Friday, April 18, 2014
Up very early, well very early for us (6:15am). We scoffed down breakfast, checked out and were ready to join the others by 7:30am. Still quite early actually, for us.
It was 418km (260m) of lovely mountain roads to Líncāng. The first 100km (62m) or so was a toll road which floated above the valley floor making the driving extremely easy. The toll was ¥56 (USD$9), so very reasonable. The rest of the road was smooth, fast and winding. Again we made good speed. We were also getting used to the local driving style, which is pretty crazy. Similar to Thailand.
We stopped at a tree that was supposed to look like a forest. Ok, maybe not a large forest, but it was still pretty interesting with trunks above ground and connected underground. Unfortunately the tree was dying, and looked a little sad.
The scenery along the road was pretty nice. As we got higher we passed through the occasional tea plantation. Towards the end of the day’s drive, the mountains started to disappear and the villages started to appear. The villages were not nearly as developed and managed as the bigger towns and cities nearer the border.
There does not appeared to be much for the tourist in Líncāng. And after the long drive it was time for dinner, which was family style again with the rest of the convoy. And like last night we did a little shopping to stock up. The shops here in China are wonderful.
We had not yet been able to access our blog (and facebook) but with Kim and Vaughan’s help we were able to buy a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and were now able to get around ‘The Great Fire Wall of China’ :). After 3 days of being disconnected we started developing serious withdrawal symptoms, so we fervently started updating this blog and facebook and went to bed way too late for the next day’s planned early start.
