AWOL Geordie - Steve’s global adventure

I first arrived in Thailand a few days after a military coup. The British Foreign Office had posted warnings about the danger of travelling here. I was so excited, these warnings were a green light for me and I went in search of tanks, martial law and curfews. I was slightly disappointed when I found life to be carrying on as normal, but I suppose this was a blessing as I have no idea how dangerous the situation could have been.

I went to the cinema twice on my moped and was surprised to have to stand for the King of Thailand and the national anthem before each film starts. I drove 3 hours through the tropical mountains towards a town called Pai on my moped, I nearly came off trying to negotiate a pot-holed hairpin bend - Scary!! I ate tropical fruit that I don’t know the name of and I had to fill the bike with petrol from a hand pumped plastic vat thing in the middle of nowhere junglesville. Quite funny when I first saw the ‘petrol station’ setup. I found an outdoor swimming pool and did some major chilling before leaving this fabulous country.

I flew back to Kunming and headed for Lijiang on the way to the Himalayas. It was a 9.5hr bus journey from Kunming to Lijiang but it was worth it as the town was stunning. It looks like what you think China would look like 200 years ago - really pretty. The local people are mainly from an ethnic minority called the ‘Naxi’, they have their own customs and traditions which are very distinct from the majority Han Chinese population. This creates a kind of human zoo situation which I found a bit weird. The Naxi people have a matriarchic society which means the female is the head of the family or tribal line and they are also the dominant members of the community - imagine that in England?

Next was a 25km trek up the terrific-sounding ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge’ - on the Eastern fringe of the Himalayas.  This trek is dominated by the awesome ‘Jade Dragon Snow Mountain’ which towers 5600m above the infant Yangtze which crashes through the canyons below. The trek is on the opposite side of the river from this mountain so you are afforded glorious views of the snowy razor peaks and glaciers that flow down the gulleys. Luckily the weather was perfect for this two day trek and the scenery was drank up greedily by all the trekkers I met. The highest point on the trail was 2700m and looking down to the white water of the Yangtze below (which looks very small from this height) was great. The path was very narrow in parts with massive precarious drops to negotiate, it felt like the 4km cliffs of the mountain on the other side were magnetically charged and trying to attract you off your narrow path to a horrible end! I stopped at a Hostel called the ‘Half-Way House’ - I only mention this because Michael Palin stopped here when he did the trek for his famous book: ‘Himalaya’. He writes about having a dump perched over the edge of a cliff while looking at an incredible view through the glassless bog window!

I then headed to ‘Shangrila’ 2 hours past Tiger Leaping Gorge. I think the name Shangrila is a tourist board ploy as the town’s real name is Zhongdian and it is a sh*thole! The oldtown is quite quaint but the rest of it is minging. Here though the population becomes predominantly Tibetan. Housing and clothing styles change dramatically and the surrounding vistas of snowy Himalayan peaks are stunning. However, I never actually got to the Tibet Autonomous Region. Shangrila is still in Yunnan province. You don’t actually need to go into Tibet to see Tibetan culture as it overspills into NW Yunnan and Western Sichuan. I was really happy to be here as I had always been enchanted by Tibetan people and their hard mountain lifestyles.

I took a bus across the Eastern Himalayas into Sichuan province to the border town of Xiancheng. This journey was only 200km but took 10hrs, so you can imagine how arduous it was. It was a very scary journey with huge precipitous drops along this windy road from hell but the views on offer were excellent. We climbed through passes over 4000m in elevation (Ben Nevis is only approx 1400m). I saw Tibetan script and those scruffy looking multi-coloured prayer rag things that hang in great numbers at sacred sites and shrines.

From Xiancheng it was another fabulous 6hr Himalyan bus journey to Litang in Central Western Sichuan which sits at an elevation of 4700m (Mt. Blanc is Europes highest point and sits at 4800m). The town is on a massive grass plain full of grazing Yaks and surrounded again by the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. The bus left 30mins late but nobody seemed to care as time does not mean much here, the local Tibetans have a very relaxed attitude towards time! Not long after arrival in Litang I noticed I had great difficulty in breathing. A very strange and perturbing sensation. The lack of Oxygen at this altitude is stark and you feel like you just can’t get enough of the stuff into your lungs - mental. The people here appear very dirty - the kids look like they haven’t seen water in weeks. The men carry massive knives underneath their sheepskin jackets. The women wear very elaborate and colourful clothing. All in all it is a fasciating place to visit although the feeling of been remote and at the end of the world is never far away! By the way, if you like Western standard facilities - forget it, there is none of it here. It is bloody freezing and they don’t have any heating in the guesthouses! It was zero degrees this morning with ice on the inside of the windows that wouldn’t shut properly and there is nowhere to wash your hands or brush your teeth!!! After 1 month of tropical heat in Thaiand everyday, the Himalayan climate has come somewhat as a shock!

I still love it though!

Tashi Delek (Tibetan for ‘Areet’?)