
Larry and Daisy, go on to the Beijing to Paris Rally next May in their 1945 Rover! this time they are driving their '71 Rolls Royce. she is beautiful to see as we turn a bend. She is car No.5 we get a good view of her.We are No. 12 so we get a good view of everyone. behind us is car 12A, the sweeper. No prizes to see who's the rookie on this trip.
Shall hopefully continue tomorrow if there is internet. Breakfast calls as we are very punctual on leaving.
Wait for the section on the comfort stops!
Ann

Into China

2006-09-30T23:14:00.000+08:00

Hello from China!
We are now in Jilin. Lovely city and great cool temperature, 20C.

Our time in Beijing went just swell. The group very friendly. Mostly our age and are also like us either retired, semi-retired or are just dam well off!

John had his birthday ( which was why we are on this trip) on the Great Wall. Oh the steps were too many for me and so after a few steps,I opted out for a really good Cuppachino. This is really hard to come by in China. Well John did his hike, happy as a sand boy.
the evening we had a superb ( one of many) dinners with Peking Duck as the main dish. We have now discovered that there are two best Peking Duck in Beijing. They are written in my note book and that is in our car right now. too tired to go down and get it.

You may look at the album section to see the photos.

We left for Dalian by China Air. It was a good flight and we saw the pollution over Beijing from the ground and the air. Both looked real bad. This by the way continued to just before Jilin.

So briefly, it is hazy all over and Dalian looks like a dust bowl. This is because of the construction of buildings and the demolition of the old - EVERYWHERE!

Convoy driving is very different to one's usual drive. Today was the real experience for us. We have a Police car at the head of the convoy. Every car has her number and we have to be one behind each other according to our number and NO OVERTAKING! The traffic in China is worse then Bangkok. Also more people and bicycles!

This is the best time of the year to see China. The fall colours are begining, just beautiful.
Our Hotels are good and did I mention about the food? They just keep coming to your table. Our group loves to eat. In one week I have put on 1kg and John 800grms. Well I must have eaten more!

Over to John now as I am off to bed. Have to be up for breakfast at 6a.m. to be on the road by 7!

Catching up with the photos and converting them to a more reasonably sized format is a bit challenging to fit in between meals, driving, excellent beer and the ocasional sleep.

2 intrepid travellers

2006-09-23T19:03:00.000+08:00

Car complete with sponsorship sticker for oil and a map in Chinese of the route we will be taking.

Ready to go

2006-09-23T17:31:00.000+08:00

All our worldly possessions in the boxes for 7 weeks including 48 packets of maggie mee and 40 Museli bars. No prizes for guessing which belongs to whom!

First Post!

2006-09-23T17:00:00.000+08:00

Okay Auntie Ann... The blog is almost all set up! So to start it off... Here's a post on Uncle John's Birhtday & Bon Voyage celebration which you all had at that Brazilian Restaurant called Carnival in Petaling Jaya...

Here's a photo of how it was like that night... At one look... you might think it was a birthday party for a 6 year old doesn't it? The place was decorated with balloons and toys that were supposed to represent where they are going on their trip... *giggling* Well... Happy 60th Birthday Uncle John!!!

Here's a classic photo of the two of you running around the table... Acting out a bollywood scene... hehehe... Auntie Ann was being chased by Uncle John for a piece of his birthday cake... *giggles*

So... I hope this is good enough for you guys... Make sure you take lots of photos and pass them to me... any settings that you see on this site... should you wish to change... please do tell...

Have a safe and wonderful trip driving back down here!!!

Lots of Love, Mas
P.S. - Thanks Lee John for helping me out!